Last week, some of the most progressive marketers and innovative thinkers using WordPress came together at the 2018 WP Engine Summit. Attendees left exhilarated and inspired to push their brands and agencies forward faster. The theme of this year’s Summit was Breakthrough. Insight into the Internet’s most forward-thinking trends like AI, voice technology, AMP, and PWA energized attendees with the knowledge and inspiration to fuel their professional breakthroughs. Additionally, Becky Hammon, Assistant Coach to the San Antonio Spurs, delivered a keynote speech to help ignite personal breakthroughs.
To conclude the Summit, we heard from WP Engine leaders who offered a look into the WP Engine roadmap. This included a look...
As voice technology continues to expand and see greater adoption, expectations that digital experiences include voice tech are growing. The Amazon Polly plugin for WordPress, co-authored by AWS and WP Engine, lets users bring voice technology to their websites by turning text into lifelike speech
Created by the leading brands in WordPress digital experiences and cloud security, WP Engine’s Global Edge Security is a cloud-first, high performance, advanced security solution built on Cloudflare’s intelligent network, providing the best security protection against top Open Web Application
At the end of September, we held our 2018 WP Engine Summit in Austin, Texas. Last week, agencies, brands, and digital innovators from EMEA came together in London for the WP Engine EU Summit. Attendees discussed the future of digital experiences, Gen Z’s perception of the Internet, and the
Robotics and Big Data are Transforming Nursing: 4 Key Insights
In healthcare, the robot’s role is to take over tedious, time-consuming, and dangerous or dirty jobs for nurses. Very few nurses dream of sanitizing equipment or dispensing medication when they enter nursing school. They want to be working directly with patients, healing the sick and providing
Optimizing Business Decisions With Blockchain Technology
With the advancement of DAO platforms, the future of business decision making is bright. Organizations in the near future will be able to choose where to place their projects from a variety of options, saving on cost, promoting transparency and driving efficiency. With more DAO innovation
What the Rise of Blockchain can Teach the Regulatory Environment
While ICOs might be more in line with an Indiegogo campaign than traditional financing, they represent an attractive alternative funding structure that could facilitate early-stage projects and more. On the regulatory side, exchanges and securities regulators should learn from ICOs and why they
‘Our Users Are Everyone’: Designing Mass-Market Products for Large User Audiences
More important than finding the exact cutoff point between groups is to make sure they become part of your research and design planning. Depending on the depth of the difference between the groups and the implications for usage and your business, you might consider the groups sufficiently distinct
a look back at the 2018 wp engine summit
Social Impact and Sustainability on Corporate Websites
To ensure that your organization appears credible, authentic, and trustworthy, avoid generic or broad claims about your corporate social responsibility, especially when it comes to sustainability, volunteerism, and diversity and inclusion. To say that you are committed to people, giving back, or
UX Mapping Methods Compared: A Cheat Sheet
Low-fidelity maps are unpolished and often created with sticky notes in a flexible, unrefined manner. These maps are best in an early part of the process. Low fidelity means little commitment or creation effort and empowers people to collaborate, revise, and update as needed. Use sticky notes
When and How to Create Customer Journey Maps
The map should align touchpoints (times when the actor in the map actually interacts with the company) and channels (methods of communication or service delivery, such as the website or physical store) with user goals and actions. These elements deserve a special emphasis because they are often
Overloaded vs. Generic Commands
For mobile apps, it's usually a good idea to have an "application home" that users can return to as a safe base after exploring the apps various areas. This is particularly important for content-rich apps, such as magazines or newspapers. Used this way, the "home" button serves as a generic
Apps Within Apps: UX Lessons from WeChat Mini Programs
Another user, a 24-year-old female, had a similar problem with a mini-program version of a food-delivery service called Meituan. “The first thing I do when I open the delivery app is getting some coupons. That app will automatically show some coupons every time you log in, and I don't know if the
