Today on techcrunch.com, A post was made regarding the New York based, AppFund offering seed money and mentoring for starts up developers who are planning new apps for the iPad. If you haven’t already started thinking of ideas for the iPad, you better start now! Proposals must be submitted immediately, as the plan is to launch the first set of iPad applications this Summer! Depending on the complexity of the app, the seed money can range from $5,000 to $500,000. Other tablets shouldn’t feel left out though. AppFund is also offering funding for apps for other tablets out there! Just another reason to look forward to the weather warming up!

On a daily basis clients ask, “How can I get more people to use my website?”. On an hourly basis I find myself asking, “Okay, now where do I find the info I need?”. The Internet has become the go-to source to get our questions answered quickly, but there is still a real breakdown between the media and the user. Search engine optimization has become so important to companies on the web that they are cluttering their sites with jargon-laden copy in an effort to jump up the rankings, often overlooking the one thing that will keep people coming back: customer service.  Now I’m not referring to the ability to return a faulty screwdriver without a receipt, but rather referring to the experience a user has upon arriving at the site. The keystone: ease of use.

Okay, so this topic has the potential to become a lengthy post, and/or debate, so I’m going to keep this brief and use one example for now: skype.com .

Skype is one of the simpler, most user-friendly websites I have seen in quite a while. Personally, I don’t need to know how they got started or the technology behind their service. My main goals in coming to the site are: 1. download the service and 2. find information on using the service. Right away, I see a button to download and a navigation tab that will take me to another page about using the service. In addition, there’s even a little blurb about what Skype is, a true revelation (sarcasm). Please notice, there are not endless paragraphs about voice-over IP service, or VOIP applications that contain repeated catch phrases just in the hope that a random international college student or a small global business will search Google for ‘United States voice over internet phone service’.

Don’t get me wrong, search optimization can be vital to the success of your business but what use is search optimization if the user never gets past the first page of your site? At blueye, we put a lot of thought into the designs that we present to clients. We want our clients to not only be happy with the look and feel of the site, but we want them to be happy with the results once the site goes live. As a designer, the biggest compliment a client can give me is telling me that they are making sales and that clients and customers are telling them how easy their site is to use.

Remember, simple can be a really good thing. History speaks for itself: the tuxedo, chocolate ice cream, the bicycle – all simple products, with plenty of users worldwide.