When we initially launched the redesigned homepage, the hero banner area at the top of the page displayed only the first hero message by default. The banners didn’t rotate to the other messages and required users to manually mouseover the banner thumbnails to view the other three heros. As a result, we found that there was a missed opportunity to maximize the visibility of the other hero messages for users.
 
To address this issue, what we’ve done is transform the hero banners into an auto-rotating carousel which cycles through each of the four hero messages. With a subtle fade transition from one message to another, the hero now has the right amount of animation to draw users’ attention to these key messages without introducing visual noise. And, visitors now have a greater probability of viewing a banner message which was previously buried and likely increase the rate of user interaction.

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Visual designs can be presented in different ways, so it always a good idea to know who you will be speaking to. They can be shown with or without annotations depending on the audience. A business stakeholder is less likely to be interested in annotations, but a technical audience might be more interested in the details of the implementation which can serve as the basis for a style sheet.

In my presentation, I might start with the overall concept and how the visual treatments are being applied to unite elements of the page, draw attention to important content and features of the page, and most importantly, enhance the user interaction on your website. The visual design language can include points of balance, symmetry, focal areas, proximity, simplicity, and harmony. I might also address how the visual...

We were happy to learn that Symantec.com was named the winner in overall usability by SiteIQ scoring high marks in calls to action, e-commerce and purchasing, and content clarity. This is based on an evaluation by the website best practices firm of leading IT websites on how effectively sites achieve critical design and business goals.

The report looked at sixteen issues to determine how effectively sites support the buying process — focusing on product marketing to services marketing to the quality of the site’s sales contact and ecommerce capabilities. SiteIQ stated that they "Find Symantec.com...

Designing a user interface which is solid yet flexible has definite advantages. From time-to-time your interface can and will be put to the test - whether it's something that has to go-live immediately, an update to its branding, a request to accommodate something that doesn't quite fit your model, incorporating a new feature or functionality that's cool but tricky, making something work globally, and the list goes on. There are many challenges your interface is likely to encounter in its existence and needs to be able to accommodate. Clearly, doing a full-on redesign every time you need to make a change is neither practical nor possible. The...