E-consultancy - Design Patterns - Internet Marketing News and Blogs

Fast and easy - web application design tips

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:45:00 UT

This past weekend, the New York Times published an interesting article.

In it, Matt Richtel and Ashlee Vance discussed the computer industry's plans to offer PCs that boot up more quickly.

What is the best screen resolution to use for your website?

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:30:00 UT

When reviewing new or redesigned websites, I've noticed a few that don't fill the whole screen, which has got me thinking about the best way for designers to approach the issue.

It's�impossible to ensure that your website looks the same in every browser, mobile device, or screen resolution, but there are ways to deal with the problem.

Transactional emails failing usability tests - Nielsen

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 09:00:00 UT

Transactional�emails can be useful�for�building trust and improving customer service, but many�are not as user-friendly as they�could be.

That's Jakob Nielsen's verdict in his latest Alertbox post,�in which he�details tests of a range of emails; customer service responses and�order confirmations.

Tips on site search results pages

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 08:00:00 UT

As ever, Grokdotcom has�some useful e-commerce tips, this time on optimising site search results pages.

According to Daniel McGuigan,�the search box can be the last chance to get a visitor to take action on your site, if they haven't found what they want through navigation, landing pages or your homepage.

This is certainly true, but some visitors may also use the search box as their first port of call if they have a particular product in mind when visiting a site.

High street retailers: menus make a big difference

Thu, 2 Oct 2008 16:00:00 UT

Home pages for high street retailers may initially come across as similar, but their actual performance differs strongly due to the design of the navigation menus.

20 colour tips for website design

Mon, 4 Aug 2008 10:08:00 UT

Choosing the right colours when designing a website is something that requires a lot of patience and experimentation, and � ideally � a minimum of guesswork.

Thankfully there are some useful rules of thumb to follow when it comes to working with colours, as well as some truly excellent sources of inspiration out there to help you make the right colour choices for your brand, website, and audience.

Let's start off by considering why colour matters, then I�ll list 20 colour recommendations for web professionals, followed by some pointers to my favourite tools at the end of this article.

Web-based HTML and CSS validation tools

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:45:00 UT

Are you validating your website's HTML/XHTML and CSS? If not, you should be.

Useful online colour resources

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 08:00:00 UT

In my last post, I provided a number of useful online resources for stock photography because visitors tend to make very quick decisions as to whether they're going to stay on a site based on aesthetics.

Another important aspect to an appealing website is using the right colours. Fortunately, there are lots of great online tools and resources for discovering and choosing them.

What drives your strategy for web design?

Mon, 7 Apr 2008 12:51:00 UT

I read an interesting article on usability and user experience posted recently on this site by Tom Stewart, the Chair of the sub-committee of the International Standards Organisation (ISO), which is responsible for the revision of ISO 13407, the international standard for Human Centred Design.

We are in the process of redesigning our site for a new platform being developed for release later this year, and the aforementioned article got me thinking about the planning for the design of a website.

Usability or user experience - what's the difference ?

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:47:00 UT

The study of the relationship between people and technology has been called a variety of names over the years - from computer ergonomics, human computer interaction and usability to, more recently, human-centred design and user experience.

Modernista - ad agency 2.0 or BS 2.0?

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 10:21:00 UT

The recent relaunch of an ad agency website has attracted quite a bit of attention.

UK retailers failing to follow email best practice

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:00:00 UT

A new survey finds that retailers in the UK still have a lot to learn about email marketing, with 46% failing to comply with legal guidelines and many others not following best practice.

TopShop, STA Travel, ASDA and M&S came off best in dotMailer's benchmark study (pdf), scoring over 80%, while Office, Expedia and H&M scored less than 60%.

Ten tips for website navigation

Thu, 7 Feb 2008 08:30:00 UT

An effective and easy to use navigation system is essential for any site and can be the difference between making a sale and losing�a customer.

The�navigation should be easy to find and use, and should work consistently across the site. Make users work too hard and you risk losing them to another, more usable rival.��

Here are�some checkpoints for�making your navigation more effective:

Ten site search tips

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 12:00:00 UT

Shoppers�using an e-commerce site have two main ways of finding the exact product or service they want � the navigation bar and the search box.

While many sites have�great navigation, there are plenty whose search options return some pretty poor results.�

Why is the Indie's new website strangely familiar?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:11:00 UT

The Independent has completed a long overdue revamp of its website, placing more of an emphasis on multimedia content.

�

Jakob Nielsen: "Web 2.0 can be bad for business"

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 14:17:00 UT

Businesses should beware of adding too many Web 2.0 features to their websites, and instead concentrate on getting the basics of user experience right.

This is the view of web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, who argues in his latest post that, while features like user reviews can benefit consumers, others can make sites overly complicated.

Five ways to make online travel sites better

Thu, 6 Sep 2007 10:50:00 UT

E-consultancy has just released its Travel Website Benchmarks Report�- an interesting insight into�the�good and�not so good�practices being adopted by travel agencies, car rental firms, hotel aggregators and airlines on the web.

Compiled by Adam Goodvach�of�Global Reviews,�it looks at ways�travel sites are�enabling users to search for�and book products and services, while minimising abandonment rates.

We've listed�some of�its recommendations after the jump....�

Website optimisation - less can be more

Wed, 1 Aug 2007 15:06:00 UT

In the same way as�more instruments don�t necessarily make a better tune or more words a better poem; when it comes to creating effective website pages, less is often more.

Why do customers abandon the checkout process?

Thu, 5 Jul 2007 15:17:00 UT

Problems with the checkout process constitute the single biggest loss of revenue for many e-commerce sites, with almost half of online retail transactions abandoned at this stage.

According to figures from Marketing Sherpa, the average abandonment rate for shopping carts is 60%, of which 12% give up before hitting the checkout. This means 48% of potential customers bail out at the checkout stage.

Tips for email landing pages

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 09:00:00 UT

Almost 50% of people�that visit landing pages�from emails will abandon the site in the first eight seconds,�meaning a lot of the effort marketers�make to get�people to click on links in emails�is�wasted.

Silverpop's latest email study, '8 Seconds to Capture Attention' (registration required) looks into what makes an effective email landing page by studying the landing pages from the campaigns of 150 companies.