When you don’t have any content, and your client wants to begin, where do you begin?
After you’ve completed your wireframes and have moved on to developing your comp in Photoshop, you can begin to gather content, even if it’s not finalized or you have none.
Copy
There are a few ways to procure copy. You can:
- Use existing/old copy.
- Write something quickly that will be similar to the final draft; this should include headlines, sub-heads, etc.
- Use "dummy" copy, which is usually your best, fastest, and most efficient option.
Resources for dummy copy generators:
Lorem Ipsum Generator
Blind Text Generator
Loremify
Images
Similar to obtaining copy, there are many options for finding FPO (For Placement/Position Only) imagery:
- Use existing/old images.
- Depending on the content, you can take photos, but this might not be the most efficient, time effective option.
- Stock photos are most likely your best bet. Many stock photo companies allow you do download a low-res image without the watermark simply by creating an account. This option will best reflect the final imagery that will be used.
- Or, even better you can use Google, Flickr, etc!
When using FPO content, the designer should somehow indicate such by either notating it somewhere on the page, or what’s typically done is placing a big fat FPO over the content.
Additionally, you can use shapes and other place holder content to represent the content that will be featured on the final designs.
When you begin to develop the final content to be used on the website, there are a few things to keep in mind related to developing good content that will engage the user.
According to Nicholas Tart, the “3 Things that Visitors Should See on Every Page of Your Blog” (or website) should be:
- A First-Thing-They-See Headline
- A Valuable, Persuasive, and Trust-Building Message
- A Call to Action that Accomplishes Your Goals
Getting into more detail, starting with headlines, Tart uses the analogy that if you’re lost somewhere, when you look at the provided onsite map, be it at a mall, museum, public transpiration, etc. the first thing you see is a big red circle and an arrow saying, “YOU ARE HERE.”
Tart compares the headlines on websites as your “YOU ARE HERE” circle and advises to make them “big, bold, and colorful.”
Next, you need to effectively communicate the message you’re advocating. Within each page of your site, it’s “an opportunity to give something while building trust” with your users and this message is translated to the user via text, image, audio and video.
Your text needs to be written extraordinarily well in order to stand out among your competitors. Your images need to be curated in such a way that they grab the users attention; creating infographics and other icons can help you stand out. Audio and video are optional, but it is the most effective way in building trust with your users.
And finally, your Call to Action (CTA) is typically at the end of your advocated message, but can be in multiple places within your site. However, before you do all of the above, you need to decide exactly what that message is - what are you advocating?
Questions to ask yourself when deciphering how to accomplish your goals through a call to action. Is your goal to:
- Keep someone on your site? List your related posts. The popular posts in the sidebar also help keep people on your site.
- Get someone to comment or interact? Ask them a question and make sure that they know that their response is meaningful.
- Get someone to click an ad? Put your ads there and make sure that they’re relevant to the content.
- Get someone to opt-in? Place an opt-in box and tell them why they should subscribe.
- Get someone to buy a product? Put a link to your sales page or someone else’s sales page and make a final recommendation on why they should purchase.
- Get someone to take your advice? Tell them exactly what to do and emphasize the importance of taking action immediately.
- Get someone to trust you? Add an author bio with a mix of personal and professional details.
Ultimately, one action or goal listed above translates into another action and then begins to build trust in the user. This can be translated into a series of actions that look like this:
The user browses your site and has a positive experience; maybe they comment on something or engage in some way; you respond in a timely manner confirming the initial trust and positive experience the user had; this then turns into the user returning to your site and making it part of their browsing routine which can then translate into buying a product and/or advocating and recommending you, your brand and what you stand for to others. All of this helps build your brand and allows it to be more accessible which is the primary goal.
You don’t want content that will distract the user from the website's indented goals. All of your content should work together to fulfill the objectives of your site. If it doesn’t, why is the user there?
References:
http://www.incomediary.com/visitors-see-every-page-blog
10 Crucial Elements for Any Website Design by Carrie Cousins
As the title suggests, Cousins expands upon what elements should be present, and how to use said elements in designing a good website. Continue reading for a summary of her article or read the full article here.
