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New Website Launch: Get the West L.A. Website Design Dubai Look!

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After more than a year of hard work, and the dedication of eight separate teams across five time zones, we are pleased to announce the launch of the Dubai based West L.A. website.

West L.A. of Dubai asked us to refresh its digital branding and the way in which the brand was presented online to better reflect the youthful, irreverent spirit of the business. The result is an exciting Magento e-commerce experience with beautiful branded content and intuitive navigation.

Attention to the smallest of details has been paid throughout the site’s design, on the one hand allowing West L.A.’s excellent imagery to dominate the look and feel, and on the other hand providing visitors with a better customer user experience.

In addition to improvements in functionality, a new lookbook section allows customers to buy directly from this season’s photoshoot and the blog aggregates content from all of West L.A.’s social channels into one place for a more immersive brand story.

The West L.A. lookbook
The West L.A. blog

 

From a business perspective the project was more than just the latest in the website design Dubai series of projects. The strategic goals agreed before work commenced were even more radical. The challenge was to overhaul the technology used to manage retail operations for the business and unify in-store and online systems into a single admin interface. Now all stock movements, transactions and customer data are managed in real-time across both web and bricks and mortar stores.

As the next step in streamlining the in-house systems, we are implementing an iPad enabled EPOS system that will replace in-store tills. The website is also integrated with systems that allow us to charge import duty at the checkout so that orders breeze through customs.

Enjoy, and feel free to share your feedback to us by emailing us at hello@graphicalliance.co.uk

 

The post New Website Launch: Get the West L.A. Website Design Dubai Look! appeared first on Graphic Alliance.


Customer Engagement Summit 2015

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We know how important it is to engage customers with one another, a company or a brand. Nowadays, living in an interconnected world means customers interact and share their experiences on the internet and on social media.

Get ready to hit the UK’s largest customer and employee engagement event, this month. Discover more about customer behaviour, and their relationship with the internet, media, other audiences as well as artificial intelligence and robotic automation!

This year the content-rich show focuses on the ‘Voice of the Customer’, ‘Future of Work’, ‘Employee and Customer Engagement’, ‘Social Engagement’, ‘Technology Innovation’, ‘Business Transformation’, ‘Evolution of Contact Centres’, ‘Customer Journey’, ‘Omni Channel’, ‘Digital Customer’, ‘Customer Engagement in Retail’ and ‘Customer Engagement in Financial Services’.

You will not want to miss the chance to gain new insights, best practice and innovative solutions from leading experts and practitioners. Gain inspiration that gives you the chance to make a real difference to your organisation’s customer and employee engagement, business performance and profitability.

Join the conversation with 25 round-tables and take in case studies from some of the most leading brands!

We hope to see there and don’t forget to share your thoughts on our Facebook and Twitter!

The post Customer Engagement Summit 2015 appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

IoT Tech Expo

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Hi internet lovers! Any plans for the next two days?
London’s Olympia Central is hosting the IOT Tech Expo Europe 2015, kicking off tomorrow and continuing on the 3rd of December. Expect top level content and discussion, presenting and investigating the latest innovations in the Internet of Things arena.

The conference and exhibition will deliver a congregation of key industries from across Europe and more than 5000 visitors including: IT decision makers, developers, operators, technology providers, innovators, vendors, investors, venture capitalists and many more.

If you visit this year, you will come across the most innovative advancements in technologies effecting IoT and meet with more than 100 exhibitors and 200 speakers. Take part in live case studies where the entire Internet of Things ecosystem, including: Smart Cities, Connected Living, Wearables, developing for the Internet of Things, Connected Health, Connected Industry as well as Data & Security, will be covered.

Share your knowledge and experience with the entire IoT industry together with representatives from the manufacturing, transport, health, logistics, government, energy, education and automotive sectors.

Get involved now in these two days of discussion, exploration and in-depth analysis of the most advanced technologies! Otherwise, your next opportunity is on the10th and 11th of February 2016!

Don’t put off for tomorrow what you can do today! Share you visit and thoughts with us at hello@graphicalliance.co.uk.

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Office Opening Hours, Christmas 2015.

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Website / digital issues during the festive season? We will be here to support you! Our office opening hours are as follows:

Monday 21 December – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

Tuesday 22 December – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

Wednesday 23 December – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

Christmas Eve – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

Christmas Day – closed

Boxing Day – closed

Monday 28 December – Boxing Day (substitute day) – closed

Tuesday 29 December – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

Wednesday 30 December – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

New Year’s Eve – office open 9 am to 5.30pm

New Year’s Day – closed

Call us or mail us:

Switchboard +44 (0)20 7395 5770

Say hello! hello@graphicalliance.co.uk

Need some help? helpme@graphicalliance.co.uk

 

The post Office Opening Hours, Christmas 2015. appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Do you know the history of the Christmas tree?

