Design on the mind

According to a BBC news report today, online sales have rocketed! They rose to £4.2bn in July, up from £2.34bn in the same month a year ago. This is probably partly due to the terrible weather we have been having; people just don’t want to struggle round the shops in their wellies. But it can also be attributed to better ecommerce website design.

Online shoppers now expect the very best from the retailers’ websites. You only have a very limited time to grab their attention and hold it till the ordering process is complete. If you are an ecommerce business and you are not getting the results you had hoped for, have a think about the following points. They will help you to reduce your bounce rates and boost your sales:

1. If potential customers can’t find the product they are looking for quickly they will move on and probably not return to your website again. Have clear, simple navigation to guide them through your products. Use quality product photography so they can see what they are ordering.

2. If you market your website using a PPC (pay per click) campaign remember to point the customers straight to the product or service they are looking for. Design a specific landing page which correlates to the consumers search term. Otherwise the customer is forced to dig and search again for the very thing they thought they had just found – very frustrating!

3. Online consumers will also become very frustrated if the ordering process is very complex or slow. Keep it simple; use an easy and secure payment method. Don’t give them a thousand boxes to fill in before they complete the order or they will get bored.

4. Make it easy for your customer to find related products this will boost your sales. Let me give you an example – last week I ordered a ‘Hetty’ vacuum cleaner online. After I had added it to my shopping basket, I then thought I should probably buy some of the bags to go with it…try as I might, I couldn’t find them. Whatever I did, I was taken to a page which had all the vacuum bags listed in weird product codes that made no sense to me at all. I gave up and they missed out on a sale. (I am very pleased with my pink Hetty though!)

5. Remember too, that you will be competing with numerous other companies selling the same products as you. It is not enough to simply compete on price and you may find it hard to undercut a larger business anyway. Make sure your website looks attractive and enticing to ensure they pick you out from the crowd. Be sure to research your target market and know what will appeal to them. Use images and language that are directed specifically at them.

If you need help or advice about your existing ecommerce website or you are interested in setting one up, then give us a call at Deckchair, professional web designers in Bristol. We provide full ecommerce services including design, development,  marketing and analysis. We have a lot of experience in this area and would be delighted to talk to you. 0117 9299150

Toni

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Generally in life I think it can be safely said that ‘You get what you pay for’. This of course applies to website design too. We recently had a company director from the local area approach us needing a website. After an initial conversation with him about his business and his requirements it became clear that he needed a website that he could easily maintain and update himself. A content management system would enable him to do just that; through a secure admin area, he would be able to upload images of his products, change the details, prices, content and look of the website whenever he wanted to.

We spent a bit of time writing a detailed outline for the project with a full design brief and detailed itemized quote. The outline included every aspect of the web design including ideas for the content, navigation, strategies for search engine optimisation and of course, the bespoke content management system.

He was thrilled with the proposal and said he would call the next day to get us started on the project. The next day he did call, but he said that he didn’t want us to design his website anymore because he had found another company who could build him a website for a fraction of the cost.

This was a definite case of someone who didn’t understand about the technicalities of building a website and the importance of getting each factor absolutely right.  The company that he spoke of are very good at churning out cheap websites which all look very similar (and awful if I may say so) due to the fact that they are built from templates. There is little thought or consideration for the user, seo (Search engine optimisation), the market sector or the target audience. He had been completely swayed on price and how much ‘he could save’.

When are people like this going to realize the value of their website? A website is a living, breathing advertisement/brochure for your business; it is accessible by millions of potential customers through the World Wide Web, it is probably your most valuable marketing tool. Surely it makes sense to get it designed by an experienced, professional web design company who will ensure that you are presenting the right image of your business and actually reaching your target audience.

So what had this gentleman actually ‘saved’, well he may have saved a bit of money in the short term, but really it is a false economy and I guarantee he will have lost out to his competitors in the long term. He was not going to get a content management system or an original web design; as I said in the beginning: ‘You get what you pay for!’

At Deckchair we build all of our websites around the needs of our clients. We design them from the ground up with the search engines in mind and we don’t use templates. The result is a bespoke and original web design with clear, easy navigation that holds the attention of the user and can be found easily on the search engines. We will advise you on the best design and web marketing strategies for your company. We will ensure that you get quality traffic and you stay ahead of your competitors.

