We wanted to link to a great rundown of no-no’s in social media etiquette you want to avoid on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites. From the Interactive Insight group

If you or your client want to learn from a series of case studies. Head on over to the article here.

Let visitors navigate where they want to go, without confusing them
Very detailed level of information from the start of an experience, is too much for most users, in this example, she may have not have successfully navigated deeper into the museum archives. And the museum would have failed to entice visitors to the various areas of the museum,

It’s all about seeing how far you can get, without being too bombarded by information.

This is the same as website navigation, when you visit your next site, think about the messages you see on the page, is it clear? do you understand what it means? where will you go if you click on the button or text link?

The methods that are used signpost a web-site will affect the number of areas visitors view per visit, and the length of time they spend on each page. If they are frustrated by not knowing what page there are on, or if they cannot find the correct information they will exit the site and may not even come back.

The maps below shows how a museum is organised, the rooms, the levels, can visitors understand this map to have a relaxing, enjoyable experience?

Meeting the mental model of your users

Every visitor who comes to a web site, will have built up a mental model of how the site is organised. If the site structure or ‘information architecture’ does not meet their mental model then this leads to negative, confused feelings which ‘turns off’ the user. By testing web sites early, you can easily measure how successful you have met the needs and requirements of your users.

There has to be something very interesting on a site for someone to read an entire article or story about a subject. Normally you will have lost people by the second or third paragraph, but that’s another subject – copywriting.

In a series on monthly publications we will be publishing free e-guides for you to download for free. You are welcome to share and print these eguides amongst your company or organisation.

Who are these eguides for?

The guides are in PDF format, in a print friendly format you and colleagues can use for building up a well rounded knowledge of web trends and technologies.

Whether you are a manager, a stakeholder or you someone who is looking at making web sites work harder this collection of eguides is for you. We want to help those who are less internet-savvy through the digital minefields.

We realise that there is a huge choice of services and tools on the web to choose from, we want to be able to explain in simple terms what this means to you and how they can help you save time and money as well as increasing your productivity.

Download our first client e-guide

Our first eguide ‘what makes good copy?’ covers an often over-looked part of web sites. Well structured copy can dramatically improve the feel of your web site, and convey a message to visitors that will make clear, compelling offers. The e-guide also includes copywriting dos and dont’s, and a recipe for “good copy”.

Download what makes good copy? (PDF 419kb)

This e-guide has been written in partnership with Brighton copywriter Leif Kendall and illustration/print design by Door 22 Creative.

Future publications include

• Client e-guide to usability
• Client e-guide to monitoring your brand online
• Client e-guide to a web design project
• Client e-guide to search engine web spiders

We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we have getting our ideas down to help you make ‘useful web sites for everyone’.

Published using creative commons licence

Whether you like it or not, HTML email marketing campaigns are a core requirement for any successful email marketing program.

An email campaign can boost a companies revenue by millions of pounds, for example over this Christmas period how many do you think you will receive from your favourite brands – electronics, music, etc?

Email marketing is a cheap and successful online marketing method. Cheap in relation to posting out printed flyers to every recipient. And successful by being able to measure the success of every email campaign, tracking every open time and read time for each email. HTML emails done correctly, offer a better conversion rate, and people choose HTML over plain text format more often.

So, here’s a list to help all email marketers and designers create the perfect email, and make sure it appears as you intended on your customers computers. If you feel I’ve missed any important ones, feel free to leave a comment.

Make no mistake, HTML email design and development is a complete minefield. There are very few rules that you can rely upon across all mail clients. Let’s do this:

1. USE INLINE CSS + TABLES
External and internal style sheets are ignored by a number of email clients. Back to the old school with tables too. Yes, it means going back to 1999 coding, and does make the code heavy, but it means you can guarantee locking down the styles to be correct in the ‘majority’ of email clients.

2. EMAIL TEMPLATES
Unless you have extensive personal experience to draw on,
you’re most likely going to want start with a template that gets most of the fundamentals right. Save yourself some time, get some inspiration and free templates here:

• carbon graffiti
• campaign monitor gallery

3. USE ABSOLUTE DIMENSIONS
In pixels for all measurements. For example, give images and tables exact pixel dimensions – so the browser knows exactly how to display it. Email clients are not as forgiving as web browsers.

4. THE DESIGN
The width of the email design to be no more than 600 pixels wide, so the full width of the email can be seen in the view port in email preview mode.

5. ACCESSIBILITY
Make sure it is readable, with images turned off does the email make sense? By default images are not displayed in most email clients (unless you have added the address to your contacts), also not creating the best look for your company.

Image of email in web-mail client (Gmail) – notice that the email doesn’t make much sense with the images turned off? This can be improved by adding copy to the ALT attribute in the html code:

• Use Alt attributes
• Use anchor link as well to take people to important subheadings in your email
• Last resort – have a prominent link to your web version of the same email

6. FANTASTIC COPYWRITING
Attention grabbing headlines that will make users want to read more and click through. The attention grabbing information should be already visible in the viewport area when the email loads, very few people will scroll – like on web pages unless they like the information, drawing them down the page.

