Responsive web design is the art of building websites that look good on all sorts of devices, from wide-screen monitors to smartphones and tablets.

The ability to tailor a website’s interface to a detected screen-resolution has become immensely important due to the sheer variety of devices in today’s market. Designing a fixed interface for a widescreen computer just isn’t enough anymore.

2 or more years ago, desktop computers/PCs were what most of us used to surf the Web. We used fairly standard size monitors, with resolutions of no more than 1400 pixels in width. Designing websites was easier then, with standard screen widths and resolutions allowing us to code static designs that worked with very specific screen resolutions.

It’s a very different story now – the face of the mobile web has changed, virtually overnight.

Computers, be they laptops or desktops, aren’t the only pieces of hardware people use to surf the web these days. Today’s mobile devices such as netbooks/notebooks, phones, and tablets, all come with browsers capable of providing a decent web experience. This makes the mobile web-surfing experience more important than ever.

What’s more, the huge variety of resolutions available these days isn’t just limited to small screens. Large, high-resolution displays are becoming much more common, and display sizes can range from 1024 pixels to 2560 pixels or more. Users expectations have changed along with the web-surfing landscape. They now expect their mobile surfing experiences to be just as easy, intuitive and efficient as their desktop experiences.

This is where responsive web design comes in. The term itself was first coined by Ethan Marcotte in his introductory article in A List Apart in May 2010, where he suggested ideas and techniques to help web designers and developers make optimal use of screen real-estate across the multitude of devices available today.

The ideas and techniques in Marcotte’s article include:

• Fluid Grids
• Flexible Images
• Media Queries

The Pros and Cons of Responsive Web Design

Pros
• Flexible - Delivers an experience tailored to the user’s device, with UI elements that scale to fit
• Device aware – Only content relevant to the device is displayed
• No wasted screen real estate – Content scales perfectly to fit any screen size
• Less maintenance – One source file for multiple devices
• Future proof – Websites automatically scale to accommodate new devices

Cons
• Longer design & development time – Greater complexity means longer time taken, as the same site must be tailored to fit multiple screen resolutions
• Compatibility issues with older browsers - Lack of support for media-queries on older browsers means that older devices may not display the correct version
• Longer load time – Increased load time for small-screened devices as compared to a standalone mobile site
• Inflexible Information Architecture (IA) – The website’s user experience must be broadly similar across all devices, as similar structure and navigation is used throughout all displays. This may not gel with some project objectives

Responsive Web Design in a nutshell

In short, responsive web design means that a website’s design should:
• Adapt its layout to suit different screen sizes, from widescreen desktops to mobile devices
• Resize images to suit the screen resolution
• Serve up lower-bandwidth images to mobile devices
• Simplify page elements for mobile use
• Hide non-essential elements on smaller screens
• Provide larger, finger-friendly links and buttons for mobile users

Further Reading

A List Apart: Responsive Web Design

Web Design Shock: Responsive Web Design, most complete guide

Think Vitamin: Beginner’s Guide to Responsive Web Design

Wordcamp San Francisco 2011: Responsive Web Design video

There are few things in the world that allow you to have your cake and eat it too. Hand on my heart, I’d say the Cannes Lions Festival is definitely one of them. It’s 7 days of life changing learning paired with 7 nights of industrious partying.

Listening to your heroes share inspiring and intimate stories, check. Poring over the shortlists and award winners, check. Finding kindred creative souls from Berlin to Brazil, check. Thinking “Damn, I wish I had thought of that!”, check.

Some of the talking points this year were how ‘integrated’ most campaigns have become, and whether distinct award categories were still relevant. It was also the year of the underdog, with Romania, China and South Korea winning their maiden Grand Prix, reflecting the strong growth in emerging markets.

Meeting 41 other creatives from the various Wunderman offices was definitely one of my key highlights. It was truly insightful to understand the type of work they do, their different approaches and of course, how each dealt with risk-adverse clients! Beyond ‘friending’ and ‘following’ each other, we also committed to working closely and exploring collaborations for future projects.

With a ton of inspiration and a glimpse of the alluring recognition that follows a Lion winner, I’m ever more determined to make my return to La Croisette, with work that’ll get people saying, “Damn, I wish I had thought of that!”. 

Check out www.wundermanreports.com for coverage by the 42 creatives at the festival.

Comwerks Nokia E7 Successmeter Campaign from comwerks on Vimeo.

With the launch of Nokia’s new E7 phone we worked with Wunderman on the E7 Success Campaign. The E7 is Nokia’s latest nifty gadget with a 4-inch AMOLED Capacitive Touchscreen a sleek slide-out design with a QWERTY keyboard. It comes packed with all the features to make it an indispensable business smartphone that makes your working life easier.

As part of the campaign to redefine success we got people to SMS in their own original success quotes of what success means to them and the best quote would win a brand new Nokia E7! We then showcased all the approved quotes on a digital display as part of a 62m wall advertisement down at Raffles Place MRT.

This setup was one of a kind, along with motion censored light boxes that brought the wall to life as people walk by, the digital display was made to simulate the E7 inbox to show the success quotes like real SMS’s from your friends.  The display was mounted inside a light box and hooked up to a PC that would stream the quotes over the internet.

Here are some of the behind the scenes pictures we took of the whole process!

Head down to Raffles Place MRT (Exit D) to see if your quotes made it up on the Wall, or check out the website at: www.nokia.com.sg/E7success.

Behold our Access Cards, in all their sober glory!

In the initial spirit of design ideation and sobriety, we kicked, tossed, assaulted, battered and bounced quite a few ideas around, the much-abused fruits of which evolved into the Comwerk Head-Holder Drone of Doom (with self-assembly kit).

That being done, the next logical step was of course, to insert the head of a suitable specimen. Like so.

And then it was off to the Rendering Factory (complete with Head Attachment Facility), where the guinea pig would be our Head Coder. Mwahahaha!

Fernan having suffered no (lasting, noticeable) ill-effects from the procedure, we then proceeded to (seriously, soberly) carry it out for the rest of the Comwerks folk. Some of whom appeared saner than others, post-procedure.

If you want to know how the entire collection of drones turned out, though, then you’ll just have to head over here and let us pick your brains. Braaaaains.

In a totally, sober, serious manner, of course.

Best wishes for the year of the Rabbit! Here’s our very own bunny to add to the cheer.

Make your own bunny, it’s easy. Download the pdf.

Bunny base by the talented Mclelun at mclelun.com.

It seems that during the past month or so, we’d been working in our shiny new office, blissfully oblivious to the world of spaceships and UFOs lurking behind our fragile little walls!

