Theres a great list of the best 10 free Magento templates available at InspiredCSS
10 of the best free Magento templates
November 5th, 2009IE8 and stopping IE7 compatibility mode
October 2nd, 2009With th release of IE8 you may habe noticed a small button called “compatibility mode” in the browser. By clicking this button it allows users to view your website in IE7 compatability mode within IE8. Now this might be a useful feature when the website owners either can’t be bothered or haven’t had the time to test and fix their site in IE8 but for those who have tested and fixed their site for IE8 it can cause problems because it turns out that IE8 in compatibility mode isn’t the same as IE7 ( thanks Microsoft) so this effectively leads to another browser to test in, as if testing in IE6, IE7 and IE8 wasn’t already enough browsers from 1 company to test in.
There is however a meta tag that you can add to your pages that will disable the compatabiliy view mode, so your nicely coded sitre that works perfectly in IE8 will continue to work as it should in IE8.
<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”IE=8″ />
Its probably worth noting that the default setting in IE8 is to render the pages as IE8 and not in compatability mode, but why allow users the choice when, if working correctly in IE8, there should be no reason to use the compatability button.
Css support in email clients 2009
October 1st, 2009The level of css support in various different email clients varies massively over the 20+ major clients.
Our fiends over at Campaign Monitor have created this guide to the level of css support that each client has.
Interesting, but rather not surprsingly, Outlook 2007 is a big step backwards in its level of css support over Outlook 2003.
Take a look, it makes for a rather depressing read
Closest i’ll get to meeting my hero.
September 29th, 2009Charles Darwin has been a hero of mine for a while now and I guess this will be the closest i’ll ever get to meeting him.
Bad Science – Ben Goldacre
September 17th, 2009Any book that exposes that horrible Gillian McKeith as the massive fraud she is gets the thumbs up from me!
This is an important book for anyone to read, especially those who take what is written in the papers as gospel. I really can’t recommend it enough.
Inspired bicycles
May 4th, 2009This is amazing – makes me want to get a new bike and go out a ride!
Why we should develop to web standards
April 5th, 2009
I was asked to submit a report stating why we should use web standards to design and develop websites. Below is a list of reasons why we shoudl use web standards to make the web better.
1. Code Efficiency:
The larger the files are, the longer they will take to download, and the more bandwidth they will use. By separating content for styles and using good clean semantic xhtml and efficient CSS we can save on bandwidth and provide customers with faster loading, more efficient pages. It also allows code to be re-used more easily across the sites.
2. Ease of maintenance:
By separating style and content any change requests can be carried out with minimum of effort. By using well coded CSS, site wide changes can be made by changing the minimum amount of code and can therefore be completed quicker. Standardising the layout of pages and stylesheets for each site will make working on different sites easier and quicker and will also allow promotions be rolled out across each site with minimum effort.
3. Accessibility and usability:
Web pages created using web standards mean better accessibility to customers with disabilities and users of alternative devices such as screen readers. An accessible site also complies with the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). There are 8.5 million disabled people in UK meaning a potential 8.5million more customers to an accessible website. A site coded to web standards will also aid usability.
4. Search Engine Optimisation:
Using semantic xhtml for mark-up and following best practice guidelines will allow for better organic SEO. Well-coded web pages make life easier for web crawlers. Correct use of meta tags, pages descriptions, headers, keywords etc in the development phase of web pages will greatly improve search engine rankings by default.
5. Mobiles and devices:
Because the content and styles are separate it will be easy to create dedicated mobile stylesheets if the requirement is there. Use of mobile devices for Internet access is on the rise and shouldn’t be ignored. Device specific stylesheets can be created easily should there be a need.
6. Good practice:
Using current web standards for developing websites is good practice and helps to future proof the sites and make future development both quicker and easier.
The $300 Million button
April 5th, 2009I found this great atricle the other day on User Interface Engineering that emphesises the importance of good usability on a eCommerce website perfectly.
In a nutshell it was one small form that was causing the problem to a tune of $300 million a year. The form was simple. The fields were Email Address and Password. The buttons were Login and Register. The link was Forgot Password. It was the login form for the site. It’s a form users encounter all the time.
It wasn’t so much as the forms layout but where the form lived. Users would encounter it after they filled their shoppign cart and were required to fill it in before they could purchase their products.
The designers thought the form woudl save return visitors time and first time purchasers wouldn’t mind the extra effort of filling the form as it would save them time next time they purchased from the site
“I’m Not Here To Be In a Relationship”
Usability tests conducted with customers told a different story – they didnt want to register to make a purchase! All they wanted to do was choose and item and pay for it with the minimum amount of effort.
You can read the full article here:
There couldnt be a better example of how a users journey affects their experience on your website. At the end of the day all a user want sto do on an eCommerce website is make a purchase with the minimum amount of effort. Removing as many hurdles for your customer as possible will undoubtedly increase sales, in case to the tune of $300 million.
10 great ecommerce websites
March 28th, 2009Whilst designing and developing Designer Sunglasses Store I did a lot of research into what makes an eCommerce site work in trems of usability, accessibility and SEO. Below is the top 10 eCommerce websites which I feel are at top of the pile.
10 Reasons to use Email Marketing to beat the Credit Crunch
March 28th, 2009Email marketing is a powerful and easy way to build a list and communicate your marketing messages to leads and customers. Here are the top 10 reasons to use email marketing to help your company beat the Credit Crunch
1. Email marketing is virtually free. Email is truly unique in it’s ability to put your marketing message in front of thousands of potential customers at virtually no cost. This means that virtually 100% of revenue generated from email campaigns is pure profit.
2. Email is personal. Everyone’s favorite sound is the sound of his or her own name. Most email marketing solutions allow you to automatically customize email messages with personal data such as the subscriber’s name.
3. Valuable demographic data can be collected. When a lead subscribes to your email list, you can collect valuable data about your potential customers. This data allows you to better target your marketing messages to your list.
4. Email messages are sent instantaneously. With the touch of a button, your marketing message is sent to your list. There is no waiting for the post office to deliver the message to the customer’s mailbox.
5. Email is transparent. With email, virtually every marketing metric can be tracked with a high degree of precision. Among the metrics that can be tracked are delivery rates, open rates, click through rates, and conversion rates.
6. Email marketing is highly automated. Very little manpower is required to create an email campaign. Essentially, the only manual work required is the copy writing of email message itself. Other aspects such as delivery and tracking are done automatically.
7. Email messages do not necessarily require any design work. Unlike many other forms of marketing, email messages require little to no designing. In fact, it has been shown that plain text email messages with no HTML tend to be more effective. Plain text messages are much less likely to trigger spam filters and consequently have significantly higher delivery rates.
8. Rapid response time. Particularly if you sell products online, an email campaign can begin to generate a response almost immediately. Customers don’t have to leave their home and can make a purchase with the click of a button.
9. Email is the ultimate “word of mouth” marketing vehicle. If your email message is “viral” in nature, your customer can quickly and easily forward it to friends and family, spreading your message to new potential customers.
10. Email helps you build a relationship of trust with your customers. Email solves one of the greatest challenges in marketing: building a relationship with customers. Email allows you to keep in touch with customers, get their feedback, offer support, etc.
If you think that email marketing can help your business in these tough times why not get in touch with BulletMail and see if they can help you with an email marketing strategy that will work.