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Plants and trees that remain green all year always had a special meaning for people during the winter season. Traditionally used to celebrate winter festivals, nobody is really sure when Fir trees were first used as Christmas trees.

It probably all began about 1000 years ago in Northern Europe.

The custom of the modern Christmas tree developed in early Germany. It is believed that the first person to bring a Christmas tree into a house, in the way we know it today, may have been the 16th century German preacher Martin Luther. Walking home one winter evening he was awed by the stars shining through the tree branches. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

Another story is about St. Boniface and the conversion of German pagans to Christianity. He is said to have come across a group of pagans about to sacrifice a young boy while worshipping an oak tree. St. Boniface is said to have cut down the oak tree and, to his amazement, a young fir tree sprang up from the roots of the oak tree. St. Boniface took this as a sign of the Christian faith telling them how the shape reminds humanity of the Trinity and how it points to heaven.

Christmas Trees came to Britain sometime in the 1830s

The first decorated trees were adorned with apples, white candy canes and pastries in the shapes of stars, hearts and flowers. Ours is with red & silver baubles, crackers, gold lights and a couple of white flashing light.

How did you decorate your Christmas tree? Share it with us on our Facebook or LinkedIn!

The post Do you know the history of the Christmas tree? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

8 Evergreen Trends Witnessed In Corporate Web Design in 2015

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As 2015 draws to a close, below are 8 evergreen trends that promise to be as true this time in 2016 as they are today.

Followers of fashion

The retail world, being inherently customer-centric, is often several steps ahead of the corporate world in terms of its digital maturity. Retailers’ never ending quest for sales has resulted in a sector rich with innovation and one constantly pushing the boundaries. By virtue of its customer-centric nature, there is much to learn from the tried and tested methods of reaching, acquiring and nurturing customers, from consistency in on and off-line marketing, to conversion focused design and sophisticated marketing automation.

Customer experience

A recent survey by Adobe (1) concluded that ‘the single path to sustainable growth and reliable retention is the customer relationship and experience’ — something service industry brands are ideally placed to leverage.

Today’s customer is spoilt for choice, forcing companies to compete for their attention and loyalty. As a result, customers have come to expect nothing less than rock-solid, highly polished service online. Moreover, they expect to be delighted and charmed. The pre-requisites for this are a well-defined understanding and clear articulation of the brand story and a clear picture of who your clients are and what they expect from you.

Delivering a successful customer experience involves joining the dots between often disparate internal systems, to create one seamless message. Our experience in retail, routinely integrating two or more systems during the course of an average website, is invaluable in delivering a joined up approach.

Personalisation

With digital no longer the ‘next big thing,’ but the here and now, building a single holistic view of a client is of ever-increasing importance. However, in addition to the challenge of collecting and mining that data, marketeers in insurance face recognised regulatory challenges that their retail equivalents do not.

In the retail environment, the challenge is simplified, since customers are destined to return frequently. In the corporate world, content and utility is critical. Ensuring the content is frequent and meaningful is important. So to is becoming a utility; something a client would return for as part of their everyday work life.

Companionship, not harassment, is our way. We believe corporate brands should be visible with one cohesive message across all channels, but we know that it must be delivered in a natural and sophisticated manner.

Automation

The ability to strike while the iron’s hot. When combined with personalisation, and reliable data management, marketing automation can bridge the gap between sales and marketing, increase efficiency amongst teams and aid in proving value through more accurate attribution.

In a similar way to personalisation, sophistication within marketing automation varies greatly. Capabilities of sophisticated automation tools include automation based on lead scoring, support for lead nurturing, segmenting of audiences, integration with CRM, immediate acquisition (is your client on site now?) and targeted email marketing,

Tools such as this do require a significant investment. But prior to this point, the first step is laying the foundation for successful automation by creating a sound structure for content that joins the dots between the various client touchpoints and the messages you wish to convey at each stage. You must also identify where automation is most appropriate.

Role of the brand

A clearly articulated purpose for being reduces the complexity in everyday decision-making and is an integral ingredient in being perceived as a trusted advisor in the hearts and minds of your clients/customers.