Further investigation may reveal what caused the sudden appearance of these interdimensional portals, but for now, we believe that they may have been created by the pewpew lazorz!!!! emitted by the ominously approaching invasion of spaceships!

We’ll need to watch our backs, though. For who knows what evil lurks in the depths of these interdimensional portals, cunningly disguised as temporary signage!

Behold! Behind two of our Heroes, deep in serious coffee-break conversation, lurks a purple alien with a distinctly evil smile!

What will happen next? Will the tentacles of doom snake out to take over the world as we know it? Will our heroes battle the interdimensional visitors and wrest the twin banners of Wunderman and Comwerks from the icy depths of space?

Stay tuned to find out…

You’ll see that The King is there to greet you when you first land on the site and underneath it, we’ve included a brief intro to the company and a link to our portfolio. Plus, there are also contact details and a Google Maps link so you’ll know where to find us even when you’re out and about.

Within the mobile version we’ve picked what we think are the most important contents and presented them in a format friendlier to your handheld device. Find out more about the company, see our work, and read up on our design musings and tasty technological thoughts on-the-go.

Give it a spin on your iPhone or Android… and let us hear what you think about it (we think you’ll like it!)

And what, you ask, was our epic loot?

This be our epic loot. Arrr!

Many thanks for all the support, guys!

P.S. Here’s a little extra seasonal cheer in wallpaper form.



Available in the following festive sizes:
1024 x 768

1152 x 864

1280 x 960

1280 x 1024

1600 x 1200

1920 x 1080

Current positions available:

• Web Designers
• Web Developers

Web Designer
You delight in designing websites that WOW audiences while staying beautifully functional. You collaborate well with team members to produce work that’s inventive, thoughtful and relevant to the client’s needs. You have a strong understanding of usability, web technologies and standards.

Requirements:

• 3+ years of relevant work experience
• Strong personal portfolio, representing a wide a range of design styles, as well as your clear personal aesthetic
• Good knowledge of HTML and CSS
• Proficiency with Photoshop, Illustrator & Dreamweaver (Flash would be a bonus!)
• Strong personal organization skills and attention to detail

Web Developer
You bring projects to life by programming clean and semantic code. You’re proficient with frameworks and love keeping abreast of the industry’s latest standards and trends. From mobile apps to rich internet applications, you approach new projects with open-mindedness and a passion for innovation.

Requirements:

• 2+ years of relevant work experience with client-side web technologies like Flash, HTML/CSS. JavaScript, and Ajax
• Good knowledge of CMS or Blog tools (Joomla, Drupal, Expression Engine, Wordpress)
• Understanding of web usability and appreciation for the aesthetics of the final output
• Comfortable with a variety of code libraries and programming styles
• Communicativeness, patience and clarity of thought under tight deadlines

Interested applicants can email their resumes and portfolio to hr@comwerks.com

Event Tracking is simple enough to implement you just need the add an onlick with the _trackEvent script. However, if there a lot of these links that needs tracking you will need to do some semi-fancy coding that will dynamically create these links with the event tracking script.

Now if you do not have access to the server-side code or if you are already using jQuery for effects, then hey, might as well use it to help us here.

Tracking external links

If you consistently use absolute urls for external links (http://www.anothersite.com/page.html) and relative urls for internal links (ex. /articles/page.html), we can use jQuery to run _trackEvent whenever the user clicks on external links:

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("a[href^='http://']").click(function(){
        _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'External Links', 'click']);
    });
});

The $(“a[href^=‘http://’]”) selector will look for all <a> tags in the current page with href values that start with “http://”. If those links are clicked, it will run the event tracking script. Nifty, eh?

We can also get the href attribute then pass it along as the Label parameter:

var url = $(this).attr("href");
_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'External Links', 'click', url]);

Now we can see how many clicks are going to a particular url in the reports. You can manipulate the url string to strip out everything except the domain name if that’s what you need to see in your reports.

Tracking downloads

To track PDF downloads we’ll just need to modify the above code a bit. The selector will have to look for <a> tags that point to anything that ends in “.pdf”:

$(document).ready(function(){
    $("a[href$='.pdf']").click(function(){
        var url = $(this).attr("href");
        _gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'Downloads', 'click', url]);
    });
});

To track multiple file types, just add them on to the selector:

$("a[href$='.pdf'],a[href$='.doc'],a[href$='.xls']").click(function(){
    ...
});

Hope this helps!

“Comwerks Interactive has demonstrated a remarkable success and growth in Singapore. We are excited at the range of capabilities we are bringing to our clients. Our combined capabilities will push us into the top 5 digital agencies in Singapore.” said Stephane Faggianelli, president of Wunderman Asia Pacific.

The Comwerks Interactive acquisition is Wunderman’s most recent step in a process that began four years ago, punctuated by the acquisition of AGENDA in 2008. Over that span, Wunderman has quadrupled its size in the Asia Pacific region and become a digital power house.

A Strong Fit
Comwerks Interactive aligns with Wunderman Singapore allowing it access to global and regional resources and clients like Dell, Microsoft, Nokia and Xbox. The move extends Comwerks Interactive’s offering in customer relationship management and data management. Like all previous Wunderman acquisitions (AGENDA, Blast Radius, ZAAZ, etc.), Comwerks Interactive will keep its name and management team in place.

“Wunderman is the fastest growing digital and relationship marketing network in Asia. Together, we will achieve greater business value for our clients and offer additional advanced marketing services; especially in the areas of customer relationship and data insights.” said Neeraj Sundarajoo, head of Comwerks Interactive.

A Solid Bond
Since its creation, Comwerks Interactive has successfully established a strong client base in Singapore; particularly in the government and public sectors. Focused on creating impactful digital user experiences, Comwerks Interactive’ approach is strongly grounded in analytics and optimization.

Strong synergies and collaboration between Comwerks Interactive and Wunderman teams already exist on several clients. Moving forward, emphasis will be on enhancing local and regional new business, providing added value through combined capabilities and enhanced services; particularly in the areas of digital user experiences, social media engagements and analytics/optimization.

About Comwerks Interactive
Comwerks Interactive is a full service digital agency specializing in digital media and web 2.0 solutions. With a balance of fresh ideas, knowledge of technology and experience in the internet space, Comwerks Interactive crafts innovative and rich experiences for its clients. It believes in things that work effectively and are measurable.

For additional information, please visit www.comwerks.com

About Wunderman
Wunderman is the original architect of response-driven marketing, an estimated trillion dollar global industry. Today, with 50+ years of innovation, creativity, and insight, Wunderman stands as the first name in advertising that delivers measurable results. Throughout its network of 130+ offices in 55+ countries and 15+ specialized companies, Wunderman speaks the customer’s language—whatever the dialect—at the right time, creating profitable conversations that build brands and generate sales. Wunderman, part of Young & Rubicam Brands, is a member of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY).

