Online Stores and why YOU need one

The nature of business has changed so much in the last decade, it seems that the days of visiting every retailer to find the best deal, or the newest car are long gone – we now just jump on our smart devices or computers and 'google' it. It is so common to shop online now that we even buy our groceries online, we bank online and find a new TV online, see a trend here? We are looking for convenience and ease of access, buying online seems to be the best way to buy right? Today we will discuss.

Ease of access & information-

Your customer wants to know what they want to know, whether that be who is the cheapest, who has the item in stock, who ships free, who has the most detailed specs, who has the color they want, who has …..... and the list goes on. Having an online store gives your customers ease of access to your product, and allows you to tell the customer everything you would in person, but from the comfort of their device.

Cost effective selling-

Having an online store adds little cost to your daily operations but allows for a huge increase in sales. You won't need numerous new staff members, you won't need a new shop floor, you won't need a lot to get an online store up and running.

Extra revenue-

Customers that buy online are easy – they won't take large amounts of employee time, or ask to look at your 20 circular saws out of the box, they have everything in front of them that they need to make the purchase, additionally your customer doesn't usually have the provision to 'bargain' with you from your website, if your pricing is competitive, the customer will buy then and there.

Simple to Set Up-

Setting up an online store is so much easier than setting up a physical one, you hire a web developer to build you the store, you pay for a domain name (www.mystore.com.au), you add in your products, organise freight and you are done.

Increased traffic to your website-

Customers shopping with you online are likely to browse just like regular shoppers, this leads to more traffic through your site and more prominent presence in the digital space.

Having an online site is not a one day project though, it takes a skilled web developer with an adequate understanding of your goals, a well thought out plan in place for the management of your business in the digital marketplace, a properly developed marketing strategy and most of all a wide range of product at a competitive price.

If you have any questions or comments please leave the below or contact us via our website.

Designing an Effective User Interface - Part 2

So last week we looked at some examples of past User Interfaces and found out that in order for a UI to be remotely useable it needs to be simplistic, it's ok to push the boundaries and images work well. Everything lately is moving towards the metro styling with bigger and more easily understandable 'tiles'. Text based instructions and labels are becoming less and less important with interfaces becoming more visual. So the question becomes, what can you do to take advantage of this in your UIs?

The answer is that you need to use things that are familiar to your audience. Smart phones are so prominent in today's society that within the few short years since their introduction there has been some very standard ways of showing different things within the interface. One example of this is the menu button. 

The menu button to the right is the basis for a lot of menus in mobile applications and websites. The three horizontal, parallel lines have become synonymous with "more options" and as such if your interface needs a menu then you should definitely use this. Don't get me wrong, you can change the colours and the size and style it however you like, but if you want people to know that this button means "menu" then don't stray too far.

The next example we'll look at is the "settings" icon. The cog, or two interlocking cogs has been used time and time again. It's used in Android, it's used in iOS, it's used to Google Chrome, it's used in Internet Explorer. Anywhere that has a visual interface to interact with its settings uses an icon similar to this one.

Obviously there are a lot more examples than the two I mentioned but they are the two most prominent and the ones that sprang to mind first. Obviously you don't have to use these when designing an interface, but I would highly recommend it. 

The next point is this, you have to know who your audience is. You have to know how they will react to the interface. You have to know how they will read the interface. Western cultures read from the top left going across and down the page. If your target audience is primarily Western then you should probably put your name/company/logo in the top left where they will see it first. Some cultures read from the centre out. This obviously means you should have a more circular design with the primary information in the centre of the design with the least important stuff on the outside. Other cultures again read from the right, or the bottom. You have to do a little bit of leg work and a little bit of research in order to understand how your intended audience will want to use your UI.

Other than those two things, your UI is completely up to you. Colours, styling, sizes, art style, placement all lends a hand to the understandability and usability of the design. Just remember to get other people to look at it and do tests with lots of different people because it is possible and very likely that you will become too 'involved' with your project and not be able to see its faults.