Why your business needs a responsive website

Responsive web design is a solution that deals with the ever changing technology hardware that consumers are using to access the internet.

It has become a necessary aspect of the design and build of websites in 2012 because it is vital to ensure your website is as usable on every browser size and every mobile device on the marketplace.

It has been forecast that by the end of 2015, more users will connect via mobile devices to the internet than PC’s which just shows the speed at which this change is moving.

Smartphone sales have already surpassed PC sales, which gives us a clear indication with regards to where the market is going. 

Changing the web

In short, a responsive website is a web build that adjusts itself according to the screen resolution of the device you are accessing it from.

Seems simple, but it has in actual fact been a difficult thing to implement. 

Let’s show you how it works. One excellent site that has implemented responsive web design is http://foodsense.is/

When looking at it, note how it automatically adjusts the content when you resize your browser.

This technology is exactly what is needed in the current digital climate and is the future of web design.

Joel Draper, technical web design expert at Adido says:

“A responsive website is the way forward and will benefit our many clients considerably. Having a site that is optimised to show the most important content, no matter if is accessed from a mobile phone, iPad or PC, is vital and means that potential customers on the move can find the information they need quickly and easily". 

"I think that by the end of 2012, responsive websites will be standard because of the increasing popularity of mobile devices”. 

Other aspects of responsive websites

As well as making your site more friendly to many types of devices, your content - arguably the most important thing on your site – is also adjusted with the general layout of the page so that it reads well no matter what the size of your browser is. 

This content - as stated on Trentwalton.com now fits “its container”.

We can’t help but add a water metaphor here when we say that web content now has the potential to be like a fluidic substance. The particle structure of water enables it to adapt to fit its container and content on responsive web sites is designed to do this in a similar way.

Like water, we suspect responsive web design may not make all content fit its container and there are still issues relating to HTML/CSS compatibility with browsers. 

However, with these problems ironed out, we can see that  - with the technology refined – responsive web design can really help your business by making your content readable and engaging, no matter where it is accessed from. 

Find out more about responsive web design and what we can offer your business by going to http://www.adido-digital.co.uk/services/creative/fully-responsive-web-design.aspx

Adido’s Predictions for Digital in 2012

As a forward-thinking and strategic digital marketing agency and web design company, we like to keep on top of what is happening in the digital world.

As you may remember, we held a very successful seminar in November 2011 that discussed what we think will happen in the digital world in 2012. The digital sphere is a fast-changing place, with many exciting innovations happening all the time with regards to search, advertising, web design and usability.

So, what do we think will happen in 2012?

Social and User Signals will be more influential in search

We have already seen this start to happen with Google +1 but this will really explode in 2012, with social likes/retweets and shares becoming a lot more influential in the search engine rankings.

Google is the number one search engine in the world, it has this position because it gives people what they want and they obviously want to maintain it. Prioritising content that has the most positive feedback is therefore the logical way to go surely?

Google has already revamped the way it looks at sites - who can forget the numerous Panda updates that saw some sites completely drop in the rankings overnight? It was a frightening time for businesses and it looks like Google will continue to update its algorithm in 2012 to make sure that users get the content they like. This is where “Likes”, shares and comments will most likely come in.  

As mentioned on State of Search, there have been studies that show a positive correlation between Facebook “likes” and Google rankings. Whether this is merely because popular content is likely to come from big, world renowned brands that have already spent millions on their search marketing is unknown.

Google has already admitted here that it uses Twitter when ranking sites. 

So, expect to see social factors influencing search in 2012!

Brands will up the ante to build social media relationships with consumers.

Another thing that will become more apparent in 2012 is the use of social pages to create relationships between brands and consumers. Of course we all know this has been going on for years on Facebook; but never has it become harder, yet easier for big brands to interact with their target audience.

Let’s explain. Brands now have more information on us than ever thanks to sites like Facebook. You can now find out which songs their target audience are listening to and what content they’re reading. Brands can also target their social recruitment advertising campaigns to people dependant on whether they are single, married, have children over 16 or are in certain jobs.

But, making advertisers nervous is the fact that Facebook has never been busier. Now, users are updated the very instant their friends do something on Facebook or listen to a song on Spotify.

The new Timeline feature also complicates matters somewhat, as well as the fact that it is now easier than ever to hide and filter what content you see on Facebook.

Brands will have to work harder than ever in 2012 to snare their target market and keep them in their grasp.

Humanising big brands is the key, and we think Timeline will play a huge part here.

