Website Redesigns

Anticipating Key Developments in Web Design

Friday, April 9, 2010 by John Harne

It took a little over a week to get over my SXSW experiential (and literal) hangover and to sum up my thoughts on the 2010 Austin event. One word sums up my thoughts coming out of this year's festival..."Anticipation".

Remember the Heinz TV spots of the early 1990's, with Carly Simon singing for ketchup. This year it seemed like everyone was waiting for something, but it just didn't seem to show up. Since this was the venue that Twitter and FourSquare debuted in years past, I think the majority of the attendees were "anticipating" more. Instead there was a lot more marketing of Miller Lite beer, Chevy Volt and Monster energy drink, more parties, more free beer and a whole lot more people. Over 6,200 more folks in fact, all anticipating something, some next big thing at SXSW 2010.

Anticipation was also common Twitter theme and with so many birds of a feather together, the Twitter and FourSquare servers seemed to lag during certain keynotes and party hours. FourSquare had to invent a new badge for the experience called a super swarm. This designated that over 250 users checked in to a specific location, like the Frog Design party at MACC on Sunday evening. Everyone was gathering and waiting on something to happen.

Sometimes it pays to look the other way. While most of the crowd was attending keynotes given by the founders and thought leaders of social media, some big news was breaking in some smaller sessions and workshops.

This year three key developments signaled future implications for web interface design that will change the visual future of the web. CSS 3, HTML5 and Fluid Type are what I am talking about. The ability to leverage thousands of fonts will release web design from restrictions and separate creative talent from web generalists. HTML5 will do away with the use of proprietary plug-ins for basic rich media.

HTML5 adds video and audio capabilities to core markup languange with the intention of reducing the need for browser plug-in-based rich internet applications (RIA). And it is being employed now. Big entities like CBS are displaying their content video while Microsoft Silverlight and Adobe Flash are just beginning to do battle. The take-away is that open source code will have the ability to display media that the bulk of Flash and other RIA's are doing now. This spells the end for many plug-ins and the best part is HTML5 is here now and should reach W3C Recommendation by late this year.

CSS3 is still currently under development but many of the recommendations are working in existing browsers. The list of features continues to grow and the ability of designers to use these features to extend web design is exciting.

Consider what a designer might be able to do with just multiple backgrounds. This feature already works in Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari. Don't ask me about IE, but even IE has revealed better CSS controls are on the way.

Jason Cranford Teague might have given the most interesting presentation. I have known Jason personally for over ten years and I can testify that his vision of the future of web development has been uncanny. He was one of the very first to author a book on CSS, and in fact later served as an advisor to the CSS W3C group. Now he is an evangelist for web design and his passion is releasing the artform of typography to the web.

As any designer knows, fontography online is a shadow of what is capable in print, film and other fixed media because of browsers, usage laws and technology. But there are now alternatives to system fonts and type displayed as bitmapped images.

Jason's new book presents three approaches to using a wide variety of fonts in web design and goes into depth in his explanation of just what fontography really is. After being an interactive creative director for more than a decade, I can say with authority that most of the web has become a sea of sameness because of the lack of font variety and the ability to design with fonts.

Fluid web typography will give artists access to over 100 thousand fonts versus the less than 5 that are typically used online. So take a look at embedded open type, license font servers and web-font linking. You just might realize another wave of innovation in web design is already here.

A couple of links worth reading:

MIX 2010: Microsoft Steps Up Its Game With Designers and UX (and Bill Buxton Destroys Las Vegas)

Monday, March 22, 2010 by Paul Hernacki

I recently had the opportunity to attend MIX 2010, Microsoft's annual conference for web designers and developers focused on building great user experiences, in Las Vegas, along with Definition 6's two interactive Creative Directors from Atlanta and New York.

MIX 2010 is highly unlike most other Microsoft conferences where the topics frequently focus on .NET, Exchange, Office, and Windows. Instead it's chock full of design and UX goodness - a geeky love fest for all the cool tech that goes into creating great web, mobile, desktop, kiosk, and other assorted technically enabled experiences using the Microsoft platform.