Image of email in web-mail client (Thunderbird) – notice that even with the images turned off the email still reads well, with the headline drawing you into the main content of the email. Simple design, yet to the point and easy to read, effective.

7. CSS SUPPORT IN EMAIL CLIENTS
Enter The email standards project.

These guys have taken the email design issue by the scruff of the neck and are actually getting Yahoo, Gmail, Outlook to take notice of the need for Email standards compliance.

Currently we grade the email clients in the following way:

The Angel’s Choir:

Strong and generally reliable HTML rendering capabilities – Thunderbird, AppleMail, and Opera Mail
You can essentially treat these mail clients as if they are normal, modern browsers.

The Muddlers:

This group includes the majority of the remaining mail clients and includes Outlook 2003, Outlook Express, and Yahoo Mail.

While you’ll probably encounter some variability in their renderings — often in text size and margins/padding – the Muddlers will generally honour your page layout.

The Legion of Doom:

Each uses their own unique but evil super-powers to subvert and destroy your HTML
Outlook 2007, Gmail, Lotus notes – rewrite CSS, padding/margins, no positioning support, removes backgrounds.

8. TESTING
Use litmusapp.com which sends back how your email looks on the following email clients:

Web-based email clients

* AOL Web
* Comcast
* Earthlink
* Gmail
* Mail.com
* MSN Hotmail
* Windows Live Hotmail
* Yahoo! Classic
* Yahoo! Mail

Desktop email clients

* AOL 9
* Lotus Notes 6.5.4
* Outlook 2003
* Outlook 2007
* Outlook Express 6
* Outlook XP
* Thunderbird
* Windows Mail (actually, what is that?)

Mobile email clients

* Blackberry
* Windows Mobile 5
* Windows Mobile 6

9 . THE FUTURE
At various sites there are thousands of new subscribers to html newsletters every single month. And those subscribers still always choose HTML over plain text at a rate of 15-20 to 1. In short, while we might not like it, your clients probably prefer HTML email, and so does their audience.

10. STICK WITH IT
Use the templates, HTML formats are here to stay so remember to keep it simple as possible, and test early and often.

Need our help? We offer web design and development services that will take the stress away from your email marketing campaign. Contact us to find out how we can help you.

Disclaimer: This is someones individual opinion into current design on a variety of portfolio sites. We have not paid to be included!

However, we hope we have made it on because the copy is as eyecatching as the interface design. We are firm believers that if there is nothing to keep the visitor on your pages, then the site has failed, even though the design may have orginally caught their attention.

To keep the meme rolling, here’s 40 sites you should visit. Inspirational and Beautiful indeed!

Date -Thursday, August 21, 2008
Time – 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Why are we doing this?

As email marketing has fantastic results in terms of converting new and existing customers to buy your products and learn about your company.

Reaching your customer using email newsletter campaign is still a fantastic way to encourage visits to your site. With email being still the largest social network in the world!

Sending emails has the main purpose of enhancing the relationship of a company with its current or old customers. As well as encouraging customer loyalty and repeat business no matter how large and small your business.

Researchers estimate that US firms alone spent $475 million on email marketing in 2007, as it proves to be a cost effective method of marketing and increasing sales.

Todays level of reporting combines very detailed analytics that measure the effectiveness of every campaign you send out. This and more will be discussed on the evening.

Register on upcoming at the Email Marketing Masterclass page.

This is still a valuable tool for reaching customers, and it is quite difficult to lose money in email marketing. The question is how to we measure the visitor statistics successfully. There are a number of US and UK companies that provide the mailout and reporting using spam filter friendly servers so a higher proportion of emails get delivered.

The mere fact that companies send emails to customers, regardless of the fact if they are opened or not leads to brand impact and awareness of the company and its services.

Follows are the values for a ‘Typical’ mailout by email:

Percentages:

90% of email newsletters get delivered
10% Bounce rate
30% Open rate
10% Click thru
5% Buy product // Contact company

Or in other words, the metrics for a mailout to 250,000 customers:

225,000 Non bounce
213,750 Inbox
67,500 Opened
22,500 Click thru
1,125 Buy

So over 1000 people buying your product every time you send an email out is some very successful marketing and an excellent way of projecting increased revenue.

The frequency and email design reflects on how well each campaign does, however it is not rocket science and by following design/development standards and the correct testing procedures in place for email clients it can not only increase your brand awareness, but also make people successfully place orders very quickly and without little fuss.

Further resources:

• Resources from e-consultancy
• Top Tips from Dotmailer

There is only one web, the principle of making the same information and services to users regardless of the way they access it. No doubt about it, the number of mobile devices we choose to interact with websites and online applications is increasing, comared to just desktop computers. Mobile will revolutionise they way we gather and intereact with information in the next 2 years, and this is using the mobile in your pocket, not just the iPhone.