While every designer may have a different plan when it comes to building a website, they do have a common checklist. These are the elements every website should include:
- Space
- Simple Navigation
- About Us
- Contact Information
- Call to Action (or Signup)
- Search
- Informational Footer
- Style for Buttons
- Great Images
- Web Fonts
1. Space
Space is one of the most important design tools because it dictates everything— from flow to readability. Designers are beginning to use space in ways that we did not see on the web a decade ago. More site designs include vast spaces, increased spacing between lines of text, and an overall use of open space.
How To Use It: Start with key elements such as navigation menus. Make sure elements are organized in a way that includes set spacing between elements. This will make each button or word stand out more clearly on its own.
2. Simple Navigation
Navigation does not need to be (and should not be) complicated. It should be easy to identify and easy to use. It is also important to keep navigational menus to a minimum, so you don’t overwhelm users. Depending on the type of site, you should have no more than five to ten navigation items.
Navigation also includes tools that help users navigate through a site. For example, sites with parallax scrolling often include directional arrows to make the site more user friendly. The easier it is for people to use and navigate your site, the longer they are likely to interact with it.
How To Use It: Use simple navigation as the framework for your website. Remember, users want a few key things from navigation: knowledge of where they are on the site, a way to go back or home, and directions if your site has an unusual or more complicated interface.
3. About Us
It is especially important for a small business or site owner to tell users who they are, and the “About Us” page should do just that. It can also outline a company’s philosophies or goals, or how the site came to be. User testimonials and success stories can go here, as well as serve as a gateway to related pages or even social media profiles.
These pages tend to get long and wordy so keep the page simple; give users just enough information to be interested but not bored.
How To Use It: Use the About Us page to give your brand a little personality. Consider including photos of your team and a short company biography.
4. Contact Information
Contact information commonly appears in one of two ways: in the header/main navigation or as a Contact Us page with a form or expanded information. Either option can work well, depending on your site design. The key is making it highly visible. Having contact information such as a phone number, physical address, or form to contact the website owner adds legitimacy to your site and business.
How To Use It: Add contact information to all static headers and/or footers. If you have a physical business address, include location information. Consider a contact form so users can email directly from the website.
5. Call to Action (CTA) or Signup
In most instances, a website is the gateway to an action: make a sale, provide information, gather contact information. To ensure this action, CTA prompts need to be obvious and strong. Another popular call to action is a signup form. If this is your goal, place the form in a prime location and size it prominently. Make the form simple and quick to fill out.
As previously mentioned, determine what your site is supposed to do. Then design it so that action is obvious and leads users to it. Techniques such as color, contrast and space can help lead users to the “right” buttons.
How To Use It: Make calls to action obvious. Placement should be in a highly visible part of the page and next to the item which it relates. Buttons should be of a contrasting color and say exactly what you should do: Buy Now, Join, Download, Sign Up.
6. Search
Search functionality is vital for repeat users. Design the box in a way that is unobtrusive but is easy to use. Make sure the box is big enough to type in. If you use an icon for search, there’s no need to invent something new. Use the standard magnifying glass.
How To Use It: Design a simple box that lives at the top of your website for search. The top right corner is the most popular location: using that space is expected and easy for users to find.
7. Informational Footer
The footer was traditionally used as a place to list links to every nook and cranny of your website, but now, websites are opting for a more minimalist footer. No matter how you choose to display your footer, it’s a good way to connect to your audience with a wealth of information without it getting in the way of the design.
Just be sure to make the footer useful and keep it simple. Whether you opt for a couple of buttons or a small sitemap, the footer should be designed to mesh with your site
How To Use It: Some of the best footers combine many of the above elements. The footer is often a repeat of elements found elsewhere (such as adding search to the top of the page in the main navigation and again in the footer). It can also introduce some of the above elements and house them if there is no other logical location in the design scheme.
8. Style for Buttons
Every button on a site should be recognizable as a button. They should have the same shape, design effects and feel, regardless of purpose or location.
How To Use It: Develop a set of buttons unique to your site. Create a consistent color theme with an overall style. Achieve this by making every button a single color and giving it the same shape and attributes.
9. Great Images
People love to see things in action. Great images or illustrations are one easy way to do this. With a relatively small set of great imagery, you can showcase content that will entice users to your site. Be cautious of using too many stock images because your site could end up looking like something else.
How To Use It: Hire a photographer or illustrator to develop and create a great set of images for your site. Rely on custom images rather than stock images for a unique visual experience.
