A brand new web site for BRS

We’ve just launched a brand new web site for BRS, one of the UK’s leading suppliers of commercial vehicle contract hire. The site focuses on delivering a simple, clear message to the visitor, utilising a presentation slide style. The visitor can then choose whether or not to read more detail or to contact BRS immediately, providing a two speed customer experience that caters for those who like to research a supplier in detail as well as those visitors who are time-scarce.

Understanding the medium is the key to great design

Why should I entrust my creative to a digital agency when my traditional agency can design the web site along with the print? It’s a question that’s often asked by Clients to which I counter by asking if they’d get a painter to knock them up a bit of sculpture.

An absurd analogy? Perhaps. But it perfectly illustrates the point that it all comes down to an understanding of the medium. When it comes to web design, the medium comprises of the mark-up, styling and coding that comes together to display the web site in a browser, along with having a grasp of the limitations of cross-browser compatibility together with usability and accessibility considerations.

A digital creative must consider all of those elements throughout the design process and is able to deliver a realistic, workable design at sign-off that communicates the brand effectively by employing best use of the technology, whilst having a clear grasp of its limitations.

A common scenario might involve the traditional agency handling the design of the website as part of the overall mix, which seems like a sensible option at first. But, all too often, applying skills acquired from one channel to another results in a lack of effective communication of brand values. Poorly considered user interface design and architecture can hamper the visitor’s experience through the site and they may leave, never to return.

The great experiment

In a move which is diametrically opposed to current thinking regarding web content – that it must be shared in the hope of going ‘viral’ – the online editions of The Times and Sunday Times are about to go subscription only.

It’s been instigated by Rupert Murdoch’s News International in an attempt to stop the free distribution of its intellectual property. Reports suggest that the papers made a loss of £87m last year which its executives argue – quite reasonably – that they cannot sustain. And although the sites carry online advertising, they argue that this alone does not generate enough revenue to sustain the free business model.

Cramping your style

To scroll or not to scroll, that is the question. We’ve all heard that “visitors don’t like to scroll” but how true is it? Certainly it can be said that no-one is going to think: Great, I’ll log on today and have a really good scroll. But does not liking it, imply a dislike and more importantly a lack of use?

The disadvantages of not allowing pages to scroll are obvious: overcrowded pages with everything crammed into a small place; constantly having to cut content; compromised design just to make it all fit; the mantra of “everything above the fold”; multiple pages with click-throughs that don’t print well, where one longer page would have been just fine; pages designed to fit a small screen looking adrift in a sea of empty space on a larger one. So why is there this view that a web page should fit on one screen -and is it justified?

Users risk their security with poor passwords

Thousands of people are leaving themselves exposed to potential fraud and identity theft because the passwords that they are using online are woefully inadequate, according to data security expert Imperva.

According to the report, 33% of Internet users choose passwords that are made up of six or fewer characters. 60% choose passwords that have only a limited set of alpha-numeric characters. Experts recommend that passwords are at least 10 characters long and use a combination of words and numbers in order to make them stronger.

Form design. An art form?

One of the benefits of a web site that’s often touted is that it allows marketing departments to build a useful database of customer information cheaply and easily – by way of a form. And on-line shopping is great for marketers too because customers need to provide you with all of their details rather than just handing over their hard-earned like they do in ‘normal’ shops.

Which is great, as long as you don’t mistake a sale or request for information as a market research activity, but rather look at it from the customer’s point of view. Having to fill in unnecessary information is a real barrier for many customers, which can provoke a variety of responses ranging from mild annoyance to extreme prejudice, resulting in, at best a lost sale or worse, the loss of the whole customer relationship.

How to avoid a virtual lynching from ‘Twecklers’

We’ve all been there – attended a conference where the speaker scheduled just after lunch is about as exciting as watching paint dry, with his 150 carefully prepared PowerPoint slides that he proceeds to read off screen word-for-word.

Well, boring presenters beware, because now you can be ‘Tweckled’ – heckled via Twitter. What used to be a one-way presentation can now become a real time conversation. In theory, this should be a good thing – tying delegates together into a community, sharing extra information, broadcasting relevant links and notes. But it also allows a speaker to receive a ‘virtual lynching’.

Kaloba runner up in the Best OTC Marketing Campaign on a Small Budget

Schwabe Pharma’s Kaloba herbal medicine brand was recently awarded runner up in the Best OTC Marketing Campaign on a Small Budget category in the prestigious OTC Bulletin Marketing Awards. The annual awards celebrate marketing achievement in the British over-the-counter medicines industry.

The Kaloba campaign comprised of a TV commercial supported with a dedicated landing page on their e-commerce web site, an extensive Google Adwords advertising campaign, and social media activity utilising YouTube and Twitter.

Managing your online profile

Have you tried ‘Googling’ yourself lately? Or for that matter the members of your board of directors? Go on, try it, you may find it enlightening, but not necessarily in a good way!

Type your name into Google and see what appears. And once you’ve found yourself, try the image results. It could be right about now that you regret uploading those holiday snaps to Facebook, because that shot of you in your swimwear is potentially the first impression of you that your customers will have. And this can be a real headache for marketing and communications professionals charged with managing the corporate image.

Unfortunately, these days, our ideas of privacy have changed. With the rise of social media, anyone that uses the Internet will probably find that there’s lots of information about them available out there that they may not wish was there.

Web design is a misnomer

Many agencies describe themselves as web designers. But what does this mean? Web site design in its truest sense should involve the combination of the technical, the aesthetic and the functional to achieve a coherent user experience. This sets web design apart from traditional print design, as it encompasses so much more than just the look and feel.

A typical print design project involves a linear experience. An advertisement or a brochure has a beginning, middle and an end. Once a print project is finished, it’s fixed and will never evolve or change. And print is delivered on a specific medium – a quarter page black and white advert, or an A4 brochure on gloss art paper. Just like the content, the medium is fixed.