You might be surprised to know that online shopping, known to us now as e-commerce, first emerged at the tail end of the 1970s when inventor Michael Aldrich produced the first known electronic transaction system—a connection between an everyday television and a processing computer. Aldrich went on to develop more sophisticated tools for electronic transactions throughout the 1980s, which began to be adopted by large companies in the United Kingdom. Then in 1991, when Tim Berners Lee made his brainchild, the World Wide Web, available for public and commercial use, the electronic shopping systems that are ubiquitous today—including the shopping cart—began to take shape. IBM, e-Bay, and Amazon were some of the earliest to adopt and turn the technology into their core way of doing business. In the 25 years since then, the basic visual nature of the online shopping experience hasn’t changed much. But with mobile shopping firmly on scene and here to stay, digital storefronts and shopping carts seem to be undergoing a makeover. Here’s what some experts think you can expect to see for e-commerce in 2016: Increasingly standardized layouts This has been a trend in web design in general over the last couple of years, as developers and marketing departments are finding that standardizing their web sites translates into longer visit times and higher conversions. Users like to be comfortable and feel like they’re in familiar territory when they’re shopping. Get too out-of-the-box with your searches, CTAs, shopping carts, or other components of your pipeline and you create friction that can result in a dropped sale. That epiphany has led to standardizing of everything from menu delivery, button placement and design, and overall layouts— saving unique and creative ideas for the marketing campaign. Card-style product views You may have seen these popping up on retail web sites in recent months. Products are displayed in a self-contained, bite-sized card (also called tiles) that contains an image, a short description, the price, and, usually, links to share it on social media. Think: Pinterest. This presentation allows sellers to provide users with an at-a-glance view of the product that’s easy to compare with similar products in a way that’s visually rich but not overwhelming. Examples: https://www.behance.net https://canopy.co Flat, minimal, and vibrant Gone are the days of stylized, three-dimensional, deeply-shadowed objects layered throughout a single web page. We’ve been moving toward flatter design for many years, but the last two have seen a proliferation of these ultra-flat, minimal, image-driven e-commerce website designs. To offset that minimalism, designers are turning to bolder, chunkier typography and exceptional colorful (and sometimes unusual) tones.
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Ah, that thorny space between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we all try to stick to a diet of salad for the next four weeks while we wait for our bank accounts to refill in time to get the last few gifts we forgot about on Black Friday. On tap this week: Best selling books of 2015, SnapChat for business, wrangling your 2016 email marketing plans into a calendar, a look into OpenTable’s dual-design process, and hot business trends. Hottest selling business books of 2015 NEW YORK TIMES
Evergreen business heavy-hitters Malcom Gladwell (Outliers, Tipping Point) and Tony Robbins (Money: Master the Game) are joined by mid-career authors Steven D. Leavitt and Stephen J. Dubner (Freakonomics, Think Like a Freak), relative newcomer Charles Duhigg (The Power of Habit), and others on this list of the best-selling business books of 2015. What the heck is SnapChat, and how do I use it for business? SMALL BUSINESS TRENDS Just a few short years ago, SnapChat was making headlines as a controversial tool for frisky teenagers and adults who wanted a way to send private content to friends without the risks of exploitation—the content disappears as soon as it’s viewed—that come with other social media outlets. Today, businesses from BuzzFeed to Mashable to Comedy Central are using SnapChat to reach a younger audience, with content that lends itself to SnapChat’s ephemeral quality. Build a killer email marketing calendar for 2016 EMAIL EXPERIENCE COUNCIL Newsletters, promotions, launches, events. New customers, current customers, former customers, possible customers. If you’re a businesses with multi-layered email campaigns, things can get overwhelming when you’re planning for the coming year. The Email Experience Council lays it out for you in this handy guide. Too complicated? Let us build a comprehensive email marketing campaign calendar for you. See how restaurant reservations maestro OpenTable designs its mobile experience for both sides of their marketing coin INVISION We love a good behind-the-scenes look at how today’s most innovative companies are handling their web and app design, digital marketing, brand strategy, content creation, and other components of a successful product. Here, OpenTable opens the doors to its design department to give us a look at how they solve the problem of who to design for when two different market segments use the same app. Srirachi2Go Makes Hot Debut AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION Possibly the only instance of a tiny, empty bottle going viral you’ll ever see. Sriracha2Go pleases hardcore chili sauce fans by providing a portable vehicle for their addiction, and the Internet goes wild.
