Domain Name Servers (DNS) are the equivalent of The Yellow Pages for the Internet. They store and maintain a directory of domain names and translate them to Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Humans access information online via domain names like wpengine.com and web browsers communicate via IP addresses; a DNS translates domain names to IP addresses so browsers can load resources.
How does WP Engine use DNS?
The DNS is the system that connects your visitors to your site, you need to be sure it is configured correctly. Many people are intimidated by DNS configuration because of the fear that it’s frustratingly technical and confusing. In reality, the process is quite...
Austin’s Annual PRIDE celebration is one of the largest opportunities for local non-profit organizations, social groups, and causes to gain exposure in the LGBTQ community. This year marked 28 years of Pride events in Austin. This year’s parade emphasis was awareness, equality and
In April 2017, the UNICEF Somalia and East and Southern Africa Regional (ESARO) offices were looking for a new way to raise awareness about the drought affecting millions of people in Somalia. The crisis was getting worse by the day, with thousands of Somalis fleeing home in search of water
At WP Engine, we believe our people are the core of every success, award, milestone and every achievement. That’s because employees who truly feel empowered and validated by their workplace are energized to delight and inspire the customer in every interaction. When new employees walk through the
Blockchain-Based Data Security Taking Over Key Industries
The healthcare field in particular has been implementing blockchain as they shift toward a data-centric discipline regarding the integrity, safety and storage of sensitive patient information such as electronic health records (EHRs). However, lax data security among enterprises has made patient
Cybersecurity in IoT: Achieving Digital Security in an Age of Surveillance
One of the most troubling aspects of government surveillance is their ability to conceal their actions. Without whistleblowers like Edward Snowden or ironic hacks on government databases, the extent of surveillance is rarely known or understood. The blockchain offers a transparent framework that
9 Blockchains Transforming the Way We Pay, Play, and Work
Look past digital currencies’ nosebleed pricing volatility, and you’ll discover a robust, decentralized, secure database. Brands and technologists are quickly figuring out how to put this powerful ledger to good use. Here are several real-world examples that demonstrate cryptos’
Design Thinking 101
The packaged and accessible nature of design thinking makes it scalable. Organizations previously unable to shift their way of thinking now have a guide that can be comprehended regardless of expertise, mitigating the range of design talent while increasing the probability of success. This
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Dot Voting: A Simple Decision-Making and Prioritizing Technique in UX
Once all individuals have voted, participants can converge and discuss the outcome. When dots are used, the content will resemble somewhat of a heat map (with concentrated dots in areas that received most votes). Depending on the goal of the dot voting, participants can discuss why they have voted
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
Overloaded vs. Generic Commands
For mobile apps, it's usually a good idea to have an "application home" that users can return to as a safe base after exploring the apps various areas. This is particularly important for content-rich apps, such as magazines or newspapers. Used this way, the "home" button serves as a generic
Visual Design Terms Cheat Sheet
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
7 Tips for Successful Customization
Over many years of seeing customization tools implemented in a variety of systems in a variety of ways, we often find that users do not use them. The fact that customization relies on users’ actions means that the potential benefits of customization will reach fewer users than personalization
Status Trackers and Progress Updates: 16 Design Guidelines
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) doesn’t inform their users that a status tracker for their work permit is available. Applicants receive a letter notifying them that their application has been received, but it mentions nothing about the status tracker on their website. Instead
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How to Display Taxes, Fees, and Shipping Charges on Ecommerce Sites
Users had to wait until the start of the checkout process to see the actual shipping costs. One user said, “It would be nice if they would show me what it would cost before I add it to my cart. How do I know if I want to buy it if I don’t even know how much it will cost me to have it
The Anatomy of a List Entry
In our eyetracking research we find that, when users have to select among several options presented on the listing page, they often look from one list entry to another and back again — comparing similar information across different entries. To help this process, the list entries should be
Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes of 2008
Users will most likely fail if you deviate from expectations on something as basic as the controls to operate a UI. And, even if they don't fail, they'll expend substantial brainpower trying to operate something that shouldn't require a second thought. Users' cognitive resources are better spent
Small Pictures on Big Screens: Scaling Up from Mobile to Desktop
In the mobile view of Fatherly.com (left), the image shows a man in front of a laptop and a small boy next to him. In the desktop view (right), the boy disappears behind the text, the laptop is obscured, and the focus shifts to the man’s head, rather than to the relationship between the two
Preventing User Errors: Avoiding Conscious Mistakes
A good example is rendering special effects in a video-editing software where the editing the system does in the background may take 5 or 10 minutes, and the computer will be mostly unresponsive while it’s working. In this case, even if users haven’t permanently lost any work, if the result
Coming to Terms – Why Terms of Use are Critical for Your Company
Oftentimes, platforms with user-generated content tend to allow users to retain ownership to their content, but take a very broad license for the use of the material. This heavy-handed approach can cause customer satisfaction issues, as evidenced by the backlash Facebook and other content sharing
Nearshoring Basics for Software Development
Customer service issues, cultural misunderstandings, and language barriers are just a sample of what can turn people off. It has tarnished the reputation of offshoring. Nearshoring, however, is like Offshoring 2.0. It’s an approach to solving the implicit and explicit problems of offshoring. This
Cybersecurity in IoT: Achieving Digital Security in an Age of Surveillance
In many ways, tokenized information is the perfect balance between accessibility and privacy. After all, the IoT becomes a lot less compelling if it can’t adapt to your use-cases. In this case, the token acts as a substitute for a person’s actual information. Therefore, IoT can achieve a
Steps to Building a Successful and Scalable Sales Process
When everything else is in place, you are ready to send targeted traffic to your website and sales page. Using pay-per-click advertisements is one of the best ways to get the right people to view your content. You can target your ads to people who are actively searching for the products or services
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The 6 Biggest Risks Today’s Internet Entrepreneurs Must Battle
We live in a litigious society where lawsuits are filed with shocking frivolity and without apology. This has lead to a vicious cycle where restrictions are put in place to avoid lawsuits; lawsuits are filed when restrictive rules aren’t in place; and more restrictive rules are created in the
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
WP Engine Supports the Domain Connect Project . | Maximize Content-to-Chrome Ratio, Not the Amount of Content on Screen
Maximize Content-to-Chrome Ratio, Not the Amount of Content on Screen
Eliminating the search box and replacing it with a magnifying-glass icon has become almost standard on mobile. It doesn’t work as well on the desktop: the space is simply too large and users don’t have the patience to hunt for a small search icon. If you consider using it on the desktop, keep
No More Pogo Sticking: Protect Users from Wasted Clicks
Pogo-stick behavior on the Redbox website: After specifying a kiosk location, the list of movies still included options not available to rent at the chosen kiosk. This did not match the expectation set by selecting a location, and forced me to pogo stick through each movie in the list until an
Nielsen's Law of Internet Bandwidth
The dots in the diagram show the various speeds with which I have connected to the net, from an early acoustic 300 bps modem in 1984 to an ISDN line when I first wrote this article (and updated to show the 300 Mbps upgrade I got in 2018). It is amazing how closely the empirical data fits the