In today’s post-digital era, digital must be seen less as a channel and more of ‘a way of doing’. It must be attitudinal. Relevance (in content) and timing are key to serving customers well, digitally. Moreover, authenticity and reliability all signal trust; important pillars of brand communication that must be translated online. In an interview for Interbrand’s Best Global Brands report, Dr. Christian Deuringer, Head of Global Brand Management for Allianz SE, said (2):

“Despite the digital shift, the majority of clients still value having a trusted partner, a human being, at some point in their journey…We are observing two fundamental customer behaviors: in the property and casualty business, a certain degree of commoditization is taking place among some customer segments, whereas in the life and asset management business, the role of personal advice remains very important.”

A slow but steady shift towards mobile

In the corporate world, desktop computers remain the primary means of consumption — not just amongst office-based customers but internally, where a culture shift is needed to truly take advantage of everything digital has to offer.

Email is the natural driver of corporate companies’ movement towards mobile, considering the journey from receiving marketing communications to click-through and beyond.

Data management

With a variety of insurance and financial services clients, we’re no stranger to FCA and ICO guidelines and do our best to remain up to date. Significant regulatory changes in regards to data protection in the EU are expected in the next two years and are worth consideration.

  • Opt-in
    Implied consent is no longer enough.
  • Collect the ‘minimum necessary’
    Data collection will be limited to the ‘minimum necessary’, rather than ‘not excessive’.
  • The right to be forgotten
    Individuals can request that their personal data is erased, giving greater control to the customer.
  • Enhanced protection
    Where customer data is processed by a third party.
  • Increased penalty
    Companies may be fined up to 1 million euros or up to 2% of global turnover for failing to comply.
  • Conformity across the EU
    One set of rules to govern all businesses in the European Union.

Being in, not in between

The corporate website must become more than a sales tool by informing clients through content and enabling them through useful utilities and tools. Moreover, innovating and participating in the industries in which your clients work is a great way to stay front of mind.

In between one of the stories [in Rolling Stone], there was an ad for the global brand I was working for. He says to me, “See this? You’re in between my stuff. People buy this magazine because of these artists and you are in between them. You’ve got to get in it.” It’s a conversation that has helped guide my career ever since. ~ Geoff Cottrill, Converse CMO

References

  • eConsultancy: Digital Trends in the Financial Services and Insurance Sector
  • http://bestglobalbrands.com/2014/interviews/allianz-christian-deuringer/

The post 8 Evergreen Trends Witnessed In Corporate Web Design in 2015 appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

App Launch Stories

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Welcome back! The New Year has just started, so here at GA we’ve got our eyes on a whole bunch of new events to follow.

Let’s start with the sold out “App Launch Stories” scheduled for tonight from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Central Working Whitechapel.

3 app makers share their experience on how they got their app into millions of people’s hands- this is your chance to discover their marketing strategy.

For more information https://www.eventbrite.com/e/app-launch-stories-tickets-19656080867.

We hope you’ll have fun and feel free to share your experience with us at hello@graphicalliance.co.uk

 

The post App Launch Stories appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Top 50 Design Blogs: Graphic Alliance in at Number 15


13 Tips for Creating Effective Content

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1. Define a strategy before you begin

Ask yourself two key questions. What results do I want to achieve? And, how quickly do I want to achieve them? This will go a long way to defining what mediums are most appropriate for delivering the desired results. Beyond that, factors such as budget, competition and resource should all play a part in the definition of your content strategy.

2. Think about audiences, not clients

The most successful companies keep their ‘brand message’ – the sale – in the background. Define your target audience before you start – ask yourself, what kind of content will they find useful? Then, what kind of content will transform a visitor into a lead?

3. Plan how the content will be distributed

Each platform has its own restrictions that should be considered from the outset. For instance, if it’s Twitter, the length of the headline is important. If it’s Facebook, a thumbnail image might be required.

4. Create a house style, and stick to it

It’s important to follow a few basic guidelines to ensure consistency in tone. A list of banned words is also recommended.

5. Have a keyword focus

The best way to rank well, and to survive Google’s frequent algorithm changes, is to produce plenty of unique, high-value content that is keyword rich. Use tools like UberSuggest and KeywordTool.io to find keyword suggestions for free.

6. Monitor social conversations for inspiration

Use a social media tool, such as HootSuite, and set up columns for terms that are relevant to your business. This will give you some indication as to what conversations are occurring (or even trending) and gaps where your content might fulfill a need.

7. Match your topic to a format

Having a list of all of the content formats available to you can be surprisingly useful. Econsultancy’s periodic table of content marketing helps to match content with your intended outcome.

8. Formatting and presentation matters

In a nutshell, poorly formatted content will deter even the most dedicated readers. Break up the page by using images, indent quotes, lists and subheadings. There’s a trend emerging for ‘at-a-glance summaries’ – the top-line facts/benefits to entice someone to read further but that communicates the point if overlooked.