We understand. When your web developer revealed your new website in 2004, it was love at first site. Your employees were excited, your clients were excited, business boomed, and you still look at it with affection every time you pull it up in the morning. It’s a beautiful but is also a slow website. Unfortunately, if it takes more than three seconds to fully load, and many websites with outmoded technology or development standards even just a few years old do, it’s costing you money. Consumers have become conditioned to hyper-fast load times, and are increasingly unwilling to wait more than a few seconds for websites that don’t provide them—an allowance that would have seemed ridiculous ten years ago. But today, 40% of web users say they’ll abandon a website if loading takes more than three seconds. Even more startling: Studies show that a delay of just one second on an e-commerce web site can reduce sales conversion rates by up to 7%. If your web site earns $25,000 per day, that’s a loss of $625,000 every year. Kissmetrics has a rundown of surprising stats on how un-optimized web page load time can effect your business. And isn’t just consumers giving your slow website the snub. Google, in service to demanding consumers, penalizes slow web sites in search rankings. Google’s model revolves around providing useful and easily-accessible information for its users. A slow-loading web site isn’t easily-accessible, and as such, isn’t considered useful. That means all the hard work you’ve put into boosting your SEO rankings could be deeply undermined by even a few seconds of delayed load time. A comprehensive web site with load times that meet modern standards should be at the top of your Internet marketing checklist. You can check your website’s page load times at Pingdom. Not cutting it at the three-second mark? Try these three adjustments to help bring those wait times down and get more visitors to stick around: 1. Optimize your images and videos. These are often the biggest culprit in older web sites. Most photo- and video-editing software has a “save for web," "quick export" or similar options that helps keep file size down. 2. Keep your script and CSS files compressed into a single file. If your Javascript is spread across several files that have to load every time a visitor refreshes your page, or clicks on another page in your website, your load times can plummet while the browser renders all of them. 3. Make smart use of caching. Caching allows the browser to keep certain elements of your website pre-loaded, so that when a visitor loads your page multiple times over a given timeframe, it doesn’t have the render the whole page from scratch each time. If after implementing those changes, your website is still loading too slowly, it’s time for a major tune-up.
It’s not an option anymore to have a good looking website. Consumer expectation is high, and at a minimum you need a storefront and web design that is attractive enough to pull in more visitors. If you notice a high bounce rate on your homepage, there’s a good chance it has something to do with how it looks, which in turn means less conversions to your business.
Looks matter, but strategic design choices can do more than just generate “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd. Having a designer on your side who has an equal amount of flair and pizazz as they do user experience is crucial to any new website. Effective Reno web design is one of the most integral factors in attracting visitors to your online storefront, however it is not as simple as it may seem. There are a number of aspects within business web design that help visitors convert to customers, and knowing what works is key to making that transition into a reality.
In the early days of design and development, business pages were loaded with content making the user’s experience overwhelming and, at best, confusing. In current design psychology, a web developer must focus on the core message of the business and relay that in a clean, efficient manner to users. It is part business strategy, part psychology, and completely necessary to earn more conversions.
Color can have a positive or negative effect on a visitor as they navigate through a business web design. According to Amber Leigh Turner of The Next Web, certain colors have a greater impact in design and development than others. She states, “Cooler colors (blues, greens, purples) often provide an inviting, professional and relaxed feeling. In contrast, it can project a very cold and unfriendly feeling as well.” She continues to state warm colors, including oranges, yellows and red offer a soothing experience and pay homage to a creative side of the business. In professional web design, selecting the colors to use within your business are crucial to providing an inviting feel to your site. In other words, the right color invokes the right emotions, and the right emotions lead to action that ultimately turns into a conversion.