For additional information, please visit www.wunderman.com

Take this example: The king died and the queen died. The king died and then the queen died of a broken heart.

The second is more memorable than the first, although information has been added to it, because it forms a narrative. The first is just two discrete bits of information that the reader is required to remember.

Marketing works better with a story for the exact same reason.

Who can remember all the specifications of a (bear with me) iMac compared with a Windows machine? How do you influence the consumer to choose one over the other, when said consumer has problems even ‘seeing’ either product clearly? You give the machines a story - a story that people want to make their own.

Due to Apple’s great marketing, the Mac says, ‘I have taste, I’m fun, I’m creative.’ A Windows machine says, ‘I’m boring.’ (Or at least, that’s the narrative that Apple has very successfully sold.)

And it works.

The non-geeky consumer (gamers/IT folk, etc, I am NOT looking at you), goes out and buys machines based on this narrative.

One of the complaints I used to hear about Macs was that you couldn’t open it up and poke at the insides and make it work just the way you wanted to. If something was wrong with it, it was off to Apple Support, and that was that. That stood, and stands, as one of the strongest arguments against buying a Mac - at least to me.

Apple took this complaint and turned it on its head. Yes, something’s wrong. Yes, you can’t fix it, you have to bring it down to your local Apple store… but face it, you didn’t WANT to poke around in those scary computer guts anyway, now did you? Start up with a command line? God forbid!

And you know what? They’ve succeeded smashingly at it. Most folk don’t WANT to dig around in the guts of their gadgets, they just want them to work. If the gadgets stop working, they want them fixed. They do not necessarily want to do the fixing.

This is the underlying promise of the Mac narrative - and it’s brilliant. It’s not just, ‘I have taste, I’m fun, I’m creative.’ but also, ‘I don’t have to fiddle with it to make it work, or worry about making it work when it doesn’t.’

Ideas? They’re hard to hold in the mind, harder to remember, and definitely not as sexy.

Give me a narrative any time.

Comwerks will be partnering with EMA to deliver an across-the-board web strategy for its target audience who consist of the general public and energy industry players.

“EMA has a bigger role to play in Energy Innovation & Conservation. We will use social media to reach out and engage the younger generation” said Neeraj Sundarajoo, Account Director of Comwerks Interactive.

The Yearbook, which includes lots of interesting statistics from a number of reputed sources, should be an eyeopener for anyone still sceptical of online media. The key message the Yearbook communicates is that ‘connections have triumphed over interruptions’, a statement reflecting the growing importance of social media.

For those interested in reading the state of digital marketing in the various markets in Asia, download the electronic version of the Yearbook.

This project win is specially gratifying as we now have the opportunity to execute the recommendations we had made as part of an an extensive usability study for the organization earlier this year. As our creative director, Keith puts it, “The reach of PA is extremely large, touching almost all Singaporeans. We’re exceptionally excited to help reinforce this connection with the new website.”

Our approach to the new website will be to combine a fresh look with a variety of new, interesting content and more interactive features and transactional tools. The focus will be to help users be aware of and conveniently enjoy the wide array of activities and services offered by PA. “We will leverage the latest interactive media tools to deliver engaging and rich content and a quality web experience to PA’s target audience”, says Keith.

Designers tend to succumb to the temptation of overuse of such implementation technologies, just because they can or it looks special and cool. Sure, it is ok to create websites like that, but in the process, many often lose focus of the objective of the website in their rush and obsession to pimp their Java script.

Minimalism in web design is the current craze today. While it is not exactly a new concept in the area of design in general, it has taken the Internet world by storm. The core principle that governs this concept would simply be:

Minimalism = Less Clutter = Less Distractions = More time focusing on what is important

http://www.problogdesign.com/blog-usability/minimalism-is-just-designer-speak-for-laziness/

However, it is not entirely uncommon to find designers who are just simply being ‘lazy’, cobbling together a simple website and declaring it ‘minimalist’. Such websites are a dime a dozen all over the Internet. Yet, it is impossible to define what minimalism is and what is not. In the end, web designers have to remember that a minimalist website would have to be simple, yet be able to achieve the objectives of the website. It has to be functional yet aesthetically pleasing in a simple, unobtrusive manner, intuitive, elegant and user friendly. Less would then be more.

Here are 40 examples of some of the web’s outstanding minimalist designs.

http://sixrevisions.com/design-showcase-inspiration/40-beautiful-examples-of-minimalism-in-web-design/

In the brief pen sketch/ tribute to him by Chris Anderson of The Long Tail fame, Anderson writes, “As a generation grows up online, the tools of persuasion will have to be as measurable as the medium. Google does it with clicks and links, and Lindstrom does it with neurons and blood flow. Somewhere between the eye and the mouse finger is the secret to selling.”

We couldn’t agree more; which is why we spend an awful lot of time on what should appear where & how in the web design interfaces we create. After all, the goal is to create influential web experiences.

Fair enough. After all, it is the client’s prerogative to determine what they want to communicate to their target audience, and to a great extent, how (though as web strategists focused on the complete user experience we invariably have some inputs). What surprised me though was how little attention was paid to what their audience needed/ wanted.

A solid content strategy has to find the balance between ‘push and pull’, which of course depends on who you are and the intended audience is. For example, this balance will be completely different for, say, the publisher of an information portal and a government website.

By all means, use content that pushes out your agenda and communicate what you want your audience to absorb. The key thing here is to ensure this ‘push’ is done in a manner that is effective and appeals to that audience.

At the same time, ensure that enough thought is given to creating content based on user needs and expectations that will pull them in. This requires a deep understanding of the audience; we cannot over-emphasize how important it is to get this early and right in the project lifecyle. It may mean a bit of front-loading of investment in the web strategy, but as we have seen time and again, it is well worth it.

Ahh…Pure bliss! Fantasy or Fact?

One of our recent tender submissions required us to include a section on how we’d manage a project effectively. The client wanted to hear what we’d learnt from our past projects and what practical measures we could put in place to steer a project from budget and time overruns.

We’re all familiar with the standard project management stuff, but as with most things, sometimes we just need a little reminder or refresher. Well, I thought it’d be useful to share this information, and get any comments from you on your own experiences. Note: I’m just gonna copy and paste it here. So please pardon the slightly more formal-sounding tone.