At a glance summary

9. Don’t fear long-form content

Long-form content is generally nicknamed ‘evergreen’ (though the two are arguably different). Evergreen content is less time sensitive and thus of great benefit for SEO, delivering value to readers over time and thereby avoiding the usual traffic peaks and troughs generated by content that is of limited long-term value.

Long-form content can also be repurposed and redistributed. Chapters can become articles in themselves or translated for other mediums.

10. Spend time creating a luring headline

Keep it to 65 characters – search engines truncate anything lengthier, as do emails – and use adjectives. Mark Twain said it best, “If I had time, I’d have made it shorter”.

On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy.

11. Link to content elsewhere on the site

Provided it’s genuinely relevant, internal links can encourage visitors to explore, reduce bounce rates, assist Google in crawling the site and reinforce a point. It can also give a boost to keywords that don’t currently rank quite so well and drive traffic to old articles.

12. Make the next step obvious

Having read an article, watched a video or explored an interactive walkthrough, what do you want the visitor to do? Make it as effortless as possible to complete that action.

13. Don’t forget post-publishing checks

Believe it or not, spelling and grammar is one factor that impacts upon your search engine ranking. It’s logical, really, for a tool dedicated to providing accurate and relevant information. Other factors like broken links or rogue formatting errors also play a role.

The post 13 Tips for Creating Effective Content appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Got your tickets for the DDM Week?

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This year, Data-Driven Marketing Week is ready to hit London this Wednesday, January 27 at 8:30am.

You’ll have access to 5 sessions on everything you need to know about creating a data-driven marketing strategy in your specific market:

Session One: Data-Driven Marketing for Financial Services: Wednesday morning (January 27)
Session Two: Data-Driven Marketing for Retail: Wednesday afternoon (January 27)
Session Three: Data-Driven Marketing for Agencies: Thursday morning (January 28)
Session Four: Data-Driven Marketing for Travel & Tourism: Thursday morning (January 28)
Session Five: Data-Driven Marketing for Media & Publishers: Thursday afternoon (January 28)

Check out http://www.ddmweeklondon.com/ for more information and don’t forget to let us know on our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Linked In.

The post Got your tickets for the DDM Week? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

5 Web Design Trends That Will Shape 2016

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Ironically, design in the post-digital era is anything but predictable. As technology evolves, so too do the possibilities that influence design (and vice versa). Our design gurus weighed in on the trends they believe will shape the web design industry in 2016 and beyond.

Mobile-first

There are no prizes for guessing that the degree to which mobile dominates in 2016 will only increase. As users consume content in new ways, using an ever expanding list of different devices, web design trends will continue to influence consumption as much as consumption influences design. Striking the right balance will determine success.

At it’s most basic, taking a ‘mobile first’ approach and considering how behavioural patterns for mobile users differ to those of desktop users will increasingly become the starting point for any new web design process.

A meaningful solution to responsive design

Taking a mobile-first approach shouldn’t be confused with ignoring desktop any more than catering for mobile, by simply defaulting to a single column, constitutes anything greater than mobile ‘friendliness’.

No one has truly mastered it but the potential remains great. Fundamentally, we subscribe to an approach that caters for that ever expanding list of devices, with efficiency and scalability considered, but yearn for a solution that better serves both.

Early design prototyping

Our multi-device nature and the prevalence of responsive design as a consequence, combined with more intelligent interaction and animation, all point to the need for simple prototypes rather than flat design mockups at an early stage in the design process.

We can expect to see more design tools released that allow for the creation of both simple low and high fidelity prototypes, without necessarily requiring coding experience. Invision’s integration with Sketch is the current frontrunner in our opinion, though Adobe’s pending Comet release is interesting to observe.

Animation

Advances in CSS/HTML/video are allowing for better use of animation both for creating smoother more enjoyable experiences and enhancing the degree to which sites appear visually engaging. As connection speeds improve globally, so the boundaries become more feasible to surpass.

Differentiation through design

The trend toward flat design won’t change this year, so much as evolve. Material Design will play a significant role in influencing this shift, not only giving digital things physical form but introducing depth and texture to a greater degree. Moreover, illustration will rise as a medium for differentiation and standout, as stock images further saturate the online/social landscape. This has already permeated our work, commissioning illustrator Matt Murphy (represented by Handsome Frank) to create two bespoke illustrations to accompany the two lead articles on cyber risk in the latest issue of Hiscox Global Insight.

The post 5 Web Design Trends That Will Shape 2016 appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

JM Finn & Co appoints Graphic Alliance

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Leading investment management firm JM Finn & Co has appointed Graphic Alliance to handle its ongoing investment management marketing brief and create the online version of its client investment newsletter, ‘Prospects’.

