2012 American Web Design Awards

Eventful Occasions

Eventful Occasions helps couples, families & businesses plan their event from beginning to end. She is there to manage your vendors and guests so you can enjoy your event without worry.

Her website is geared to provide mobile users with the same content in a slightly different experience. Nothing is more frustrating then trying to find something on a mobile site that exists on the desktop website that their team thought wasn’t as important to include in that scenario.

The site has been designed & developed responsively to adapt to multiple mobile devices without having the task of managing multiple websites. As a small business owner myself, who has the time to do that on top of everything else?

Florie Huppert Design

Florie Huppert is an event coordinator and designer in New York, New York. Her website reflects her own personal style and is very image driven to showcase the details of her events. As a event planner and designer, Florie is very hands on and helps her clients install and design the event of their dreams.

Adding fresh content to a website, changing featured photos and callouts and building relevant landing pages can drastically boost the quality of the interactions you have with your visitors.

If you visit a website that never updates anything, you are more than likely not going to return in the future. Give your visitors a reason to come back. What valuable content and insights can you offer your users? How can you go that extra mile to improve their life based on the nature of your business?

Fresh Content, Regularly

Having a content management system gives you so many advantages. If you don’t use it to regularly update your website, you are defeating the purpose of having one altogether.

Blogs & News

One of the best ways to bring more content to your site is to have a blog. Sharing your expert knowledge can be a great way to add content and provide additional value on your website. If you are e-commerce shop, offer relevant stories that combine the use of your product in your reader’s daily lives. Provide them with the hows and whys of owning your products. Always aim to solve problems.

Stay current with your blog and news section. Is there something happening in the world that relates to what you are offering your clients? Write about it. This is a short term solution to bring a few extra visitors to your website. Hot topics are often more highly searched by those who hear about it down the grapevine and want to learn more.

For example, responsive design has been at the forefront of the web design world for a few years now. When it first was brought to my attention at a design conference, I used my blog to do the research and provide my readers with the knowledge I had gained at the conference. Not only was this a fairly current topic, it was also highly sought after by those looking for a better solution to mobile websites.

Events

Similar to blogs & news, having a calendar of events is a great way to include fresh content on your website. It’s important to callout events throughout the website so users come across them, even if they aren’t necessarily looking for them.

An event calendar acts as a blog if setup correctly. Using a listing style of calendar, rather than a traditional wall-calendar layout can provide a few benefits. For one, they are easier to scan. You can also fit more information into a listing than in a tiny little square on a traditional calendar. Providing a little detail next to each event allows the visitor to be intrigued and can peak their interest in the event.

Visitors who may be interested in your events need some type of notification to get them interested. Give them a sneak peek of the event via email or even a printed newsletter. Providing only a few details will give them a reason to check back on your website. Another excellent notification system is an event feed that your users can sign-up for. This gives them a good reason to investigate a little more on your website each time you have a new event.

Website Landing Pages

A landing page is a single page on your website setup for one particular purpose. It many times isn’t accessible from the main navigation and may only be a temporary page. Let’s say you are an active Facebook user and you are offering a special sneak peek of a new product or service you are offering. A landing page is a great solution for this scenario. You can build a special page for that product that only is visible to a certain group. A bonus for those who like you on Facebook.

Giving your visitors reasons to engage with you on social media is key. It also drives them to your website in this case—because you have new content that offers them value.

Make your visitors feel special for going the extra mile and engaging with you.

Featured Callout Areas

An excellent way to let your customers know you have new content is to include featured callout areas throughout your site. If you have an event calendar, feature some of your upcoming events on the homepage or where they may be of interest to new visitors. They may not be looking for them initially, but they could intrigue them to attend if they capture their attention.

Write a new blog post lately? Let your visitors know. Social media channels are a great way to get the word out about a new post. It’s a great way to pull your visitors into your website.

Remember, you don’t want to distract your customers from your end goal by sending them from a key page to your blog. You want your blog to act as interesting bait to get them to view you as a knowledgable, interesting source of content and service. This is why I don’t often recommend having blog post snippets throughout the website like you would an event or news piece. Unless it’s part of the goal you want to achieve, don’t drive your customers there.

Photos & Graphics

You don’t need to go through an entire re-design to refresh your website. Simply changing out some of the featured images and graphics throughout your site can make it feel fresh and revived. Doing this every few weeks can peek interest and allow returning visitors to explore other parts of your website they may not have explored.

