Understand and design with your users’ needs in mind

Making sure your business’s website works equally well on a variety of mobile interfaces and platforms has never been more important than it is today. With mobile sales and mobile advertising becoming increasingly predominant, you need a website that’s flexible, adjustable, and provides a consistent and engaging user experience – no matter how it’s accessed.

Good responsive design keeps speed in mind

Research shows that a website delay greater than one second can greatly disrupt a potential customer’s user experience. And while you can’t control outside factors like internet problems or damaged cellphone towers, you can take steps to make sure your site loads optimally. These include loading content that your viewers will see, like “above-the-fold content,” first, while allowing background content to load later.

Set a “performance budget” for each page on your website

Another trick to make sure your website loads quickly on mobile devices is to set a predetermined limit on the overall size of a page. With the size of the average webpage growing, “page bloat” has become a major problem for webpages, especially mobile ones. Just because the average page size is increasing doesn’t mean that yours has to – and presetting a size limit will go a long way toward creating an optimal user experience, no matter how viewers access your page.

Adjust image size to save on data consumption

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the prevalence of large images on websites is one of the biggest reasons why web pages are constantly using more data. For good or bad, the popularity of high-definition mobile displays, such as the retina displays on recent generations of iPhones and iPads, has only increased this trend.

While you do want your website’s images to look great, you don’t want to use more data than you have to; so you should make sure your website looks at screen size to reformat images and reduce data usage. A variety of services are available, including adaptive images, which, when combined with other responsive design methods, can automatically re-scale images to greatly reduce mobile data expenditure.

Make sure you use a quality hosting service

When it comes to optimizing performance for mobile websites, choosing the right host can make a serious difference. Determining the best hosting service for your business depends on factors like your budget, the complexity and size of your website, and the amount of people currently visiting the site (or that you expect to visit in the near future).

If you’re just starting out and have a small budget, you’ll probably just want to search for the most economical hosting deal. However, if your website receives a lot of traffic, is image and video heavy, and you have a serious budget, it might make sense to hire a more high-end hosting service with dedicated servers and a greater level of customer support.

Quality hosting and fast servers can also pay dividends in the SEO arena as well; Google currently uses page speed to help determine the ranking of websites, and it will soon be factoring in mobile page speed rankings into its algorithms as well.

As mobile eCommerce grows, responsive design is increasingly important

With mobile eCommerce now nearly a third of all US ecommerce, it might not be long before mobile devices overtake traditional computer sales as the primary form of online commerce. This means that making sure your website loads quickly, is easy to use, and adjusts to the needs of a variety of mobile devices is becoming increasingly important.

At Creative Technology Partners, it’s our job to help businesses leverage the latest technology to increase efficiency, cut costs, and boost their brand awareness. To make sure your company stays abreast of the latest tech advances, contact us today for a free consultation.

How to make mobile eCommerce work for your company

In 2015, mobile eCommerce grew nearly 40% in the United States, from $75 billion in 2014 to $104 billion. This increase means that mobile eCommerce sales now make up 30% of all eCommerce transactions – and they are only getting bigger. It also means that if you want to create sustainable, long-term growth for your business, you’ll have to focus heavily on the mobile experience.

To begin your progress, you’ll need to learn how, why, and when mobile shoppers buy products and services and how they react to your mobile advertising and any apps you work with to sell your goods. Follow these tips to learn how to best optimize mobile shoppers’ interactions at every stage of their buying experience

Employ responsive web design to make sure your website works well on mobile devices

Traditionally, if a company wanted to create a website that looked good and was easy to use on multiple platforms, they had to pay a web designer and other expensive specialists to create a different version for each platform or device. Today, many businesses are opting to do away with that costly, piecemeal approach, and are instead using responsive web design.

Responsive websites change to accommodate factors like screen size and orientation so the same site can adapt itself to look good on many different types of devices. Designers use elements like flexible grids, layouts, and images in the design process – so instead of designing many different websites, they just develop one very flexible version, saving your company time and money in the process.

Develop an effective mobile advertising strategy to drive sales to your eCommerce site

Mobile advertising is the fastest growing advertising category in the U.S. for a reason: it works. However, to get the most out of your mobile ads, you have to understand exactly what works and what doesn’t. It’s said that you lose half your audience with every extra click a mobile viewer has to take. So give your ads a direct call to action. In most cases, this consists of entering their email address to get more information, a complimentary eBook download, or a specific sales deal.