JM Finn & Co has over £7.8bn of funds under management and administration on behalf of more than 23,000 client accounts, as at 31st December 2015. Known for its discretionary portfolio management service, the firm offers a highly personalised portfolio management service that aims to meet the individual demands of today’s private and professional investors.

The investment world is becoming ever more complex and JM Finn & Co’s traditional client service values stand out in an environment where individual investment manager discretion is often replaced by a process-driven response. One of the best examples of how JM Finn & Co positions itself as an investment expert for their clients is in Prospects, the quarterly client newsletter.  

Prospects is first and foremost an investment newsletter, offering JM Finn & Co’s clients a wealth of information about the current state of play in the investment markets. From market insights and editorial comment through to specific equities reviews and company meetings, the publication is both informative and engaging. Watch this space for the digital version coming soon!

Leading investment management firm JM Finn & Co has appointed Graphic Alliance to handle its ongoing investment management marketing brief and create the online version of its client investment newsletter, ‘Prospects’.

The post JM Finn & Co appoints Graphic Alliance appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Meet The Team: Lana Smith

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The Graphic Alliance team now has yet another member to add to the ranks: meet our new Account Executive, Lana Smith. Lana is a seasoned traveller and joins Graphic Alliance having previously worked on some huge global campaigns, including Project Literacy. Find out more about Lana, below: 

Name:
Lana Smith

Position: 
Account Executive

Describe yourself in 3 words:
Geeky digital hippy

What sort of music are you into:
All sorts! Pop, 90′s classics, D&B, house, garage, Bieber, Britney & Aretha

Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Yes…

What is your biggest achievement?
A toss up between travelling the world on my own and launching a global literacy campaign to alleviate global social issues by giving people a basic standard of literacy in a petition to the UN: #ProjectLiteracy – sign the petition www.projectliteracy.com/petition 

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be:
Spongebob?  He’s hysterical.

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you would buy:
A massage

What superpower would you most like to have:
To be able to adapt to any environment, ie fly/breathe underwater…

What three items would you take to a desert island other than food and water:
Suncream, snorkel and an iPhone

Famous last words?
Dive in!

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Meet The Team: Mr Wiggins

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This week, Graphic Alliance welcome a new breed of employee to add to our ranks – step forward Mr Wiggins! To find out more about the only member of the team with a lead, water bowl and his own fur, read more below:

Name:
Mr. Wiggins

Position in the company:
Mascot/PA

Describe yourself in 3 words: 
I’m a dog

What sort of music are you into? 
Anything; I’m easy

Dogs in the office


Do you have any guilty pleasures? 

Humping legs when its fetch time and moping around when no one will play with me.

What is your biggest achievement? 
Getting Linford to love me

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be? 
Brian Griffin

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you would buy?
Tennis balls

What superpower would you most like to have? 
To speak human

What three items would you take to a desert island other than food and water? 
Tennis balls

Famous last words?
That was a squirrel!  Or was it a cat?  Did you see that?  I’ll kill it!

The post Meet The Team: Mr Wiggins appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Meet The Team: Amal Dahoum

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Name:
Amal Dahoum

Position in the company:
Account Executive Intern

Describe yourself in 3 words:
Lioness spirit animal

What sort of music are you into?
A real mix of genres, everything from the Gallagher’s to J Cole to Winehouse to Delroy Wilson

Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Thrifting

What is your biggest achievement?
Being awarded ‘City of London’s Highly Commended Trainee of the Year’

If you could be any character in fiction, who would you be?
Santiago, the protagonist in The Alchemist

If you won the lottery what would be the first thing you would buy?
My own place

What superpower would you most like to have?
Teleportation

What three items would you take to a desert island other than food and water?
A ball, laptop and a library’s worth of books

Famous last words?
One more rep

The post Meet The Team: Amal Dahoum appeared first on Graphic Alliance.


Science proves the value of Pooch Power

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Reading news of our latest recruit, how does it make you feel?  Happy, jealous, surprised?  This is not the first office to open its doors to dogs, nor will it be the last, especially in London, but have we turned a corner in fuelling our creativity and mastering our mind work?

Wiggins at work

Where's my coffee?

There have been plenty of articles about dogs in work and the benefits (as long as nobody’s allergic!).  Benefits range from relaxing staff to further inspiring them, being well documented in the BBC, The Guardian and other blogs.  And the world is only becoming even more dog friendly, who are we to interfere with evolution?  Science is on their side.

Stats show that employees who had their pets at their workplace showed an 11% drop in stress levels by the end of the day, compared to a 70% spike in stress levels of employees who leave pets at home.