Graphics and photography allow you to highlight a certain page or element on your website. Change them regularily along with the content in your featured callout areas. Generally people aren’t attracted to large blocks of text. Keep it simple.

Website Testing Tools

Looking to make a few changes to your website? A full redesign isn’t always necessary. Once you are happy with your website, test and keep a close eye on your analytics. Move around some page elements that may not be performing well. Try changing the colors of your buttons and callouts if nobody is clicking on them.

Crazy Egg is a great tool to see where your visitors are clicking on some of your key pages. One of their key offerings is a heat map to show where the majority of your users are clicking on the page. It also showcases how far down the page they are scrolling if you are concerned with long pages.

Making design decisions based on hard facts is a smart way to justify changes on your website. Certain things may not work for your site, whereas they make work well for someone else. It all depends on your visitors and how they are using your website.

Engage, Provide Value & Refresh

There are many ways you can engage your visitors with fresh content. Just make sure what you are providing them with is valuable and can solve their everyday problems. With any successful business, the goal is to always solve a problem.

If your local business has a website or if you’re considering a website, the homepage is important. You want to have enough information, but you don’t want to overwhelm your visitors with options.

The discussion you have with your designer about your homepage and your business is important. You need to focus on what is important to your company. You need to communicate the most important elements that make your business different from the competition.

For a local business like a restaurant or a bait shop or a grocery store there are a few key things to focus on.

Website Pages for Local Businesses

A website is a big deal for a local business. Often money is tight for something like a website. Since you’re local, the number of target customers is low relative to a national or international brand. It makes sense that your website and the site of of a huge brand would be different.

So when you look to create your first website or if you’re looking to upgrade your site, focus on these key aspects of a local site.

Each of these elements are items I would consider highly for a local business homepage.

Location and Address

For a local business it’s obviously important that people know where you are. You do business face-to-face at your store or place of business. Make it easy for people to find you. Provide your address and link to a map so visitors to your site can quickly find you. Don’t make them frustrated by clicking through a bunch of pages on your site.

Store Hours

There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a local establishment and finding out that it is closed. Make sure it’s easy for customers to know if you’re closed or not. They will probably look when they’re at home or considering the option of visiting your store. They will wonder if you’re open. Make it easy to see the answer.

Contact Information

For local businesses the most common contact information is probably your phone number. I often look for the phone number of local golf courses. It’s the only thing I’m looking for especially if I’m a repeat visitor to the course. I already know about the course. I just want to know how to contact them to make a tee time (or appointment or reservation). The same goes for email contact information or subscription opt-in information.

About Information

For new customers, they are likely wanting to do some research on your company before making a decision. have an About section on your site so these folks can read about you, your company, and what you provide. It’s important to have this info so new customers can make a good decision about doing business with you.

Product List or Menu

Depending on the nature of your local business you will probably either have a regular stream of the repeat customers or a stream of new customers that are in town to visit on business or pleasure. Some local businesses have a good mix of both. In each case a product list or a menu for restaurants is one of the most important elements of your website. Consider a person visiting your city. They are in town for dinner. A friend has recommended your restaurant. They find your website. The first thing they probably want to view is your menu. Is there an easy to see link? Consider smartphone screens and answer this question. Do you have recommended items or favorite items? Make it easy for a new person to make a quick decision.

Did I miss anything?

What do you have on your business website that is necessary for your local business?

Mine is the original Toy Story. I still remember going to the theater to see it with my family. It was my younger brother, my mom and me. We all went to the theater expecting another great Disney movie. The Micky Mouse company had been on a roll in the late ’80s and early ’90s. They were coming off their biggest hit ever with The Lion King.

Now they were partnering with a newcomer in the studio industry and people didn’t really know what to expect.

The result was a game changer.

Toy Story was one of the first computer generated animated feature films. It was amazing. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Granted, I was only about 11 or 12 at the time, but it was something special and that was evident no matter how old you were at the time.

There was something more impressive about Toy Story, though.

Take away all the computers and the animation and you were left with a great story. That’s what people connected with when it came to the movie. People went back to see the show over and over because the story was so unique and so interesting.

Beyond the story there was even more depth. There were these characters that were amazing. You had Woody the toy cowboy and Buzz Lightyear the toy spaceman. It was incredible.

The characters and the story made Toy Story a movie unlike any other.

By now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with content strategy and your business.

Thank you for sticking it out with us because now it’s time to get to the learning part of the program.