It's hard to argue that this isn't an arena in which Microsoft is still playing a lot of catch-up. Adobe Creative Suite and Flash/Flex are still easily the staple of most creative and design departments. And many people definitely hug their MacBooks and frantically wave their iPhones about when asked to provide examples of great user interface design. But if there was one thing abundantly clear at MIX 2010 it is that Microsoft has no plans to cede the battle on these fronts, they are rapidly catching up in many areas, and even appear to be leading the way in a few. Seriously.

Microsoft is a marathon runner, not a sprinter. And as Steve Ballmer said at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference last year regarding questions as to why Microsoft doesn't cede such battles as Search and Advertising and retreat back home to their core Windows, Office, or SQL Server business lines, "We. Don't. Go. Home." Anyone who doesn't believe him should have been at MIX. And do you really have to look further than an example like the Xbox?

Probably the hottest subject of discussion and presentations was Windows Phone 7 Series. I am, admittedly, an avid iPhone user who stood in line the first week they came out. I happily ditched my old Windows Mobile device and it's BlackBerry predecessors back then to live in Apple's world and I've never been seriously tempted to use something else until I saw WP7.

I really believe WP7 is a game changer for Microsoft and the mobile industry. Sure, it has some shortcomings. I don't know how they could decide to not include copy-and-paste as a feature in the first release. And like iPhone, they also do not have application multi-tasking and they appear to have similarly stringent plans regarding their app store.

But the interface is fantastic, I love the "hub" metaphors, streaming video and even Xbox Live over the phone looked amazing. Not sure exactly how badly those things will kill battery life, but they sure looked impressive. For heavy Outlook users, the Outlook mobile experience on WP7 may alone be enough to get you to switch. Just awesome. And there's a chance it could finally be the breakthrough that Zune has been looking for.

Silverlight 4 is definitely another big step in the right direction. They continue to slowly chip away at adoption and now claim that it's at 60% market penetration, probably mostly attributable to the Olympics and adoption and rollouts of Windows 7.

Tools like Expression Blend keep getting better, and Sketchflow may even be better than the competition, it is simply cool. IE9 beta demos also got big buzz. It appears they have surpassed Firefox on overall performance, are coming close to Chrome in many aspects, and for certain functions like handling of video and HTML5 they could end up being even faster and better (when running on a Windows platform of course) by taking better advantage of your computer's processor and using a form of background hardware-based acceleration. The head-to-head examples showing some really slick use of animation and video in HTML5 were really amazing.

The one thing that Microsoft has which no one else can offer (not Google, not Adobe, not Apple, not anyone) is an end-to-end story on tools and capabilities in this arena. The depth and breadth of their tools and services is truly staggering when you put it all together. And I'm not just talking about the typical story of Windows + Visual Studio + .NET + SQL Server. On top of that throw in Expression Studio with SketchFlow + Project "Dallas" + Azure + Silverlight + Surface + Windows Phone 7 + OpenData + IE9 + Bing Search and Maps and on and on. Sure you can poke certain holes in individual pieces versus their competitors. But the cohesive power of all that together makes for a truly impressive lineup.

There definitely were a few other good tidbits at MIX. Announcements around Orchard, freely available tools for WP7 development, great live streaming of Channel9 straight from the event, strengthening support for JQuery, and a surprising number of atypical logos on screens being talked about as friends (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal, PHP, etc.).

And the keynotes included fantastic sessions by Scott Guthrie (@scottgu), VP of Microsoft's Developer Division, and great demonstrations by consummate tech presenter Scott Hanselman (@shanselman). But for me, the highlight of MIX was the opportunity to see Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher Microsoft Research, speak live. He is simply brilliant and one of the most passionate people alive when it comes to interface design and technology.