Randolph Barker, lead author of the VCU Dogs in Work study, says. “It’s a low cost wellness benefit, and it could be a recruiting opportunity.”

They are great for team morale and creativity.  He can give us an excuse to step away from the desk.  Dogs need regular walks; so do people.  Popping to the park downstairs gives us a fresh perspective on digital solutions and designs.  It’s often when one can get the best ideas for you!

Wiggins at work

Can I help?

We will need to do more testing to confirm the data but will definitely enjoy doing so just as much as love writing our client’s reports and strategies.

We haven’t seen so much joy bought to the team at once with so many smiles, making productivity sky rocket due to all the serotonin we are swimming in, due to the simple addition of a dog which is good for us, our clients and the dog.

Wiggins at work

Lost in thought...

Mr. Wiggins may potentially become more than just a part timer, not only help relieve our staff, but also him from endless work days, giving him a good long day of love, attention, walks and belly rubs.  How could we close our doors to such a well behaved and affable chap? It could be detrimental to us and him!

Wiggins at work

Interpreting data...

If you have any thoughts, feedback or meetings to schedule with Mr. Wiggins, get back to us.  Do you have an office dog?  Do let us know.

The post Science proves the value of Pooch Power appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Amazon to authorise $elfie payments

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Selfie

Amazon have applied for a patent to allow ‘selfie payments’.  It is already ‘a thing’ in Asia, where subtle algorithms match faces to card details, but could it head west and how long until it hits the UK high street?

The two stage process prevents account hacks by the user taking a selfie to log into their account, then snaps a second in response to a prompted instruction like ‘smile’.

Such approaches provide for user authentication without the user having to physically interact with a computing device, which can enable a user to access information by looking at a camera, performing a simple gesture such as a smile, or performing another such action,” Amazon commented on their application.

What about the variables of makeup or facial hair?  Or even accidents, allergies or aesthetic alteration?  Will it link back to social?  What does it mean for data capture and collection?  Does this provide to additional security we require or more problems?

Mastercard are optimistic at joining in with selfie payments which they trialled on employees at First Tech Federal Credit Union, showing strong enthusiasm.

“A recent MasterCard survey found that 83 percent of consumers are excited about new secure technologies helping to protect their financial information. In the same survey, 75 percent of consumers stated that they have heard of biometric payments,” Catherine Murchie said, senior VP of US processing, network and enterprise security solutions at MasterCard.

Marketing campaigns already want selfies for data purposes, but does that translate across different demographics?  Who are they missing out on?  Imagine the types of website design interfaces that can capitalise on this kind of a behaviour change across industries.

Man selfie payment on the go Amazon buy

What does biometrics hold for the future of not only commerce, but finance across the world?  Will more traditional brands and institutions capitalise on digital transformation for the millennials?

With the bottom line being sales for brands and companies, will this user behaviour take off and be worth the investment or will it be an embarrassing failure?

Only now in 2016, contactless payments are finally starting to gain traction with sales up 230% but Apple Pay use was down on last year’s figure, at 37% usage.

Have you Paym’ed or Pinged it?  Is PayPal your BFF?  Do you transfer funds via social or email?  Did you even know it was possible or is cash really king outside the cities?

Lots of questions to answer, but only time will tell.
Watch this 
face, space.

Face Space Plastic

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Will Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Accelerate Your Bottom Line?

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Google is currently rolling out accelerated mobile pages in its mobile search results, but how can you get in on the action?

Day to day problems are constantly being solved by Google from driverless cars, right down to slow mobile loading times.  As a result, Google has been developing ways to make the links you click load quicker and now, with the AMP Project, articles have more speed and prominence in search engine results pages (SERPs). 

What is Google AMP?

Greatly anticipated since October, the Google Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), is a framework for creating fast-loading mobile web pages, which effectively fast-tracks content to mobile devices.   

Geek mode: It improves the traditional model of serving mobile content as it relies on, AMP HTML, a specific form of HTML, stripping down the presentation of content. 

The net effect is that content will load up to 10 times faster and mobile users will see articles with slightly more basic text and images, over traditionally formatted content.

Google Mobile News Search

Why?

It enables publishers to improve loading speed and user experience for mobile readerships, without sacrificing ad revenue that they so heavily rely upon.  Prominent publishers are encouraging its use by integrating it heavily into their platforms.  AMP allows performance optimisation to be easily achieved without altering the primary mobile web experience, which some publishers can neglect due to a lack of resources.

Did someone say Ads? 

Can this improve ad performance?