Have you seen a stellar website lately? Share the link with us.
Using the expertise of a web page designer or a professional web design company can provide you with the tools necessary to create effective, simple web design, ultimately increasing traffic to your site, while keeping users engaged with your specific content. Additionally, a Reno web design company like OCG Creative can guide you to higher conversion rates for your company. If you are considering making changes to your website in an effort to increase your sales, contact your local Reno internet marketing company, OCG Creative, today.
Several days ago I was doing some online market research when I recognized a wondrous and disturbing pattern. A pattern of modern advances through automation, the mathematical narrowing of my vision for the sake of a potential sale. I acknowledged the presence of some kind of fancy-pants algorithmic doodad working inside the machine that narrows down my choices into related searches and previous purchases. I suddenly felt restrained. I felt tethered. I felt as if the opportunity for true digital exploration and market research, for the adventure inside the great unknown, was suddenly truncated. While one part of my brain accepted and welcomed the predigested feed of comfortable info, there was another part of me that felt a wee bit worried and anxious. In this new age of "recommendations" and automated Facebook ads we may be in danger of having our identities predefined by our previous searches and purchases. Leaving us no room to open our little minds to new ideas and influences outside of our own limited perspective. Earlier today, I found myself stepping outside my usual research comfort zone of design sites and kitty cat blooper videos, and stumbled upon a blog post regarding tips from filmmaker David Fincher. The subject of the blog was "5 Filmmaking Tips" from the director. And while I’m not a filmmaker, myself, I figured I'd dig in and see what the director could teach me about my field of advertising art. I soon found myself basking in the warm glow of some tasty wisdom nuggets.
Some of the points which translate nicely into our field of expertise:
A quote from David Fincher -
"Do the best you can, try to live it down,’ that’s my motto. Just literally give it everything you got, and then know that it’s never going to turn out the way you want it to, and let it go, and hope that it doesn’t return. Because you want it to be better than it can ever turn out. Absolutely, 1000 percent, I believe this: whenever a director friend of mine says, ‘Man, the dailies look amazing!’ … I actually believe that anybody, who thinks that their dailies look amazing doesn’t understand the power of cinema; doesn’t understand what cinema is capable of."
There is a distinct gap between the various flights of fancy that pop into the mind of a creative designer and of what is actually applicable or functional in the world of print and web. The challenge of day to day designing for an agency can be found in the collaborative efforts between directors, designers, vendors, account managers and the clients. There is only so much we can control, and for the rest of it, we need to keep on trucking, ever open to better processes and more concise communication to move the process forward.
While the jury is once again out on the whole concept of left versus right brained-ness, the point is still valid. Multiple points of perspective can give a designer a fresh set of eyes or a new point of view. I often turn my designs sideways to see if the composition holds water from different angles of attack.
“I think that Fight Club is more than the sum of its parts, whereas Panic Room is the sum of its parts. I didn’t look at Panic Room and think: ‘Wow, this is gonna set the world on fire.’ These are footnote movies, guilty pleasure movies. Thrillers. Woman-trapped-in-a-house movies. They’re not particularly important.”
Not every website you create needs to be a portfolio piece. Not every client needs or wants a portfolio piece. Each varying company has it's own specific needs and preferences. A photographer's website is going to look very different than a dollar store, but that doesn't mean that there isn't some aspect of artistry and craftsmanship in the dollar store site. Each design has it's own demands, and an artsy-fartsy coating isn't always the answer.
Breaking a project down to more digestible chunks is something any designer can identify with. It's easy to become overwhelmed by multi-week or multi-month projects. Sometimes the big picture isn't necessarily the BEST picture. Remember to take a step in, break the project down, and don't forget that the whole whale needs to stay somewhere in the back of your mind.
