We are inspired by the digital visions and aspirations of our customers and are committed to helping them win online. As 2018 has just come to a close, we look back on our growth with pride and humility. We are devoted to the success and prosperity of our 90,000+ customers from 140 different countries in 2019.
We love our platform’s ability to scale for any digital experience you can imagine. We scaled internally as well to make sure we were ready for anything. We’ve hired 130 new people globally to join our mission in helping our customers win online—enough to fill a 737 airplane! WP Engine is kicking off 2019...
Surprisingly, my favorite session of the weekend came from Joe A Simpson Jr who brought a refreshing perspective to why accessibility is important. Imagine a colorblind person watching a football game in which team uniforms were all solid colors. Through a color simulator, we couldn’t tell the
Your website needs to load fast, everyone knows that. However, no longer is this advice just for user experience. Page load speed now factors heavily into your search engine ranking. There are a number of cache plugins out there and tools to improve performance, but above all, I’ve found that
WP Engine was proud to take part in this event sponsored by the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion. Each company was encouraged to customize the events during the day according to the needs, nature, and geography of its workplace. At WP Engine, multiple company-wide workshops were held in
Cryptocurrency Fraud Is the Exception, Not the Rule
In the United States, most state and federal regulators deal with crypto projects on a case-by-case basis. Take the CFTC’s charges of fraud and misappropriation of funds against Patrick McDonnell. McDonnell allegedly promoted himself as an expert in cryptocurrency investment and promised
Can Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies Alone Save $2 Trillion in Preventing Cybercrime?
It’s through smart contracts that transactions can be made whilst their details can be kept both transparent and secure. Writing about their new smart contracts-based Ethereum trading platform, Confideal stated: “To put it simply, code is not law, but smart contracts created on a platform
5 Real Life Blockchain Implementations Outside of Cryptocurrency
Medicalchain aims to use blockchain technology to securely store medical records. Using a distributed ledger for healthcare is a godsend as it allows doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists, and health insurers to have more immediate access to health records, which could help save lives
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
Pre Uber we were all plagued with standing on the corner, possibly in the rain, belongings in hand while attempting to wave down one of the few free taxis. (The worse the rain, the fewer the taxis — that’s a law of nature.) An abundance of unknowns adding further anxiety: how much is it going
wp engine: 2018 in review
The Attention Economy
Today, the dynamics of the attention economy incentivize companies to draw users in to spend more and more time on apps and sites. Designers who create sites and apps understand that their products vie for the limited resource of users’ attention in a highly competitive market. The hope of
Brand Vocabulary in the Context of UX: Key Terms Defined
Typically, brands have a set of 3–7 brand attributes, which are well-defined within the context of the organization. In both the Walmart example above and the Spotify example below, the organization has taken time to provide specific definitions for what these potentially vague terms mean for
6 Tips for Successful Personalization
Be cautious with the source of the data used for personalization. For example, when you personalize information by location or role for an intranet, the database that stores this information must be kept up-to-date. We’ve heard several intranet teams complain that they would like to implement
Closeness of Actions and Objects in GUI Design
That mainstream corporate websites make blatant usability mistakes is understandable because most members of their teams aren't grounded in graduate degrees in human-computer interaction. (That's why I have recently added foundational courses, such as The Human Mind, to my usability conference
10 Best Application UIs
But Xero might be a more interesting example, simply because it targets the traditionally dry domain of accounting. One of its main features lets users automatically reconcile bookkeeping entries with bank account transactions. As a match is made, the 2 matching entries are removed from the list of
Pricing information gives B2B sites a competitive advantage
Companies rationalize reasons for not revealing prices online: we don’t want our competitors to know, price varies for different customers, price constantly fluctuates, customized services have unique prices, and so on. These excuses are legitimate reasons in almost all cases, but they’re still
wp engine: 2018 in review
The Anatomy of a List Entry
Listing pages are sometimes called “category pages” (when they contain items belonging to a specific product category), “directory pages” (when they list locations or people), or “gallery pages” (when they contain graphics or images). Search-engine results pages (SERP) are yet another
Design Thinking 101
In the early 1900's husband and wife designers Charles and Ray Eames practiced “learning by doing,” exploring a range of needs and constraints before designing their Eames chairs, which continue to be in production even now, seventy years later. 1960's dressmaker Jean Muir was well known for
Minimize Design Risk by Focusing on Outcomes not Features
Encourage team members to be creative and think of different ways to approach a goal. Generate multiple solutions and get user feedback early. Activities such as storyboarding and wireframing have two major benefits: (1) they give team members a way to communicate ideas visually; (2) teams can
Adding an Item to a Shopping Cart: Provide Clear, Persistent Feedback
Which of these variations is appropriate for your design depends on the shopping behaviors of your users. In most cases, an overlay or a banner showing that something has been successfully added to one’s cart is most useful, especially on sites where users tend to purchase or compare several
Which UX Deliverables Are Most Commonly Created and Shared?
