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 another. This year’s theme was “Boldly Go” in honor of the famous sci-fi saga Star Trek. This event agenda was full of events to help nurture growth at both the individual level as well as company-wide. Not to mention, we got to have some fun!
Events on the agenda included team lunches, information sessions, inspirational speeches, a Hackathon, advice panels, trivia, and...
Email marketing is still one of the most effective ways to get readers to take action, investigate a product, or change a behavior. The success of your email marketing, however, comes from your email list. If you need to generate more and better email leads, you need web design that specifically
After a day of distribution, only a handful of customers took the challenge despite the fact that they were only being asked to walk a fraction of the distance a Somali child walks every day. After quenching their thirst with the water, the salesman asked them to check the ingredients on the label
The award itself was inspired by recent research conducted by Great Place to Work, which surveyed about 500,000 U.S. employees at nearly 800 public and privately-owned companies—mostly based in the U.S. Employees were asked how often they were included in larger, strategic decisions, whether they
Blockchain Scalability: Even If Most Transactions Are in Layer II We Still Need a Layer I
Some view layer I solutions as the only way of sticking to blockchain’s ‘true’ principles of full transparency and intrinsic security. Others, though, see this transparency as problematic in and of itself, and argue that full security can be achieved off chain. On-chain transfers also take a
The Blockchain Talent Shortage May Be Nearing Its End
The blockchain remains a highly promising technology for almost every industry, but it has some growing pains to get through before it reaches widespread adoption. Soon, the talent shortage will be a thing of the past, and there will be ample developers prepared to spend their time working on new
Emerging Technologies are Banding Together to Accelerate Big Data’s Growth
Thanks to the growth of the internet, the rate at which new information is being released is growing exponentially. Accelerating big data between machines. We are in an age when communication is not just between human beings. Machines are now the go-to for connections between the people to people
Centered Logos Hurt Website Navigation
We compared the real Nolitan Hotel website (right) which has a centered logo, with an altered version that shows the logo in the top left corner (left). In the other 3 hotel sites we examined, brands with left logos were recalled more frequently, but the effect was not statistically significant
wp engine all hands spring 2019: us
The Impact of Interaction Design on Brand Perception
Tolstrup and Heyer found many relationships between interactivity attributes and the brand and emotional attributes. For the full discussion on the relationships they found, see their paper, referenced at the end of this article. The findings related to labels, expected behavior, and consistency in
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
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
7 Tips for Successful Customization
Users often won’t bother to customize the site, even if the system is clear and simple to use. Because of this, don’t depend on customization to make a good experience. Generic site experiences, with no customization, should be strong enough to support users. You do not want a user staring at
Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking
Our users are complex humans. It is natural (and extremely beneficial) to see juxtaposition between quadrants. You will also encounter inconsistencies — for example, seemingly positive actions but negative quotes or emotions coming from the same user. This is when empathy maps become treasure
Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes
Placing actions such as Save next to actions that destroy work such as Discard is a commonplace design decision that causes much grief for users. While logically this placement often makes sense (for example, Save and Delete are related, in that they decide the fate of an item), it also makes it
Store Finders and Locators
Another noticeable change over our years of research is users’ increasing reliance on external mapping tools such as Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze to provide turn-by-turn directions. Companies have reacted to this new state of facts. In Study 4, only two of the 11 sites tested used an on-site
wp engine all hands spring 2019: us
Status Trackers and Progress Updates: 16 Design Guidelines
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) provide a status tracker for people applying for a green card or work permit. Following the creation of an account, applicants can log in to access the status tracker on USCIS’s website and see the status of their case. This feature is great to
Mobile Navigation: Image Grids or Text Lists?
Lowes mobile website: The images used within the list of Appliances categories are too small to be helpful to users, and are likely to be ignored completely. At this size, they are simply added page weight, slowing down load time and increasing data usage. Most people know the difference between a
Basic Patterns for Mobile Navigation
With the homepage as navigation hub, prime real estate will be wasted for chrome and all navigation will have to go through the homepage. While these two may seem as major disadvantages (and they are for most types of sites or apps), they can be less of a problem for those sites and apps used not
The Impact of Interaction Design on Brand Perception
For each interactivity attribute, Tolstrup and Heyer constructed simple interactive prototypes meant to embody the two extremes of that attribute. For example, they created one prototype for direct manipulation in which users could change the width of a circle by directly clicking on the circle
Customer Journeys and Omnichannel User Experience
A great customer experience is the product of an effective and well-designed omnichannel ecosystem. To achieve it, organizations must research and understand the customer journeys that users take as they complete tasks across devices and channels. To every single customer, a journey is one holistic
7 Companies Poised to Disrupt the Mobile Enterprise
Zenius took the top spot, winning three categories including best overall, most unique and best business model. Hive by Decode Solutions was right behind Zenius and won two categories for best design and best presentation. Zenius took home $20,000 and some hardware, one of the most substantial
The 3 Biggest Threats Healthcare Data Security is Facing Right Now
The year 2017 suffered the greatest ransomware attack in the history of the internet. The WannaCry ransomware detected in hospitals of the UK. It then exploded across the globe and affected more than 200,000 computers across 150 countries. This attack targeted the computers running with the
How a VPN Can Enhance Your IOT Devices Security
VPNs not only encrypt data, but they also mask a user’s geographical location and IP address. Protecting this data helps prevent third parties, whether hackers, Internet Service Providers, government agencies, or others who might try to gather information about your activities. This means that
Killer Marketing Plan For Startup Entrepreneurs
Why break the bank for your marketing needs when you can brainstorm your way to a killer marketing plan? The best marketing ideas come simple and cheap but these ideas do not come out of the blue. Your actual business plan will require an out-of-the-box, innovative thought process. You’ll
wp engine all hands spring 2019: us
JS-Kit Score: Turn Your Site into a Localized Digg
Of course, because this is the only page on ReadWriteWeb that is running a Score widget, it won’t have any data on which content is the highest rated site wide. But the ease of installation is what really catches the eye. JS-Kit is building a suite of tools for web publishers that are modular
Your Swag is an Extension of Your Brand, So Don’t Neglect It
Here’s the bottom line. When your swag is premium, your brand is premium. Conversely, poor quality swag sends a bad message to not only the public but also your team. Unless you’re a household name like Nike or Apple, there’s a slim chance someone is going to stick your company logo on the
WP Engine All Hands Spring 2019: US | The User Experience of Customer-Service Chat: 20 Guidelines
The User Experience of Customer-Service Chat: 20 Guidelines
People don’t like to wait. When they are on a large screen, they can multitask while waiting for an answer, but on a smartphone, switching between windows is difficult and the user may not receive a notification when the agent responds. One of our study participant commented: “Waiting always
Web Page Footers 101: Design Patterns and When to Use Each
Many ecommerce, entertainment, and other sites which encourage browsing opt for an infinite scroll in order to keep users on the page. Content continually loads so there is no consistent bottom on every page, and thus no footer section. However, the content that would have been in the footer
Usability Insights From Sun Microsystem's 1997 Web Design
Homogeneous sites can use simpler navigation that emphasizes one or two organizing principles for very large collections of pages. For example, news sites can use a time line to hide most older stories unless the user explicitly requests them. Also, by encoding richer attributes in XML