According to an article on Reuters.com (“U.S. contractors shift blame for HealthCare.gov problem”), when HealthCare.gov launched, prospective enrollees had to register before they could view the plans. This problem has been somewhat addressed later by adding a See Plans Now button on the
a look back at the 2018 wp engine summit
3 Design Considerations for Effective Mobile-App Permission Requests
This notification from WeChat uses a dark pattern to disguise a permission request as an informational dialogue. The OK button is labeled Recommended, and there’s no option to directly decline the request. If users want to deny access to contacts, they have to pay a greater interaction cost
Helpful Filter Categories and Values for Better UX
When clicked, the tooltip launches a modal with more information. This particular explanation works well because it uses a metaphor (“Your computer’s brain”) to explain a complicated concept. It also outlines what this particular attribute means to the user: “determines the complexity of
Teenager’s UX: Designing for Teens
Teens are wired. Technology is so integrated with teenagers’ lives that creating useful and usable websites and apps for them is more critical than ever. To succeed in a world where the next best thing is a click away and text message interruptions are the rule, not the exception, website and app
Personas vs. Jobs-to-Be-Done
Well-crafted personas include details about user goals that are similar to those in jobs-to-be-done descriptions, but are enriched with attitudinal, contextual, behavioral, and personal data that can provide a well-rounded set of considerations to guide UX designers and product teams in decision
Instructional Overlays and Coach Marks for Mobile Apps
When designing tips, coach marks, and any other types of hints for mobile applications, the main guideline to remember is to keep them as short as possible. Focus on primary user tasks or atypical interactions, and design for maximum scannability by using visuals and succinct text. Additionally
The Open Data Initiative’s Benefits Go Far Beyond Improved Customer Intelligence
Unfortunately, because the marketing technology space is so young, tools tend to have few functions and even less intercompatibility. Given that the average enterprise uses 91 separate marketing technology solutions, just 9 percent of marketers report they’ve managed to construct a fully
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability
How IoT has Exposed Business Organizations to Cyber Attacks
Jax Enter (platform dedicated to software developers and architects), says that because everyday items are now connected to the Internet, it’s easy for them to be hacked. This hacking occurs in the same way that your computer can also be hacked. Some erroneously believe that this “side
Why the Gig Economy is Coming for Architects, Engineers
There are plenty of macro and micro trends which impact upon whether companies are building at any given time. This means that flexible companies with an on-demand workforce are better placed to match the workflow of any given moment. In busy periods, the company may be shorthanded and require
a look back at the 2018 wp engine summit
Building a Workplace for the Next 100 Years
The astounding shortage of computer science professionals in the US demonstrates the need for enterprises to become less reliant upon IT professionals to persist in digital transformation. SMBs often have a limited IT budget and were previously unable to utilize high-tech tools to improve
E-Commerce Failures and Mistakes: Why do so Many Startups Fail?
I’m sure you are aware of the alarming rate at which E-commerce businesses shut down. If not, let me share with you the results of recent research about E-Commerce Startups. “90% of the E-Commerce Startups fail within their initial four years.” Are the reasons for startup failure the same as
A Look Back at the 2018 WP Engine Summit | Beware Horizontal Scrolling and Mimicking Swipe on Desktop
Beware Horizontal Scrolling and Mimicking Swipe on Desktop
Most people use scrollbars to scroll, and not the scroll arrows. However, moving across a thin tunnel (like the scrollbar) is difficult because it requires careful steering of the pointing device. (This is an instance of the steering law, which says that the time it takes a user to steer a pointing
User Skills Improving, But Only Slightly
We can't directly assess whether our study participants are idiots, since we don't subject them to an IQ test. But participants' comments during all of our studies these past 14 years indicate that we've mainly had plenty smart test users. Unless a specific study calls for participants with a
Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time)
The only exception from the need to use a TARGET="_top" attribute is when frames are used as a shortcut for scrolling within a single page. For example, a very long directory or other alphabetical listing could have a frame on top listing the letters of the alphabet. Clicking one of these letters