10. Web Fonts
The web was once filled with a handful of typefaces because they were readable by most computers and browsers. That is no longer a limitation for designers, but web fonts are still important for two key reasons: compatibility and licensing. By using a web font versus creating images out of type to maintain a certain look, type is searchable on the web, which is important for search engine optimization (SEO).
How To Use It: Start with a service such as Google Web Fonts, which is free, to implement a set of beautiful and interesting typefaces into your site design without having to spend a fortune on licensing or worry about compatibility issues.
In summary, while there are a lot of important components to effective website design, including these ten key elements can make a difference. Take care to appropriately design with space, simple navigation, about us, contact information, calls to action, search, footer information, buttons, images and web fonts. These often overlooked details can make or break your site design.
Further reading:
Elements of Modern Web Design
The Elements of a Clean Web Design
References:
http://www.incomediary.com/10-design-elements-all-big-blogs-have-in-common
A well designed website is more than just delivering content and making it look good. When people come to your site they immediately develop an impression about you, your website and what you stand for. Whether positive or negative, their opinion lies in your hands as the designer of the website, and there are many resources to help designers create effective visuals that play into the psychology of those viewing your site.
Content, Space, Color and Typography are the main components that have the biggest impact on a viewer, and it’s up to the designer to understand how using different design elements affects the mood, attitude and experience the viewer will have while browsing your website.
Content
People visit websites to access information they need, and the design of that website aids in them finding the information they need quickly and with ease.
When websites were first developed, it was common to see pages too full of content. They typically had no structure, and it was difficult to find information and read through it to get what they needed. The user often left the site overwhelmed and had a poor experience.
When designing a site now, designers really need to condense and organize their content, as hiding or presenting too much information can lead to a possible loss in potential business. There should be a happy medium between providing adequate and needed content, while not overwhelming the user. This will lead to a good user experience as well as setting the tone for you and your organization.
Keep your content concise, organized and easy to read and navigate in order to aid in the psychology of your users having a positive experience on your website.
Space
The organization of a website can greatly affect how a user interprets a site, so organizing content should be a high priority. When organizing content, the designer should take into account the space that it takes up as well as the white space that’s used or not used!
“…white space is often referred to as negative space. It is the portion of a page left unmarked: margins, gutters, and space between columns, lines of type, graphics, figures, or objects drawn or depicted.”1
The white space on a website plays an important role because visually it gives the user a resting place, and it’s a sort of pause that gives the user a chance to rest their eyes.
Take, for example, a website utilizing every inch of screen space. This site starts to feel chaotic and without any negative space present, there is nothing for the user to focus his eye to to take a visual break.
Keeping things simple by having a well organized website that uses adequate white space translates into a good user experience.
These are two of the tools you’ll need to create a visually engaging site that encourages visitors to return. Read the next post about color.
References:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_space_%28visual_arts%29
- http://thenextweb.com/dd/2014/10/22/psychology-web-design/
A website is often dictated by the site’s brand identity as well as the target audience, but how colors are used plays a part in how the user feels when browsing the site. The types of colors used also play into the psychology of your design and go hand-in-hand in influencing people's behavior. Because of this, designers turn to the psychology of color to help them create websites that leave the user wanting to come back.
If a website’s color gives the wrong impression, it can suggest inexperience, unprofessionalism or even untrustworthiness. However, if it’s the right impression, it will give the opposite effect. Designers do not rely solely on the meaning, characteristics and emotional attitudes of colors. They have to take into consideration the company and its branding. That being said, it is good to understand how color affects us.
Color Associations
(The following material is referenced from "The Principles of Beautiful Web Design", by Jason Beaird and "The Psychology of Color in Web Design" by Neeru)
Red
Red is a stimulating, exciting color. It is associated with passion, power and sometimes anger. It can be used for warnings or to show danger, but it can also suggest strength, determination and boldness.
Too much red can make us feel over-stimulated and irritated. The darker shades of red such as burgundy and maroon have a rich, indulgent tone. These colors might be good for selling wine or living well. Brighter reds, like true red or tomato, are great for youthful websites that want to suggest energy and eagerness to leap before they look.
