The first point to make is that if you have a very simple, ‘brochure-ware’ type website (as we call it), then simply creating a mobile friendly site that is 960 pixels wide or less may just work. But for sites that are more complex or involve e-commerce, you’ll have to think about your strategy.

The reason for this is that for many websites, it won’t be enough to make your site fit in a phone. Have you ever tried to navigate a complex site on your smartphone? It’s do-able, but not friendly. What about the tablet version of your website? Many sites render just fine in the iPad, but have you noticed the performance of the site when you display photo transitions in JQuery or other browser intensive tasks?

Consider this. Over 33 million Americans will use a tablet by the end of 2012, an increase of 158.6 percent over 2011. By 2014, the number of tablet users will rise to 90 million, or 27.7 percent of the U.S. population according to eMarketer. Throw in the fact that Apple may decide to lower the pricing of the iPad 1 or iPad 2 to $200 or less (in an attempt to squash Amazon’s Kindle Fire) once the new iPad launches next month, the number of people that are viewing websites on tablets is going to skyrocket.

Overwhelmed yet? Try this on for size — Apple’s new iPad has reported with a resolution of 2048 x 1536! Have you considered how that will affect the design of apps, mobile web apps, websites?

Many things to consider.

There are a couple sites that are catching our attention. First, People.com just launched an iPad friendly site. While we’re not impressed with the design, it’s a good example of a major player that is designing specifically for the iPad. Note that you can ‘swipe’ on this site, though it’s a bit clunky.

Below is an example of the ever-digital Nike. Leaders in the digital space, Nike is always pushing the boundary of design. This is a good example of a sexy design that is tailored specifically for iPad users.

There are other examples that use third party tools like OnSwipe. One of these is MarieClaire.com. iPad users will see a friendly version of a site in HTML5. The upside to a service like this is that it gets you up and running very quickly with a platform specific design. But it may not be the best option for those sites that need a tailored experience.

In the coming months you’ll see more and more samples popping up of sites that are tailored specifically for Smart Phones, tablets and the web. In fact, we’ll be featuring some of these in our design portfolio in the coming months.

So, what is the difference between a mobile web app and a native app?

In its simplest form, a Mobile Web App (also known as a “web app”) runs with all or parts of its software downloaded from somewhere on the internet each time the app executes.

A native app, on the other hand, is designed to run on a specific device’s operating system and firmware. (think iPhone app) In order to run on other devices a native app will either have to be completely rebuilt or some adaptations will need to be made.

Web apps, however, don’t tend to be as popular as native apps, and there are two primary reasons why:

• Because of the “cool” factor of native apps, vendors are more interested in promoting native apps than web apps
• You can take more advantage of Native phone functions with a Native app, i.e. Push notifications, access to native functions (take a photo/choose existing photo)

Why might you use mobile apps instead of native apps?

Each type of app has its own distinct advantages.  The strengths of Mobile Web Apps mostly benefit application developers.  Here are some of the advantages they enjoy:

• Total control over distribution of the app
• Web apps are typically cheaper and faster to create
• They take advantage of existing web technologies like JavaScript and CSS (and HTML5), making the technical barriers to create a web app lower than Native.
• Skilled web app developers are easier to find than programmers who know the iPhone’s Objective-C
• Web apps are run on browsers, making device-specific customization much less difficult
• W3C is heading an effort involving browser vendors and handset manufacturers and operators to allow Web apps access to a variety of device capabilities

While web apps have many distinct advantages, they do have one drawback. The user needs to download most, if not all, of the data for the Mobile Web App. (Roaming data charges apply). With a Native App you are able to package the information into the phone for seamless access and playback.

Two Very Alluring Features of Web Apps

Not only do web apps have some of the benefits listed above, but they also have three distinct features businesses love.

The first is that, for simple applications, you can pretty easily wrap up a HTML5 web app into a native app ‘wrapper’, so you still have the ability to push it Native.

The second, and probably the most significant feature, lies in the fact web apps aren’t sold through an app store.  Apple’s app store is notorious for taking 30% of a company’s app sales and withholding important consumer data.

Thirdly, you reach a wider audience versus limiting yourself to one platform, or having to develop for multiple platforms. (i.e. iOS, Android, WP7/8)

Since web apps run through your browser, companies who would rather not lose this revenue and consumer data, such as fashion magazine Marie Claire (who optimized its site for the iPad) and London’s Financial Times paper (who launched its site as an HTML 5 web app), have found their own ways of working around the drawbacks of native apps. And the word on the street is that a Jivaldi client, Mountain Mikes Pizza, is going to release something soon here?

So, are native apps or web apps better?

While native apps are ‘sexy’ to build and promote, they still need to provide something useful for potential customers.  Many times companies will often become so wound up with the “cool” factor that they forget to make the app useful and build it for their customer. The result? Very few people actually download the app.

While there are obvious instances of why certain apps should be native (i.e. games) this article was written to highlight the potential advantages of Mobile Web Apps. The truth is that either option works well in the right set of circumstances.  If you take the time to consider the following questions, you’ll come up with the right solution to your problem:

• Who is my audience?
• Do the reasons for going native outweigh the need to reach beyond, say, iPhone users?
• What is the goal of my app?
• What is my budget?
• Will there be a need to create the app for additional platforms beyond iOS (Android and WP7)?

In the end,  the decision to go Native or not will depend on several different factors. So it’s not such a simple answer to determine which direction to move in. Keeping things simple is a good place to start.

