Design Basics For the Online Notary

The internet has changed the way that many of us do business. Now more than ever, people are able to make themselves accessible through the world wide web. But it’s not just about making a page and putting yourself out there. In this increasingly technological environment, a website will be the first impression of you and your services. Some of the most important factors that one must establish on a page, therefore, is credibility, professionalism and competence.

Error-free text will go a long way. But it’s really not as simple as putting up contact information and some references. The web opens the doors to opportunity and a page with nothing on it but contact information is not really going to cut it anymore than a vague resume with a generic cover letter put together using an MS Office template.

The Page Content

The key is to be creative and descriptive and to demonstrate your dedication and professionalism. After all, you are not just going out to meet borrowers representing yourself: you’re going to be representing your client as well. It is the quality of your content—no matter how concise you choose to be—that speaks volumes about you.

Don’t get me wrong: you don’t need volumes. Being too verbose on your index page can turn people away. Think about it this way: someone needs a notary signing agent in this area, they find you through a search and land on your page. What do they want to know?

• Contact information
  
• Printing capabilities
  
• Languages spoken
  
• Documents with which you are familiar
  
• How long you have been signing
  
• Fee structure

This should be right up front. In terms of making a business page, you have to think more like a journalist than a notary and try to hit the who, what, why, where, when, how and why right up there are the beginning—before the fold. Don’t force potential clients to click around or scroll too much. Put concise information right up at the top.

If you want to elaborate, you can add a link to more information directly from that descriptive menu. You can find an example of this in the Notary Section of the Vital Signing, Inc.® website. Within the Notary Section, you can select to be redirected to whatever category you want within that page. If you select The Notary Portal, for instance, you will be directed to the sign-up process overview which gives a brief summary of how to join our database. Within this overview a notary can easily find hyperlinked items that direct him or her to other pages that elaborate on each topic.

We live in a fast-paced marketplace: the more you do for your reader to make the experience fast and easy, the more they will like you—even if all you are doing is saving them a few seconds scrolling! Taking the time to arrange your information well will give potential clients a sense of how meticulous and efficient you are.

These are qualities that really matter in your field. A person who won’t take the time to spell-check their content just doesn’t come across as someone who will take the time to ensure that documents are signed correctly. It’s an unfair assessment considering many of you who may be bad spellers are excellent at executing a signing, but it’s not an unlikely conclusion to draw. Always remember that the online world has an attention span of 2.5 seconds: we don’t just judge books by their covers, we tear them apart. A yellow background is enough to get me to exit a window—even before it has finished loading!

The Font Question

This brings me to my next point—presentation. Yes, it’s important to get the reader’s attention, but big whimsical fonts in all-caps are not the answer. They can render the content illegible—not to mention make you look like you’re 12. Take Comic Sans. I cannot tell you how many pages I have seen that use this font. Designed by Vincent Connare when he was with Microsoft, the font was never designed to be a typeface—and with good reason:

“There was no intention to include the font in other applications other than those designed for children when I designed Comic Sans. The inspiration came at the shock of seeing Times New Roman used in an inappropriate way.” That inappropriate way was the beta version of Microsoft Bob. Since then, Comic Sans’s biggest gig has been on the children’s book series The Magic Schoolbus. Tell me, what do we get across from a site typeset in a children’s font?

Font may not be a big issue to you—as long as the message is conveyed in the text, why not, right? The problem with this mentality is that the message is not always conveyed well because a reader must have the font that you are using available on his or her computer in order to read it. Not to mention some fonts are physically painful to read online over extended periods of time.

Arial at a small size is one such font. The interesting thing is that many people do not see a difference between Arial and Verdana. But there is a difference: Verdana was specifically designed by Microsoft’s Matthew Cartner to tackle the problem of sizing on the screen. Arial, you see, is not made to go too small because it doesn’t have sufficient wide-letter spacing or punch-width. Verdana, on the other hand, does. This font can get very, very small without suffering distortion.

Verdana, like Arial and Trebuchet MS, also does away with redundant font features that tend to clutter the screens of readers. An example of a redundant feature is the serif—the little extra lines and decorations we see in fonts like Garamond, Georgia and Times New Roman. These fonts are great for print media because the serifs guide the eyes. But they do not work so well on-screen.

Just remember one thing: no matter what you do, never go above three different fonts on a page. Two is generally more than enough for main text and headers. Picture captions and site rights can be a different size of the same font. And remember to keep consistent. There is nothing that shouts amateur more than a page or publication in erratically mixed font.

The Color Palette

Imagine you have taken all this into account. You know what you are going to say and you know what font you are going to use. You’re half-way there. You still have to make some color choices. This is the tricky part. You don’t have to go all out and spend hours toying with Color Combo like I have been known to do. The key is to understand that font needs to be legible. If you feel you need color on the page, you can get it by adding pictures to your site. You really do not need that bright yellow and red font.