Brands haven’t been given Facebook’s new Timeline feature yet, and Facebook hasn’t ever confirmed that they will. However, we predict that the first half of 2012 will see Facebook making an announcement that brands will be given the feature. Mashable has mocked up what McDonalds would look like when switched over to Timeline.

We also predict that more integration between Augmented Reality and social media will be the key to doing this.

We mention Augmented Reality a little further on, so keep reading!

Web design will become much more abstract and minimal

Again, this is already happening, but will become much more common in 2012. We’re loving the postcard-esque, image led designs that we have come across in the last few months and are excited about where this trend will go.

Fonts will also become more “handwritten” in the way they look, leading to websites having more of a personal feel. Also, as speculated on in this article, designs will be more all-encompassing, taking into account the fact that people now buy products across a wide range of digital platforms.

Designs have also become a lot more textured, with a more 3D feel and look to them.

Whereas, 2011 was all about content, 2012 is all about the visuals and texture baby!

Mobile devices will overtake the desktop PC and laptop

Pretty soon, it’ll be hard to imagine a world where people didn’t order pizzas, buy furniture and book a restaurant table from a mobile device such as a smartphone or IPad.
It'll also be hard to imagine a world without responsive web design. Responsive web design is where a website will automatically resize to scale if you reduce the size of your browser. This is perfect for sites likely to be accessed from a variety of devices.

This future for web design is crashing towards us at breakneck speed, and it is clear that mobile devices are going to rise to the top of the tree in 2012; becoming the default choice for most people.

With the news reported here that the number of active mobile devices in the US now actually exceeds its population, this is not surprising at all really.

CNN reports here that tablet devices are not just alternatives to laptops and desktop PCs; they are replacements and will sweep their older versions away gradually in 2012.

We’ve already seen sites specifically built for mobile devices, but 2012 will see sites built that work excellently across multiple platforms.

It will become very important to make sure you website design is fully responsive to every device a user decides to surf with. 2012 will be all about ensuring your website is compatible with every size to maximise conversion and customer satisfaction.

Augmented reality (AR) will start to have a definite role within digital advertising and marketing

Augmented reality is already seen in advertising, but will become more and more commonplace as we advance through 2012. Augmented reality, unlike Virtual Reality, works with your actual environment and enhances it, providing users with fresh and interesting content and new and exciting experiences.

Previously famous examples include the excellent Rayban Virtual Mirror (which allows you to virtually try on Rayban sunglasses from the comfort of your bedroom) and We Are Autobots (self-explanatory and totally awesome!).

Augmented reality is now being touted as the future of advertising. Apps like Blippar demonstrate this by allowing you hover over a brand with your camera phone and access content that has been put there for Blippar users only. It’s like the QR code, only not boring. The fact that we can now whip out our Smartphones and scan our environment, finding out live information is incredibly exciting for the advertising and marketing worlds.

Considering apps like Blippar are free to download and provide original content to users on the go, this could explode in 2012 and we think it will.

Tell us what you think of our predictions for 2012!

We’ll look back later in the year and let you know if we were right!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year from the Adido team.

Find out more about the amazing services we offer by having a look around our site! We offer excellent services like web design  and SEO.

Call us now on 0845 260 2343 to find out more!

Google +1’s; Search Flop or Search Success?

As the world falls deeper and deeper into the arms of the Social Network phenomenon, Google was not going to let it go unnoticed.  With the launch of Google +1 in June and the subsequent launch of Google+ a month later, what has this meant for the world of SEO and can it actually aid ranking results?

The buzz of Google +1’s on the twittersphere has always been positive with the majority of expert search gurus giving it the ‘thumbs up’… or the ‘+1’ as the case may be. The notion that people will all be +1’ing their most favoured URL or relevant and useful URL’s they may have come across is still under debate. It is supposed that this may become “old hat” after the initial buzz and the likelihood of users continuing to actively +1 URLs will dwindle. Whether this is what actually happens, the jury is still out; it ultimately is all in the aid of search results (Source: Read Write Web blog.)

Timothy Jordan, a Development Advocate at Google was quoted in a recent Search Engine Watch blog post to be reinforcing the use of the +1 button by mentioning the callback mechanism. This is where a user may click the +1 button on a specific product they may find on a site which essentially bookmarks it so it is easily found when they return later.

Timothy goes on to mention how webmasters can be utilising this click instantly via the +1 data callback mechanism whereby similar product recommendations can be made on page immediately after the click. In light of webmasters actively jumping on board in terms of utilising the mechanism in this way, it is highly likely that it will aid search massively.