In real estate, location is everything – and location is pretty important in mobile advertising too. Like any type of advertising or marketing, you need to understand your mobile target demographic, including what sites they visit, what apps they download, and where they’re most likely to pay attention. Banner ads through Google and Facebook are a proven commodity for mobile, while in-game advertising seems to have produced mixed results. If you do decide to advertise in other people’s apps or games, data suggests video is the way to go.

Consider creating your own mobile shopping app

Creating a mobile app is less expensive than ever. And while it might not be a good idea for every business, it could be a smart move for yours. A mobile app helps you increase your visibility to customers; if it’s on their phone, they’ll see it nearly every day, even if they don’t happen to click.

Mobile apps also allow your customers to more easily participate in loyalty programs and accrue points toward discounts or rewards, and there are even services that allow you to easily create phone-based loyalty programs.

A well-made app can help you stand apart from competitors, increase customer loyalty, and boost your brand recognition. So, if you can afford it, and if it fits with your business, it’s a good idea to try it out.

To be successful at mobile eCommerce, be seen!

Being successful at mobile eCommerce is all about being seen, so, make sure your website looks good on mobile devices, advertise where your customers are (and where they pay attention), try video ads, and even consider making your own app. The true potential of mobile commerce is just beginning to take shape and it will certainly be exciting to see what innovations, developments, and incredible technologies will be released in the coming years.

At Creative Technology Partners, it’s our job to stay ahead of the curve. We constantly track tech developments and how they affect your business’s bottom line, and integrate the best trends with our services. To learn how we can help you better leverage your company’s strengths and create effective strategies for long-term success, contact us today for a free consultation.

The internet of things is coming – are you prepared?

The internet of things (IoT) is about to make major changes in the way we live, work, and play, and if your company isn’t prepared, it could be left behind. Making sure your IT and IoT systems work together means putting in place extra network capacity and having qualified specialists take a look at your business’s systems. Keep reading to learn more about the impact IoT could have on your organization and the steps you can take to work with it – not against it.

What exactly will IoT be used for?

After constantly seeing news articles about how devices that talk to each other without the aid of humans or external computers will change the world, you might still be left scratching your head, thinking “what are the real-life applications?”

The answer could surprise you, as almost every piece of current business technology – whether it be a tractor, a blender, or a weather balloon – can most likely benefit from being connected to the Internet of Things. Here are just a few examples:

● Smart buildings will include self-monitoring and self-regulating heating and cooling systems, lighting systems, equipment monitoring and temperature monitoring for sensitive or secure areas, and fire safety and life safety systems monitoring and communication.

● Smart security systems have smart cameras/CCTV systems with intelligent video analytics with automated control over entrances and exits, internal doors and windows, and alarm systems.

● Smart vehicles: Company cars, trucks, and vans will boast accident and accident-risk monitoring, mileage and route recording, fuel efficiency, speed, and location data.

● Smarter computers: Networks and servers will become more automated (i.e. programmed to purchase more server space, speed or capacity if overwhelmed with data, programmed to rent out server space if underwhelmed, programmed to self-destruct data in the event of a security breach).

While we’re beginning to see many of these technologies being adopted right now, we are only witnessing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the true potential of IoT technology in the modern world.

How to better prepare your business for the impact of IoT

When looking into preparing your business to meet the demands of IoT, wireless network design should be at the forefront of your plan. While many IoT-connected devices communicate with each other using Bluetooth or other networks, many, if not most, also communicate using wireless networks, and the number of devices competing for a limited amount of bandwidth will only increase as various IoT technologies and devices become more widespread. Some experts recommend business owners and IT specialists design their networks for 10x the amount of devices that are currently connecting.

Examine the specific needs of your business, and look at similar companies using IoT technology

Depending on the type of business your company is in, it may have more or less of a need to adopt early-stage IoT technology. This is one reason why it’s essential to look at fellow businesses in your sector, examine how they’re using the technology, and decide whether some of the solutions they’ve implemented could be useful for your organization.

For example, countless companies in the medical and manufacturing sectors have already begun to use lots of IoT tech on a daily basis – whereas many companies in other, less technical industries haven’t really seen much of the technology yet. This doesn’t necessarily mean that IoT won’t be a huge part of those sectors; it may just mean that the tech hasn’t yet caught up to its true potential.

