Archive for March, 2010

Design Crush – The Web is Moving!

Tuesday, March 30th, 2010

Design Crush is back after a long break and after months of silence we are here again, this time we are talking about good examples of websites employing motion graphics.

Using full screen images with video or motion graphics as the design basis for a website used to be something that many designers shied away from due to the large loading time required for such demanding tasks. However with better, faster broadband speeds, using full screen graphics with motion technology is becoming more and more popular.

It’s really quite amazing watching web design evolve into a moving, involving and all encompassing experience. Full screen imagery and motion graphics is popular with clothing, car and technology sites but it can and has been used for a variety of  markets and for a multitude of purposes. The appeal of this style is down to it’s ability to pull users in, encouraging them to explore the site which in turn allows them to find out more about the company, product or service being advertised. It’s not enough to just supply users with information and flat imagery anymore, they want to be entertained, they want to be moved and motion graphics can cater to this need. Motion graphics can give users a richer user experience however, if not done properly it can be seen to be a time waster and can even turn users off.  Therefore this type of medium should only be used to serve an actual purpose, not just as decoration and of course should be executed to the highest standard.

To show just how far we have come with motion graphics in web design, here is a collection of sites that reflect this ever growing and developing style and technique.

If you are interested in finding out more about motion graphics in web design here are some links to help you out:

4 web design tips for motion graphics sites

motion graphics gallery - motionserved.com

If you have any outstanding examples of this type of web design please share them with us, we would love to see what everyone else likes.

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Social Media, Politics and Me

Friday, March 26th, 2010

“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.” — Mother Theresa

I am by no means a political person, I have only voted once before (in the Scottish election) and I am ashamed to say it was a fairly uneducated vote which I now feel could do more damage than no vote at all. However, because of the growing use of social media I am beginning to learn and understand a little bit about politics, stuff I usually just regarded as ‘grown up stuff’. But now I suppose I have to consider myself a grown up and having felt the strain of the recent recession it has now dawned on me that all this ‘grown up stuff’ has an incredible impact on how I am living my life.

Social media certainly can’t take all the glory for introducing me to the wonderful world of politics; patient friends, family & colleagues have filled me in a lot, magazines (Vogue is surprisingly political), TV, and the BBC website have all played a part in tickling my curiosity. But, in the past week with the run up to the budget and the budget itself I have been paying a little bit more attention thanks to Twitter; the commentary via #budget2010 provided me with an interesting insight into proper political debate. Likewise all the #cashgordon chat, despite maybe being for the wrong reasons did get me on to a website which I wouldn’t have previously bothered with.

A couple years ago in the US election, Barack Obama, showed us how to really use the social media channels to his benefit and I am a big believer that social media played a significant role in the success of his campaign. With the upcoming UK election it will be very interesting to see whether British politicians will follow suit and embrace social media?

Of course all the main parties have set themselves up on Twitter and Facebook. The Conservatives have even gone as far to compile Twitter lists of MEPs, MPs, Peers etc but there is not a whiff of David Cameron or George Osborne; unlike the Liberal Democrats where Nick Clegg and Vince Cable are (apparently) Tweeting on a daily basis; with Nick Clegg even trying to get #asknickclegg as a trending topic.

The benefits and risks facing political parties entering the social media sphere are relatively the same as any business; you can gain the trust, credibility and love of your followers/supporters by being transparent, genuine and engaging them in conversations. On the downside transparency opens you up to criticism, negativity and, without planning, can lead to failure.

Already the Conservatives have seen that social media can go a bit wrong with their Cash Gordon website being  hijacked but hats off to them for embracing social media and any publicity is good publicity, isn’t it? There will always be people out there, pie chuckers I saw them affectionately referred to on the BBC, who will just throw insults without engaging in relevant debate and the freedom of social media tools, in particular sites such as Twitter and Facebook, provide a prime opportunity for this behaviour. But is the risk worth it?

I have noticed whilst looking around all the various Twitter pages, websites, blogs and Facebook pages is that it is all a bit one sided. There is a post or status update then an influx of comments, and of all the comments I read I did not once see the political party respond. Yes, a lot of commenter’s are pie chuckers  but amongst the trash there is some serious points being made and debates being had- and it is from the comments of these Facebook pages that I feel I learnt something about the party policies not from what the party was saying themselves. Which is all very interesting for me but perhaps not what the party would have intended.

Surely they should be delivering the message not us?