However, when working with external client audiences, pixel-perfect mockups were one of the most frequently selected deliverables, with 47% of respondents choosing a high-fidelity mockup as effective. The only deliverables more frequently selected for client work were interactive prototypes (67
Alexa, Where’s My Data?
An employee working from home in the proximity of a smart device may unknowingly record sensitive conversations. That data is then sitting on a server somewhere indefinitely. With more and more people working remotely and using these devices in their home offices, corporations must be aware of the
The Open Data Initiative’s Benefits Go Far Beyond Improved Customer Intelligence
In a blog post about the ODI, Brad Rencher, EVP and general manager of Adobe’s digital marketing business unit, blamed not a lack of data, but lacking data accessibility. “Companies looking to transform customer experiences need customer data that is real-time, intelligent and predictive, to
WireGuard: A Breakthrough in Online Security
It was almost two decades ago that VPN industry saw an upgrade in the tunneling protocols. The upgrade came in the form of OpenVPN, an open-source protocol that dominates the market to this day. I feel that with the development of WireGuard some significant progress and a breakthrough in online
Dancing in the Co-Economy: Are you Square Dancing or Foxtrotting?
Don’t stop there. Broaden your circle and identify how you can work with new kinds of partners. If you are unsure where to start, don’t be afraid to think outside the box and leave your comfort zone behind. Attend an open house at a local startup or participate in a nearby university’s
wp engine: 2018 in review
4 Ways Early Stage CTOs Can Learn to Roll With the Punches
In some instances, the CTO is a chief engineer who takes a hands-on approach to product development; other times; a CTO is a VP of engineering who is charged with hiring a team and designing the processes and culture necessary to turn business needs into deployed products. And then there are
For Startups, a SaaS Solution is an HR Killer App
As a company, Zoho is known as the place to go for business software solutions aimed at small businesses. The Zoho Recruit platform has a SaaS solution for that same market segment. What makes Zoho Recruit such an attractive proposition is the fact that it provides all of the basic features a
WP Engine: 2018 in Review | Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored
Fancy Formatting, Fancy Words = Looks Like a Promotion = Ignored
Sadly, in this case, neither search, nor navigation, nor the Population Finder led the majority of users to the correct answer. Indeed, search was particularly bad on this site. One user said, "I know where I can probably find it faster: Google," and promptly abandoned the official Census Bureau
Website Forms Usability: Top 10 Recommendations
TSA’s web form includes a Clear Form button, which violates usability guidelines dating back more than 15 years. To add insult to injury, the Clear Form button is positioned closer to the input fields than the Preview button, thus making it even more likely that people will hit it by mistake (and
Store Finders and Locators
Ninety-seven percent is an astoundingly high success rate. Of course, finding an appropriate location address is a simple task compared to using other website services. Consider, for example, the much higher complexity of tasks such as managing your investments, researching car purchases and