The Toy Story Content Strategy

As we’ve mentioned before, content is one of the building blocks of web design. Most people overlook the content that makes up a website. It’s actually something that needs to come before the web design process. It’s best to have the content prepared ahead of time so your designer can use the content in their strategy. You can revise the content as the designer works, but the secret to moving the project along faster is to be ready with your content.

Toy Story started as a simple idea. Over a few years, quite a few years actually, the story developed and even during production the story changed numerous times until the creators had something they felt would work. There was a lot of clutter removed until only the most interesting and simple story remained.

The focus the entire time was on the story. It was about telling something the audience could connect with. This is important not just in movies or animation, but in business and in life.

It’s essential to have a story people can relate to and understand.

For your business, it’s just as necessary to have a story people can understand. This means being able to tell someone what you do and how it can help them. You often do this in real life when you meet potential customers.

The trick with your website is to have it be you when you’re not there. Your website is basically doing the face-to-face meeting with new clients when they go online to learn about your company.

When you understand this concept it should become easier to write the content for your site. Think about the story you want to tell potential customers. Ask yourself what your current customers find interesting and most valuable for their situations. They don’t want to hear about new features and changes to your services.

Customers want to know about how they will save time and money by using your service. They want to know that they will be entertained or feel special when they use your product.

Toy Story made kids feel like they were on a big adventure. It was exciting. It made kids feel like their toys really could come to life and that made life exciting and fun The parents in the audience loved the story too. It allowed them to be kids again and look back with nostalgia on the old toys of their childhood. The story was really about the kids, not about Pixar or Disney.

And then there were the characters in the movie. The two main characters were Buzz and Woody. You still can’t go into any toy store these days without seeing these characters everywhere. Kids love them and even the parents love them.

Does your business have characters?

I’m not saying you have to be crazy and wacky. Just be yourself and show yourself to your customer on your website. People trust people. They want to get to know you and that means putting photos of yourself on the site. It means writing things like blog posts and making your site more personal. People connect with people and characters.

In the case of Toy Story it was toys that were the characters.

For your business it means that you’ll have to become the character of your business. It allows people to feel an emotional connection with your company that is lacking with other companies. It leads to purchasing decisions and loyalty. Those two things mean dollars in your pocket.

Tell a story with your blog.

As you work on your website design project remember what Pixar did way back in 1995 when they revolutionized an entire industry.

You can succeed with your website. Tell a story and make sure to include the characters.

The firm you choose to work with will have an impact on the way your brand is perceived. Everything the designer works on is a direct reflection to the entire world of your company.

That’s a lot of pressure to put on your shoulders when it’s time to choose the best firm for your company.

Is your company in the market for a new Web design firm?

Let’s explore some of the characteristics of the best design firms to help you make your decision.

Characteristics of a Great Design Firm

Design is growing in importance for all areas of the Web. Consumers are demanding quality design that is not necessarily pretty, but always relevant and effective for them. Design touches so many areas of your business (even SEO). You want to make sure your design partner is ready for the challenge.

1. Business First, Customer Second

Lots of people talk about customer first mentality. This is good, but the customer doesn’t always know what’s best. You want to find a design firm that is focused on what is best for your business first. Your company’s target customer can come second, but the decisions to be made should be about what is best for your business with specific attention to the bottom line.

2. Outcome Focused

Building on the thought of the business first mindset, outcomes are important with design. When discussing the project with a design firm be sure to get a feeling for what drives design inspiration and decision. Discuss the expected outcome of a general homepage design. Discuss the expected outcome of an email or maybe even the email sign-up area on the website. Focus on outcomes because outcomes pay the bills.

3. Prompt

Any type of project can get delayed for various reasons. You want a design firm that is prompt at all times. Give your prospective design firm a little project to test their prmptness. Give them a deadline. The best candidates will deliver a quality result ahead of schedule. This proves that the people at the firm value your time (and their own).

4. Recommendation Ready

If you’re like me then you understand that there is a lot to learn about design. I like working with designers that come prepared with recommendations. I don’t always know what I want for a landing page design or for an email design. I can give some direction, but I’m always blown away when a designer takes the time to think about my situation and comes ready with recommendations.

5. Inquisitive

I’m a fan of inquisitive people in general. Most designers are naturally inquisitive. They are creative thinkers. They are curious about things. Make sure that the firm you are working with has inqusitive people. You want the folks at the firm to ask about your business, about you personally. You also want to make sure they are inqusitive about the latest technologies and methods in the design world. This way they can make your design relevant and up-to-date.