If it’s been too long since you sat down in art class and went over the color wheel, you might find 9rules network’s preconfigured color schemes useful. It doesn’t hurt to surf around, either. Sites like Martopia (blue and orange for contrast over varying shades of gray and white), Apple (slick grays and blues on white), and The American Design Awards (gray hues and cadmium yellow over a slightly textured background for depth) are great examples of good palette combinations.

The Images

While they are not necessary, an image can bring color and flavor to a site in a way that font and colors cannot. When picking a graphic to use make sure that it is somehow relevant to your page: a picture of a natural feature that characterizes your state, perhaps a picture of you, a picture of pen, people looking over documents, people shaking hands, or an embosser are just a few examples.

Just remember a few simple things: your images should be--

1. relevant
   
2. worksafe
   
3. not too big
   
4. not too distracting
   
5. yours, or that you have the rights or appropriate permissions to use them.

Remember to do everything in moderation, as too many images may make the page take too long to load.

For the most part, making a simple webpage of this nature is an easy process. All it takes is a little time and thought. And maybe a few visits to Lyco’s Web Monkey.

Curious about your web design IQ? Take Encarta’s From Arial to Wingdings quiz!

The Design Commandments

Don’t underline words for emphasis: it may confuse readers into thinking the word is a link. Italics are generally used for titles, so for stick to bold for emphasis. But do it sparingly! Like cursing, using bold too much makes you lose the power of emphasis.

Don’t use all-caps: unless it’s an acronym (like NNA, CNN, MSNBC), there is no need to use all-caps. Emphasis can be achieved with bold and subject headings work better in a slightly larger font. Remember that all-caps in the online world is tantamount to yelling and can make you come across as rude or pushy.

Don’t post pictures of your family: this is also for safety reasons. You don’t know who may be browsing—and really: potential clients don’t need to see something so personal.

Don’t post pictures of your pets or animals: they are totally unrelated to your job, no matter how much you like them. The same goes for your last trip to Maui. You can easily get and set up a page on networking sites like MySpace or Friendster for those kinds of exchanges.

Don’t give in to background music: music is not always work-safe and some browsers do not allow you to mute it or lower the volume. That’s usually an instant exit for me.

Don’t go crazy with plugs: so it’s cool to show you keep up with 50 State Notary and the NNA, but if you mean to put ads on your site, you should consider setting a limit. If you have image editing software, you can resize and crop the ad images so that they are all the same size and line them at the bottom. If you don’t know how and you have more than three or four, you might want to consider creating a links page so your images don’t clutter your index page.

Don’t forget to capitalize: these days, everyone thinks they’re E. E. Cummings. While it’s not unusual to ditch the shift key when you are chatting with friends informally, it is not inappropriate to do so on a professional website. Unless, of course, you are E. E. Cummings. In which case I do sincerely apologize, sir, for assuming you'd died in ’62.

Don’t forget to pay attention to those tricky confusing words: confusing “there”, “their” and “they’re” is an honest mistake—but a costly one. As is confusing “insure” and “ensure”, “affect” and “effect” and “its” and “it’s”. Have a friend look over your stuff, that helps catch the less obvious ones. Or drop me a line!

Do not get too snazzy: not everyone can run java applets and ActiveX controls. The simpler you keep it, the more likely it will be that people will be able to view your page, regardless what their settings and capabilities are.

Don’t forget that people are curious: maybe you link your personal page, community message boards, blog or photo albums from your professional page. "Sure, I have nothing to hide," you reply, "And besides, I give everyone my site address, both friends and relatives—this is how they keep up with me! To take these off a link list would be a hassle for everyone." The thing is, potential clients may click around, too. You may not link to anything questionable, but that doesn’t mean another person won't judge you on this information other than that which they are meant to judge you: your ability to perform signings and your experience in the field. Give the linking some thought before you do it.

VS Approved

One of the most important things that you can establish on your personal professional webpage is credibility. This may come in many forms, but the most important, perhaps, is your list of references: potential customers want to know that you have experience and can handle the job.

Like a virtual résumé, links to associations with which you are involved (such as the NNA) and signing services with whom you have worked go a long way to establish this credibility. But a link is not always telling of your performance and this is why Vital Signing, Inc.® has developed a system of seals: we know the Vital process is a demanding one in the industry and we want to praise our notaries with a mark of excellence that they can display in order to show others that they are capable and professional individuals.

The Black Seal is awarded to all mobile notaries public that are members of the Vital Signing, Inc.®'s mobile notary signing agent network and who have met all the requirements and qualifications involved. For more information about these requirements, visit the Notary Sign-Up Portal in the Notary section of our site!

The Green Seal is given to those notaries that the Vital Signing, Inc.® Quality Control department has ranked “first” in our database. These are notaries who have worked with us for a while and who consistently follow procedures and rise above the call of duty. Curious? Click to read or listen to Vital Signing, Inc.®'s procedures for mobile signing agents!

Finally, the Blue Seal is given to the select notaries that not only are rated best by our Quality Control department, but who also have a record of over 100 excellently-executed signings with Vital Signing, Inc.®!

To get more information about the seals, log in to your account. Recipients of Green and Blue Seals will be personally notified.