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...
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
Soon, everyone got on board and organizations began creating mobile versions of their site. However, inefficient and clunky infrastructure left users dependent on their desktop. Finally, the mobile web reached a point of maturation with the creation of Responsive Web Design. Using the same code for
Because you are in a safe, copied sandbox environment, you can safely test the Gutenberg editor here. Take a look around the new editor and make sure the editing experience makes sense, and that any custom fields your plugins or theme have added to the editor page still appear. After running these
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
How Blockchain Can Solve Major Problems for Gig Economy Freelancers
The modern workplace includes a ridiculous number of freelancers and third-party service providers. Despite this prevalence, a survey by the Freelancers Union shows that 50 percent of freelancers have trouble getting paid for their work. Delayed payments are the main issue, though one-third of
Blockchain Metrics Will Add Transparency to Investing and Better Inform Investors
Unfortunately, this is not the case as the average investor in most markets does not have timely access to reliable data to allow well-informed decisions in the markets. On the brighter side, the advent of blockchain technology makes it possible to record and track financial data without forged
Mobile Microsessions
This YouTube notification is not self-sufficient: The title of the video is truncated requiring the user to tap on it to see what it’s about. However, the keyword Everleigh present in the notification at least allows users to decide if it’s worth getting additional information. (If they never
wp engine all hands spring 2019: emea
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
It used to be that you would buy two or three nice outfits to have in your wardrobe and would rotate them for special events. But in today’s era, with social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, all your friends will see what you wear, whether they go to the same event or not. And even
Eartracking: A New UX-Research Method
A second technology advance now allows us to turn micromovement video streams into true eartracking and tell where the user’s attention is directed. A machine-learning algorithm has been trained with 10,000 hours of video recordings from our most recent eartracking study, during which we tracked
Best Application Designs
Wizards don't work for everything. In user testing, Eventbrite developers discovered problems with a wizard for creating new events in the system. Because users' mental models of setting up a new event didn't include all the necessary steps, they often dropped off and didn't complete the wizard
Date-Input Form Fields: UX Design Guidelines
In some cases, users will have only few date choices. For example, Google Express, an online shopping service, makes it possible for customers to order groceries online and schedule a delivery time. Rather than offering blank date fields or a calendar picker of limitless options, Google Express
Indicators, Validations, and Notifications: Pick the Correct Communication Option
Allmodern.com used an action-required notification to communicate that a product was saved as a favorite. For a user that is saving a lot of items to their favorites, this can be a bothersome and intrusive way of providing feedback. This may be better communicated by showing a passive nonmodal
8 Steps to Prepare for the Holiday Shopping Season
January is the time to initiate in-depth user research to identify the deeper reasons that people leave your site without buying, as well as how to increase shopping cart size for those who do buy. Most likely, you'll find that your site and its content require substantial changes. By getting an
wp engine all hands spring 2019: emea
Wishlist or shopping cart? Saving products for later in ecommerce
Selecting Save for Later in the Wayfair shopping cart moved the item to bottom of the shopping-cart page to a section labeled My Saved Items (which, confusingly, differed from the site’s Saves wishlist functionality). This feature did not require registration. However, its position low on
Alternative Payment Methods Enable International Purchases
If you have an ecommerce site, when was the last time your team reevaluated the payment methods you offer your customers? Given how much effort goes into creating a good ecommerce experience (we have 13 volumes about it), it’s surprising to see that at the very moment when customers are ready to
UX Stories Communicate Designs
Context is the setting (time and place) in which the UX story takes place. Providing an environment for the story aids in understanding where the designed experience fits in. This context can also act as the starting point from which the plot can be built — it can be the source of story conflict
Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability
Once you have all the parallel versions, subject them to user testing. Each test participant can test 2 or 3 versions. Any more and users get jaded and can't articulate the differences. Of course, you should alternate which version they test first, because users are only fresh on their first
UX Expert Reviews
Design reviews can be conducted at all stages in the design cycle, provided that there is a prototype with sufficient level of detail. In fact, since these reviews are based on inspection, as opposed to actual use by a real user, one can even review a set of specifications or other more abstract
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
AI Learning Algorithms Find Your New Target Groups
Although the news about AI has far less impact than previously thought, AI will dramatically change marketing. A recent McKinsey study shows that regarding the various business functions in companies, there is the most significant potential of AI in marketing. It is believed that there will be
AI Learning Algorithms Find Your New Target Groups
In addition to these simple everyday tasks, the systems are increasingly developing into a digital assistant and a virtual representation of the consumer. A digital assistant has an impact on customer communication and interaction. If the consumer selects his favorites from the hit lists on a
Purpose, Balance and Interface Are Keys to Successful Teams
An overlooked element in building a team that will stick around is recruiting those who inherently believe in a company’s why. Simon Sinek famously introduces this concept in his book Start With Why. He shares the oft-repeated story of two people building with stone. Both are doing essentially
wp engine all hands spring 2019: emea
Is Artificial Intelligence Still Relevant for Startups?
Hazus, along with Esri and Geospiza, is doing something similar with FEMA data. These organizations are creating AI dashboards using predictive analytics around disaster and emergency response. That team could tell you the best bet when responding to a tornado, hurricane, or earthquake plaguing a
The 4 Sales Tools Every Company Will Use in 2019
Modern consumers prefer to do most product research on their own. They use smartphones to compare prices, check social media for reviews, and read articles about the pros and cons of each choice. By the time they reach out to a salesperson, they are almost ready to close. In B2B sales, the process
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: EMEA | 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
Changes in Web Usability Since 1994
The change from 1994 is that scrolling is no longer a usability disaster for navigation pages. Scrolling still reduces usability, but all design involves trade-offs, and the argument against scrolling is no longer as strong as it used to be. Thus, pages that can be markedly improved with a
Minimize the Need for Customer Service to Improve the Omnichannel UX
In a relatively small number of cases, users simply preferred to complete tasks by working one-on-one with a representative, because they felt that the task was too complex for the digital channels available to them. (This is an example of a limitation imposed by the communication channel’s
