The Concept of Brand: A Lesson from Edward “Blackbeard” Teach
Edward Teach, the pirate better known as Blackbeard, is one of the most infamous pillagers in history. More relevant to our interests, however, is that he was also a man who understood the importance of creating an enduring impression. In short, he understood the value of brand.
Before a siege, Blackbeard dressed himself in a dark heavy coat and captain’s hat to accentuate his domineering stature. He strapped pistols to his chest and tucked lit, smoking fuses under his hat and in his beard to create an image reminiscent of the devil himself having just emerged from some smoky brimstone...
High-density pages are sometimes referred to as “busy” or “crowded.” Low-density pages have few components (e.g. text, colors, or textures) and use negative space or white space (i.e.,areas with no content —see below). The definition of density applies to images, pages, and displays
Users get excited about the word “free” and often will feel obligated to maintain their relationship with a company if they received some sort of benefit (such as a free trial) from the company. However, no user has ever been excited to provide their credit card information for a free trial
Brand is a tool for influencing choice. Brand is not made of visuals or words alone — it’s not a logo or a slogan. Nor is it a figurehead, such as Steve Jobs. Those things are simply ways to communicate the brand. Although a figurehead such as Elon Musk or a logo such as McDonald’s golden
How Blockchain Brings Innovation in Staffing?
Therefore — the owner of the platform encompasses a very little or no role to play. This person can then decide what the details ought to be given or visible. The candidate can also determine WHO will access their information. This allows a direct interaction or transfer of encrypted
Blockchain Beyond Banking
Consider, for instance, SWIFT, a financial messaging services provider: In 2017, SWIFT launched a Proof of Concept designed to streamline cross-border payments. This is important because these payments account for nearly half of global payments. The current protocol is slow-moving, especially
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
Indicators, Validations, and Notifications: Pick the Correct Communication Option
Three common approaches for status communication include validation, notifications, and status indicators. These terms are used sometimes interchangeably in product design, but they stand for different communication methods that should be used in different circumstances. Understanding the
brand is experience in the digital age
10 Best Application UIs
When it comes to modal dialog boxes, our winners have very distinct ideologies. At one extreme is Seating Management. As a real-time application monitoring a physical environment, Seating Management didn't set out to interrupt hostess work in any way. If a hostess wants to seat 5 guests at a table
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
Marking Required Fields in Forms
We’ve seen that, whether you include instructions at the top of the form or not, the result is likely to be the same — people will ignore or forget them. So, what happens when user fill out the form? How do they know whether a field is required? Well, the more-diligent users will look around
UX Research Cheat Sheet
User-experience research methods are great at producing data and insights, while ongoing activities help get the right things done. Alongside R&D, ongoing UX activities can make everyone’s efforts more effective and valuable. At every stage in the design process, different UX methods can keep
Wishlists, Gift Certificates, and Gift Giving in E-Commerce
For wishlists and gift certificates, achieving highly polished website usability is a must. Beyond that, however, both offerings are often communicated through email, which is a highly brittle medium. We've studied usability for both e-mail newsletters and confirmation messages and have found
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: US
Last week, WP Engine employees from all over the U.S. came together at our Austin headquarters for the first biannual All-Hands event of 2019. All Hands is a two-day event in which employees from other offices and teams around the country get the chance to collaborate and strategize with one
brand is experience in the digital age
WP Engine: 2018 in Review
New year, new you, did you say? Well, that was our reality in 2018 as we rolled out some of our favorite new platform additions. We took the lead on the Amazon Polly plugin, the first plugin to bring voice technology to WordPress. The WP Engine Digital Experience Platform continued to evolve and
Bringing Array Themes into the WP Engine Family
Sifting through the thousands of themes in existence today is a daunting task, and finding the right one for your website is just part of the challenge. No one wants to trust their portfolio, online magazine, or e-commerce site to just any formulaic theme. Making sure it’s well designed, well
Hamburger Menus and Hidden Navigation Hurt UX Metrics
Navigation on mobile (whether hidden under a menu or partially visible) takes a larger proportion of the screen space than on the desktop, simply because the screen is smaller. Thus, people are more likely to notice it and use it. Indeed, on the desktop we witnessed many sessions where people did
Without the true page title, people are left with no clues for the content of the tab. Users often keep frequently visited pages such as Facebook or news websites open throughout the day in order to revisit them and check for updates. Users who are shopping or conducting research may be parked on
Case Study: Iterative Design and Prototype Testing of the NN/g Homepage
As new components were designed (for example, buttons, lines, type, hover styles, and tiles), they were added to a master component stylesheet. This process made creating specifications for developers efficient because there was no redundancy; we named each component on the page layouts, allowing
6 technologies you need to know to secure your IoT network
It is important for businesses to balance the benefits that IoT devices can deliver with a recognition that the same IoT devices have become a soft target for hackers and cyber criminals who are looking to intrude into your IoT networks and get access to your confidential and sensitive information
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Finally, Hathaway sees this as a unique opportunity for the United States to work with countries around the world, and with organizations on an extremely local level. “We cannot succeed if our government works in isolation,” she added. It requires “leading from the top” from
Production Quality Over Cost: What Really Generates Engaging Video Advertising
And, it turns out that social media channels like YouTube aren’t necessarily impressed with what others think about video ads. In fact, it turned out that YouTube didn’t give any preference to the best-performing video ad. The tests showed that the ad ordered first in a group of uploaded videos
brand is experience in the digital age
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
A Tale of Two Bubbles: Why Cryptocurrency Isn’t the Next Dot-Com
Be able to effectively communicate your long-term value to shareholders. The blockchain is a brilliant invention, with applications we’re just beginning to discover, ranging from the financial space to healthcare, cybersecurity, retail, and beyond. It will transform the world as we know it
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age | Pop-ups and Adaptive Help Get A Refresh
Pop-ups and Adaptive Help Get A Refresh
The size constraint of a small overlay window can be an effective way to ensure help documentation is succinct and to the point (following rule #2 above). For simple questions and answers, such as finding a phone number, a small window is all that’s needed. However, for more complex questions
Changes in Web Usability Since 1994
There are still a few users who rarely scroll. Even those users who are willing to scroll may be tempted to choose one of the initially visible options when it seems to match their goals. Such users will never see an even better, but invisible, choice that would have required scrolling. Therefore
Beware Horizontal Scrolling and Mimicking Swipe on Desktop
However, because horizontal scrolling is a lot less common on desktops, users often have no idea that they can discover content by “swiping” on large screens. Since people interact with mobile and desktop devices differently, the one-size-fits-all approach can backfire. The key point is that