1. Identify risks early and set realistic timelines - The kickstart meeting is the most important meeting for the project. In this meeting, we, together with the client, will review all possible risks associated with the project and propose appropriate mitigations. Running through the timeline and ensuring the availability of relevant personnel during the approval dates is also essential.

2. Set clear expectations and define project scope - More often than not, one of the main reasons for project failures is that the client’s expectations are not in sync with the development team. To prevent this, a thorough walkthrough of the project deliverables and scope is done at the project kickstart meeting. Sometimes, depending on how web savvy a client is, a quick lesson on how the Internet is different from other traditional mediums may be required.

3. Understand the client DNA - Not every client is the same. Each has its own style of working and corporate culture. Identifying the key decision makers/influencers and understanding their profiles at the beginning can help prevent possible clashes during the project.

4. Ensure Technology compatibility - All technology requirements (server, database, web technology, etc) must be crystal clear and frozen during the requirements gathering stage. This is crucial for projects that require web development as certain types of applications (e.g. CMS) work optimally on selected platforms.

5. Hold regular project review meetings - Meeting the client regularly to review the project status (either face-to-face or telecon) is a proven practice to ensure that timelines do not slip and follow-up actions are completed.

6. Track and consolidate all actionable items - After every meeting, we upload and update the list of actionable items to a Google Docs spreadsheet. Once an item is closed, its status will be updated online. This provides a clear overview of all outstanding items and prevents them from getting lost.

7.  Assign tasks to individuals, not to departments or groups - This prevents any miscommunication on which party is supposed to deliver what.

8. Emphasize importance and impact of signoffs -  At every approval stage, the client will be briefed about the significance and impact of the signoffs. Changes, however minor, will undoubtedly impact the project time and costs.

9. Allocate plenty of time for content creation/collation - Often overlooked, content is the key to any website development. Always establish the content owners and impose content freeze dates to avoid project delays.

Address the Issues

We asked Singaporeans how the government could better serve the people from the online perspective and here is a summary of what they said:

1. First, please get the basics right!
2. The website it not relevant to me.
3. I want to know more about you and the people behind the organization
4. I want to connect with more people like me.
5. I want to get involved and play a part.

“How to” Blogs

From the above, we can see that there definitely is scope for social and new media tools to solve all of the above and we have come up with a range of different strategies. And if you look at points (4) and (5) above, we can see that there are real communities connected to each government agency and their websites can play a key role in fostering and engaging in a conversations with these communities.

For now, I would like to explore a very simple and very workable strategy and that is to use blogs to improve service delivery and usage of online government services. This can solve points (1), (2) and in a limited way, (3). I guess you can call them ‘how to’ blogs.

Gov Gab: The U.S. Government Blog

A great example of something along these lines would be Gov Gab blog. Here’s an excerpt of what they are about:

“In our daily jobs, we encounter a staggering amount of U.S. government information and services that can benefit your life. From saving money and visiting National Parks to finding out about government auctions and the latest recalls, we want to bring these resources to you in a new way through our blog.”
Source: http://blog.usa.gov/roller/govgab/page/bios

As far as I understand it (please correct me if I am wrong), their blog helps people around the government maze to help deal with their day-to-day issues. The example below gives tips about how to bank safely during these troubled times:
It talks about and links to the 2008 Stabilization Act
It advises people on what to do when a bank fails (linking to the FDIC website)
It provides tips on how to choose a new bank (linking to the consumeraction.gov website)

Content Strategy - Anything That Is Current!

There’s one constant that almost every government website needs to be able to cope with: There is always something new to handle! New issues, requests, problem, question, can come up because of economic changes, policy updates, seasonal factors (e.g. tax filing month), things happening in another part of the world, changes in tastes, technology, health scares (e.g. SARs) you name it.

So there is great scope for new content (aka new and relevant blog posts). If you belong to a government agency, just check out the current hot items in your:
Customer support logs
Website keyword searches
Customer feedback data, surveys etc

For example, from our own continuous learning programs, we’re noticing a LOT of questions coming in about the enhanced baby bonus. Information about this topic alone can span different government agency websites. As long as there is someone in the government keeping their finger on the pulse, a typical blog post about the baby bonus can be quickly created and it can link to the different websites that deal with this same issue but in a different way.

I think it’s an approach worth exploring for the Singapore government.

The ribbon displays news articles with thumbnails and titles horizontally. Articles are grouped in tabs, based on either popularity or selected categories. A neat feature is the ability for users to hide the ribbon as well. I personally found this form of navigation quite useful and effective. Of course, too much AJAX on a webpage can sometimes be an overkill, but in this instance, I think it works for them. What do you think?

Nat Geo is probably one of the world’s largest creators and publishers of nature-related content. Covering a spectrum of topics from prehistoric creatures to the construction of modern wonders of the world, and having its own channels and magazines, they must have accumulated a wealth of information throughout these years. Coupled that with having to deal with a wide range of visitor profiles (preschoolers, educators, researchers, coach potatoes, just to name a few), revamping the website must have been one helluva mammoth task. And just to add to that, Nat Geo is one of my favourite cable channels too

Well. I just thought I’d share 3 nice features that I like about the site.

Design Consistency

Despite having probably 1000s of webpages and multiple subject matter microsites, they have managed to achieve consistency of webpage layout and design throughout all of them. From the main homepage to the Green Guide microsite, you develop a sense of comfort as you journey through the pages. Gradually, you build familiarity with the website and navigation becomes a breeze. The web designers have also allowed the personality of each section to permeate subtlety. Notice the background design that appears before it loads. Very nice touch indeed!

The National Geographic website homepage

The Green Guide website homepage

Personalized background design for each microsite or section

Neat little navigation/search tools

In the Animals section, there is a nifty search tool on the right of the page. It allows visitors to find animals in an alphabetical order, or by providing keywords in the search bar. Like all good search tools these days, it displays matching results as you type in your keywords. Move your mouse over each name and a little thumbnail of the animal appears. Now, that is what I call a great use of real estate that promotes great surfing efficiency!

Nifty search tool tucked in the top corner

Search list of animals alphabetically

Search by keyword. Thumbnail of animal appears upon mouseover!

Sample views for E-newsletters

Despite the popularity of content syndication tools such as RSS and widgets, e-newsletters are still pretty much part of any organization’s e-marketing arsenal. As a website, you want your visitors to subscribe to your newsletters. Not only does it provide a means of site updated, it can also be a source of revenue by sticking banner ads in them. However, we’ve all gone through the process of signing up for enewsletters that we found had little value later on. Some of us take the time to unsubscribe, while others (like me) choose to delete on first sight or block them subsequently. In other words, people are getting jaded from such subscriptions.