If you've never seen him speak it is worth your time to google (or bing) for videos of his speeches and spend an entire day just watching them. As the conference organizer, Microsoft's Thomas Lewis (@TommyLee), put it in a tweet during Bill Buxton's keynote: "OMFG! Buxton's brutality has destroyed Vegas! Only zombies, mushrooms & lavender frogs have survived! DESIGN IS GOD!". I couldn't have put it better myself. Buxton's speeches are often too filled with memorable lines to count, though my favorite at MIX included "The most important thing in the system is the wetware... the human being" during a segment where he described the importance of taking into account all the users different prior experiences within the specific environmental contexts of where, when and how they will use a system that you are designing.

Side note: I still don't understand how such an amazing guy who lives and breathes design and is considered the Father of Multi-Touch can have such a horrible personal web site, but I can only assume it's a "cobbler's children" thing.

And last but not least, the overall crowd and dynamic of the attendees at MIX was fantastic if not a bit quirky. It was a great group of highly intelligent people that are all passionate about great design and truly unafraid to ask the hard questions of Microsoft and dole out praise as well as tough love in person in the sessions and in torrents over Twitter. Unlike typical creative and design conferences it's definitely rooted in a true developer core (e.g. more guys still talking about compilers as opposed to a more mixed-gender crowd talking about heuristics and having used many tools like these for years), but unlike normal Microsoft conferences it's a large group of people who love great creative design and have been dying for Microsoft to bring these kinds of things to the table.

This conference in Vegas was more WXSW for geeks than it was the concurrently running SXSW, but Twitter and Foursquare definitely reigned supreme there as well as the tools that joined everyone together digitally during the sessions, into the evening, around the bars, and throughout the event. Sunday evening even kicked off the conference with a massive tweetup at the MIX Lounge at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. There is a real embrace of Twitter showing through by Microsoft that is really uncanny with regard to how they normally react to any tech service that they don't build and own.

At Definition 6, we do use a lot of tools and services across platforms including a very significant amount of work in the Microsoft platform. And we do use tools and design for platforms that are competitive to many of those that were showcased at MIX 2010. But there is no doubt that what we saw there has given us a lot to think about, some great ideas, and a few new weapons to put in our arsenal. We look forward to using many of these to create great solutions for our customers and to seeing them continue to evolve and improve.

Making transactions memorable, in a good way

Wednesday, August 5, 2009 by Lynn Moss

In a recent Sales Caffeine email newsletter from Jeffrey Gitomer, there is an article by Michelle Joyce on Making Transactions Memorable. She had a pleasant experience at the McDonald’s drive thru in Huntersville, North Carolina, and summarized what made the transaction memorable.

These three simple steps can be considered website redesign tips to improve user experience at your eCommerce websites and in all your interactive marketing efforts.

1. Start with a smile and engage your prospect in a friendly manner.  Would you do business with someone you didn’t like?  Well, neither would your prospect.  This guy made me like him – immediately.  When he made that connection, the transaction became enjoyable and personal.  It was all about me, not just my order.

2. Offer alternative solutions. People want choices.   Don't assume that your customer is aware of them. Uncover their needs and help them make a choice. McDonald's already mastered the upsell technique with their famous line, “Do you want fries with that?” What kind of additional features and services can you upsell?  What kind of additional revenue are you leaving on the table at every sale?

3. End the transaction with something memorable. When is the last time that a fast food worker told you to “drive safely”?  Usually, it is the perfunctory "thank you” and “have a nice day”; but this guy made me feel like he was genuinely concerned about my personal safety.  What are you saying to your customers that make them remember you personally?

Michelle ends by saying:  The reality is that people are still buying products and services in this economy. The only question is "Will they buy them from you?"

Definition 6 is an interactive marketing agency that can help you make a connection to your users, whether customers or prospective ones. We are experts in website development and custom application development.  Even though we are an Atlanta Ad Agency, we have clients across the US that we help differentiate themselves from their competition.

