Top tools for better graphics and Blog Banner image creation
Every small business need to create nice banner images and appealing user interface. Although, always good with custom development, we have struggled a lot with this aspect of the solution for a long time. Fortunately, I come across some of the articles from Neil Patel's blog and other popular bloggers, which helped me a lot in improving the overall look and feel of my website.
“Good design is good business" -Watson Jr.
This write-up can hopefully help some entrepreneurs and business owner like me who do not have sufficient budget to hire a full time graphic designer. This can for their websites, blog, eCommerce or mobile application. The design principle holds for each and every aspect of doing business.
Why graphics is so important
The user interface can go a long way when you are designing your website, a custom application or your own blog. It is usually taken as the reflecting of quality and maturity of your business. In my experience, following are the reasons a better UI / UX
User Adoption
A simple and intuitive user interface can drive the user adoption and make the solution relevant and easy to use. This is really a foundation step which can bring in the users and generate returns on investment for the application.
Brand Identity
There are many companies within a segment. Even if you are in a niche, you would still need to differentiate your business and give it an identity and stand out vis-à-vis other companies in the market.
Better closure rates and margins
A better looking website and marketing collateral along with good looking theme can help companies charge better rates and in turn drive up margins. In many cases, it can also drive up the closure rates.
Tools for better blog images and web graphics
Here are the tools which can turn around the quality levels of a website or a web application. I know that there are other much advanced tools available, but these are helpful for someone with limited web design knowledge.
Canva
Found in 2012, Canva is a cloud based web designing tool which has many pre-built templates and free images and illustrations. You can virtually create unlimited variety of blog / social media images and info-graphics. A basic account starts free, however additional features are available from $12.95 per user per month. The platform is really intuitive and doesn't require any knowledge. The banner image for this article is also made using Canva. Isn't it good?
Stencil
If you are primarily looking at social media images, Stencil may also be a good choice. Just like Canva, Stencil also offers a free plan. The paid plans start from $9 per month and you can create 50 images per month. For any small business owner, this is sufficient.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is a great place to start, if you are looking for vector images and icons. The website has a lot of free images. Images can also be purchased on individual or bulk basis.
Graphics for Web / Mobile development companies
The web and mobile development company such as ours, Veon Consulting, need to incorporate more than decent interface for applications we develop. For example, we build custom themes for SugarCRM / SuiteCRM and re-brand it as per client's requirement. Look and feel becomes important in this case. We also work on mobile application platforms such as PhoneGap. Again, in this case we need to keep the UI sleek yet simple.
I would like to have a special mention for eCommerce applications. This is a money generation platform and web design becomes a crucial element in the success story for any business which sells online. Applications like Magento are heavily customized to have an awesome look and feel.
What are your learning?
I would be happy to learn from your experience on this subject. How did you go about this subject for your website or application development project? I welcome any comment and feedback that you may have on this subject.
Conclusion
I hope that with this insight, you would be able to create you banner images and other web graphics in a much better and faster manner. In this digital age, this is one of the key success factors.