Toni

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A few months ago, our creative team of graphic designers at Deckchair designed and produced a high impact billboard and bus campaign for the Environment Agency. It was designed to tackle the fly tipping problem (illegal waste dumping) in the Bristol area. When the Environment Agency approached us with the project we were very pleased to be involved with something ‘green’ and also something that would have a positive effect on our local area, Bristol.

 We quickly came up with a few concept ideas for the campaign; we needed the billboard to be high impact with a clear message to really make people think about where their rubbish goes. The reality of the situation is that a lot of the illegal carriers dump dangerous rubbish, chemicals and white goods in hotspots in the south of the city. Most of these locations are in the back lanes of residential areas where young children play and could easily be harmed.

We all agreed that this was a strong directive and we could produce a hard hitting image to convey this message using our extensive experience with professional photography. We chose a location for the shoot and set the scene for the picture. Florence, our young model was an absolute star as the shoot took most of the day and hundreds of frames to get the shot we wanted.

The result is a visually stunning and hard hitting photograph that conveyed the message perfectly and fulfilled the client’s design brief.

The campaign has recently been honored at the National Environment Agency Communications Awards 2007 through Clare Rogers (project manager) with an award for ‘best visual interpretation of our brand’, and was short listed from over 100 entries. We are absolutely thrilled with this great result for our client; it is fabulous when great design is commended and appreciated.

Clare Rogers, Campaign Manager, Environment Agency said:

“Faced with the challenge of communicating a message to a hard-to-reach audience, we needed considerable creative input and some fresh ideas, stepping right away from our traditional corporate style. Deckchair gave us a range of great concepts to test on our audience, then delivered the complete package, based on our market research.
It’s rare to find a company so responsive to what you are trying to achieve. The results are stunning and our design has won a communications award for ‘best visual interpretation of our brand’.”

The photograph has also been short listed in a photographic competition run by The AOP (Association of Photographers). There will be an exhibition of these images at the AOP Gallery in London starting 22nd August 2007. You can vote for our photograph here (if you feel moved to do so!)

Toni

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I don’t know if any of you have already seen this, but take a look….It is Microsoft’s answer to the future of computers. This new technology is called “surface computing” and uses multi-touch technology to interact with the user, or users.  It is like something out of Minority Report, forget monitors, keyboards and your mouse; this is hands-on!!

Click here for the ’surface computing’ clip

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Ever looked at your website in another browser and found that the layout has gone out of alignment or certain features aren’t working or are missing? This is probably due to the fact that all web browsers read parts of the CSS code differently and then display it on the web page in a different way. Remember, a website is not a published piece of work; it is more like a living document that can be interpreted in different ways by different browsers and on different platforms.
A good web designer will always check his design in all the important web browsers before the site goes live. I find it quite astounding that I have viewed big corporate and name brand websites in different web browsers and found them not working properly. Who are these people designing these websites and no doubt charging huge sums for them??
Get your web designer to check that your website looks and functions exactly as it should from the major web browsers. These are the ones to worry about: Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Netscape and Opera.

Also have a think about whether your customers are likely to be the sort of people who may be using an ancient web browser and talk to your designer about your options.

Toni

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I had the great pleasure of attending Ollie and Sophie’s wedding on Saturday, it was a beautiful celebration and much fun was had by all. Here are a few photos from the happy event…Congratulations Ollie and Sophie, have a fantastic honeymoon!! (Ollie is Deckchair’s Creative Director).

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Let’s face it, these days most people use the internet as their first port of call, for information, communication and of course shopping…even my Mum buys online now! So you would probably be struggling as a business if you didn’t have an online presence of some description. But let’s not forget the bigger picture; branding, logo and print are still vital. To successfully market a business you need to have an understanding of that sector and have the ability to consider all media and how they complement and connect with each other. Stay classy!

I think this is the reason that a lot of design agencies are diversifying and are now jumping on the digital band wagon in order to offer a complete marketing solution. This all makes sense in theory as there would be no point in employing one group to handle print and television and another that specializes in digital to handle the online stuff. However it would be a mistake to choose an agency that didn’t have the experience required in the fast moving world of the web, to really give the solution that was needed. There is the danger that the website would be seen as just another touch point and the scope of the project would be completely underestimated.

The best web designs are always simple for the user but incredibly sophisticated underneath. This takes planning, knowledge and experience of the medium. Firstly work out what it is you want to achieve, do your market research and then choose a design company that can offer you a website design tailored to the needs of your business. And don’t forget the bigger picture, you will gain a more pervasive and ongoing communication if you embrace all the marketing tools at your disposal.

Toni

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