Pink
Pink tends to make people feel loved and protected, but also can cause feelings of lethargy. It’s also associated very strongly with youthful femininity. It is playful and brings to mind bubble gum and innocence. It is ideal for websites that hearken back to olden days, or that target a particularly feminine audience.
Orange
Similar to red, orange is an active and energetic color. It is thought to promote happiness, and represents sunshine, enthusiasm and creativity. Orange is a more balanced and less overwhelming color, as well as being more informal and less corporate feeling than red. Because orange does not show up in nature often, it tends to jump out at us making it vibrant, energetic, friendly and inviting. It is ideal for designs that need movement and energy. Websites that want to showcase their creativity often choose orange because it is unique and exciting, but it still has the comfort of a warm color. Orange also stimulates metabolism and appetite, so it is a good color to use for cooking and food. Bright orange can reduce depression and sadness.
Yellow
Yellow is often considered the most energizing color. It represents joy or optimism and can energize you and help you think more clearly. Some say that too much yellow can be overpowering and cause arguments.
From the earliest ages, people learn to associate yellow with the sun, so it becomes associated with warmth and happiness. That makes bright yellow perfect for sites designed for children, as it grabs their attention.
More subtle shades of yellow have more complex associations. Darker shades can suggest antiquity, suggesting yellowed parchment. Because of that, it can also be associated with wisdom and curiosity. It therefore is great for sites that want to demonstrate a sense of authority and intelligence.
Green
Most commonly used in association with nature, green is a soothing color that symbolizes growth, freshness and hope. It can also represent wealth, stability and education and can give users feelings of calm, rejuvenation, affluence and optimism.
Darker shades are more linked to money, so sites that want to suggest affluence, growth and stability often use those shades. Lighter shades are more associated with spring and growth, so websites that want to reflect relaxation, freshness and honesty often use lighter shades.
Green is also directly associated with the environmental movement, so sites that aim to broadcast ethical standards often use green.
Blue
Blue symbolizes openness, intelligence, and faith and has been found to have calming effects. It has an element of spirituality about it and conveys a sense of stability and clarity of purpose. It is also appealing because of it's association with the sky and sea. Blue calls to mind dependability, trustworthiness and security.
In China, blue is associated with immortality, while people in the Middle East view blue as a color of protection.
Blue and green are known to inspire peaceful feelings, and people are often able to concentrate better and work in rooms painted in soft blues and greens.
Most corporate and business websites use dark blues to call to mind their experience, success and reliability. Light blues are best for friendly, open websites, like social media sites.
Purple
Purple balances the stimulation of red and the calming effects of blue. It has long been associated with royalty, power and nobility, so it is no surprise that dark shades of purple imply wealth and luxury. Lighter shades suggest fields of lavender and are associated with spring and romance.
Websites that look mysterious, yet elegant, use dark purples. Those sites that opt for lighter shades will speak to people looking for romantic items or ideas.
Black, White & Grey
Black, white and grey are usually background colors, allowing brighter colors to make the real impact. Still, they call to mind their own associations.
Black suggests power, modernity and sophistication, while white suggests cleanliness, simplicity and innocence. These competing associations play off of each other as nicely as the colors themselves do, making black and white designs especially strong.
The color white is often overlooked in design, but white can help promote the idea of clean power. In the west, it is a symbol of perfection, light and purity. In China, white means death and mourning. With these cultural distinctions, it should remind you to research the colors association of your target audience because they may vary from your own perception.
Grey is a neutral color. When used well, it is associated with tradition, somberness and calmness. When used badly, however, it can cause a design to lack energy.
All of these colors are best for websites that want to call to mind tradition and seriousness, like news sites.
Browns
Browns, which include creams and tans, are often used for textured backgrounds. Backgrounds that mimic paper, fabric or stone are usually brown, and as such, browns give a site a sense of wholesomeness and coziness.
Creams are calm, elegant and pure, making them a great background color for a website that wants to imply a sense of tradition. Tans are conservative and bring to mind piety. They can be dull, but they can also be reassuring, which makes them ideal for a site that doesn’t want to be too bold or outrageous. Dark brown feels wholesome and reliable, like a loaf of bread. It is associated with warmth and comfort. Sites that want to demonstrate experience and reassurance often use brown.
Color Temperatures
Warm colors range from red to yellow, orange, pink, brown and burgundy. They represent heat and motion because of their link to the sun and fire. When in the vicinity of cool colors, the warm colors are dominant.