No matter what kind of industry your company is in, it pays to understand the great potential that IoT has to impact each facet of your environment. From sales and marketing to advertising, customer service, security, and human resources, there seems to be no limit to what IoT might be able to do for companies throughout the world.

To learn more about how to leverage IoT and online strategy to increase your efficiency and bottom line, contact Creative Technology Partners today for a free consultation.

An easy-to-use website, multi-channel customer service, and a responsive social media presence are essential for a great customer experience

When it comes to running a successful eCommerce company, your customers are your most valuable asset. The popularity and instantaneous nature of social media means that one Tweet, Facebook post, or YouTube video can do a lot to make (or break) your business. Keep reading to learn how to optimize your company’s online customer experience to ensure that it leaves clients feeling appreciated, understood, and ready to come back for repeat business.

Ensure your website is fast, easy to use, and designed for your target demographic

Making sure your website looks inviting, conveys a professional image, and is easy to navigate are some of the first steps in creating an effective and successful online shopping experience. Projecting a professional and welcoming image begins with website design, and this is far from a one-size-fits-all process. Different businesses have different target demographics, different marketing messages, and different products, so it’s important to choose fonts, colors, and layouts that are a good fit for your company.

Having an effective and easy-to-use site search feature is another essential part of having a responsive eCommerce site. One study showed that more than three-quarters of online shoppers often or always use a site’s search features, and nearly half of them said that having an easily-searchable website was the most important aspect of their online shopping experience.

Of course, design, navigation, and usability aren’t the only important aspects of your website; it’s also important to make sure the site loads quickly. Businesses like Amazon and Walmart have found that faster website speeds translate to more sales, so if your company’s site is unnecessarily slow, especially when it’s viewed on mobile devices, it’s important to consult with your hosting company or an IT professional to correct the issue as quickly as possible.

Customer service across multiple platforms is a great way to show customers you care

Customer service is more than just fixing problems when they arise; it’s a way to define your brand as hyper-focused on meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of the people who matter to it the most. Simply having friendly customer service representatives isn’t enough – you need to make them accessible to customers.

And considering that different customers feel most comfortable on different platforms, this means that taking a multi-channel approach to your customer service strategy is usually the best way to go. Email, social media, live chat, a helpdesk, and phone support are just a few of the ways to carefully monitor issues and needs and help users if things go wrong.

Engage customers on social media to develop positive relationships and solidify your brand

While you probably already know that social media is a great way to market your company, you might not have realized its true potential for optimizing the customer experience. Offering timely, friendly, and effective customer service through networks like Twitter and Facebook will show individuals that you’re willing to go where they go to engage with them, and that you are truly interested in making sure they have the best experience possible with your products or services.

In fact, one study showed that nearly 30% of brands have a dedicated Twitter account for customer service; reportedly, customers like it for the nearly instantaneous response times. But keep in mind that a company’s social media customer service is only as good as its customer service representatives, and a slow response time on a network like Facebook or Twitter could actually damage your brand.

From the homepage on a company’s website to its customer service policies, a successful business is always finding things to improve the customer experience. To learn more about how new technologies can upgrade your online processes, increase your workforce’s efficiency, and get you closer to the customers who matter the most, contact Creative Technology Partners today for a free consultation.

Customer service is a proactive blend of online and offline actions

You’ve got a lot of ground to cover if you think that customer service is what kicks in if your website visitors are having problems. The days of reactive customer service programs are gone. It’s just not good enough.

Don’t wait for customers to contact you with a problem. Be proactive. Engage them before, during, and after their purchase experience with you. Here’s why proactive customer service must be an integral part of what you’re calling your “user interface.”

What buyers want

Customer service can mean many things, and it’s not always trouble. What’s troubling is that multiple studies show that 25% to 40% of calls to customer service centers are avoidable. These calls happen for reasons ranging from a simple question to confusion about delivery times.

They’re costly to your organization, especially when customers should have been able to find the information whey wanted on your company website.

“How’s it going?”

Here’s something your website’s user interface just isn’t going to be able to accomplish. Customers prefer to be contacted proactively. One survey puts this preference as high as 87%.

Of those who expressed an opinion, 73% said they had a positive experience that led to a better view of the company when they were contacted proactively by customer service. This “how’s it going?” approach can reduce your inbound customer call volume by nearly a third, which can dramatically lower your call center operating costs.

