Olivia’s Thoughts:

Fewer words, more action was the message for AIGA’s luncheon on web copy. Alice Williams from Hesketh, spoke about limiting the words on your website because when there are less words the visitor spends more time at your site. Those who aren’t designers tend to try and put as many words as possible to get their message across, but Alice explained to the group that there’s a few key things you can keep in mind while designing your web page, if you want the visitor to stick around.

First, establish a tone for your entire site. What kind of mood will your customer be in when they are researching your industry on the web? What kind of voice do you want your website to have? Pay attention to the sentence structure and cadence of what words are there, and establish what words need to be emphasized. Then, when getting into the design aspects of your site – keep in mind that scan ability is key! Research has shown that most internet users scan web pages in the shape of an F. They read the top line, a line somewhere in the middle if it stands out or is bulleted somehow, and then continue to scan down while staying mostly to the left. Visitors read maybe 20-30% of the wordage on your site, so keep that in mind when developing your copy.  More info on F-shaped scanning here

Other tips from the expert: use a call to action, but not in paragraph form – make it stand out! And last, people like to see results. Use a tool, such as infographics, to create a visual way for potential customers to view and understand your results.

Kathy’s Thoughts:

As a designer here at Burning Oak Studios, I try not to handle copy too often. It’s not that designers can’t be great copy-writers; it’s just that I’m not great with words. I tend towards the verbose but I want succinct.

We had the lovely Alice Williams from Hesketh speaking and she put a slide that I fell in love with.

For every 100 words, people spend 4.4 seconds less on screen

THIS. The biggest difficulty I face is trying to design copy, whether I’m designing with it, around it, over, under… my hurdle is the sheer amount of words clients love to use in copy. Alice mentioned a study at Stanford where they were able to track user’s eye movements and detect the strongest area of a user’s concentration, which is fleeting at its best.

I did some follow-up reading on the subject via Jakob Neilson & Kara Pernice’s Eyetracking Web Usability collection, and Sandra J. Blum’s 2006 article. This is invaluable information. It helps drive the fact to clients visually regarding “less is more”.

AIGA Raleigh
Alice Williams at Hesketh
Jakob Neilson & Kara Pernice’s Eyetracking Web Usability collection
Sandra J. Blum’s 2006 eyetracking article

Kathy’s Thoughts
Bradley, Olivia, and I were able to make another great Lunch+Learn session from AIGA Raleighand this time I was determined to bring the Canon 5D. I love my iPhone 4S but Sitti’s great conference cellar just doesn’t have enough lighting for a phone camera without utilizing a flash.

The topic this time around was selling, and we had the pleasure of having Dave Fellmen as our guest speaker. Take a look at the intro video provided by AIGA!



As a designer here at Burning Oak Studios, I don’t have that much experience with selling but it is something you must always have in mind when dealing with clients, whether you work at a studio or freelance. Dave spoke about knowing how to lose, important factors such as intelligence and courage, strategies, like vs. trust, suspects, prospects, clients and much more. He was kind enough to even go beyond the allotted time and expand upon dialogues, citing his own specific experiences as examples.

Bradley’s Thoughts
I’ve never considered myself to be a sales person, so attending this event was a really good idea for me to help increase my skill set. Listening to everything that Dave had to say helped me tremendously. The audience was engaged and asked some great questions, and Dave’s responses were filled with real world stories that were easy to relate to.

Dave talked about having courage and confidence in your ability, and building trust with your potential customer. We found that building that trust is the most important part about selling your services. You have to make sure that the person you are selling to is confident in your ability to deliver what they need.

Wear Your Selling Hat With Confidence was not only educational, but also inspiring and motivational. Next time I come face to face with a potential client I will have the confidence to sell my services. Keep these events coming AIGA Raleigh

Olivia’s Thoughts
As the new sales face in Burning Oak Studios, I found this AIGA Lunch and Learn Seminar very informative. Dave Fellman introduced the crew to some very simple methods of bringing in clients – whether it be stealing them away from someone else or providing them with something new and better. First and foremost, you must have a process of finding prospects, who are similar to your current clients, and how to contact and build relationships with them from start to finish.

He emphasized the difference between clients liking you and clients trusting you, and of course which one is better? TRUST. Trust will bring them back for more business and encourage them to spread the news about your business. Most of all, Dave gave some useful advice on managing conversations with prospective clients – have as much knowledge as possible about what you are selling, have the courage to talk to people about their business and their needs, and be willing to ask questions that facilitate conversation about how your services can satisfy their needs.

The members attending had plenty of questions for Dave and he encouraged reading his book Listen to the Dinosaur, which I purchased on Amazon right after the show!

First, you must have a product that you know people will go for. Second, make a video that is bound to go viral.

Dollar Shave Club of California has done just that. With a deal that is sure to capture people’s attention, they needed to ensure that people would hear about them. And what better way to do that then by creating a video stating how you don’t take yourself so seriously, and using humor the max. Give the people what they want.