With thousands of tools designed to organize your life, where should you start? Stop planning and start deciding with this 7 step guide to improve your business’ efficiency by staying organized, being mobile, managing your projects, tracking your money, understanding your business and staying in sync. Enjoy!

The Internet in 5 years will see the dawn of the Zettabyte Era and an overtaking of Web traffic with video consumption at the helm.

by visually via

The main idea about design is simply common sense: you’re making something for a specific purpose, so of course it should fulfill that purpose through its design. But it is actually very easy to lose track of your goals and end up with something that is beautiful but ultimately doesn’t work in its context. It’s very easy to fall into the trap of implementing the latest design trends just because they look attractive or shaping a section of your website to resemble another website that you really like without first thinking about why you are doing it or how it fits in with the purpose of your project.

If you’re a small business owner, your website is the central hub of your company, and it’s a pivotal part of your marketing and branding.

Potential customers visit your site specifically for its content, meaning its appearance and usability are critical to its success and how those users view your company. However, getting your web design wrong can have a negative impact on your business.

Here are 5 common web design mistakes you must avoid to create a great user experience and grow your bottom line.

Designers need constructive, considered comments. Simply saying “great work!” isn’t enough — you should be as detailed as possible.  A comment along the lines of “love the bridge and colors, but the text placement is not working out; can you try some alternative?” gives the designer a clear idea of what you like, what you dislike, and what type of revisions should be made.

The next time you need to provide feedback to a designer or design team, here are four questions to ask yourself to make sure your message is clear, meaningful and relevant.

1. Is the feedback specific and actionable?

There must be a call to action and you’ll want to be sure the designer can follow through on most or all of the suggestions you make. Also, make sure to differentiate between changes you want now, and what you consider to be future changes — don’t make the designer guess. Deadlines and timeframes should be reasonable enough to allow for the changes you’re requesting.

2. Is the feedback contextual?

The designer should be able to quickly identify what your suggestions mean. Notable is a great option for putting feedback directly on a screenshot. Alternatively a print out with hand written notes works well too.

4. Does the feedback encourage your team?

Tear down any roadblock so the team feels empowered to get results. Get people excited about your insights and save any cutting or extremely negative remarks for a private conversation. But don’t sugar coat mistakes or problems.

4. Is the feedback within the recipient’s scope of skills?

Whenever possible, break down the feedback and expected actions into smaller, obtainable chunks. This will expose any potential challenges that occur when the changes you request don’t match the designer’s skill set. Remember, just because it needs to get done, doesn’t mean the person you’re talking to is the one to do it.

Thanks to our friends at ZurbApps for this great contribution.

We’re working hard to launch our new juicy blog that will be filled with tips, tools, and resources. In the meantime, check out our web design, online marketing, and online video services. For now, check out this awesome video: The State of The Internet.