Last week, WP Engine employees from our Limerick and London offices came together for the bi-annual All Hands event in Limerick. All Hands is a 2-day event where employees come to engage with, collaborate, and strategize with employees from other offices. This year’s theme was “Boldly Go” in honor of the famous sci-fi sagas Star Wars and Star Trek. In addition to discussing goals for the upcoming year and new strategies for success, the team took moment to have a good time.
Events on the agenda included team lunches, Q&A sessions with executives, information sessions, and a company party with a talent show. Next week, employees in US offices will come...
During Web Week, we encourage our customers to take advantage of this low-stress time of year to create more personalized, dynamic, and better-performing digital experiences. For brands and agencies, this is the perfect time to kick your feet up, re-access, and get creative. It’s the ideal time
What is a child theme? A child theme works in combination with the parent theme. With regards to Genesis, child themes serve as a sort of skin that can change the way a theme looks, while relying on the functionality of its parent theme (in this case, Genesis). Child themes offer users the added
When it comes to providing world-class digital experiences, less than a third of respondents (29 percent) thought their customers would rate their digital experience as superior. On mobile, a poor design or bad user experience is even more pronounced. With three billion smartphone users in the
Blockchain Trends that Everyone Should Watch Out For 2019
I’m not going to be inept or sufficiently reckless to anticipate that the estimation of cryptographic forms of money is going to shoot into the stratosphere (once more) in 2019. As I’ve said previously, guessing on the estimation of these computerized resources isn’t my business
3 Areas Where Blockchain Will Propel the Drone Industry Forward
There’s still a lot of work needed to disambiguate what is hype and what is viable across industries when it comes to blockchain, but the drone industry is one clear example where it’s essential. As someone at the crossroads working with blockchain technology and drone technology to address the
Is the Blockchain Role in Advertising Too Overrated?
In digital and programmatic advertising, fraudsters found the perfect getaway to enormous bot-induced incomes. Click-fraud installs hijacking, and other illegal online activities bring 2500-4100% ROI to fraudsters, which translates to only 56 cents that brands receive from each dollar they have
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
When they call a regular cab, riders have no control — hence, all the anxieties listed above. With Uber, they suddenly get all the control they need: once they order an “uber”, they see how far away the car is and how much they have to wait, they know in advance how much the ride will cost
wp engine all hands spring 2019: emea
Centered Logos Hurt Website Navigation
The Library hotel website at 1024x768 pixels presents the logo in the center of the page, with a menu icon occupying the top left corner (where the logo would be in a more standard web design). Effects of Centered Logos on Navigation Success Positioning the logo in the center of the page on both
Dot Voting: A Simple Decision-Making and Prioritizing Technique in UX
To prevent skewed voting from the HIPPO effect (or other strongly opinionated team members), dictate the order each person places their votes. Have junior participants place their votes first, while saving stakeholders or subject-matter experts for last. This approach protects the votes (and
7 Tips for Successful Customization
Customization allows users to make selections and set preferences in a system, with the intent of giving users more control over the user experience. Customization allows users to select the content, layout, functionality or design that appeals to them. However, customization tools require work and
The Distribution of Users’ Computer Skills: Worse Than You Think
There is one more difference between you and the average user that’s even more damaging to your ability to predict what will be a good user interface: skills in using computers, the Internet, and technology in general. Anybody who’s on a web-design team or other user experience project is a
A Checklist for Designing Mobile Input Fields
Whether you're designing web pages, web-based applications (e.g., SaaS), or native mobile apps, one of the basic building blocks is the humble text-input field: a box where the user can enter some text. Uses of this widget are plenty and not the topic of this article. We should point out that there
How to Display Taxes, Fees, and Shipping Charges on Ecommerce Sites
Some organizations take advantage of the principle of commitment & consistency to force users to make the purchase: they know that, once people have invested time and effort to find a product they like and have decided to buy it, they will have a hard time giving it up when they find about
wp engine all hands spring 2019: emea
Ecommerce Usability Improvements
In general, sites would benefit from a longer-term perspective on the full sales cycle and total user experience. A transmedia design strategy should reach beyond the main website to encompass a mobile site, an email newsletter strategy, and good customer service (including good confirmation
Comparison Tables for Products, Services, and Features
Anker’s comparison table has attributes that are useful in the context of comparing portable power banks: battery capacity in mAh, charging speed, and weight. What really makes this a good comparison table is the fact that it translates those attributes into things that would be meaningful for
Why Zen Mode Isn’t the Answer to Everything
While zen mode is a well-intended UI feature, in practice, it can ultimately increase cognitive strain. To understand why, let’s step outside the world of UX for a minute and consider a painter. While the task of painting requires extreme focus, the artist must, occasionally, dip her brush into a
Design Thinking Builds Strong Teams
The artifacts represent the organizational memory of the team and serve as a fixed, persistent reference point for the team. They are the physical manifestation of the team’s vocabulary and can clarify further ambiguities and misunderstandings. Members can go back and refer to those common
Most often, front-end style guides take the form of a web page or other interactive digital asset, rather than a PDF. You can typically interact with all the components in a front-end style guide, and many development teams choose to implement them so that any change made to components in a style
Smart Hospitals: the Next Step in Healthcare IT
A convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), cloud-technology, machine learning and connected devices, is changing healthcare. Some of the world’s largest tech giants, including Apple, Samsung, and Amazon — all leaders in consumer products and services — are taking big leaps and
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
The Internet of Things (IoT): Is your future secure?
We’re currently on the verge of the greatest human evolution possible. Where the shift is from Information Age to the Digital Age. Where intelligent devices can feel the presence of human and ask accordingly. This phenomenal shift is due to a person’s desire to create efficiency, specifically
SEO DIY: Optimize Your Startup’s Website Yourself
Anyone who pays attention to the world of search engine optimization knows that maximizing your company’s search results on Google and other search engines is not something you can do with a quick pin here and a hasty status update there. It’s a full-time job. But if you’re
wp engine all hands spring 2019: emea
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
The Role of IT or an IT Consultant Provider for Business Growth
As bussinesses and the web move forward we witness many modifications in IT and the support it offers. There are many new pieces of hardware and software that we expect our IT staff to evaluation for our companysecurity. This includes new security systems and devices, and updated processes
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: EMEA | Iterative Design and Testing of Icon Usability
Iterative Design and Testing of Icon Usability
As you can see, all the versions of the color icon were essentially the same since the computer with a light bulb going on was easily recognized by all users as representing some combination of computers and bright ideas (the Sun solutions!). The light bulb did double duty as representing software
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
No More Pogo Sticking: Protect Users from Wasted Clicks
Once pogo sticking has been identified, follow up with qualitative research—usability testing—to determine what may be spurring this behavior. Are people looking for a page or some content that they expected to find but doesn’t actually exist (or at least, isn’t available through that