What I find even more bizarre about this situation is that politicians go all around the country trying to talk to various groups of people to communicate their message but fail to use these tools which would put them in direct contact with thousands of potential voters. Despite the enthusiasm of others I felt neither inspired nor enticed to comment on any of the online ‘conversations’ the parties were trying to have,  I would feel out of my depth amongst the other obviously more informed commenter’s and if I did comment it would no doubt be a question and why would I ask a question when I know it won’t get answered? There is this excellent opportunity for politicians to talk directly with potential voters and they appear to be failing on all accounts.

The most engaging use of social media I have seen so far is the Democracy UK Facebook page. It was set up by Facebook so not a politically run social media page but, still, attention should be paid to their way of interacting and encouraging engagement from visitors. Perhaps politicians don’t want to become too transparent for fear of vulnerability, just like my opening quote suggests, and yes they should just do it anyway. Social media is potentially one of the most powerful tools they have in their pockets but to really achieve its maximum effect political parties need to take risks, join the conversation and engage with the potential voters. If the Democracy UK Facebook page demonstrates anything it is that there are people online who want to discuss, debate and connect providing political parties with the perfect opportunity to converse with potential voters and listen to their constituents.

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jQuery 1.4 Reference Guide review

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

In the interests of full disclosure, Packt Publishing sent me a copy of this book for me to review. There was no other compensation received for this review. I am reviewing this book for the benefit of the blog readers.

The recent release of jQuery 1.4 brought a plethora of new features and major performance improvements across the board. At the same time, the new jQuery API site was launched in an effort to improve the documentation and community spirit. Make no mistake, 1.4 is a milestone release for jQuery.

To mark this, Karl Swedberg and Jonathan Chaffer have released the jQuery 1.4 Reference Guide, an exhaustive tour of the functionality that jQuery 1.4 offers. There are eleven chapters, covering selectors, DOM traversal and manipulation, events, effects, AJAX, plug-ins, and more. In addition, there’s an alphabetical API reference guide and a couple of really useful appendixes providing lots of handy information.

As I mentioned above, each chapter groups together jQuery methods with a common theme. There are helpful code samples for each method, and they are explained thoroughly in the accompanying text. Occasionally, performance tips are mentioned, but as the book stresses early on, you shouldn’t worry too much about micro-optimizing code – your time as a developer is more valuable than that!

So who is this book aimed at? Well, as the name suggests, this is a reference guide. A familiarity with jQuery syntax is essential, and in some areas, a decent knowledge of vanilla JavaScript will be beneficial too. Although there are hints and tips peppered throughout the book, this is no tutorial book. If you’re not familiar with jQuery, you should pick up Learning jQuery instead, by the same authors.

As such, I would recommend this to the intermediate to advanced jQuery user. You will almost certainly learn something from the book, and a reference guide always comes in handy! Some of the major points I picked up were:

  • Many jQuery methods accept anonymous functions as parameters now – this is a really clean, practical way of writing code
  • There are more ways to measure elements than I realised – I knew about .height() and .width(), but not .innerHeight(), .outerHeight() etc. This has caused me problems in the past!
  • The Sizzle selector engine is really, really powerful and I’m not using it to its full potential.

The downside of a book like this is that it dates relatively quickly. For example, jQuery 1.4.2 introduced two methods – .delegate() and .undelegate() – which are not covered in the book. There’s no getting around this when the library itself is under heavy development, but it’s something that you should be aware of if you’re considering purchasing.

I also spotted one error  that I reported at the publisher’s website, so if you do purchase this book, you should keep an eye on the errata there.

However, if you’re looking for a jQuery reference guide, this is the book to own. The publishers will donate to the jQuery project for every copy of the book sold and you will learn something from this book, so it’s a win-win situation! The jQuery Reference Guide is on sale now, with a cover price of £24.99.

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The legalities of email marketing

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Following on from ‘would your website stand up in a court of law’ I thought another area of e-business worthy of discussion is email marketing and the law.

As with any type of direct mailing, email marketing is strictly regulated to prevent the abuse or misappropriation of consumer data.

