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

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.

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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.

Navigation tips for websites

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 09:00:00 UT

Any decision on a website's navigation�is critical to usability, findability, accessibility and SEO.�It�can be�difficult to undo if you select a poor design. So usable navigation is�best established early on in a web project.

There are many different examples of main navigation systems, (i.e. the main method for accessing content in different site sections) but the 'three Cs' of convention, consistency and context are important whatever the design.

Yahoo! goes blue for search results

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:56:00 UT

Yahoo! is testing a new design approach for its search pages, topped by a distinctive shiny blue bar.

The Guardian redesigns its home page

Thu, 10 May 2007 14:04:00 UT

The Guardian has today unveiled a new look for its homepage, with a more image-heavy approach than the previous version...

Site redesign tips from Jakob Nielsen

Fri, 16 Mar 2007 14:16:00 UT

Jakob Nielsen's latest article looks at site redesign tips which will lead to increased sales and improved customer loyalty.

Nielsen has 10 redesign recommendations that are the most likely to increase return on investment for your website, most of which should be relatively simple to implement.

Interview: Persuasion Guru BJ Fogg

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:08:00 UT

BJ Fogg directs research and design at Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab , and is pretty much The Don of�captology - the study of how�computers can be used to�influence people's behaviour.

We�asked�him a�few questions�about how internet marketers could be using persuasion techniques more effectively, as well as some of the more scary implications for individual web users.

E-consultancy seeks Head of Website Development

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:47:00 UT

E-consultancy has doubled in size over the past year, but with that has come new challenges - let's just say we have a hefty development to-do list.

With that in mind we're on the lookout for a world class Head of Website Development. Somebody with very strong technical / development skills, as well as an understanding of how our plans fit in with business and marketing goals.

More details after the jump...

Web 2.0 fonts and logos

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 11:23:00 UT

I�ve always been partial to a good-looking font, preferably sans serif. Stuart Brown over at Modern Life Is Rubbish has compiled a few typefaces for the Web 2.0 crowd.

He has selected the following fonts, each of which is used by a 2.0 company logo, but can you match the company to the font?

Marketers in the dark: Visitors vs Concurrent Users - Web Capacity and Load Testing

Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:29:00 UT

When your sales conversion is lower than expected - asking the tech team for web performance metrics may not help: visitors per hour is not enough, concurrent users is plain unhelpful.