6. Design Passionate

Obvious. You want your design team to love design. But believe it or not, this is not always the case. Be sure that even the salespeople and account reps are in love with design. Ask them what they do in their free time. Ask them if the designers paint in their free time. Do a Google search to see if they have personal websites or blogs or social media profiles. Find someone that loves design so much that they spend their free time designing. This means that design is more than just a job for them. The passion will show through in your company’s final designs.

7. Flexible-Steadfast Balanced

This one is strange, but hear me out. You want a design firm that is flexible so they listen to your input, but you also need to balance that out with a steadfast belief in their own ability. You want someone that will push back a little on your recommendations. Use your initial phone conversations to discuss design. Give your own input and see what kind of responses you get back. You don’t want your input completely disregarded, but you do want some pushback or even feedback on your input.

8. Organized

This one is obvious, but be sure to follow through where possible on this one. Does the contact at the firm have organized emails? Are phone conversations organized with agendas? Organization saves time and with projects like a website design or even an ongoing email design project time will be important.

9. Automated

Automation is the key to saving time and money. It’s strange to think about automating anything related to Web design, but there are areas where it makes sense. Ask your designer if they have any processes that are automated. This could include anything from a design method to an invoicing method. Customization and personalization are good, but some automation can speed up the process and bring results that are effective and meet a timeline. If a potential design candidate has automated processes it’s a sign they value their own time and will value yours as well.

10. Well Spoken

Most design projects will take some time. Depending on the nature of your project there could be just a few days to a few months or even a year or longer for your project to reach completion. Vital to this process is having a designer that is well spoken and versed in the art of communication. If you’re like me, design can be a foreign concept especially when someone is referring to pixels and HTML and Photoshop files. It’s confusing. If you can find a designer that can speak your language and is good at explaning what they are thinking so you understand you will save yourself a lot of headaches. You will also find yourself understanding more about the entire process, which is good for you and your company (and the designer as well).

This past week SLD launched another responsive website design for a local business in Eau Claire, WI. Molly Marie Photography came to us looking to streamline her online presence from a few sites to one. Molly Marie was concerned with the new mobile devices on the market. We provided her with a solution that would allow her to manage one website that was easy to browse on any mobile device.

Using responsive design techniques, we designed her website to adapt to the size of the device being used to view her site. This allows her visitors to browse her site without having to pinch and zoom in on their phone.

Take a look at a few of the pages below or launch Molly Marie Photography

Homepage Design

Photography Portfolio Design

Blog Design

 Mobile Design

Mobile Menu Design

When browsing on a mobile phone, it often becomes difficult to navigate a website. We’ve hidden the menu until the user clicks menu in the header of the website to save space and expose page content first and foremost.

Website Design Services Eau Claire, WI

Are you looking to improve your web presence across mobile devices? SLD in Eau Claire, WI can help!

Inquire today

The Bluebird Restoration Project of Eau Claire has recently launched a new website! SLD is incredibly happy to be a part of the Bluebird Experience this year. Their co-founder, Shelly Sutley, has a beautiful story to tell that has been inspiring many people in the Chippewa Valley and beyond.

Their organization needed a place to share their story & purpose and allow them to easily update & promote their events. Shelly Sutley wanted to build a website as a way to connect with volunteers and those who wanted to learn more about BE.

The Bluebird Experience is a group of volunteers that has worked very hard over the past six years to restore Bluebird habitats in the Chippewa Valley. Their first Bluebird Trail is located on the Hickory Hills Golf Course. The Bluebird Experience has been involved in many scout programs over the years and has found it’s way into classrooms around our community.

Sutley’s primary message with BE is to teach others of the importance of nature. She’s taught me that it’s important to have a healthy balance of technology & the simple things in life. I’ve also learned that sometimes you need to take a moment and just BE. We all get so caught up in “doing” we don’t take a moment to stop and smell the flowers or view the bluebirds :)

Ease of Growth & Sharing Her Story

Since she was 25, Shelly has been suffering from MS and it has taken a toll on her body and spirit. Shelly wants to spend time in the community telling her story and helping others appreciate nature and all it has to offer. But this isn’t always possible for as long as she would like each day. The Bluebird Experience website now allows her to share her story without exerting herself. She also has a tool that anyone within their organization can use to promote their events, products and so much more!

If you’re interested in learning more about Bluebird Restoration, I personally suggest you check out the Bluebird Festival on May 20, 2012 from 1-4 pm at Hickory Hills Golf Course in Eau Claire, WI.