Before they’re even customers

The website is where they’ll buy. Your interface has to create a successful sales funnel. But what can your customer service department combined with the website do for these people while they’re still prospects? Together, they create your complete user interface.

The majority of the barriers to a sale are simply the need for more information. The more proactive you can be about providing answers, the faster you’ll move prospects to the buying stage.

Nothing new

Turning the tables and transforming your customer service philosophy from reactive to proactive isn’t novel. It is something that has become more of an expectation, though.

This is mainly because of the user experience a customer has with your organization online. The buying experience continues to be more customized. Customers value this heightened level of attention, and it’s not difficult to see why an offline proactive customer service approach complements the customized online experience.

What gets in the way?

Proactive customer service becomes an obvious step as organizations develop offline relationships. So, why don’t we see more of it?

Most companies aren’t structured for it. Much more of an organization becomes customer facing when an organization transitions to offer customer service before the sale. It requires collaboration across departments that may not ever have seen themselves as responsible for customer service.

Silos have to be breached. Organizations must offer training and help to create a level of comfort for employees who suddenly find themselves interfacing with prospects and customers in a “how’s it going?” proactive role. Here are ways to get everybody on the same page.

• Mix and match: Match different people to the customer lifecycle for your product or service. Challenge them to work collaboratively and find ways to offer proactive customer service for these points.

• Play Sherlock: Gather the data and seek out the most common reactive customer issues or questions. Look for ways these issues and questions can be defused. Remember that much of your traditional reactive customer service resources are going just to answer post-purchase questions that could have been taken care of before the sale.

• Find and promote early wins: It’s going to take a while for long-held beliefs to be reprogrammed. A transition to proactive customer service needs to demonstrate some quick and obvious benefits to get everyone on board. This is especially going to be true for employees who don’t feel as if their positions are customer-facing. And in today’s customer-centric environment, everyone in an organization represents a company’s product or service.

Both sides benefit

A switch to proactivity is good for both a company and its customers. The internal engagement and collaboration you’ll generate will spark innovation as disparate departments team up to step in front of each stage of the customer lifecycle. Their efforts to anticipate and prevent customer issues are more than an expectation to match up with customized online experiences. They’re also a way for you to reduce the high, measurable costs of thinking that a customer only needs attention if they have a problem.

If you’d like to learn more ways to align all phases of your business with your company’s online experience, contact Creative Technology Partners. For more information about our services, reach out to us today through our online contact form.

How to reach customers the right way and make every dollar count

With a growth rate of nearly 16% this year in the U.S. alone, eCommerce is considered by many to be fastest growing market sector in the entire world. However, it isn’t just growing in a vacuum – it’s continually expanding its share of the overall sales market, accounting for approximately 8% of all U.S. sales in the last four quarters.

While these numbers are impressive, the influence of shopping online goes beyond a few statistics. It’s a trend that’s already begun to affect the way nearly everyone works, plays, and does business, and as younger generations grow up shopping for nearly everything online, its influence on the world economy will only increase.

While you probably already know that expanding your online sales efforts is essential to the growth of your business, implementing an effective eCommerce strategy can be difficult. With the introduction of new social media platforms, the growing popularity of cloud-based business software, and ever-changing cultural trends, it’s hard to stay innovative while not getting caught up in fads or wasting resources on ineffective marketing techniques.

Let’s review some learn tried-and-true strategies to develop your brand, implement digital marketing techniques, understand your customers, and reach them effectively – all without breaking the bank.

Microtarget a specific demographic

While your business may have a broad demographic as a whole, you’ll have to target one or more specific groups if you want to get the best results online. Internet marketing spaces and social networks are getting more crowded and competitive by the day, so potential customers need to feel like an advertisement or website is speaking to them directly if they’re going to take the time to respond. General ad copy and promotions for everyone don’t work as well in today’s online market – if you’re speaking to everyone, you really could be speaking to no one.

This doesn’t mean you can’t have multiple target demographics, or target different demographics for different products. For example, if you’re marketing a general product like health insurance, you might set up three, four, or five different sets of ads for people of different ages, addressing various concerns that might relate most to their age or lifestyle. If you’re marketing a more specific product, like motorcycle insurance, you’re likely to only need one demographic target – and keeping that in mind, you’ll want to make sure that your motorcycle insurance products are differently marketed and packaged than other insurance packages.