Cool colors are colors from blue to green including some shades of violet. Cool colors are calming and can help reduce tension. Cool colors tend to recede, making them good for backgrounds and larger elements on a page that won't distract from the content.
Color Value
The lightness or darkness of a color is its chromatic value. Adding white to a color provides a tint of that color, and a shade of that color is made by adding black. This is important because a color palette works well if the individual colors are the same value.
Saturation
Saturation is the intensity of a color, the strength or purity of that color. When you de-saturate, you take out color. A vivid blue will call more attention to itself than a dull orange. Dull colors are softer and more gentle, creating a calm mood.
Color Schemes
- Monochromatic: one color with different tints and shades.
- Analogous: colors that are adjacent to each other on the color wheel.
- Complementary: colors that are opposite to one another on the color wheel.
- Split Complementary: use the two colors that are adjacent to your base color's complement.
- Triadic: push the split complements out one notch. The colors are equally balanced on the color wheel.
- Tetradic: made up of two complementary color pairs rotated around the color wheel; they form a rectangle on the color wheel or double complementary.
Tools for Color Palettes
Paletton
Adobe Color CC
Side note: In Photoshop we’ll use Hexadecimal Notation colors which is typically referred to as a “HEX color.”
How many colors do you need to design a website?
It depends on the complexity of the site. Some websites assign a different color for each page of the site to help users know their location and this can equal up to 5 or 6 colors. Other sites, even complex ones, use 1 to 3 colors.
As you can see, using color to help convey a positive user experience in your website is in your hands and color largely depends on the tint (lightness), hue (type) and shade (darkness) of the color, as well as how much of the color you choose to use.
In the next post, we'll learn about the importance of typography.
References:
- http://www.vandelaydesign.com/the-psychology-of-color-in-web-design/
“First impressions are lasting impressions. Whether you realize it or not, your typography helps to create an experience for users before they’ve even read a word or clicked a button. Typography has the potential to go beyond merely telling a story — it shows the user who is behind the website and what you’re about. The treatment of type creates an atmosphere and elicits a response much the same way as tone of voice does.” 1
As part of establishing the look and feel of a website, a designer must consider typographic choices for that site. For example, you may design or create:
- A logo and identity
- Headline and subheads
- Navigational typography
- Body text typography all created in html and your css style sheet.
Though there are similarities in typography issues across all media, there are also a few web-specific typographic considerations that a web designer faces. These issues include:
- Usability on the web
- HTML and CSS
- Web fonts
Basics: The Anatomy of Type
Letters and letter form could appear very simple as you first look at the alphabet, but they have many different parts: arms, legs eyes, spines and a few other items such as tails and stems. Take a look at the Font Shop’s glossary.
Type anatomy as image
Thinking with Type
Font
A collection of all the characters of a typeface in one size and one style is called a font. This includes caps and lowercase, numerals, punctuation marks, and any special characters contained in the typeface, such as symbols or ligatures.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
123456789
Typeface
The basic category of type design is the typeface: the specific letterform design of an alphabet, including the serif shape, x-height, length of ascenders and descenders, variation of stroke weight, and any other characteristics that differentiate it from any other design.
Typefaces have a specific name such as Helvetica, Verdana, Futura, Times, etc., and there may be several interpretations with slightly different names: Helvetica, Helvetica New. The term typeface originated from movable type, blocks of wood or metal containing a relief image of a character on one surface, called the face.
Type Styles:
The Type Family
A type family is a group of typefaces bound by similar characteristics. Members of a family resemble one another, but also have their own unique traits. Take a look at Fonts.com.
Fonts.com now offers web fonts, that are downloadable so that you can use them in your layout. There is a cost for a professional membership. You can also get free fonts from Google Fonts.
Typography on the Web
You now have more than a handful of fonts to use on the web, whereas a few years ago designers were limited to the list of fonts below. HTML fonts are those fonts that all machines have in the system as a default.
HTML text includes:
- All paragraph content
- Navigation
- Headers and subheads
The code in a css style sheet looks like this:
.alphabet {
font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif;
font-size: 60px;
line-height: 50px;
color: #333;
}
Web “Safe” Fonts
Google Fonts
TypeKit
@Font-Face
Choosing Typefaces for Legibility
On the web, large portions of copy such as body text is typically easier to read in a Sans Serif, whereas in print, a Serif tends to be more legible.