Branding

Over time, the BE Organization has utilized many different logos. One of the goals they had was to streamline the branding and utilize one logo vs. 3 or 4. This will help the group be more recognizable in the community. One of the challenges with the Bluebird as an icon is that it often looks similar to the Tree Swallow. The differences between the two is that the Bluebird often has a orange, rusty chest (males) and the Tree Swallow carries a white chest. Tree Swallows also make their nests in nest boxes like the Bluebird so they can become a nuisance when trying to revive a community of Bluebirds.

We’ve enjoyed working with Sutley and her dedicated team! Take a look at their website for more information on how you can take part or get your own Bluebird Nest Box!

A consideration for some businesses comes when they need to redesign their website. The choice is if the company should change their logo and rebrand their business for the redesign.

It’s an importance decision and one that takes careful consideration.

Here are a few thoughts to consider before making your decision.

The Re-Branding Question

A site redesign is exciting for a business. Most have experimented with a first design. Their current site was probably their first introduction to the Web. Now, years since the original launch, much has changed. A website has much more to offer visitors while also offering the business owner a chance to make the site a little more usable and visually appealing.

The question most business owners have that aligns with a redesign is the question of a full re-branding effort. Since things are changing anyway it seems to make sense to re-brand the entire business at the same time.

A Fresh Start (Customer Frustrations)

A redesign and a re-branding effort signifies change at an organization. The website updates the online presence of your site. A new logo and new branding material signifies a larger change.

For a business that is changing its focus, a full re-branding effort might make sense. This has been done in the past by even well established companies. Change is inevitable in business. You could be offering a different service or product five years from now. Your logo or even your business name might not make sense with your new offerings. This point would be a good time to make a re-branding change. As the business owner, you need to go where the demand is in the market. If this requires change then you need to make a change.

With any change, though, comes resistance from the existing customer base. For some reason, people do not like change. With a new website, your existing customers will likely be a little angry at first because they’ll have to re-learn your site until they become comfortable. Eventually the site might work better for them, but in the short-term they will feel frustrated.

With a re-branding effort including a logo change, your current customers will be confused. They will have to re-associate with the new brand. The old brand will be gone and so will all or most of the good will, respect, and other intangible things that make a brand important.

It’s risky to change your brand. You basically start over. You might succeed in making the change smooth for existing customers. You might be able to save most of your brand recognition and respect, but some things will be loss.

The question is to determine the trade-off. If your business is changing and the loss of any past branding efforts are worth losing then a re-branding effort makes sense.

As you work to redesign your site or even to design your site for the first time, consider re-branding. It’s good to think about where your company is as it moves forward. If the purpose of your brand is changing then it might make sense to update your brand’s logo and other brand recognition items. There may be some resistence, but ultimately change can be good.

Just because you are having a new site created doesn’t mean you need to update or change your brand and logo. Make the decision only if your business is changing.

When you launch a new website or re-launch an existing site, something you will need to analyze return on your investment is an analytics software program. Google Analytics is a popular choice among business owners and other website owners. Google Analytics (GA) is free. That is probably the biggest reason people use it. But GA is also one of the most advanced analytics programs and has much to offer website managers. You can track traffic, sources, search, and the list goes on. You can even track various conversions including revenue conversions, which is most important for most companies. B2B companies can setup tracking for specific contact pages to track sales leads.

For these reasons, GA is one of the most popular analytics programs, which is another reason it is appealing.

There are a few threats with GA. Google has shown in the past that they will shutter programs if they aren’t meeting expectations. I don’t see that happening in the near future, though, since GA appears to be one of Google’s most popular offerings. Also, Google is (likely) able to utilize all the data in GA for its own use for its advertising programs (another possible threat to your business if you are uncomfortable with this prospect). Nothing in life is truly free.

My feeling is that Google Analytics is the best choice for the vast majority of business owners and website managers.

If you have decided to use GA I’d like to share a few beginning tips.

Beginner’s Guide to Google Analytics

Google Analytics is the best choice, in my opinion, for your website. It will be easy to use. You can login in directly with your Google account, which is becoming necessary to have in today’s online world. You account will be the same for all Google properties (Gmail, Analytics, YouTube, etc.). When it comes to an analytics program, easy access to the program and the information it contains are key. You will get this and much more with Google Analytics.

Google Analytics Setup

The setup process is pretty easy for Google Analytics. You can try it yourself. It’s not too difficult or you could have your designer add it during the site launch. Most designers are familiar with the short piece of code required on each page of your site to implement Google Analytics.