The Top 7 Free Ways To Boost Your Organic Page Rank

Tuesday, July 28, 2009 by Matt Epstein

Business owners often times find themselves at odds with the popular proverb “the best things in life are free.” Fortunately even in business this enchanting life lesson can at times prove to be true, and it just so happens that some of the best ways to boost your organic page rank really are free. Below I’ve compiled a small list of ideas, tools, networks, and websites that every business should be utilizing whether it’s an owner of a small business undertaking these strategies personally or a major CEO using his resources to have an interactive marketing agency with more experience and manpower tackle the tasks outlined below. (If you outsource this work I would suggest using Definition 6 - an Atlanta Internet Marketing company - of which I of course recommend without bias)

The top 7 free ways to boost your organic page ranking;

1)    Link Building:

Links are to rank as to what Sunny is to Cher. Of all the ways in which marketers try to lure search engine spiders to their page, link building is perhaps the most used as well as one of the most effective in search engine optimization. In laymen terms, you want to have links on your site that link to other sites and vice versa that have relevant, useful information and resources for your visitors. If you link to irrelevant or random content, the search engines will shun you. The more relevant the content, the more likely search engines are to recommend your site to others. It’s important not to abuse this strategy as over-linking will become more harmful than helpful. You can build your link network by simply requesting your partners link to you, registering on link directories (you can add yourself to almost every link directory in one single swoop at http://www.addurl.nu/), or by consistently interacting with other websites on forums and blogs in the hopes that they link to you naturally.

2)    Online Press Releases:

If you’ve launched a new site, redesign, application, service, or online utility it’s important to get the word out through the virtual newswire. Telling news outlets relevant information about your technology or business developments is a great way to get instant linkbacks and even social bookmarks for your article. It’s important to once again not to abuse this strategy, as sending out irrelevant press releases every day will get you banned.

If you’d like a one-stop-shop for getting your releases to the major players I’d recommend using www.prweb.com and www.prleap.com .

Here’s a great example of how Definition 6 used PR to increase its organic search rank and traffic; http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-27-2009/0005066618&EDATE=

3)    Squidoo Lenses

Think of Squidoo Lenses as free micro sites that allow you to create debates and forums for topics specific to your industry or company. They are quick and easy to set up and allow you to link back to your website along with each corresponding lens you create. If you post thought provoking, controversial, or useful lenses the odds are very good you’ll not only see a big boost in ranking but a significant boost in traffic. I personally come across dozens of Squidoo lenses every day by way of Google search and end up at the lens creators’ website.

www.squidoo.com

4)    Social Media

Unfortunately I would do this topic a great injustice by pretending I could summarize each social media outlet and the use/benefit of each. Instead, I will simply say that if you’re not currently on the social media landscape your competitors are one step ahead. Statistics show time and time again a direct correlation between businesses social media activity and their websites rise in page rank and traffic. Definition 6 alone has received numerous business leads this month from its Twitter & Facebook social media marketing. Unfortunately many marketers have shyed away from these mediums mainly due to their lack of understanding, but I would highly recommend if you’re unwilling to dedicate a respectable portion of your budget to social media marketing that you attempt to read up on your own and establish your presence on the following social media sites which have been proven to significantly boost page rank;

•    www.facebook.com
•    www.myspace.com
•    www.twitter.com
•    www.flickr.com
•    www.technorati.com

Here’s a good example of how Definition 6 has leveraged Twitter; http://twitter.com/definition6

5)    Social Bookmarking/Voting Websites

Social bookmarking sites are quickly becoming one of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to your site. Many businesses abandon the use of bookmarks because they themselves fail to keep their social content (blogs, facebook, twitter, etc) updated. Moreover, many marketers fail to provide useful, relevant, engaging content for their viewers. Major businesses such as Dell & Apple have made millions of dollars just by leveraging social bookmarking sites. By providing users with contents, breaking news, or useful tools and resources one of your website landing pages can spread as virally as a yawning kitten video on youtube. Here are a list of the most important social bookmarking sites;

•    www.stumbleupon.com
•    www.reddit.com
•    www.digg.com
•    www.delicious.com

6)    Forum Signatures

It’s not enough to simply have a space in the interactive market; you need to interact with it as well. Another free (and at times laborious) link building/traffic boosting strategy is forum & blog posting. By engaging with consumers and peers on industry forums as well as blogs you accomplish a multitude of goals: you show you’re engaged in your field, you are accessible, you are knowledgeable, and most importantly you can end your posts with your website link thereby building your rank, credibility, and traffic.