I've somewhat liberated my online market research by spending some time outside of my specific market. If you are feeling bogged down in the narrowing filter of the neo-web, try looking outside your field and open your mind to how people in semi-like fields are achieving success. You may find yourself surfing the latest trends in celebrity needlepoint or dolphin obedience training and learning something valuable. You can gain more knowledge by making an effort to explore as well as conduct market research.
I just read something that struck me as both funny and poignant. It was an article about website budgets that pointed out how every project begins with what the author described as a "subtle psychological game of 'you go first'" between the agency (us) and the potential client. The point of the article was that the creative agency or web design firm should be bold and ask. Fundamentally, I agree and here's why. To begin with, regardless of the business owner's budget, there will almost always be a solution that will at least satisfy some of his organization's goals. So, for Reno web design projects with smaller budgets, we always do our best to guide the client toward options that have the best possible chance of early success.
Sometimes, outlining the scope of a project ties our people up for days. To be accurate, we develop what we call use case diagrams outlining every possible interaction between the various potential users of the final website. Additionally, considerable effort goes into higher level strategic planning long before we present a proposal. If we have a sense of the planned budget going in, we are able to concentrate our energy on strategies and tactics that have a realistic chance of being implemented. It's easy to understand why a potential client might prefer to play it close to the vest. There are agencies that would propose a project at, say, $5,000, but if they know the budget is twice that, the proposal will be presented accordingly. It's an opportunistic form of bidding that is both unethical and unproductive. In our firm, if we know the budget is X-dollars, we bid the project based on realistic expectations of hours regardless. If there's anything left, we'll make recommendations about how the client can gain additional value with the same budget, or simply leave it out of the proposal. But, in either case, we never jack up the price just because there's money available.
Obviously, no one wants to be charged more than what the web design or development project should really cost. But, not having some idea of budget at the onset makes it very difficult to propose the right solutions. Also, there are times when a budget is simply too small for the proposed project scope. Proposals cost a lot to produce. There's almost always a significant amount of discovery that must take place prior to putting together the quote. So, if we're going to invest several hours putting together an accurate proposal, we need to know that there's a reasonable chance that the project will move forward.
In an ideal world, the client and creative agency share the same goals. In other words, both sides should be working to achieve the same result, which, by the way, must be to reach the objectives set forth by the client, not those of the agency. After all, we don't get hired to send invoices. Our Reno web design and internet marketing team gets hired to accomplish something the client cannot accomplish internally. In my view, it all boils down to this. If you are the client, try to at least give some kind of range regarding website budgets for a given project. That will help the web designer and engineering or marketing team outline the best possible tactics for meeting your goals. If you are the agency, be honest and quote what things really cost. That way, we maintain trust as an industry and everyone involved wins.
Unless you're in the business of designing websites, or your business is primarily e-commerce in nature, chances are you hate dealing with your website altogether. You're not alone, and there are plenty of good reasons. However, lots of business websites are bringing value to the businesses they to support, minus the frustrations. First, let's take a look at what those frustration points are then examine ways of avoiding them.
One of the key premises all business success is built upon is clear access to accurate information. With the web, however, everything seems shrouded in mystery. Endless technical barriers and other considerations act as barriers to keep the site owner from making clear decisions.
Some designers even use industry lingo and vague references as a smokescreen keep the business owner from engaging too directly. It's a dependency thing. If the web designer can keep the website owner convinced that any meaningful input should be left to "experts," the result is a measure of job security for the designer.
For you, the business owner insists that everything your web designer does can be justified in business terms that make sense. Our approach is to put in writing everything we do, and explain it in normal speaking language. We go further by empowering our clients to take control of their own websites, blogs, etc. We even provide a "nerd to human" decoder ring! Well, okay, I made that up, but we do make sure our website owners have the tools necessary to ensure their own success online.
This one's tough, even for us. Certain things take longer than expected. It's just one of the struggles, we as web developers must deal with. However, when you, the business website owner builds a strategy with the expectation that something will be finished on a certain date, that date is vitally important.