When you create your first Google Analytics site you will be given some code. Google instructs you to insert this code either in the header and footer on every page on your site. The code should be between the <body> and </body> tags. Since most sites have the same footer and header on each page it is easier to implement the code. Note: if the code is not on every page you will not be able to track all activity for those pages.

If putting code on your site scares you, consult your designer. They will be able to assist.

Traffic

Once the code is on your site and the site is live you will be ready to go. It can take a day or a few days for Google to start tracking activity on the site.

Now, the first metric you will be interested in tracking is traffic.

An important note, you will want to add your computer’s IP Address to the traffic exclusion list within GA. This will ensure that your own traffic or the traffic of others at your organization is not included in the results. This allows you to have better data when analyzing.

Traffic is pretty straight forward. You can view visits and pageviews. A unique visit is a single person that visits your site in the past 30 days. Pageviews is the number of pages viewed on your site.

You can experiment with the traffic to determine the best metrics to track eventually working your way to conversions.

Conversions

Conversions are the most important aspect of any business. A business needs profit to stay active so it makes sene to use your Google Analytics as a way to measure profit. You will need to figure out the best method for tracking profit and the metrics that lead to profit for your business.

For ecommerce sites there is a feature that allows you to connect your shopping cart and checkout with Google Analytics. You can then see your transaction information right in the Google Analytics program.

For B2B businesses that rely on contact pages, you can setup goals to determine the number of visitors using the contact pages on your site. This will be the best way to track those conversions. Goals are great for tracking a variety of conversions. As you learn more about the path your customers use on your site you can setup goals and make changes to ensure visitors are taking your intended path.

Demographics

It’s not quite as important as conversions, but there is some demographic information available in GA. You can see everything from visitor location to browser information to device information. It’s great for learning about the people that are visiting your site. You might find a few surprises.

Beyond The Basics

The power of Google Analytics goes way beyond this beginner’s guide. You can spend much more time analyzing your business and your website using all the features within GA. There are seemingly countless ways to track conversions and other metrics that allow you to make key decisions that improve your business.

For more in-depth insight into using Google Analytics you can visit these reources:

• Google Analytics Blog
• Smashing Magazine Google Analytics Guide
• SEOmoz Google Analytics Advanced Segmentation

First Reactions to Pocket

The name is very clever, much more inline to growing into other channels besides reading. People love to watch, explore and be inspired by graphics, photography & videos too. So congratulations on that front.

Just put it in your pocket.

UI Design

Pocket UI Design

Above in the new pocket UI. If you’ve ever used Gimme Bar (shown below), it’s quite similar as far as functionality goes.

The design is beautiful & very simple. Almost too simple in some respects. For the most part, the icons along the bottom allowing you to perform certain actions are self explanatory. The only confusing action is the button to the far left (shown below).

Without hovering to view the alt tag, I have no idea what that button is going to do. It wouldn’t hurt to include a label, since space does allow for it, to make the toolbar a little more user friendly.

Gimme Bar

The designs for each (Pocket vs. Gimme Bar) are slightly different in that with Pocket you can view your saved items in grid form or in list form depending on your preference. Gimme bar is much more visual in that each item can be viewed as an image, unless it’s simply an article.

The grid layout on Pocket is very tidy and has excellent typography. As you can see from this view, the thumbnails aren’t showing on the desktop version. I’m not sure if this is something that takes a bit of time to show up? Or maybe it’s not supposed to?

When saving an image, it would make sense that the image thumbnail would be displayed, rather than text.

Saving Items

Both Pocket and Gimme Bar allow you to save any type of media from any device. Pocket doesn’t require as many steps as Gimme Bar does, but Gimme bar offers more ways to sort, categorize & tag items. Depending on how your using your saved items, you may not need all the extra bells and whistles that Gimme Bar offers.

Pocket integrates very well on tablet and smartphone devices. Simply email an item’s URL to your Pocket. It also integrates with 300+ apps making saving your favorite things pretty easy.

Gimme Bar requires more steps to grab a favorite on a mobile device. Not ideal for your average web user.

How do they rate?

Visual Item View: Gimme Bar
Typography: Pocket
Ease of Saving Items (Desktop): Gimme Bar
Ease of Saving Items (Mobile): Pocket
Sharing & Discovery: Gimme Bar

Depending on your particular reasons for using either application, both are quite good in their own respects. Happy saving!