The transmission of Electronic Mail is regulated by the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, which states that;

  1. You cannot transmit, or instigate the transmission of, unsolicited marketing material by electronic mail to an individual subscriber unless they have previously notified you, the sender, that they consent, for the time being, to receiving such communications. There is an exception to this rule which has been widely referred to as the ‘soft opt in‘ (Regulation 22(2) refers).
  2. You cannot transmit, or instigate the transmission of, any marketing by electronic mail (whether solicited or unsolicited) to any subscriber (whether corporate or individual) where:
  • the identity of the sender has been disguised or concealed; or
  • a valid address to which the recipient can send an opt-out request has not been provided. (Regulation 23 refers)

In summary the 2003 Regulation states that you can only carry out unsolicited electronic marketing if the person you’re targeting has given you their permission (opts in) or if there is a customer relationship in existence. An individual subscriber is defined as a living individual which includes sole traders and unincorporated partnerships, and are given much greater protection than the corporate subscriber.  Corporate subscribers are companies or individuals within companies; sending unsolicited emails to corporate subscribers is allowed.  The rationale for this being that the same safeguards imposed for a business to consumer relationship would impede a business to business relationship. No matter the recipient, corporate or individual, ecommerce regulations require that if your email is a commercial one it must be clearly identifiable as such.

Email marketing and individual subscriber

As the previous paragraphs states you cannot simply direct mail individual subscribers, you must obtain their prior consent to do so. The only exception to this rule is if there is an existing customer relationship between the business and the individual. Even still there are certain rules about how you contact them, firstly their email address must have been acquired through the course of a sale, secondly any further emails must relate to your business products or services, and at the time of the email being acquired the individual was given the opportunity to refuse their email address being used for direct mail purposes. As with all direct mail, including sending to corporate subscribers, the email must contain clear address details for the sender and must be given an option or means of removing themselves from the subscription list. Further to this, e-commerce regulations require you to make all commercial emails clearly identifiable as such, either in the header or the text of the email.

Obtaining mailing lists and contact details

The Data Protection Act 1998 is designed to regulate the capture and storage of personal data, and provide the individuals whose personal data is being capture with certain rights. If a business chooses to capture, purchase or store data, in this instance for the purpose of email marketing, then they must abide by the regulations outlined in the 1998 Act.
The key principles of the Data Protection Act 1998, relevant to email marketing, are:

  • Data must only be used for the purpose of which it was collated
  • The data must not be disclosed to other parties without the prior consent of the individual, this also includes reveals recipient details in emails.
  • Individuals have a right of access to the information held about them
  • Personal information must not be kept for longer than is necessary
  • Adequate security, technical and organisational measures must be in place to protect personal information

Any business capturing visitor data on their website must provide appropriate warnings to the data provider and are legally bound to inform individuals of what the data will be used for.

In conclusion

You cannot send unsolicited marketing messages by email to individual subscribers unless you have their prior consent unless their information was collected in the course of a sale or if the recipient has expressed an interest in ‘similar’ items and chose not to opt out when the address was originally collected.

When sending a commercial email ensure:

  • that your company title and contact details are clearly displayed
  • the email is identifiable as being a commercial email
  • recipients have the option to unsubscribe or opt out of future correspondence
  • individual recipient details are not disclosed within the mailing list

Get all this right then you’re halfway to creating an effective email marketing campaign, check out our guide to getting email marketing right or view our case studies on how we’ve helped clients get excellent results with email marketing.

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Would your website stand up in court?

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010

As an online business, operating your online presence within the regulations and law is of utmost importance; for multiple reasons beyond avoiding the wrath of the law… are you taking the necessary steps to protect your company website? Beyond your website looking good there are several considerations which must be addressed for your website to ‘stand up in court’.

The Disability Discrimination Act

First and foremost, how accessible is your website? The Disability Discrimination Act makes it unlawful for a service provider to discriminate against a disabled person by refusing to provide any service which it provides to members of the public; online, this means that businesses must ensure that they make ‘reasonable adjustments’ to their website to ensure that users of all abilities can access it. The Sydney Olympic committee was successfully sued for $1 million in 2000 by a blind man for its failing to provide an adequately accessible website. Although an Australian case it, along with similar cases in the American courts, demonstrates that web accessibility is not an issue to be ignored.

The Web Accessibility Initiative outlines the essential components of web accessibility; providing guidance and best practice standards for creating an accessible website.

Copyright

Along with the website architecture your content and text requires careful consideration. Copyright theft is a common occurrence that can easy happen by mistake, and is a crime which can result in costly legal proceedings. When populating your website always be certain to never copy or incorporate any text, images, videos or music from another website without obtaining the permission of the owner. To do so would amount to a breach of copyright and make your business liable for damages.

Further issues can arise when commissioning third parties to produce copyright work on behalf of your company, for example photography or video; unless specifically requested you will not own the copyrights in that work therefore limiting what you can do with it.

If material on the website is copyright then to inform visitors and to prevent such material being copied notice should be clearly posted on the company website informing users of their rights.

(more…)

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