In our firm, we do two things. First, we track every minute spent on every task performed by every member of every project. As a result, we know how long things take. On top of that, we're so confident in our ability to estimate, that we offer our clients a no-risk guarantee. In other words, if we miss a deadline, you don't pay. So, when we say it'll be ready on Friday, you can be sure you'll have it on Friday, whatever "it" is.
The internet is a technical world, and only getting more so. It's just reality. As technologies evolve, business demands on how to best put the web to work evolve too. We love it. We love the challenges. We love the newness, and we love the idea that we're breaking through boundaries with each new project. But, when you're busy running a company, technical challenges can be very frustrating.
Our solution is to be as full service as our clients need. Often this means that we do it all. We are a team of strategists, analysts, engineers and artists. It is our job to keep you from having to deal with technical issues that take you away from running your business.
Perhaps the worst thing business owners have to put up with regarding their business websites, are snotty, condescending web designers. You know you just want to punch the little twerp, but you can't because next thing you know, your website will be promoting some unmentionable and it's only then that you learn he's holding your domain name for ransom.
While we confess a certain level of nerd-dom, we send the snotty geeks to seek employment elsewhere. The truth is, we don't like them either.
When it comes to CMS's I was strictly "old school" for years. I had it in my head that if you didn't "roll your own" you were somehow cheating the client by charging for code you didn't actually write. Maybe there was a bit of ego involved too. And, there's the fact the web was a completely different thing. Back then, the Internet was more or less a static world where we "hand-coders" would scoff at Dreamweaver (I still do), and pretty much anything that made doing web easy. After all, the Internet was new frontier where nerds ruled and the technical barriers were plentiful. The problem was that nerds generally turn up their noses at anything they haven't come up with themselves, or that wasn't handed down by some supreme nerd that has earned dominance by taking lesser nerds to some cyber-version of the coding woodshed. So, business workflows, marketing objectives and other economically valid reasons for a website's existence rarely factored into the design and development process. The site owner, basically would get what the programmer knew how to build--or wanted to build.
WordPress grew in popularity as a blogging engine. Being incredibly easy for non-technical people to learn and use, WordPress quickly earned its place as a standard bearer for what a blog engine should be. But, being a blog platform, site owners would (and still do) find themselves in need of features not natively included in the WordPress code base. For that, thousands of individual developers have been creating solutions, in the form of plugins, for years. A plugin is essentially an additional program that runs inside WordPress to make it do things like e-commerce, membership management, or whatever fits the needs of the site owner.
Plugins provide custom functionality. Themes provide the look. There are a couple thousand themes available on the WordPress site alone. Some are great, most are okay, and others, well, suck. The best WordPress themes are those that meet the requirements of the website without causing problems with the underlying code base, or lead to issues with other plugins or future updates. At our Reno web design company, we prefer to build themes from scratch although sometimes it isn't necessary or practical especially from a budgeting standpoint. When we work with third party themes, we always develop derivative themes, which in WordPress terms are called "child themes." Child themes insilate our code and modifications to the design from being overwritten by future updates.
Custom WordPress themes are themes we build entirely from the ground up. Building custom WordPress themes is very involved, requiring many hours of planning, design and development. An example of a custom WordPress theme we developed recently is Esteem Medical Spa & Salon. Esteem Medical Spa & Salon is a perfect example of why WordPress is so popular, and why we've grown to take WordPress development so seriously. As a Medical Spa, Esteem has a staff of very talented people who perform non-surgical treatment with exceptional results. Like most organizations, they should be focusing on their specialty service and not sifting through the technical nuances of website content management. When they came to us, they had a website with slow load times and poorly optimized pages for search. After proving our internet marketing capabilities they were more than happy to let us create a much better website experience.
The bottom line is WordPress is a very powerful content management tool when it comes to Reno web design. On the other hand, most WordPress websites are easy to spot since they tend to follow a similar structure. As mentioned earlier, custom WordPress development is complex; however, it is a solid choice of CMS for just about any business.