Go mobile

According to Forbes, mobile commerce is growing at a rate of 130% annually, so it’s essential that you invest in a responsive website and eCommerce platform – one that is completely compatible with various types of mobile devices. If it’s difficult to purchase products or find information about your company on a mobile device, you risk losing significant sales to competitors who have painstakingly ensured a seamless mobile experience for their customers.

Targeted email lists

It might sound old-fashioned, but traditional email marketing is still an incredibly effective component of eCommerce. In fact, a recent survey showed that, when compared to other forms of digital marketing, it ranked as both the easiest to implement and the most effective.

Plus, email is a way to get personal with customers: Share with them changes and improvements to your business, as well as offer them specialized deals, sales, and custom offers. If you’re already implementing an effective content marketing strategy (i.e., regularly publishing blogs and posts on Facebook and Twitter) you can augment these efforts by sharing this content through email. Better yet, you may want to create specialized content and sales just for email subscribers as a way to entice customers (or potential customers) to sign up for your company’s email list.

With 91% of customers saying that they’d like to receive emails from brands they do business with, skipping out on email is more than just a marketing mistake; it’s an error which could seriously cost you in terms of lost profit and reduced customer engagement.

When it comes improving your company’s eCommerce strategies, you most likely don’t need to latch on to any passing trends – you simply need to find a few effective, tried-and-true strategies and stick to them.

If you want to learn more about how to craft your business and eCommerce strategies for the digital age, contact the online strategy experts at Creative Technology Partners for a free consultation.

Your user experience can’t be the only thing that’s customer-centric

Not so fast, responsive-design wizard! The job’s not done. Your contribution is essential, but in terms of responsiveness, the work has just begun.

The responsiveness that technology has brought to websites and apps has created an upturn in real-world expectations. Customers want businesses, their products, and their attitudes to provide highly-customized real life experiences, too.

The technology is perfect, but the people aren’t

It’s not enough to give your customers a positive online user experience because your content is responsive to their device. All of those perfect pixels come crashing down if your customer service department doesn’t provide the same kind of satisfaction.

Technology has become a crutch. Install a sophisticated phone system. Provide real-time order tracking. Make it possible for Siri to give customers a reminder when it’s time to order again. Automation complements good products and customer service. Yet, some businesses today behave as if technology is the sole solution, rather than an essential component of overall strategy and execution.

Aligning all the levels of responsiveness

It doesn’t take long for a business to get lopsided if they make the user experience their holy grail. In their desire to excel, they lose sight of the fact that in the end, it’s still going to be a human interaction.

People run your business. People buy what your business produces. Technology can’t replace that area of responsiveness. Here are a few ways to capture the essence of responsiveness and instill it in your people so that the products you make and their attitude towards customers rises to the same level as the technology.

Take aim

Does your business know the reason for its existence? Don’t go running for the company mission statement. Stop and ask yourself what you do that inspires or captures imagination.

That’s your purpose. When you distill this into a short phrase that can roll of the tongue, you’ve got the code that instills a sense of pride that’ll propagate through all levels of your organization. Everybody owns it.

What are you worth?

When your purpose is a mantra, your value proposition lines up behind it. When you know your why, the behavior to guide you becomes obvious. People discover they seldom need to be told what to do.

This used to be required only of company leadership. Today, every employee, especially those dedicated to serving the needs of customers, needs to understand what the business stands for and how to communicate value through actions that demonstrate purpose.

Out with the old

Behold, the business model. It outlines how your company intends to make money. Is it rigid?

Nothing today can survive in a static mode. Ask Garmin. The company pioneered the automotive GPS market. Then Apple introduced the iPhone. In less than 3 years, revenue at Garmin dropped by nearly $1 billion. The company lost close to 90% of its market value.

Garmin didn’t change their technology, but they did change their thinking. Today, the company specializes in high-end wearables. It earned them nearly $565 million last year, which is 8 times the revenue of just two years before.

Push innovation to the bottom

Flat design works well in places other than your website. Try doing the same thing to the hierarchy of your business. Innovation requires open collaboration. Some of the most successful companies have made it a mandate to banish bureaucracy, as they know this outmoded command and control system stifles initiative.

The idea that rank and status confers salary is outmoded. People today aren’t ruled by money. They’re also looking for ways to feel that their contributions are meaningful. Fulfillment for them creates value for your business.