7)    Blogs

Lastly, and perhaps the fastest of these growing trends, creating a blog. Just like the strategies before this, it’s important to note that creating a blog for the sake of creating a blog does nothing for your website or your brand; in fact it may negatively impact it. If you plan on creating a blog, which you should, be sure to actively post but more importantly post relevant useful information. It’s better to hold off posting for a few weeks to wait for an exciting topic or item than to boring and unhelpful articles every other day. Blogs are a great way to tie in social bookmarking, social media, and link building.

Benchmark For Success

Friday, June 19, 2009 by Mike Reese

In my previous post regarding the need to include auto-generated emails within a email marketing strategy, I reflected on the lack of love given to emails automatically generated through end-user website activity. It's time to give benchmarking some love too!

The promise of a new web project or marketing initiative leaves stakeholders dreaming of online success, higher conversion rates, higher traffic volumes and positive bottom line results. Quite often, the strategy for measuring success gets lost in the shuffle.

Some of you reading this might be thinking, "Why waste the time? Higher conversion equals success." In some cases you may be right on track with that thought, but most of you probably know it's more than that. Success can be measured in many ways, I'll get into that in second. But understand that it's worth a deeper dive into the metrics that are important to you, your company or your industry, before you start on a new initiative. Ask yourself what data you'll be reviewing a week after a website launch to determine if you're on your way towards a positive ROI. It might be PPC reporting, website analytics, email marketing, CRM comparison or another set of metrics that is specific to your industry. I've seen it before, 2 months after redesign and stakeholders are trying to figure out what to measure. By that point, you're probably not going to have the baseline data needed to show a comparison. Solution? Benchmark. And do it early. The strategy and planning phase of any project is the perfect time to start thinking about it.

So what metrics should you benchmark? There is no perfect answer. Sally, who manages an online retail business will have different success factors than Frank, the owner of a property management services company. Sally cares about online sales and revenue generation, but Frank wants to see an increase in online lead generation. It can be a daunting task, so here are a few good places to start:

Website analytics - If your initiative includes the enhancement or redesign of a website, start the project with an examination of your existing analytics data. If you don't have any, stop reading this and go get it. Figure out what will be important to you later. It may be as simple as traffic volume, visit duration, cost per ad spend or conversion rates. But you may find a need to collect custom data as well. Almost every analytics package out there has that capability.
External data - In this context, external data is performance data obtained through your CRM package or 3rd party sources. Call center volumes or in-store data would fall into this category. You need an adequate way to access it and you need historical references.
Email marketing - If your initiative includes modifications to email marketing programs, make sure your provider is collecting meaningful data on open and click-through rates. And make sure you'll have access to historical data to create a trending analysis.

There are plenty of other data sources to benchmark against to determine success. The main goal is to ensure you have the data you'll need to measure success after you've spent time and money to get there. And do it early. Your ROI calculation will depend on it.

Social Media Marketing

Saturday, February 7, 2009 by Michael Kogon

At the end of the day here at Socon 09 - it has been interesting as this social media marketing "unconfrence" has been in the top 10 Twitter mentions and right up there with TED! Go Us - here is a picture from Flickr, uploaded by one of the participants:

The day has been spent tweating, status updating and talking about everything but email Marketing, Search Engine Optimization or Web Design. So it has been interesting. Basically Social Media is about connecting with consumers during the buying cycle, but most importantly in the post purchase usage cycle. It can be for solve a customers product problem or more importantly allowing buyers to connect with each other and making it a manner that allows them to get more value out of your product or service. I think that social media marketing will continue to be a good strategic topic this year, but 2009 will still be about trial and error. As I typed that last comment, I think believe that is the point of social media marketing, try something, monitor it, get feed back and make changes. Good luck!

