Design on the mind

When studying graphic design, should part of a university’s role be to prepare you, the student, for the “real world” industry, or should university just be an outlet for your creative experimentation, whilst you still have the chance to reside in its liberal environs?

Working within the industry, and looking at students and their degree shows, it appears to me that a lot of these students have no sense of reality within their work.

Looking at design in its most basic form, it’s purpose, in my opinion, is to communicate a message. Yet when visiting some of these degree or award shows, although the work may be visually attractive, the message is often not visible – what are these designs trying to say? The foremost important aspect of design in the working world is to convey your client’s message successfully – be it if they are selling trainers, showcasing their services or campaigning against climate change. If your design does not portray this message to the target audience, is your design working?

I don’t mean to say that design can’t simply be done for the sake of designing – design can be created just for attraction’s sake – but if graduates are leaving university without examples of work or skills that show that they can portray a message successfully through design – why would potential employers trust that these graduates can produce effective work for their clients?

Speaking from experience, university was an amazing opportunity to get the creative juices flowing, to experiment freely and grasp some truly exciting projects and concepts (as well as enjoying all of the social aspects!). But does it really teach you the purpose and practice of “good” design – the importance of communicating the message? Does it prepare you how to work within the industry – that deadlines are short and tight, that the client is always right (even when they are wrong), that you must be able to effectively work as part of a team, that you are inexperienced, albeit fresh-faced, and that you have a lot more to learn than you think?

Beginning to work within the design industry is an exciting and daunting prospect – prepare yourself by being responsible for your own learning, and although no one can fully prepare you for what happens, universities could perhaps lend a hand by offering more substantial theoretical and practical advice to students earlier in their studies.

What do you think?

Becky.

Related interesting articles:
Design Skills to Pay the Bills - Computer Arts Magazine
What is it like to be a recently qualified designer? Graphic Design Blog
Diplomacy in Design - Computer Arts Magazine

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Customer loyalty is going to make or break an ecommerce business. After you have attracted visitors to your website, how will you persuade them to buy? After that, how will you keep them coming back? Of course you need an excellent and well thought out ecommerce website design. But it needs to be backed up with efficiency and excellent customer service. Web shoppers are a fickle bunch; annoy them or make them wait and they’ll be gone before you know it.

I have to say that I do quite a lot of shopping online and so I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert in the field. Please do add anything you think I have missed!

So let’s start with my list of ecommerce peeves: the annoying things that will turn your customers away.

1. Flash intros and slow loaders – anything that delays the process of the consumer getting to the products quickly is a disaster for an ecommerce website. A flash intro might look ‘cool’ to you but it only serves to frustrate the user. Slow loading sites are also a big no no, not only does the shopper not want to wait but it brings into question the efficiency of the whole company; “will my order take this long to arrive too?”

2. Access denied! – Some websites require that you download software to gain access to the site or they will deny access if you have set your browser not to use cookies. (Cookies are small files on a computer that track info about the visitor; some people choose to disable them).  It is a big mistake to arrogantly demand that the visitor meet your needs in order to buy from you and you will simply lose their business.

3. Registration log on pages – Web shoppers will not take kindly to being asked to register to gain access to the content of a website. Why would you want to sign up to something you haven’t even seen yet? Don’t make people register before they have even seen what you have to offer; they won’t bother.

4. Pop ups and flashy visuals – A web shopper likes to feel in control of what they are viewing. Pop ups, blinking and bouncing graphics are just annoying extras that they cannot control; they just get in the way of them browsing the products. A lot of people have disabled pop ups anyway, so if you have something important to say then find another way of displaying your message.

5. Annoying music – just annoying really. (Especially if you can’t turn it off and your boss is just walking past your desk!!)

6. Out of stock - Don’t wait till the checkout to tell your customer that the product is out of stock! Tell them before they put it into the shopping basket.

7. Another stock peeve – Fair enough to run out of stock at some point, but don’t send your customers a flyer in the post advertising products that are out of stock once they get to the website.

8. Ineffective search function – If you are going to put a site search function on your website, be sure that it works!

9. Confusing navigation – Ever got lost on a complicated and badly planned website, with no hope of return? Keep it plain and simple, a few clicks to get the customer to the desired item is best. Don’t hide things in pages of unrelated products

10. Hidden prices and costs – Don’t hide prices and costs until the check out page in the hope that the customer will just go ahead and buy anyway.  Unexpected delivery charges sprung at the last minute will not go down well; people don’t like to be tricked.

11. Dead links – Links that don’t take you anywhere or come up with ‘page cannot be displayed’ will reduce the user’s confidence in the website you’re your company. They will more than likely give up and move on.

12. Slow delivery – Don’t send your customers order by snail mail, you will ruin their shopping experience; you can’t entice someone to order something and then fail them at the final hurdle by asking them to wait 10 days for it. I guarantee they won’t come back to your website again.

