Design | Internet Marketing Blog

16 examples of microscopic attention to detail in UX design

It is the little things in life that count, according to the old adage, and this is certainly true as far as user experience is concerned. The devil really is in the detail.

All too often some minor oversight on a website makes me furrow my brow, but more and more websites are taking a microscopic approach to user experience and interface design, and the results can be useful, amusing, fun, and functional.

I thought I’d share some of my favourites, as well as a bunch from Little Big Details, a fantastic website that collects these examples of smart user-focused design. It has hundreds to browse through, so if you're interested in UX design then do check it out.

by Chris Lake 08 October 2012 13:54pm 18 comments

How to evolve your brand and logo the Starbucks way

Starbucks has come a long way since it’s first Seattle store in 1971. So it makes sense that last year it decided to task its brand team with redesigning the logo.

Steve Murray, Content Manager of Brand Strategy and Expression at Starbucks, worked as lead writer on the team that spent hours, weeks and months creating a new logo and brand identity for Starbucks and he shared what they did at Starbucks to a full room of retail marketers at the recent shop.org conference.

But how do you improve and simplify a logo that is only made of four parts and one basic colour? And why was it important to do so?

by Heather Taylor 13 September 2012 18:33pm 10 comments

Adobe takes CS6 into the cloud with Creative Cloud

Software is a multi-billion dollar industry but that doesn't mean it hasn't changed dramatically in the past several years. From the rise of the app store to software-as-a-service, how software is bought and sold has been evolving rapidly.

That creates both opportunity and challenges for software's biggest players.

by Patricio Robles 23 April 2012 16:25pm 2 comments

Mobile magic moments: transform the trivial

When mobile or tablet design is executed well, the device feels like the extension of our bodies. Because interfaces respond even before we consciously give them a command.

Often, the interface “dissolves in behavior” and we feel empowered, as though the device we hold in our hand is the equivalent of Iron Man’s suit of cybernetic armor, or Batman’s utility belt.

I call this empowering experience a “Magic Moment”.

Most importantly, these “Magic Moments” make people fall in love with your app, show it to their friends, telling, nay, insisting they download the app and experience the magic for themselves. These are the moments we designers live for.

And mobile and tablet devices are more suited to creating and fostering “magic moments” than any other device.

by Greg Nudelman 19 April 2012 18:55pm 3 comments

Google+ brand pages: 20 of the best photo strips

Google+ is growing rapidly: business pages are taking hold, and the platform is becoming a viable marketing channel for larger brands at least.

It's definitely short of room to manoeuvre when it comes to how your profile looks however. Each page is locked down to the same structure (for now), and so at the moment there's not a lot you can do.

Thinking creatively is therefore tough, in fact, it focuses almost solely around the photo strip that resembles Facebook's Timeline banner. I'm not talking features (rich content, engaging conversation and hangouts galore just about cover that), I'm talking design.

As such, we've compiled 20 examples of brands that have managed to stand out from the crowd with the little they have to work with.

by Vikki Chowney 17 February 2012 10:30am 9 comments

New YouTube design leaked

Business Review USA has taken screenshots of what looks like a leak of Google’s new design for YouTube.

Art Director Freddie Pierce noticed the updates, which point towards an enhanced social media experience throughout.

by Vikki Chowney 18 November 2011 16:25pm 7 comments

Understanding user experience within customer centricity

This article is the first in a series of extracts taken from Econsultancy's new Internet Marketing Strategy Briefing. The free-to-download report covers the most important online trends in digital marketing that we are witnessing.

This extract, written by Econsultancy's Research Director, Linus Gregoriadis, will focus on the user experience aspect of customer centricity, although other topics covered within the document include channel diversification, data, social media and content strategy.

by Jake Hird 26 July 2011 12:11pm 2 comments

30 user experience quotes to warm your soul

Is design a science or an art? I reckon that, as far as the web is concerned, it’s a bit of both.

I searched on Google for an answer to the question and while I didn’t quite find one, I did spot a rather lovely Venn diagram created by The Imaginary Foundation. Try replacing the word ‘wonder’ with ‘design’, and we’re pretty much there…

30 user experience quotes to warm your soul

Designing a wonderful user experience is a key part of trying to create an amazing customer experience, which is much broader, anchored as it is in products, service, process, fulfilment and so on. This is something we’re all – presumably – trying to do.

I’m not a big fan of inspirational quotes, much less those awful posters, but sometimes a smart soundbite or pithy observation can help us to spot the wood from the trees. As such I’ve compiled a bunch of my favourite quotes relating to the user experience and design. Hat tip to this thread on Quora and uxquotes.com.

by Chris Lake 22 June 2011 13:11pm 8 comments

The world’s best team-focused 'about' pages

All websites should have an ‘about’ page, containing information on the company’s history, news and people. Some firms create a dedicated area to display team members, and I’ve spotted a few that are doing this remarkably well.

These pages are clean, creative and compelling. Some of them prove beyond doubt that a clever idea doesn't mean that you need to use sluggish technology.

The first example is genius…

by Chris Lake 26 May 2011 11:05am 11 comments

Are Google's SERPs getting too messy?

Google might as well have been called Simple. Back when Google was a new entrant in the search engine market and larger competitors were cluttering up their homepages with as much content as could be aggregated on a single page, Google took a different approach and offered internet users an alternative: a clean, if not sparse, homepage that focused on one thing -- search.