Nat Geo has added a small, but smart touch to its signup forms. It provides users to view a sample of their past e-newsletters. This way, users get to see upfront what they will be receiving in their mailboxes, and can make an informed decision on whether they wanna subscribe to it. It would be interesting to find out the impact of introducing such links, such as how it affects the subscription, open and clickthrough rates. (As I write this article, I noticed that Cnet.com has also implemented something similar however Discovery Channel has not.)

View sample of the enewsletter before subscribing

This means that Google, who currently control more than 70% of the U.S search market, would retain its dominancy, as search represents 42% of all ad spending. Display ads currently account for half that figure.

So yes. This must obviously mean that those plain text ads are the safest and most cost effective way of spending your marketing budget.

Well not really. In fact, search and display ads do not have to be mutually exclusive.

Atlas Solutions’ latest report findings showed that “When marketers supplement search with display impressions, they get a significant lift in conversions. Unfortunately, most advertisers that run both search and display are unaware of this…The study demonstrated that “users exposed to both search and display ads convert at a higher rate: an average of 22 percent better than search alone and 400 percent better than display only.”

Now did those stats make you do a double take? But hey why not, it does make sense.

Display ads are great for driving brand awareness while search ads, being contextual in nature, have always provided better clickthroughs and conversions. Combine them both and you’ll stand a higher chance to closing that sale.

“The study, entitled Close the Loop: Understanding Search and Display Synergy, found that when combined, search and display advertising deliver profoundly better results than when used independently. The study showed a significant lift in onsite engagement and an increase in online and offline purchasing by consumers who are exposed to integrated campaigns that employ both types of online advertising.”

And from Google or formerly Google

“Grant MacFarlane, head of search at Havas agency Media Contacts and previously head of client services at Google, agrees. “Search often takes the glory for the purchase, as a lot of agencies can’t track back to see where someone saw a banner ad that got them searching in the first place,” he says. “We’ve seen a 15% or 20% uplift when you run display and search in tandem.”

There are tools that help clients track how their different ad types are performing in relation to one another. Yahoo provides an online advertising tracking solution called Full Analytics that measures how that display ad was driving additional conversions to your other ad channels.

So the next time you’re planning your online ad campaign, try to do a mix of both. Measure your ROIs and see whether two, is better than one.

In the past, as a general rule, I have always suggested that the form labels be right aligned. There were 2 main reasons for this recommendation:

1. We noticed that, with the left-aligned labels, some of the users ended up entering the data in the wrong input field (e.g. the input field one line below) due to the long distance between the label and the input field.
2. From what we observed, forms with right-align labels were perceived to be visually less cluttered (this was great for forms that would only be used once or very infrequently).

However, recently I have come across some excellent work done by Luke Wroblewski and Matteo Penzo that took my understanding of label alignment to another level. Here’s a summary of what they have reported:

LEFT-ALIGNED LABELS

• Easy to scan through the labels. This is especially useful if the form is long and it is likely to be filled by users unfamiliar with the form (they are more likely to scan through the form to determine what information is required of them).
• Long forms, with many optional input fields, can possibly benefit from left-aligned labels, because users can easily scan what is required to be filled.
• Requires less vertical space.
• Slowest completion rates (this may or may not be a bad thing…it really depends on your objectives).
• Poor association (i.e. long distance) between the label and its corresponding field. This can result in data entry errors. The effect is worsened when some labels are very long.
• Not flexible enough to deal with large changes in label lengths.

RIGHT-ALIGNED LABELS

• Good association between the label and the corresponding field. Among other things, the short distance tends to result in reduced number of data entry errors.
• Requires less vertical space.
• Fast completion times (but still slower than top aligned forms).
• Reduced readability of labels, especially with long forms. This becomes an issue for new users who are unfamiliar with the form. The left rag of the text makes it difficult to scan though the labels to find out what is required of them to complete the form. However, short forms like the one on Facebook, are unlikely to suffer from this problem. Yahoo also shows how to overcome this problem by breaking up the form into clear sections.
• Not flexible enough to deal with large changes in label lengths.

TOP ALIGNED LABELS

• Fastest completion times (because users could capture both the label and the input field with a single eye movement).
• Works well when people are familiar with the data being collected.
• Good for localization. Works well if the form is being translated simply because of the space it allows for variations in label lengths (e.g. German and French words can be twice as long as English).
• Requires the most vertical space.
• Requires sufficient spacing in-between lines.

Which is the best format? Well, that depends on the context.

• How familiar are your users with the form or the individual labels?
• Is the form going to be used frequently? If ‘yes’ then efficiency becomes an important factor. In that case, a top-aligned form could be the way to go. If it is a registration form, which your users will probably only fill in once, then you could consider left-aligned labels (if it is a long form) but personally, I feel a better option would be to use right-aligned labels and break it up into very visually clear sections.
• If localization is an issue and you need to translate the form into many different languages, then top aligned labels gives you the most flexibility.
• Have you got vertical space limitations? Then you may want to avoid top aligned forms.

The best advice I can give is to understand your context and weigh your options. The points above will give a sense of what will work. Use the information to try out different designs. The next step would be to test out different design version by conducting AB Split Testing, Multivariate Testing or Taguchi Testing methods. Of course there are many other testing methods out there. In my opinion, however, these tests are simplest to execute. It is always a good idea to get actual usage data to back up your design ideas. Many times, the results can surprise and give you new insights about what design works best for your users.

I’ve been using the KANO model for some time now with great effect for several of our web development projects. So far, it has worked better than all expectations. Basically, it helps us to break down the customer requirements (derived by conducting various types user research) into the Basic, Performance and “Wow” components and allows us to adopt a tactical approach to website re-design roadmaps. To those who are familiar with the KANO model will immediately understand what I’m driving at. To the rest who are not familiar with this model, here’s a quick explanation:

The KANO model essentially breaks features into three separate categories:

• The “must have” features (i.e. the basic requirements)
• The “performance” features
• And lastly, the “excitement” or “wow” features

How do these three different types of features affect customer satisfaction?

• Basic: Customers get pretty annoyed when this type of feature is missing but they are neutral when it is available. For example, a hotel room with no toilet paper.
• Performance: Customer satisfaction increases as this type of feature is better implemented; example the fuel efficiency of a car.
• Excitement or Wow features: Customers won’t be too disappointed if these are missing but having these features can result in great customer satisfaction and it can differentiate you from your competitors.

If you want to learn more, then c2c Solutions have a great 8-Minute KANO Model Tutorial. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about this model.

How can I identify these requirements for my own website?