What organizational obstacles can you eliminate? Each one pushes you closer to new ways of responsiveness. It happens because more information is shared.

The art – and science – of letting go

Responsive apps and websites have the look and feel of deep flexibility and customization. It’s as if they rebuild themselves for each customer. Can your products and business practices follow suit? And is your overarching strategy and execution – whether it involves the user experience on your eCommerce site or the interactions a customer has with your employees – designed to make your business thrive?

If you’re looking to integrate your business strategy with responsive web applications that fulfill your goals, turn to Creative Technology Partners. We create solutions that integrate with every step of your business and the strategic goals that drive it. For more information about our services, reach out to us today through our online contact form.

Make sure your site adapts to the way potential buyers are accessing it

If you want your business to succeed in selling products or services online, it’s not enough to have a functioning website – you need one specifically designed with your customers’ needs in mind. This means that the layout, structure, and shopping experience should be as direct and uncluttered as possible, removing any and all barriers to quick and easy purchases. And now that approximately 60% of online traffic comes from mobile devices, it’s crucial that your company’s website is highly functional for on-the-go platforms.

Just how important is mobile eCommerce?

Mobile eCommerce is growing incredibly quickly; and with 80% of customers regularly using their phones to shop online, it’s a trend that your business can’t afford to miss out on. Mobile commerce was reported to represent 30% of all eCommerce in 2015 (approximately $105 billion), making a streamlined shopping experience for these users essential to your bottom line. Plus, over 55% of social media usage occurs on mobile platforms – many visitors coming from your company’s social pages will arrive on these devices.

What is responsive web design?

Responsive web design is the concept that a website should respond the user’s behavior – including the device they are using, the screen’s size, and the screen’s layout, among other factors. Instead of spending the time and financial resources to develop a different version of a website for every new device that becomes popular, many developers recognize that it’s more efficient to simply create sites that mold to the specific environment they’re in – whether that’s a tiny smartphone screen or an extra-large tablet.

Mobile resolution: Not too small, not too big

One of the most important elements in responsive web design is ensuring that your website looks the proper size on different mobile devices. If a site is too small or too large, it can be difficult to read text, identify products, locate online shopping carts, and enter payment information. It’s also important to make sure a website can easily shift from landscape to portrait mode, as device rotation is a key function in devices like iPhones, iPads, and other tablets like the Microsoft Surface.

Make sure images appear correctly by monitoring image size and resolution

Especially if the products you sell are highly visual, it’s important to make sure that images are the correct size and don’t get hidden, cut off, or distorted on mobile. Additionally, high-resolution images that might look amazing on a large desktop monitor may be unnecessarily large on a small smartphone screen, wasting valuable data and slowing down your website. Developers are combatting these issues by using adaptive images that change in size and resolution as needed, to make sure that they fit into different layouts, help conserve data, and maintain mobile internet speed.

Take steps to ensure your site’s overall layout remains accessible

Even if there are a few differences in images and overall resolution between the desktop and mobile versions of your website, the most important thing is to ensure that the overall layout remains accessible to potential customers. Is it easy to see products? Easy to read important pages? Easy to enter payment information and check out? One of the best ways to ensure that the mobile experience on your site is customer-ready is to try it out for yourself. Look up your websites on a variety of different tablets and smartphones to make sure there are no issues, and encourage business partners and employees to do the same thing.

If there are any issues, such as unresponsive or dead links or images that won’t appear, you’ll want to find them before a customer does. Certain errors could significantly slow down your mobile site, drive away web traffic, and even make it rank lower on search engines like Google and Bing.

Mobile shopping more popular than ever and creating a responsive website should be one of the most important goals of any business trying to expand their eCommerce efforts. For more information about how your business maximize its mobile reach, contact the web strategy and design experts at Creative Technology partners today.

And actually useful for your eCommerce customers.

UX and UI; perhaps you’ve heard these terms bandied about by marketing and tech professionals. But what do they really mean? And perhaps more importantly, what does each mean for your eCommerce business? Let’s take a look:

UX: User Experience

User experience design is the process of optimizing a product (in this case, a web page) for effective and enjoyable use. This usually refers to the internal experience that a person has as they interact with a product, webpage, or design.

Keys to an excellent user interface include meeting the exact needs of the customer, simplicity, elegance, and even something computer scientist Don Norman (who invented the term) calls “joy of use.” This basically means that if a consumer has fun using a service or product, it’s usually a sure sign of a good user experience.