Is Twitter Replacing Search?

Sunday, February 1, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Definition 6 Client Manager, Andy McCann, on how twitter is replacing search...

Tapping into interesting news and seeing what people (you care about)have to say is one aspect of Twitter but its also becoming more and more of a relevant tool for search. It's strengths are in local search, news feeds and product and company news. There is a great article on Media Post that you should take the time to read. Here are a few key points that I took away from it:

Twitter reaches a community that is multiple times larger than your contact list in your phone
Twitter search is real time in reverse chronological order
Product and company reviews are also a snap to find and address what is happening today, not last month or last year

There is a vast amount of news and information being transmitted through Twitter everyday which can be a good way to learn what users are saying about your own product or service. Reversly, if you're in the process of a website design or redesign project, Twitter can be a useful viral marketing tool.

Keep New Registrants Coming!

Friday, January 23, 2009 by Michael Kogon

Client Manager, Gabe Rand came across a Marketing Sherpa article discussing 6 steps on how a simple referral process can create a surge in registrations. The 6 steps mentioned in the article include preparing your email servers, building a referral page, building your email message, protecting the information, providing incentives and keeping the process as simple as possible.

Kiwibox's registration process has 3 simple steps:
1. choose a username
2. enter personal information
3. refer friends

After selecting which of your friends will receive the email and clicking the 'invite your friends' button, the registrants are dropped onto the welcome page where they being interacting. A screenshot of the welcome page is provided here as an example.

Login to Marketing Sherpa to learn how Kiwibox, an online magazine and social network for teens, launched a redesigned site and saw an immediate lift in their registrations. Contact Definition 6 to find out how we can help in the website integration process of a new or existing email service provider.

The War of the Browsers Continues

Monday, November 10, 2008 by Asa Sherrill

By Ethiopia Hewitt, Definition 6 Web Production Specialist

Today, there are several popular browsers available. Currently, it is impossible to know which browser a person will use. I know many web designers will concur with the hope that their personal favorite browser will crush the others, but the sometimes aggravating reality is that each browser continues to hold their own loyal fan base - similar to the ongoing war between PC and Mac. However, that conflict doesn’t affect me personally, as I have already chosen my side and pity those on the other. The Browser war is a different story. As a part of Definition 6 Interactive Media and Web Design family, browser compatibility affects me and our clients every day.

I currently work on enhancements and updates to websites previously completed and launched. The number one issue that I see is that the site doesn’t look or behave correctly in all browsers. The site looks and functions beautifully in the browser of the original designer’s choice but the others . . . not so much. It usually requires CSS patchwork skills and (gasp!) a couple of hacks to get the offending page to behave in all browsers. This work can sometimes take hours of work to pinpoint the CSS style that is being interpreted differently and still more time to develop a style that all browsers can agree on. This then brings up a question: When is it okay for the site to be different on different browsers?

As the designer, a line, albeit a tenuous one, could be drawn as to what are acceptable browser differences and what are not. For example, if a Javascript powered drop down menu is working only in IE7, the hours needed to make it cross browser compatible, are more than necessary. But if on Firefox 2 there is more space between the lines then on Safari, how much time should be spent to correct it? It becomes the responsibility of the designer to advise the clients to the facts of different browsers and educate them on this blurry line of acceptable and unacceptable different browser interpretations.

Each release of a new version of a browser leaves the design community searching for the end of the browser war, but really can it ever end without one browser triumphing over the others and becoming the one and only browser used? And speaking of new versions of browsers, if you are an Internet Explorer user, why not upgrade to the latest version? How is it that IE 6 stays around? Oh well, that is a discussion for another time and place.

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