This is the tricky part. Very likely you will find that when you do your usual user research studies (surveys, focus groups, observation studies, etc etc), the respondents don’t explicitly communicate this requirements outright. This is especially true for the basic and the excitement features. The bottom-line is that you need to roll-up your sleeves and really spend time to analyze the data. Put on your thinking cap and have a group brainstorming session with the team. Make sure you have people with different disciplines and backgrounds to be part of that discussion.

A word of caution though - you can’t take everything that your customers say as gospel. Sometimes, some of the basic stuff that they need are just way over-the-top. Implementing them would just cause more problems. Another problem is that we find that customers don’t really know how to articulate a “wow” feature. The key is to identify a latent need or a “I wish I could..” from the research and think about how to go about solving this for them.

Can you give me some general examples of basic, performance and excitement features for websites?

Hopefully, yes….soon. Here’s where we’re at right now:

1. We’ve adapted the KANO model and used our online survey tool to gather customer requirements.
2. We structured the survey and the questions specifically to identify the basic, performance and excitement factors.
3. We’ve collected about 15,000 respondents from all over the world. Our study only covers Singapore websites. We hope to start with Malaysia and Thailand soon.
4. We took this data and put it into a text data mining tool (we’ve tried using SPSS Text Analysis for Surveys but we want to experiment with other tools as well, such as RapidMiner/YALE, which is an open source solution).

At this point, we’re still analyzing the data but the great part is that we’re starting to see a pattern. It seems like there is a possibility of creating a generic list of basic, performance and wow factors that most websites should (may?) have.

Its still early days yet, but I hope to get to publish some updates over the next few months. So do stay tuned. The first update will probably come out by the end of September.

The Cloud has been the ubiquitous symbol of the Internet in Network Diagrams from the beginning. One of the possible reasons that the Internet is referred to as the “Cloud” is because like a real cloud, it has connections to pretty much everywhere … and it transfers information to and from various hosts connected to it either directly and/or indirectly.

Typically, Cloud Computing would refer to the available computing power/storage which is not on the same physical network, but which is available for use online and is accessible from any place with a reasonably fast internet connection — reasonably fast since one needs to work at an acceptable pace. However, the emphasis of cloud computing is really not blazing speed. Its more about flexibility, adaptability and availability. How about accessibility, one might ask. That would depend on how good or bad the connectivity to the Internet is from that particular point of access.

Let me try to put this forth from a layman’s point of view. I create a document, which I intend to share with a few people. To do this, I would have to either copy the document onto some physical media — say a CD or a USB Dongle, or, I would have to email it across to the people with whom I want the document to be shared. But that’s not the end. Each of the readers is bound to put in his/her thoughts and also comment upon what’s already there. And this has to be shared among the rest as well … so pretty soon, it reaches a stage where there are multiple versions of the document and realistically, nobody knows which is the latest version. The bottom line is that was was meant to be a systematic creation of a document that incorporates the views of multiple creators, soon becomes a directionless tangle of ideas.

So, let’s try this the “Cloud Computing” way, using Google Apps as our tool of choice — the author creates the document, and he “shares” it with others who would be collaborating with him on this document. While sharing, he defines the access rights of each of the collaborators, whether they are allowed just to view or whether they are allowed to edit the contents of the document. As such there is only one copy of the document that is shared among the various collaborators and each one gets to see all the edits made by all the other collaborators in real time. In addition, if two or more collaborators are editing the same document, their edits are also visible to each other in near real time. The best part of the deal is that these users work from a Web Browser, which is available in pretty much every computer. They need not jump through hoops to install any special software to get this working.

So far, I have been going on about what is Cloud Computing and its time I got down to the crux of this blog post — it is a Boon or is it going to create more problems than it is going to solve. Let’s look at the pros and cons:

The Pros -

• It would allow seamless collaboration and also tighter control of the versions and the number of copies of a single document
• It saves a fair amount of licensing costs to the end-user (in terms of the requirements that the user would have to have licensed copies of all software required to create the document on his/her computer)
• It reduces the infrastructure cost (even a simple PC can be used to access the internet and create documents on the cloud)
• From an organizational perspective, it reduces the investment in High Performance Hardware which would otherwise be required to get the same job done within the organization
• For the mobile worker, it would allow creation/modification/sharing of working documents irrespective of location and hardware platform — access is possible from Desktops, Laptops, Palmtops, Mobile Phones and across multiple operating systems

The Cons -

• Accessibility, while normally taken for granted, can depend to a great extent, on the available connectivity at the point of access
• Creating/Storing/Sharing documents on a third party server hosted on the Internet may run foul of organizational policies related to storage of sensitive/critical information
• Use of weak passwords for access to such “hosted” application could compromise the integrity of the overall system
• System Upgrades, when they go wrong, can cut off access to such Cloud Computing Resources

Given the above issues, it becomes quite a difficult call to generalize whether Cloud Computing is a Boon or Bane. It all boils down to what each individual user would want to use the cloud for and what he/she intends to get out of it. Ultimately, from the organizational perspective, Cloud Computing may not be a 100% solution since one would have to balance between ease of use and organizational security policies already in place. But for a freelancer, Cloud Computing is a real Boon. The stage is now open for the rest of you to come out with your vote …

Addendum: Just after I chose this topic to blog about and posted my take on it, the FlexiScale Cloud hosted by xCalibre lost a part of itself — and they seem to be putting this down to, of all things, “Human Error” !!

I have been doing these workshops for the government for about 6 years now and one trend that I have noticed is that the participants are becoming less and less…”gahmen”…if you know what I mean. Of course, I meant that in the nicest possible way

This last workshop was a real blast. You guys really made it an enjoyable session. Thanks to all the participants, starting with Xinying, Say Fern, Adelyn, Allan, Cheng Kok, Rosita , Mei Hui, Rohaizan, Margaret, Soo Chin, Amirrudin and Jian Ping. Thanks again and do keep in touch!

For those interested in web design workflow processes, Jeremiah Owyang has compiled a pretty comprehensive list.

Just like in my previous post about the Blind Men and the Elephant, different people have different ideas on how Technology should work for them. Some of them would like to wear it on their sleeve, where it would be visible to all, while others could not be really bothered about IT as long as their their work got done and their targets were achieved.

The world is a mixed bag where different people would like to do things differently — in their own way. Some of the users of technology, who consider themselves tech savvy, would probably want Technology to play a “visible” role in their day to day life. However, there are others to whom technology is more a support service and such people, would normally want technology to play an active role, but from the background.

For most part, such people get turned off by technology. They consider technology as a force that could possibly curtail their natural tendencies. Intelligent use of technology, on the other hand, would make such people feel at home with adopting new technologies, for most part without even noticing technology playing a part in their lives.