User experience design can pull from a variety of different fields and areas of expertise, including engineering, marketing, graphic and industrial design, and interface design – so it’s often a good idea to have multiple team members with different professional backgrounds if you want to create a truly effective (and enjoyable) user experience.

UI: User Interface

User interface design is focused on improving the look, feel, presentation, and interactivity of a product. In terms of web strategy and design, this usually means the series of screens, pages, and visual elements, like buttons and icons, that make up a website, webpage, or app. Before the PC became popular, computer users had to write code simply to operate a computer. But in the early 1980s, the graphical user interface (GUI) was developed, which allowed users to operate a computer with a mouse, multiple windows, and drag and drop files, programs, and folders.

A similar revolution occurred in the 1990s with the internet, transforming it from a secretive hangout for computer scientists and nerdy college students to an international forum for communication, commerce, education, and entertainment. It’s important to understand the history of UI, because it changes as technology changes, and you want to make sure you’re abreast of the latest developments.

UI designers often have a background in some type of graphic design, as each element of a product or webpage has a specific stylistic and emotional impact on the user. Different types of brands may want to use different fonts, font sizes, webpage layouts, photographs, and color schemes, depending on the type of industry, the corporate culture, and the company’s individual marketing goals.

CYA: Cover Your … (*rear end)

This maxim has a simple application for eCommerce web strategy and design: Simply put, if your UX and UI aren’t up to par, your business will probably stall. For today’s online consumers, an effective and convenient user interface and experience are almost as important as the quality and price of the product or service you are offering.

And if your eCommerce site has any kind of online forms that accept a customer’s personal information like credit cards and social security numbers, digital security is especially important to fulfill your CYA requirements. Even the IRS has been sued after hackers got their hands on the personal financial information of more than 300,000 individuals – so don’t think it can’t happen to you.

If you want a web presence that takes your customers into consideration, make sure your UX and UI are up to par and aligned with your strategic goals – it’s basic eCommerce CYA.

For more information and advice about your company’s web presence and eCommerce goals, contact the online strategy experts at Creative Technology Partners for a free consultation.

Is the process for responsive web solutions different than traditional development?

If you’ve spent any time researching web design, you’ve likely heard of responsive web solutions. When a website is responsive, it is adaptable and easily viewable across any number of devices, including smartphones, desktops, and tablets. And effective responsive design utilizes a DevOps process that is much different than a website that is being designed for a particular platform or user.

Let’s outline the method that we use to ensure our client’s sites are not only accessible across all devices, but user-friendly and aligned with strategic goals.

Primary differences with the responsive web design process

Before developers can begin to write the first line of code or designers can pick a color palette, it’s important to ensure that everyone involved understands the strategy and functionality of the intended site, and the entire design process. There are several ideals that are essential when developing a responsive web site:

Collaboration

Collaboration may be an overused buzz word in business circles these days, but it really is the key to a seamless responsive development project. Not only does there need to be significant collaboration between developers, designers, project managers, and other team members, but with the client as well. In addition to simply setting design and functionality goals, or approving creative, a client should consider and articulate the strategic purpose for the site – outlining the specific business goals that it will serve to accomplish.

Communication

It’s easier than ever to have seamless communication between team members and clients during a project with the host of ready to use Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools. Platforms such as Slack, Skype, and Basecamp are great for both the informal communication and formal documentation that keeps a project moving in the right direction.

Prioritize with mobile in mind

Screen sizes continue to shrink, and so do our options when prioritizing web design. With smaller screens, there is only so much you can do with details like the length or position of a headline, or the size of an image.

It’s best to think about how web design will look on mobile devices first, since it’s easier to start small and scale up when by adding new elements that can be supported across larger devices.

Adapt to new technologies

A responsive web design company must constantly adapt to the latest technology to ensure their client’s projects will continue to behave properly, regardless of device. This requires focusing intently on UX design and cross-device compatibility to cater to the largest cross section of users possible.

Interested in learning more about the responsive web design process?

We hope this primer has introduced you to a few of the basics of effective responsive design. One quote that we think rings true is from Samantha Warren: “Your process should be as responsive as the products you are designing.”

This mantra is essential to our process of implementing responsive projects for our clients. We create solutions that integrate with every step of your business and the strategic goals that drive it. For more information about our services, reach out to us today through our online contact form.