The need and want for internet users to find the most relevant website for their search is obviously paramount. Surely it should be a logical step that users will embrace the +1 process in favour of optimising their future searches, furthermore, optimising Google to be their most trusted source of providing quality search results every time.

Here at Adido, we have a sneaking suspicion that sooner or later, +1 may actually begin to assist rankings and do what it was designed for. Again, it may be too early to truly make an educated assumption, but with the spotlight always on Google and their 80-90 per cent market share, we would all like to think that they know what they’re doing… right?.. RIGHT?

Social Metrics; What Does it Mean?

Tracking and reporting social media results still proves to evade certain attempts of analysis, and accurately translating what the key performance indicators (KPI’s) are actually showing you is not an exact science. Whilst you may be clocking up 100 more likes or followers a day, are you actually reaching the right community for that client?

It seems that measuring certain metrics for some marketers is less important than others, similarly any measurement needs to be in correlation to the needs of the client. Finding the right balance for you as the marketer as to be able to accurately express and explain effective results efficiently is important. It can be something that develops over a period of time due to the continuous changes and developments, but you will definitely get there.

Whilst analysing Facebook insights and targeting specific KPI’s, the addition of “Klout” into your analysis is a simple and effective way to strengthen your findings. For those who may not be too familiar, Klout is a social analysis platform that can give you the results of your social media campaign using a simple 1 – 100 scoring system; the higher the score, the more influential your campaign has been.

With the aid of Klout, it can show you how much you influence people as well as showing you your true reach across not only your immediate network, but your fans extended networks also. Displaying this knowledge in such simple a format is handy for explaining results and your analytical findings to clients that may not be too familiar with social media marketing. As a digital marketing agency in Bournemouth, the smaller clients definitely find it useful to analyse any social media work we may have done for them via the results from Klout.

Are you looking for more of a presence online? You could do a lot worse than to contact a SEO company Bournemouth like Adido who can help you showcase your products and services to the right audience.
Call us now on 0845 260 2343 to find out more, and feel free to leave a comment below. We always appreciate feedback and debate about the subjects we cover in this blog.

Until next time.

The Adido Team.

Adido goes to the V&A London Design Festival

Adido’s senior creative designer Laura Cannings took a trip up to London to be inspired and impressed by the offerings from influential creative minds at the annual London Design Festival. What better place to host the main events than at the beautiful setting of the V&A museum?

The festival hosted many free exhibitions that were quirky and thought provoking such as Grey Matter by artist Man Bartlett.  Over two days, visitors to the Digital Design Festival were invited to leave their answer in response to the question, “Where are you from?" via Twitter.

The artist then translated the answers (viewed via a live video link) into a weave of colours, demonstrating how he was geographically inspired to create a multi-coloured tapestry. 

Exhibitons such as Grey Matter led the mind to naturally open up for seminars such as The Post Digital Culture with guest speakers: Tom Uglow (Google creative labs), Katy Beale (Caper) and Filip Visnjic (Creative applications network) to name but a few running throughout the day.

The Post Digital Culture seminar was aimed to stretch the imagination of the digital future beyond social media and look at how the boundaries between physical reality and online are being blurred. Speakers asked the audience to participate in live creative activities (such as The Jonny Cash project where the user can help to generate frames for a music video) and watch films such as Augmented City, which showcased beautifully that what was once a “sci-fi film futuristic” effect seems not far from our digital grasps. 

Thoughts of the day: 

What next for the digital world? It would seem that we are all so immersed in the digital world; for example we take notes on an ipad rather than a notepad and use chat to ask people questions rather than get up to talk. Digital has become such a natural part of everyday life. 

It was highlighted by each speaker that the next step is more human interaction with the online experiences of everyday – Augmented Reality! The examples of how brands could promote themselves further through AR were inspiring and something every digital agency should prepare for!

Until next time.

The Adido Team!

Facebook changes and the F8 Conference!

As you may know, Facebook held a conference last week to announce the changes they have made to the world’s number one social networking site.

This latest version of Facebook is its second major overhaul since it launched in 2004, the last revamp was in 2008.

Here we’ll discuss some of the changes that have been made and analyse how they could affect user interaction with Facebook.

So, what changes have been announced?

Facebook’s aim is “To make this profile the best way to share everything you want and the best way to express who you are” - Mark Zuckerberg at the F8 conference 2011.

He went on to say that “The next era [of Facebook] is going to be defined by the apps and the depth of engagement that is now possible, now that everyone has their connections in place and this network is already established.”