Compare the number of global mobile owners, more than 3 billion, to the number of computer owners, 850 million. The mobile is something you don’t leave home without, why leave the web at home or at work? It is predicted that the in the next decade the mobile will be the first point of contact with the internet, and the desktop computer the second.

According to a new report from the telecom research firm Berg Insight, more than 100 million mobile subscribers in Europe will use location-based services by 2012. Mapping, navigation and search are believed to become the top applications, followed by social networking and tracking.
GPS is about to become a standard feature in mass-market handsets which are highly advanced and support third party applications. Many will try and a few players will most likely succeed in creating location-enabled mobile applications that will have the same impact on the mobile industry as MySpace and Facebook had on the Internet.

Now we have mobile versions of the BBC (bbc.co.uk/mobile), Facebook (m.facebook.com) and ebay. These are stripped down versions of the main sites. As when on the move you only want to know the headlines, get to pages quickly without having to wait for long downloads, this is possible as image use is limited and page widths are flexible so it will fit to deliver main content and basic navigation to whatever size screen you are using.

Mobile applications have real value for people on the move, for example, in the last few weeks I’ve used the internet on my mobile using Google Maps (google.com/m/products) to direct me to a hotel in Edinburgh from the Railway station, or if i have forgotten to send an important email I just visit webmail on my mobile to forward it to a colleague or client.

To improve your mobile experience I recommend you download OperaMini (operamini.com), it’s free, easy to install, packed with great features.

These are exciting time for how we interact with the internet. it’s early days, the mobile operators have the networks in place, its down to individual web companies and web innovators to create projects that capture the possibilities of the mobile internet. First there must be a critical mass of active users to work with, come and experience what the mobile web can do for you!

The theme for the event focused on creative approaches for design:
The main ways for the speakers we by ‘changing your perspectives’ and ‘asking and collaborating with other people for ideas’.

Inspiration vs duplication – Often leads to designs being directly copied as its easier, but leads to abuse. How do we go about doing the right thing? By looking for elements that solve problems in intersting ways.

Inspiration. Takes practice and is never ending process. Lead to wealth of ideas that you can apply to web design

Future design trends:

• Softer colours – wordpress org
• Use of video – Ms Dewey
• Horizontal vs Vertical Scrolling – ie. Personal portfolio site site where you can push creativity

User experience vs brand identity – ‘The iceberg experience’

User Experience and successful websites are built upon the following values: Visual 10%, Interaction 90%.

• Top part of iceberg is amazing but underneath is terrible.
• Like code on some web pages. The main and rewarding part of experience is when they start interacting with the site.
• Looks do count but if not thought well the user can be left with shallow experience.
• Create good cohesive experiences, by paying more attention to whats underneath.

A great designer creates the tools to help a user achieve a task they need to accomplish. A user will validate the success of the designers work or design.

Inspired design: a usable design need not be a Safe design (back to horizontal scrolling? , as this is the way the limits of design can be pushed further online.

Hot Design Tips – from various speakers

• Make connections. Show your name, your company. Develop relationships. Build trust. – join communities
• Trust, passionate users, ambassadors, Enthisiasm – Be human
• Desire paths, don’t try to predict things – get the site out the door and see how people use it.
• Adapt to scale – its a great problem to have. Solve problems that you didn’t worry about before
• Subtraction is iteration too.
• Realign don’t redesign – users will lose their pathways if you remove/change important functions.
• Don’t panic – listen and learn carefully before reacting to latest release.

References to sites and books mentioned by the speakers:

• Society of Digital Agencies – Created best practices for our service industry.
• Ideas that spread are more likely to suceed. These are idea viruses. Best ones are by friends and recommendations. Purple Cow
• Designing for Interaction – New Riders
• Ways of saying hello – Business card book
• Juxtapoz.com
• Seedconference
• Revyyer.com
• Abriefmessage.com
• Shauninman.com
• Creativebits.org

Just one look at the events calendar is enough to make any person nervous, with the amount of world renowned speakers and also some homegrown talent going over to share knowledge, hang out with friends and make new aquaintances.

How to maximise everyones time at SxSW08

This is how I can see the event working. After the initial check in for flight, and at the hotel. All delegates are required to register. This will be a good initial check to get a vibe for just how friendly and excitable everyone will be about the week ahead. Hopefully to spot some of the Brightoninan’s that will also be there.

The main key ingredients for the week will be networking and marketing. Covering all corners of the event, as well as the all important after party’s sponsored by some big brands, Google, MicroHoo!..

An exciting part of any conference it’s not knowing what’s going to be the topic of the day to discuss with other delegates, from inside the seminars to what is happening outside with respect to popular technology and business developments posted on techcrunch.

As with any early adopters for web apps and spending a lot of time generally online you should have an general opinion or most things happening online, and be ready to contribute to conversations with people who either have little knowledge to actual innovators on the topics.

Above all, I think having fun with the web is still the main thing to remember at SxSw, dont take the web too seriously, the world will not end if you get a 404 page error.

Personally, I’m looking forward to how many connections we can all make at the event, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the blogosphere whilst in Austin..

Jim Callender