The web design blog
Gone phishing
Saturday 10th October 2009
After the high profile phishing attacks on Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo! Mail this week, the strongest message yet to internet users is that they need to be more vigilant than ever when shopping and managing their personal data online.
Even if you were one of the lucky ones whose accounts wasn't compromised, there's steps you should take to ensure it doesn't happen.
Internet speed and web accessibility
Saturday 26th September 2009
According to a report conducted by the Office for National Statistics (PDF 123kb), 16.5m households now have broadband access which is an increase from 6.6m in 2006. This is great news for web designers and web application developers who need to deliver a top quality experience to their end users without compromising too much on functionality. However, it doesn't mean they should forget about users with a slow internet connection.
The age-old issue of making a web site or web application accessible to everyone is still a big challenge today, especially in relation to internet speed. Designers and developers understandably want to provide slick and user-friendly experiences but this often means using web technologies that require a fast internet connection, like video or JavaScript-powered applications. It's would be very easy to ignore a potentially large share of the market by not considering users on devices with slow connection speeds (like mobiles) or users in developing countries who are faced with geographic limitations.
So it's a great to see forward-thinking from the likes of Facebook who recently lanched a lightweight version of their extremely popular social site. It's called Facebook Lite and perfectly illustrates how inclusion is possible, for even the most demanding web applications.
posted by Blair Millen in the category: accessibility
Things to ask before you redo your website
Friday 18th September 2009
Seth Godin presents questions that you should ask if you're thinking of redesigning your website. It's the perfect companion piece to the article we wrote last year entitled Questions to ask before hiring a web designer.
Godin asks obvious but important questions like What is the goal of the site? and How much money do we have to spend? How much time? but also asks things more pertinent to specific business types, like Do we want people to call us? Are we earning permission to follow up? and Does showing up in the search engines matter? And there's undoubtedly many more that could be added to the list in relation to your own business. The important thing to remember is that the planning and (re)designing of a website is not an easy task. Whether your business is large or small, there's always many aspects to consider but as Godin reminds us, Does the organization understand that 'everything' is not an option? How true.
posted by Blair Millen in the category: help & advice
Netiquette and capital letters
Tuesday 8th September 2009
In the wake of the recent sacking of a woman from New Zealand for composing and sending emails that used lots of capital letters (including bold and red-coloured text), Laura Schocker of BBC News Magazine poses the question "Why do CAPITAL LETTERS so annoy us?". She goes onto describe the historical traditions of capital letters in print and how the traits of typographers have influenced today's web users.
When writing emails or blog posts on the internet, the use of italics and bold text is the recommended way to emphasise a word or phrase, however more recently the use of capital letters seems to have become the accepted norm. Perhaps it's laziness (just hold down the Shift key when typing) or just igorance (not knowing how to make text bold or italic) but the use of capital letters these days is regarded as aggressive behaviour or poor etiquette.
Our advice? Follow the simple rules of netiquette (net etiquette) and you'll be fine.
posted by Blair Millen in the category: help & advice
Email marketing with SEO in mind
Monday 7th September 2009
Here's a great video from Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz. He runs through a bunch of helpful tips for making the most of your email marketing, covering things like attracting the right audience, delivering compelling data (offering something for free if they sign up to your mailing list) and ensuring your content isn't overly commercial.
Turning a shopping basket into a wishlist
Saturday 29th August 2009
Recent research by marketing and technology company Amaze, in conjunction with the University of Glasgow, reveals that 87% of online shoppers place items into their shopping basket in order to work out total costs (taking into account things like delivery, VAT, special offers etc.) and to compare prices with other online retailers. And (assuming the price is right) 74% of these potential customers claim to come back to the shop later to buy!
This approach to online shopping clearly reflects today's web-savvy users (i.e. bargain hunters) but it also presents a challenge to web developers when choosing, designing or implementing their ecommerce software. How can the customer return to their shopping basket at a later date to purchase their goods? The solution is to turn the shopping basket into a wishlist.
Achilles Heel
Wednesday 19th August 2009
We recently launched a fresh new design for the popular Glasgow-based running shop Achilles Heel.
Alongside the clean branding, provided by the excellent design-ed, we built-in a bunch of great, new features including:
- Customer Account area - a secure log-in area for customers to view and edit their order details
- Search filtering - some fancy filtering functionality to help customers find exactly what they want, e.g. display only size 10½ shoes in the sale
- Blog - not just Achilles Heel news but a varied range of running-related items with a dedicated team of bloggers
- Poll - to get feedback from customers as well as encourage them to interact with the site
It may just be coincidence but since the relaunch there's been a noticeable increase in sales!
posted by Blair Millen in the category: clients
Nobody cares about your website
Monday 10th August 2009
Nobody cares about your website blasts Gerry McGovern in his post about what not to do when marketing your new service or product. He reminds us that the reason customers signed up for your newsletter or grabbed your RSS feed first place was because they liked the quality content (you know, special deals, top tips, free stuff... whatever). In short, give them what they came for and don't waste their time with niceties and small talk. I tend to agree.
posted by Blair Millen in the category: web content
Protect yourself against disgruntled customers
Friday 31st July 2009
OUT-LAW have posted some interesting news related to web site disclaimers. A recent landmark ruling suggests that if you explain to your customers via a disclaimer that the information on your site shouldn't be trusted you will be protecting yourself against potential lawsuits:
simply tell your visitors to seek further information before they rely on what they read and, hey presto, you're off the hook
Get those disclaimers attended to immediately!
posted by Blair Millen in the category: housekeeping
Occupational Therapy: An Introduction to Assistive Technology
Monday 20th April 2009
This great little five minute video from Jennifer Hunt provides a good introduction to assistive technology (AT), covering a definition of what AT is, why people need it, where it gets used and potential barriers to using AT.
The purpose of this project was to create a distance learning tool to be used by occupational therapy students to establish a foundation of basic knowledge of assistive technology and its purpose for occupational therapists as well as consumers of occupational therapy.
The multimedia movie serves as a tool in the distance learning communities of occupational therapy students. Its visual and auditory impact allows the student to self-direct scholarly exploration and promotes flexibility and diversity in learning environments.
Jennifer Hunt
posted by Blair Millen in the category: accessibility