In a nutshell, users will be able to add and find out more about their friends and have more access to more multimedia than ever before. 

So, the major changes to expect when you log in to Facebook are: 

Timeline:

 

Described by Fastcompany.com as a “reverse chronology of everything a user has done in their lives.” Facebook collects this data “as a user adds status updates” but users can also go back and fill in past details and events going all the way back to their birth”.

(screenshot from zdnet.com)

Watch Facebook’s video on timeline

Lists

Users can now select their close friends, family and colleagues on Facebook and subscribe to their updates, they can also subscribe to yours. You can also subscribe to updates of people you’re not friends with on Facebook. They will have to approve this before you see anything. 

The key feature of this is that you can write something that only your close friends can see. This is very much like the Google+ ‘Circles’ functionality which was seen as one of main differentiators when it launched.

This benefits users because they can update their status to say “Good morning all” or something and make sure via a drop down box that only the people they have selected to be in their close friends list can see it.

This is perfect for people who have a lot of friends on Facebook they don’t speak to for whatever reason.

Timeline: More updates on your friends 

Lots of people don’t get to log into Facebook very often, maybe once a week or once a month. The new timeline features allow users to get a summary of what their friends have been up to when they next log in. 

As well as this, users will be updated in real time when a friend does something on Facebook. 

Apps and content consumption

Once upon a time in the dark old days, users would have needed to view and listen to content outside of Facebook whenever anything was “shared”. 

No more! Now Facebook has partnered up with media providers like Spotify, Yahoo, Vevo and Hulu.

These media providers have built apps into Facebook to allow Facebook users to consume content inside Facebook. Some sites like Yahoo will still send you to their site to read the content there but Spotify will allow you to click on a link inside Facebook and listen to music without leaving the site. 

Information on media consumed will then be sent to friends in real time - you won’t get asked if you’d like to share your choices at the time of consumption. You’ll be warned up front that your choices will be shared when you install the application. 

It’s not just the music you listen to that your friends will know about in real time. Every time you “like” something, comment on something or become someone’s friend, your friends will see it on their real time ticker (just about the “chat” box on the right of your profile page.

Benefits and Concerns

Of course, nothing on Facebook is ever done completely altruistically. As this Fastcompany.com article rightly points out, it’s not just friends and subscribers that will know more about you. Facebook will.

This information is gold dust to advertisers who are always trying to find better ways to target potential consumers. Now they’ll have information on what your favourite songs are, how often you go to the gym and how long you have been engaged. 

Identity theft is a real concern. Of course, you can choose who you share your information with, but issues can still arise. 

The major benefit of the new real time updates that appear just above the chat box is that you can interact with your friends without necessarily having to go to their page. For example, if your friend updates their status, you’ll know about it immediately and be able to comment via a pop up without having to go to their page. This new feature is very much a direct attempt to compete with Twitter.

It’s unconnected to chat though, which means that even if you make yourself unavailable to chat, you can still see your friends’ updates.

With regards to convenience, the new changes to Facebook couldn’t be better. You can see everything that’s going on from the comfort of your Facebook page, which means you can sign in but get to do other things and check in occasionally as it all updates in real time.

(Screenshot from Tecca.com)

What are the potential benefits to businesses that have company pages on Facebook?

At Adido, we have many clients who run social ad campaigns with us or have “fan” pages that users can “like”. 

For our clients, it will be far easier to target relevant users who will be far more likely to convert. 

With regards to the “interests” section, the broad category targeting has become a lot more niche, with advertisers being able to target people who like certain films, songs or cats for example. You can also target users who have an IPhone, have been engaged for 6 months or are parents to a child under three. 

Of course, to be targeted, consumers would have to provide that specific information about themselves.

With this new tool, we can make our campaigns far more effective, really getting granular in how we target our ads. 

Search Engine Watch describes this as “a marketer’s dream” in this article.

Conclusion

The changes made to Facebook will give friends much more information about each other than ever before, however, with the new lists feature, you will be able to control who sees what better as well. 

We love the new lists feature, and the real time updates.

We’re also big fans of the timeline feature, as long as people are happy to share that level of information with other users and are educated in the various ways they can choose who sees their data.

Make sure you read the small print when installing an application to your profile. Many manufacturers will tell you up front whether everyone can see what you do on it. You won’t get any other warnings. 

At Adido we’re happy that advert targeting will now be even more granular than ever before, this will save time and money in the long run.

Find out more about Adido and our excellent work by going across to www.adido-digital.co.uk.

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