For some people, improving load times has incentivised the use of ad blockers, improving browsing speeds.  AMP has been developed to help publishers monetise content in the rise of these adblockers.   Google’s official response to the issue is:

“A goal of the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project is to ensure effective ad monetization on the mobile web while embracing a user-centric approach. With that context, the objective is to provide support for a comprehensive range of ad formats, ad networks and technologies in Accelerated Mobile Pages.”

As a result, a number of ad networks use the amp-ad extended component with more compatibility on the way for more companies.

hands-coffee-smartphone-technology-large

What will AMP look like?

Google being Google, has provided you a demonstration of what it looks like in search results.
Try it out here: g.co/ampdemo.  Search for any newsworthy topics and a carousel toward the top with AMP articles will appear.

Click on an article to really experience it.  If you don’t have “Tinder Thumb” yet, swipe right or left to read another AMP-enabled article.  It’s different from navigating to a publisher’s AMP page.

Google-AMP-What-Does-It-Look-Like-Mobile-Article-Search

Benefits with SEO & online marketing; because loading time is money.

Faster-loading articles improve readability and speed is the most obvious benefit for using AMP to improve SEO.  This equates to more page views from happier readers, meaning more ad views, shares and content engagement.  

Yahoo-news-Google-AMP-mobile-article-search-preview-icon

The good bits:

1.) It increases your search ranking by AMP-enabled articles identified by a special icon.

2.) More Impressions from Paid Ads means people are more likely to continue mobile searches and click back to the results page to see what else is there, increasing paid search impressions over time.

3.) AMP Analytics will tell publishers how well content performs.  The AMP specification provides instructions for supporting current AMP analytics vendors, as well as how to support custom analytics for AMP.

4.) Content gets to more readers as Google can now compete with Facebook’s Instant Articles.  This will further improve reach as content is more widely available from Google.

5.) Plugins exist like pagefrog if you’re hosted on WordPress, which prepares and optimises your content, but you will need to change your WordPress setting.  (You’re welcome!)

What are the implications?

1.) There are no forms in AMP content for subscription or data collection.

2.) AMP doesn’t solve the problem for non-publishers and only covers news style articles and blog posts.  It will not speed up e-commerce or brand sites.  

3.) Paid impressions could be reduced as AMP articles appear more frequently than paid search results items if search terminology is too broad.   

Mobile-Search-news-Google-AMP-article-preview-icon

Our conclusion

It will mark out old and new content as new content will be uploaded in the new format, but older articles will still be listed, but with no carousel.  If you host long-form or news content, instead of marketing or selling, you may well need an AMP overhaul. 

If as a publisher you only add AMP to get ahead of the trend, it may have SEO benefits.
In all, AMP
 will only accelerate your bottom line if you are a publisher or want to stay abreast of the latest news.

For more information about how it affects you and how we can help, get in touch for more information or advice.
Mr. Wiggins is anticipating your call.

The post Will Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) Accelerate Your Bottom Line? appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Socially Designed Websites

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Social media is everywhere in one form or another, scarily and somewhat unbelievably (sometimes annoyingly), even our parents are starting to get the hang of it.

Increased social adoption has affected everything, from the way people advertise and sell, to the ways in which web design has (and is continually) adapting to new online behaviours.  Website design strategy in relation to social is one area that people don’t seem to be paying attention to yet, with even big brands not taking advantage of best practice and missing opportunities on their channels; is this what their CMS looks like?

Copy Design Mess Pages Content

Design is as fashionable and ever-evolving as the social platforms themselves; so are the tools which developers use to create your beautiful sites and keep them optimised for all eventualities.   Here are some top developer design tools to keep up to date with the latest updates and make sure that your site lasts the test of time:

Geek mode: “From a UX/UI perspective, the tool Sketch, has seen a lot of uptake recently.  It’s a more focused tool designed specifically for designing webpages / apps.  It’s quick and easy to use and perfect for what we do here at Graphic Alliance.

There’s been a move over the past couple of years, to quick prototyping to test designs by building simple versions of sites.  There are also tools being released now, which turn flat design into simple prototypes for beta testing.  Web based program Invision is great for this.  

Invision and Sketch compliment each other and will soon release tools to allow prototyping to be done more quickly and seamlessly.  These are rapidly becoming the standard for developer design toolkits.   Adobe obviously noticed this and are now planning on releasing a program that does the exact same things that Sketch and Invision aim to do. “ 

-You heard it here first.  Get it right, test and go!

Social Design & Iconography

Business web pages are more frequently promoting social channels in different places, depending on the industry.  Icons have been historically important since before the human race could even write and still continue to do so on our websites today.  ‘Shareability’ for growth now means that websites have social icons not only where the company has a presence, but where the audience may too (like WhatsApp).  

