The New Yorker has a light color scheme, with Times New Roman used for headlines and body copy.

Our clients often ask us very interesting questions. One question which comes up time and again is, “Why use that font?” It is common enough and seems simple enough to answer, but the truth is, font selection is based on solid research and countless design considerations. Typography Design Patterns and Best Practices , by Michael Martin, from Smashing Magazine can help with the answer the question.

Believe in the power of social media and marketing? Do you think all that “stuff” is for young people or at least businesses who cater to young people? Not true. Consider this from Jack Humphrey’s article, Social Marketing is Here to Stay. Stop Complaining and Start Learning :

This fact is undeniable no matter what movers and shakers list you pull the data from. Presently the majority of all traffic on the web flows through all kinds of social or web 2.0 sites.

Welcome to the new world, and say hello to the future. The challenge is to simply accept this powerful means of communicating. The interesting part of this is the fact that as they continue to evolve, social media and marketing continue to present new opportunities for successful communication.

According to “2010 Marketing Trends Survey” from StrongMail, next year looks like it will be a big year for eMarketing, with email and social media initiatives leading the way. Besides these hot new trends for 2010, businesses are focusing on improving their ability to measure and analyze the success of their online campaigns. Read More

Here’s an example: on the web, if you are presented with the image of a person and that person is looking away, rather than straight on, where does your eye/attention naturally go? You would be surprised to know your eye will focus on where the person is looking, not the person’s face.

Check out Smashing Magazine’s article 10 Useful Usability Findings and Guidelines by Dmitry Fadeyev, for some useful tidbits and ways to improve user experience on websites.

A call to action is really an invitation to a visitor to become a lead. So how do you get visitors to click more often than not?

One place to start is by checking what works for other successful sites, and why:

• BarackObama.com: three calls to action above the fold; well-optimized; action-oriented
• Salesforce.com: three CTAs above the fold with distinctly different destinations and offers; simple design
• Mozilla: it’s absolutely clear what you get when you click, plus the button is sized to get attention!
• Commercial IQ: action-oriented and attractive, the CTA button sits high on the page so the user sees it and knows what to do
• Basecamp – 37 Signals: everything above the fold is a call to action! See it to believe it by visiting their site.

Calls to action work when they are visible, attractive and contain a compelling offer. Read more about these five calls to action in the Hubspot article.