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Rare Bird Blog

Web Review: Vimeo Shows Off Creative Pedigree

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Labels: web development, web reviews

What is the value of design?

Friday, August 22, 2008

We often field questions and have conversations around justifying the investment in good design. Traditionally, it's been very difficult to quantify the ROI of design. In some ways, the internet is helping to change that.

We've recently had the opportunity to accurately measure the impact of design for DRG, one of our clients in the publishing industry. While re-designing their primary lead generation site, FreePatterns.com, we focused on improving the usability to help members more quickly and effectively address their individual preferences. It's important to note that the design changed dramatically, the function changed somewhat, and the content remained the same.

The results were astounding:

• Visits increased by 8%
  
• Pageviews are up by 64%
  
• Time on the site increased by 30%

[Learn more about this project]
[Visit FreePatterns.com]

Labels: analytics, design, marketing, web development

What Do Cosumers Want Online?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

So, you think you know what your customers want? Go ahead and list the top three, I'll wait...

Got it? Great! Now check your list against this reality: Forrester Research recently conducted a survey of more than 5,000 online consumers to find out what content and functionality is most important to them. Here's what they found out:

Consumers want user ratings and reviews the most. Sixty-four percent of consumers reported wanting to see user ratings and reviews. And nearly the same amount also wanted price-focused offerings, like special offers or coupons (61%) and product or price comparison tools (59%).

Interestingly, while the majority want to have access to ratings and reviews, only a few (23%) have any intention of writing one. Not surprising, there were differences in preferences based on age groups. Generation Y (18 to 27) are more interested in being entertained and sharing content. Younger Boomers are trying to get things done. And Seniors just don't want the clutter of extra information keeping them from getting things into their cart and getting on with it.

One final, revealing item: Overwhelmingly, consumers voted for ease of use.

So now you know what they want, the question is, what are you doing about it?

[See more from Forrester's North American Technographics Customer Experience, Marketing, And Consumer Technology Online Survey]

Labels: consumers, marketing, web development

Business Consulting or Web Development?

Friday, December 21, 2007

We walked out of a client meeting the other day when Michael, one of our recently-acquired programmers asked me, "So, was that fairly typical of how these meetings go?"

I ran through a mental checklist... let's see, we talked about design, site architecture, implementation strategy, marketing strategy, product delivery, logo and identity development, branding issues and concerns, product pricing, sales efforts, post-launch PR and marketing efforts, beta testing, testimonials, and a few other things.

"Yes," says I, "that's a pretty good example of how these things go." His response surprised me:

"I'm surprised at how much business consulting goes on," he said.

Which is interesting to me, primarily because it can be difficult to define what we do. Obviously, we specialize in web development and new media, but there are so many other issues involved that we're providing a high level of business consulting at every step of the way. I just never really thought about it in that light before.

Thanks, Michael!

Labels: business consulting, marketing, strategy, web development