What happens when they click and then your social page is inactive / has no valuable information?  

(You contact us of course) ;)

Facebook Social Mobile s-commerce

Design Personalisation

Social is now the most interactive marketplace on the Internet (s-commerce), giving people the opportunity to customise look and feel to match their identity to all digital assets.

Matching your Facebook fan page, Instagram or Twitter profile to your web design achieves consistency in how people perceive you.  Good branding is good business sense. 

Social Ad Design

Social channels restrict posts to audiences to ‘encourage’ companies to pay to reach their fans and beyond, with customisable, targeted paid ads.  For example, Facebook commands this behaviour because their active users are over 1.41 billion.  Due to this, big and small companies drive ads to social media with a main focus of perfect ad (and web) design.

Impressive ads gain more clicks which in turn increases effectiveness.   New ad platforms appear and innovate all the time, and getting your ads (which drive through to your site with one click) in front of the right people (with targeting), is becoming easier than ever.  This is growing revenues in social channels as companies see social becoming a better referrer of traffic from Google Analytics.  Good ad design can generate more leads, increasing the return on investments.  More creativity and better design can be used for other ad content – like banners and branded memes – which will come in useful even if you are battling a goliath.

Arm Wrestle David and Goliath Money Paid Winning

Design Interactivity

Due to the success of social media, (social mobile use increased 17% , mobile surfing increased 4% as the total number of internet users increased 10% globally, since Jan 2015*) more creatively designed websites have emerged to make home / landing pages more interactive and interesting.  Designers optimise sites to load smoothly across devices with increased interactivity to encourage engagements and revisits.  (See more on last week’s blog on Google’s AMP update)

Optimised Image Design

Social makes sharing content easy and images are more engaging than text.  A picture is worth a thousand words and is open to wider interpretation, especially when optimised for each platform.  Good websites follow this rule and optimise more welcoming images and videos above the fold to entice visitors – responsively of course!  

Warning gratuitous self-promo below:

Screen optimisation for social sharing increases ecommerce

Flaunt It

Now you’ve seen the importance and updated your look and feel, how do you add social sharing icons to your new dynamic web design to get your content out there?  Here are the 4 keys to getting it right.

  • Give people the opportunity to follow you on their favourite channels

By placing icons of the social media channels you have, you can allow the user to choose from the ones that they use and find out more about you. The location of social icons changes, depending on industry, and can be found on the side of pages, at the top or in the footer.

Visibility is key if you want people to follow and interact with you elsewhere. Calls-to-action can encourage people to ‘like’, ‘follow’ or ‘share’ you.

  • Allow social logins

Make it easier for people to connect with you and take the paperwork out of data capture.  This creates an internal community and share personalised content to further connect with them.

  • Be responsive

Social is mostly mobile orientated, so when your community click through, your fresh new content is delivered in a consumable way.  By having your site designed complementary to social users from code to content, the whole experience will only boost performance and success. 

Replacing your boring (sorry) static homepage with variable content that links (SEO always) from multiple sources like third party, blog or social feeds.

  • Be interesting

Host content that people will love and want to share.  No ideas?  Contact us.  <http://www.graphicalliance.co.uk/contact-us/> Make it easy by embedding the sharing icons on relevant pages, especially on information and product pages.

Video is hot right now and can have a great impact on people’s decisions, which is why sites are capitalising on this new content medium.  To give more value to visitors, show people to your ‘social assets’ within your site by:

  • Embedding videos from Vimeo<link> or YouTube<link>
  • YouTube is owned by Google and can potentially boost your search ranking, especially if you have external comments and reviews

Our Conclusion

It is more than good sense to integrate social platforms to your site if your content is user-friendly and have your pages ready for wherever the user ends up.  Your content and communications strategy should add value and be available to lead people back to your site.  That way your parents may share 

Cute dog in a blanket, pug, design free image

*Source: WeAreSocial

The post Socially Designed Websites appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

Edward Green receives Honorable Mention

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We’re chuffed to know that our work for English luxury men’s shoemaker Edward Green has received an Honorable Mention on Awwwards, the “awards that recognize the talent and effort of the best web designers, developers and agencies in the world“.

Edward Green website receives Honorable Mention

 

With design and craftsmanship deeply embedded within the fabric of the Edward Green brand, we’re proud to have translated those values online through a combination of considered user experience design and seamless technical implementation that concentrates on the desires of the luxury customer.

Take a browse and let us hear your thoughts! Visit www.edwardgreen.com.

The post Edward Green receives Honorable Mention appeared first on Graphic Alliance.

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