13. False advertising – Don’t advertise ‘Next Day delivery’ if you can’t guarantee it, people order for next day delivery for a reason – They actually need it the next day!

And now for my list of ‘Must haves’: The things that will get you the conversions and the repeat business.

1. Minimal clicks - The less clicks between entering your site and checking out, the greater the conversion rate. For 99% of sites with every click there is drop off between visitors and shoppers.

2. Clear navigation – Intuitive navigation, guiding the customer to the products they want without any confusion. Most people expect to see it located on the left hand side so it is better to stick to this rule.

3. Where am I? – It is very important to show the user where in the site structure they are. This can be done with headlines, sub-headers and breadcrumbs (i.e. Home > ladies > ladies shoes > pink shoes). In this way the user can quickly get themselves back to where they want to be without having to click ‘back’ a thousand times through everything they just looked at.

4. Detailed product information – give as much information as possible about the product; price, measurements, colour options, features, benefits, availability, shipping time, delivery costs etc. This all serves to persuade the buyer to make the purchase.

5. Product recommendations – Always good to show the customer other things they may like or associated products when they have selected an item.

6. Quality photography – goes without saying really, show the product off to its best advantage allowing the shopper to view several angles and close ups of the item. You’ve got to be able to see what you are getting.

7. Email confirmation - keep the customer informed on the progress of their order. Send an email confirming that you have received their order with full details so that mistakes can be rectified before shipment. Send another email to confirm the shipment of the order.

8. Easy communication – make it easy for your shopper to get hold of you at convenient times. Make the contact details and FAQs prominent on the website. Respond to emails immediately, (some say within 24 hours, personally I think this is too long!)

9. Legitimacy and security – make the user feel secure about disclosing their information and card details on your website by showing your security measures and fraud prevention safeguards. If you are registered in a professional capacity then display that too.

10. Guarantees – product guarantees, manufacture guarantees and money back guarantees; display all of these clearly on your website.

11. Delivery options – Give the customer the choice to pay a little more to get their purchase quicker. Giving them the power to choose gives them some control over the process which will work in your favour.  Quite often people are happy to pay more for a speedy delivery particularly if they have been given the option.

12. Make returns easy – Pre paid returns labels and packaging are a must. Make this a hassle free process

13. Belonging - Requesting customer input and devising loyalty rewards will give the customer that sense of belonging.

What are the things that have really annoyed you and put you off buying from a website? Are you loyal to a particular brand or do you shop around every time?

Toni

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Image Credit: NASA, Donald Walter (South Carolina State University), Paul Scowen and Brian Moore (Arizona State University)

I saw this picture on the Nasa website yesterday and it made me think; Isn’t it amazing? We can take a picture of something happening 7,100 light years from earth of a star 40 times more massive than our sun blowing a giant bubble of material into space.  We can take a picture on a mobile phone and send it anywhere we want, we can load albums online to share and download images at the touch of a button. What would those pioneers of photography 100 years ago think if they could see this picture? Perhaps just 500 years ago it would have been considered sourcery or some sort of religious intuition?

Images are powerful things, designers and advertisers utilize this power everyday for  persuasive communication. Although today people realize that images can be manipulated very cleverly there is still a real authenticity to a picture that can’t be denied. “Seeing is beliving”.

What image sticks most in your mind? Or what image had the most profound effect on you when you saw it?

Toni

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To trade online you need to set up an internet merchant account with an acquiring bank. The internet merchant account enables an ecommerce business to receive funds from credit card sales. You also need a payment gateway which processes the card information and provides the link between the ecommerce website and the merchant account. These processes are obviously of paramount importance in the workings of an ecommerce business, so it is well worth doing your research to make sure you get the service that your business needs.

Of course in these situations I can really only recommend that you take advice from a professional web design company, they will have experience in setting up ecommerce merchant accounts and designing the website to go with it. However, if you do decide to go it alone: Shop around, read the small print and be very sure every eventuality is catered for.

Let’s just remind ourselves of the process for an online or ecommerce purchase, so as to be sure that each stage of the process is covered:

1. Customer adds the product to the shopping basket on the website.

2. Once at the ‘checkout’, the customer fills in a secure form, adding their personal and financial details.

3. These details are then transmitted to a payment gateway service, which is separate to the shopping basket. The gateway service sends the information through the financial networks; the customer’s credit card account is debited and the internet merchant account is credited.

4. Once all funds have cleared, the money can then be transferred to the ordinary business account.

So if you are a new company launching yourself as an ecommerce business you will need to look at getting a merchant bank account and a payment gateway; there are solutions out there that combine the two in one package. But for the purposes of this article I will look at them separately. If you are an existing business already able to process credit cards then skip the next bit and go down to payment gateways.

Ecommerce Merchant Accounts

Internet merchant accounts can be gained from most major banks, but there are plenty of fees to watch out for (of course!) due to the ‘risk’ involved. The fees will be determined by many factors; for example, the length of time your business has been up and running, what you are selling and your turnover. A “Low risk” business such as web hosting will qualify for a lower rate, whereas a “High risk” business such as a pharmaceutical reseller will have higher rates.