At Comwerks, we believe that technology is one of the key drivers in what we do, but we would also like to believe that Information Technology = Invisible Technology: where technology delivers results from the background.

Starting first with my workshop on the 15th of July:

Ranjini, Raihidaya, Amanda, Melanie, that’s me, Chiew Leng, Margaret, Ion, June, Ismiati and Joann.

Here’s the picture for the June 25th Workshop:

Teow Gay, Christina, Anna, Wendy, Vanesa, Shumin, Seck Leng, Wee Chyn, Shamsiah, Kelvin, Kian Pin, Peggy.

Thank you all for your participation in the workshop. I enjoyed both sessions thoroughly and I hope I get a chance to catch up with each and every one of you in the near future

STEP 1: Go to www.google.com/trends and key in “website, web site” into the text box

Step 2: And the winner is…

If you look at the two lines above the time line, you will see more people search for “website” compared with “web site”. End of argument. I’ll just add “website” to my dictionary. On occasion, we do use this technique in our website development work, especially in areas where we need fast customer insights about which is the most appropriate label to use for navigation, page titles, links and so on.

Why is this important?

Well, if you care about your search engine rankings, you do want to make sure that your keywords match the most popular keywords that your customers are using. For those of you who have had experience designing and managing websites, you will know that finding the right label and wording can sometimes be a nightmare task:

• “Should we call it “cheap flights” or “low fares”? (This example was used by Gerry McGovern in one of his web seminars which I had the pleasure of attending)
• “Point and shoot camera” or “point and click camera”?

In the past, we were in the dark about what is the correct label to use. Now we have free tools at our disposal that give us instant insights.

Googlefight

I’ll show you another tool called Googlefight. It is pretty much the same thing as Google Trends, just funnier and without the trends:

Simply enter the keywords that you want to compare and “make a fight”. You’ll actually see two guy fighting it out on the screen. I couldn’t capture it fast enough but you can try it out for yourself. In this case, we compared “point and shoot camera” with “point and click camera”:

Does it impact online sales?

The bottom line is that if you use the label “point and click camera”, you’re exposing yourself to 8.4 million more search results. For any website that sells these stuff, this number must be staggering. I decided to investigate further and I did a search for “point and click camera” and I found this website called ciao! on the top three of the first page of Google. If you look closely at the title below, you can see that they use the term “point and click”:

According to Googlefight, 1.5 million people would have probably seen ciao’s listing on Google. But what about the other 9.9 million who searched for “point and shoot”? I couldn’t find ciao! listed in the first three pages of the Google search results page based on this keyword.

Dominate both “shoot” and “click”

In my opinion, ciao! should consider creating pages for both these keywords. There are 9.9 million people who search for “point and shoot”. Surely that would have an impact on their online revenues?? Naturally, we have to offset this with the higher cost and effort to get this page listed on the first page of Google based on the “pont and shoot” keyword but it may well be worth the effort. It would be interesting to find out how their online sales for this camera (or their entire website for that matter) would be affected by such an exercise.

Read article

“Hangin’ with da big boyz”

Relevancy refers to how information will be presented to you, the user. It means having a website customizing or personalizing your surfing experience, only displaying information which you will find useful/interesting.

Social refers to the connections and interactions which you and your friends share online. This could be done via email, instant messaging, forums, groups, and social networking sites, to name a few.

Interestingly, in his keynote speech, Brad Garlinghouse, SVP, Yahoo! demoed some screens on how the future My Yahoo page could look like. It would sort your mail and display it accordingly by your social group, for e.g. family, friends, co-workers, etc. It would do this based on connections which you may have specified on your list of contacts or perhaps by studying your previous communication behavioral patterns.

Your network of friends belongs to you, not Facebook.
Currently, users that migrate from one social networking site to another have to re-build their network of friends from scratch. This process can be extremely tedious, especially when history has shown, users’ loyalty to social networks isn’t exactly built on solid ground.

In the future, it is envisioned that websites will be connected to a single source to access your social network. By doing so, this would not only make your network portable, it would enable you to enjoy richer experiences across multiple sites. For e.g. On your iTunes page, you would be able to see which new track that Julian, your jazz cat pal, bought yesterday. Julian and you could be connected in Facebook as sharing similar musical tastes. Hence, by only showing you relevant information, iTunes would stand a higher chance of you downloading the jazz track as opposed to just showing you the latest hip hop tracks.

Cha-Ching!
This presents a great opportunity for marketers to provide even more targeted messaging to consumers. Beyond just behavioral targeting, now there is this vital layer of relevancy & social which could provide just that extra motivation to make that sales purchase.

Rise of Social Media
Most of the speakers couldn’t reiterate enough the importance and relevance of social media today. When used properly and skillfully, it provides an extremely cost effective method of marketing. Classic examples sited were the Diet Coke/Mentos video contest that got massive viewership eyeballs.

Leap of Faith
When dealing with social media campaigns, marketers also advise agencies to encourage their clients to take a leap of faith to do radical or unique ideas. It may bomb or score. But if it scores, it usually scores big time. (Think GoDaddy’s Superbowl ad campaign). What is most important is that these campaigns still continue to reinforce your branding and image to consumers in a positive manner.

Don’t get stuck in between
In the session on Widgets in the Media Mix, Derek Callow, Marketing Manager, Google SEA, sketched a simple bell curve to illustrate the point that on the web, both extremely bad or good ideas get viral. The in-between usually just fizzles and sometimes doesn’t even float. A good and bad viral campaign would reap you many times more in terms of publicity and awareness. But of course, not all publicity is good publicity.

image source: http://www.davidmeermanscott.com

Power to the People
Some companies have embraced users’ input in shaping their products and services. Several case studies were mentioned on how users were involved in determining what features should be built for a new mobile device. Or how users were polled to decide how a movie should end.

In short, we will continue to see more instances of how companies will embrace social media to provide their customers with relevant and greater experiences. This will in turn provide new opportunities for them to build, create and maintain long-lasting relationships.

At this event, you will get to meet the Comwerks Team as we share our expertise in digital interactive media and web 2.0 solutions. We will show you how an injection of fresh ideas can craft a creatively rich experience while striking a balance with innovative technology.

    As the digitization of media continually redefines the business of marketing, the most important thing for us is to give you a unique position to immerse yourself in digital technologies. Do something unique. Do something people would not expect. Come connect with us and experience it for yourself!

    We look forward to seeing you there!  

Regards, The Comwerks Team

ad:tech is an interactive advertising and technology conference and exhibition which will be held at the Suntec City Convention Centre on the 26th & 27th of June 2008.