Type Size, Line Length & Line Spacing
Type Size: determined by your design and the relationship of all type elements together, including white space.
Letter Spacing: applied through CSS, and only available on some browsers.
Word Spacing: applied through CSS, and only available on some browsers.
Line Length: the perfect line length ranges between 40 and 55 characters per line, or in other words, a content column that varies between 250-350 pixels wide (it depends on font size and type).
Weight
Most typefaces contain bold and bold italic typestyles which are much heavier in stroke weight than the Roman. Many typefaces offer a broader range of weights in addition to Roman, including light and medium (or book) and in addition to bold, including semibold (or demibold), extrabold (or heavy), and black.
Width
Some typefaces include styles with character widths which are narrower than Roman, which are condensed and wider, called Extended.
Italics
Not easy to read on the screen unless they have some size to them. Often, designers use italics for a quote that is fairly large on the screen.
Caps vs lower case
Capitals are good as headers and subheads, but it is best to use sentence case (combination of upper and lower case) for paragraph text.
Bold vs Regular
Same as with caps, bold is good for headers and subheads as well as menu items. You can also use a bold weight to highlight important information in the body copy, but it’s best to use a regular weight font for the majority of content.
Tips for Professional-looking Type:
- Do not use too many fonts on one page. My rule of thumb is no more than 2-3 different fonts.
- Do not use centered, right or full-justified text, as it tends to look messy and unfinished.
- Give your text room to breathe; type on the web is very different from printed type and therefore needs more leading and usually more kerning.
- Do not use bold text for paragraph text.
- Never use all capitalized text for paragraphs. However, you can use caps in the initial paragraph or sentence to aid in your typographical treatment and break it up if there is a lot of copy.
- Use plenty of header (or headlines) and subheads
- Use columns to divide your page
- Don't use huge text
- Do not underline text for anything but a link
- If you must use graphic text, learn correct typography.
“It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it, right? Depending on your purpose, we could try to experiment more and get creative with our typography. We can be bold and daring with strong, large letters, or get quirky and unique with handwritten type. We should keep in mind that type should always be legible, because there’s no point in showing off type that no one can read. Type can do so much for a design if it sets rhythm and creates an atmosphere.” 2
References:
- http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2013/08/06/beautiful-typography-web-design/
Setting Up Photoshop
The resolution for the web is 72 dpi (dots per inch); a good resource for screen resolution and dimensions is: Website Dimensions
I would recommend beginning with a white background to start with as you can always change it.
The size of your document is typically determined by your target audience, and the type of site you're designing for, e.g. web, tablet, mobile. When designing for web, the lowest common denominator for your document should be 960 pixels wide, which will fit in a 1024x768 pixel screen resolution. Depending on your audience, you could go larger, but I typically like to keep all content within 1440px wide by the length of your content.
You also need to be aware of the browser window around your site. If you plan on having a background image, color, texture, etc., you may want to make your document larger than the content area so the background is visible. Even if you're not using a background, you need to remember that there could potentially be space around what you see in Photoshop.
The "Invisible" Fold
If your client wants all the content on the homepage, or any other important information, to be visible without scrolling, it should not extend past 750px from the top of your document. Keeping "the fold" in mind, remember that the viewing size is smaller because of the space that the browser takes in your window, so the above number could possibly be a little less.
Workspace
- Check all your settings.
- Info tab and rulers need to be set to pixels; there are no inches on the web.
- Set up your color profile for Web and sRGB.
- Make sure "snap to" is on.
- Open your rulers (Command R) and drag out a center rule at 600px.
- If you're working with a grid, setting up your grid lines should be one of the first things you do - more about grids to follow.
- Create a new layer for site stroke if needed.
- Make sure your info palette is open.
- Create the main groups in your layers panel.
Photoshop Layers & Groups
The image below shows how you might organize your layers using groups. Make sure all groups and layers are named and you can think of it in terms of your layout and content.
You will have the following main groups; and all of your content will go within one of them:
You can (and should) create sub-groups within each main group of content. This will help to keep your files clean and neat and is proper industry etiquette, especially if you need to share files with colleagues.