Another determining factor for a business to be classified as high risk is when its chargeback potential is high. (Chargeback fees occur when the merchants account has already been charged by the cardholders account and the transaction is then found to be fraudulent). There are also particular types of  business that will be considered ‘fly by night’ therefore deemed high risk and penalized for it. So you need to find a solution that will suit your company.

Here are some things to think about when choosing your internet merchant account provider:

1. You don’t have to choose the same bank that provides your normal business account, but be sure to choose a recognized name that will provide stability and reliability.
2. Full disclosure of all fees should be set out clearly in the documentation with no ambiguities or nasty shocks. Ask for clarification on:
• Application fee - some institutions will charge you for the privilege of applying for an account, regardless of whether your application is successful or not.
• Setup fee - once your application has been approved, there may be other fees associated with establishing the account.
• Statement - the charge each month for issuing you statements on all transactions
• Transaction - a flat rate on each transaction.
• Monthly Minimum - what you will be charged regardless of the level of sales each month 
• Reserve - some providers require you to maintain a certain level in the account to cover chargeback fees.
• Chargeback – Any fraudulent or disputed transaction where the card holder asks for their money back will cost you a fee, usually a substantial one.
• Versatility – check that you will be able to handle and process payments from a wide variety of sources including all major credit, debit cards, bank transfers and installments. If you are operating internationally check language and currency issues.

As an example of what to look for, supposing you are going to be selling a lot of very low priced items you would need to look very closely at the ‘transaction’ fee because if you were charged even a low percentage of the cost of the product, you wouldn’t see much profit.

3. Check out the customer support system and reputation, if something goes wrong you need to know it will be sorted instantly by a helpful and knowledgeable person.

Payment Gateways

Ok, now let’s look at the payment gateway. If you are an existing business and already have the facility to take credit card payments and therefore already have a merchant account; your web designer will need to find a compatible payment gateway solution to allow you to take those card payments online. The payment gateway provides the secure link between your website and the merchant account and ensures the card holders details are kept secure.

For payment gateways, think about the following issues and discuss them with your web designer:

1. Fees – some gateways will charge you an additional percentage on top of what you already pay to the bank. There are some though like Protx that will charge you a flat rate per transaction with no extra costs. Protx also have a special deal for small businesses where you just pay a small fixed monthly fee. Other fees to watch out for are:
• Annual subscription fees
• Set up or integration fees
• Fees for different currencies
• Fees for different payment features
• Fees for fraud screening and protection.

2. Fraud protection - There are a few types of transaction protection which may come at a price but will be well worth the extra money particularly if you are selling a ‘high risk’ product.
• AVS protection - Address Verification System (AVS) decreases the incidence of accepting fraudulent transactions by verifying the cardholder’s billing address with the card issuer. Using AVS on your transactions may also mean that your merchant bank provider will reduce your fees.
• Liability shift – If you use ‘Verified by Visa’ or ‘Mastercard SecureCode’ the liability of a chargeback will be shifted from you to the card issuer in the event that a card holder denies a transaction.
• CV2 – the digits on the signature strip of the credit card, also assist in the authentication of the card during “Card Not Present” transactions.
• Fraud Screening reports – will notify you at a glance of the level of risk associated with each transaction.

3. Compatibility – is it compatible with the shopping basket facility that you want and your internet merchant account?

4. Customer support – again you need to check this out; a company that will only respond to emails and have a three day turnaround on replies are going to frustrate you when you get into difficulties.
 

Two in One

As I mentioned earlier there are packages out there with internet merchant accounts and payment gateways rolled into one. There are quite a few out there to choose from. Again, my advice is to seek expert and impartial guidance from a web designer with experience in dealing with ecommerce solutions. Obviously you will need to consider all of the points already discussed and make an informed decision.  Keep in mind what the needs and goals of your business are before you sign the dotted line.

If you haven’t fallen asleep, I would really appreciate any comments you may have on this blog! 

Toni

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Podcasting, it’s the latest thing in digital media! thepodfactory, based in Bristol are talented and experienced in producing high quality audio and video podcasts for the tourism and leisure industry. Their clients include Bristol Old Vic, Destination Bristol, Longleat, The churches conservation trust and many more.

thepodfactory approached us at Deckchair to design and build a website that would not only showcase examples of their work but would have the impact required to appeal to the tourism, education and commerce markets. The website is visually exciting and incorporates podcast examples, case studies and a whole wealth of information and advice on podasting, all easily accessible through intuitive navigation.

 thepodfactory has the skills and know-how to help you to integrate podcasting with your existing advertising and marketing activity. Most companies and businesses can benefit by using podcasting, externally and internally, so take a look and see what they can do for you. Click here for professional podcasting in Bristol.

Toni

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