“PetrolWatch gives drivers an easy access on the updates of fuel prices for all the 4 fuel stations. It also provides a clear guide for available discount to help drivers made better decision to save money on fuel.”

- Comment from PetrolWatch Visitor

PetrolWatch.com.sg was launched in 2005 and the last design revamp was way back in 2006. It’s due a design facelift and so, we ran an online survey from late May to early June 2008. In that short time we managed to collect over 405 responses. Overall, PW scored 6/10 in the customer satisfaction score and successful task completion rates were around 72%. Not bad for a pro-bono project by Comwerks Interactive. To everyone who participated, the team would like to say a big “thank you”! Your comments were really a big help. It gave the team a huge lift. They are currently working on the new design right now and for all the PetrolWatchers out there…

Here’s a Sneak Preview of the New Design

Your Comments Have Helped Shape The Design

Here are some of the more interesting comments from the survey, good and bad. I’ve given the Editor of Petrolwatch the chance to reply

PetrolWatch: Unlike before, it is getting increasingly harder to receive tip-offs for impending petrol price spikes/dips. Previously, we also used to be on the fuel companies’ media distribution list. However, with prices moving only northwards, things have suddenly been less chummy. Go figure!

PetrolWatch: Actually, we do indicate the time of price changes accordingly for each brand in our NEWS section. Most of the time, all 4 brands move between 2 - 12 hrs of each other. If you look hard enough, you’ll be able to suss out the usual suspects.

PetrolWatch: Yea, its not easy calling 3000 over carparks everyday y’know? Haha! But seriously, it became quite a logistical challenge to update the prices accurately. I know we disappointed a lot of folks out there but we’re working on getting the system smarter, and more efficient. This is one of the main reasons why we’re gonna be adopting a more “wiki” styled approach for the next version. Watch out for it!

PetrolWatch: Now we’re talking..*smug smile*

PetrolWatch: Your wish is granted! The new design will have this!

PetrolWatch: Sounds like a good idea. We’ll definitely consider putting that in as an enhancement once the new site is up and running.

And lastly

PetrolWatch: No need la. The new site will be FREE to all. So no more subscriptions fees whatsoever!

Top Ten Things That People Wanted to See in PetrolWatch

1. Petrol price comparison in one glance (including trends and credit card discounts)
2. Location of petrol stations
3. COE prices and price change over time
4. Car park information (cheapest car park)
5. Tips & tricks for drivers
6. Car reviews & car accessory info
7. Car wash info (places offering cheap car wash & vacuum services)
8. More lively forums and blog (I want to interact with other drivers)
9. Traffic info
10. No more subscription plans! Make it free for all!

Customer Satisfaction Score (60%)

Overall, Comwerks scored 60 out of 100 in the customer satisfaction scores. We asked people to rate the website on a scale of 1 to 10. This very useful for us because it tells us where we stand right now. We’ll be measuring again after we launch the new design so that we can capture the “BEFORE” & “AFTER” results.

The Major Problem Areas

The next thing we needed to figure out was to identify the major problem areas. The biggest gripes were hard-to-find information, incomplete content and the lack of a search feature.

• The main reason why information was hard to find was because of the fact that you had to sign up to use most of the services in PetrolWatch.
• The second reason was that it was not easy to view the information at a glance. And some really information were practically hidden (e.g. Price Guru). The new designs solves all this.
• Another problem was the fact that the information was out-of-date. The guys at PetrolWatch know this and they have sorted things out to keep things ticking along nicely.

72% of Participants Could Complete the Their Tasks On the Website

Overall, the top 3 tasks that people wanted to perform on on PetrolWatch are:

1. Check current petrol prices and price trends
2. Check for credit card discounts
3. Look for car & petrol related information (e.g. tips on fuel efficiency, car accessories, news)

We asked the visitors if they were able to complete the task that they set out to do and 72% said YES while 28% said NO. This showed the PetrolWatch team that they really needed to focus on getting this basic information out as easily as possible, so that people can quickly compare and get a grip on prices and discounts. It also pointed to a navigation re-design.

Look out for the new PetrolWatch in end July!

Once again, to everyone who participated in the survey, your comments really helped us a lot. The PetrolWatch team are working hard to get the new design launched. We hope you like it

In all, none of them had a clear idea of what the elephant really looked like. Each one perceived it to be something different. Their idea of what the elephant looked like was driven by their mental perception.

Technology is becoming a driving factor in today’s world. It cuts across geographies, industries, cultures and generations. There are very few areas in one’s life today where technology does not play a role. An extreme instance is sports technology abounds whether it be a physical sport such as football or athletics, where the emphasis is on the capability of this wonderful natural machine know as the human body.

But despite its all pervasiveness, there is no single answer to the question “What is Technology?” is it a driving force? Is it an enabler? Taken by itself, is it a means to an end? Each individual would have a different answer. Just like the 5 blind men, each individual would define technology in the way he or she perceives it.

The depth to which technology influences their life would primarily drive this perception. For example, a teenager would equate technology with his computer, music player and the umpteen gadgets that he is the proud owner of a businessman would define technology as something which makes him more efficient in business, a doctor would define technology as an aide to his knowledge and skills, and for some gifted souls in this world, technology means well, nothing!!

We at Comwerks believe that Technology, if properly harnessed, is a great way to express ones-self. Having said that, we also believe that it is purely a means to an end.

We would like to know what Technology means to you!!

As an interactive agency, we’re fortunate to be in the business during a time when the Internet is aggressively stamping its authority as the most pervasive form of media ever.

The Internet is a great field leveler, enabling smaller agencies like ours to compete with the big boys with larger teams and fancier coffee machines.

Websites such as iStockphoto and to a lesser extent, Template Monster (yikes! did I say that?) have revolutionized the way the industry works. These sites sell digital media files such as website templates, icons, photos, illustrations, videos and flash animations at low prices, enabling our designers to whip up visualizations and mockups quickly and effectively.

Want an image of a sunny beach resort? Or even a 1960s retro Caribbean-styled illustration of a tropical palm tree? You can almost swear by your grandmother’s grave that you’ll find it on one of these sites.

iStockphoto is one of the pioneers of microstock photography. They became a significant enough player to be bought out by industry giants Getty in 2006. Beyond offering low cost access to their stockpile (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!), they successfully built a large and active community of independent contributors. This enabled them to provide an unrivalled range of files for sale, at a very good refresh rate. From just photos, they now offer almost all types of digital media files. In May this year, they announced that a new stock audio service would be available in September 2008.

With the ease of browsing and shopping online, coupled with access to an amazing range of design work from designers all over the world, we may be witnessing yet another paradigm shift in the creative industry.