Hopefully we’ve shed some light on why a Native app should be part of the decision making process.

For those concerned about privacy, Find My Face doesn’t automatically allow you to be tagged if you forget to toggle some settings (unlike Facebook). It defaults to keeping you as safe and protected as possible.

Product counsel at Google, Benjamin Petrosky, laid out some additional details about the product at a FTC forum for facial-recognition technology.

“When a Google+ user uploads a photo, for example, they will receive a prompt to opt-in to Find My Face, turn the feature on (see image below), or say no”, Petrosky said. “If you upload dozens of photos from a party the night before, the facial-recognition technology will look through those photos and suggest people to tag; anyone who is tagged will receive an email notification, with the option to untag themselves.”

There were reports earlier this year that Google was developing a facial-recognition app. Google denied this however. Later, Google purchased facial-recognition company called Pittsburgh Pattern Recognition (aka: PittPatt).

“Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”

Here is a story of “Vince” (CNN) who says he started collecting Tokien collectibles, after reading the books in the early 1960s. He later hired an architect to piece together his vision for a ‘hole in the ground’.

Did you know that it’s been 10 years since the release of Fellowship of the Ring?

The reservation page was simply laid out with not a lot of distracting elements. Basic questions.

Naturally, after filling out the form, I received an automated email thanking me for the reservation..etc. What I didn’t realize is that someone would actually pay attention to the details of the form. This impressed the hell out of me and prompted me to write this blog post.

To provide a little backdrop. I’ve been email marketing for 14 years. Yes, before there were 8 million email marketing systems to choose from there was Excel and Microsoft Outlook (and plenty of copying/pasting). I started by simply sending out basic emails to an Excel (manual) database. Later, I would test multiple systems as they came out, build our own custom systems and continue to send out hundreds of thousands of email (yes, opt-in) for our clients every year.

More often than not, spending the amount of time I do with various digital marketing practices, I am highly critical of corporate Internet Marketing practices as they are often poorly constructed, lack an effective blend of design and usability and are (at best) minimally effective. Should I tell you how I really feel? Anyway, Ruth’s Chris paid attention to detail and made sure that the little radio button that said “Anniversary” next to it was attached to this reservation.

So we show up the restaurant at 7:15, right on time. I had completely forgotten about the form I had filled out and was a little confused when the hostess said Happy Anniversary. I thought to myself, ‘umm, were we radiating some kind of love aura that she picked up on?’. Anyway, we said ‘Thank You’, but didn’t think much of it. So next we arrived at our table and there were Rose Petals laid out all over the table. Me, being a master of detail and fine points, had no idea that this was the only table in the restaurant with rose petals all over it. My wife noticed however and (I later found out) she was quite proud of me that I took the time to do something a little extra for our special night.

Shortly thereafter I realized that it was simply the result of a newsletter and a click of a radio button that had created these ‘romantic extras’. I haven’t yet revealed to her that these comments and rose petals did not originate from yours truly, but she will see this blog post.

So, Honey, I love you and Happy 10th Anniversary, but I have to pass some credit to Ruth’s Chris for paying attention to detail and effectively blending their digital efforts with customer service.

In order to create a call to action that really works, it is important to follow a few basic guidelines:

• Relevance. Either inform your visitors how your product can be useful for them, or discuss their problem in detail and offer your solution. Before you actually make a call to action, it is first important for your visitors to understand why it’s important they take action.
• Be concise. Don’t offer your visitors multiple different actions to take – lead them to one specific action and show them exactly how to do it. If there is any difficulty whatsoever, your visitors know they can always find someone else to solve their problem, and that’s something you don’t want to happen.
• Be urgent. Inform your users why they need to take action now. Will there be dramatically different results in their lives as a result of their using your product or service? Does this offer expire soon? Can your users get something for free by acting fast? The answers to these questions will help you to develop a stronger sense of urgency.
• Create a Personal Connection. Simply describing the benefits of your product or service to your potential customers is a trap many companies unfortunately fall into. In order to really be effective, you have to show how your products or services can make a powerful impact on your customers. When talking about a problem your product or service can solve, your readers should think, “Oh my gosh, that’s me! I have that problem!” By developing an emotional connection, you dramatically increase the likelihood people will purchase from you.
• Position your call to action properly. The best placement for a call to action is high and in the center of your page. Additionally, keeping a fair amount of white space around your call to action makes it more noticeable. If you keep in mind the mantra, “It can never be too obvious,” then you are on the way to making your call to action unmistakable to your audience.
• Place a call to action on every page. If you don’t have a call to action on every single one of your pages, the chances a user leaves your site never to return are dramatic. You can try experimenting with different calls to action on different pages. Alternatively, you can use multiple small calls to action to lead up to a final large call to action.
• Use statistics to build your authority. People on the web are looking for precise information. Using precise numbers makes you look like you’ve done your homework. Talk about what percentage of your customers are satisfied, or describe in numbers what improvements your product or service can bring to your customers. Using precise statistics makes you an authority in the eyes of others, and other people will buy from an authoritative source.

There you have it! While this isn’t certainly every imaginable aspect of creating an effective call to action and only scratches the surface, it’s a good list for getting started and garnering initial success. Like this post? Be sure to tell your friends about the Jivaldi blog.

Our objective is to dramatically increase the quality of information in the world, via the feedback loop of crowd-sourced peer review. Think: Inverting Wikipedia and taking it out to the rest of the Internet (but with a better reputation model.)

We think this is humanity’s biggest challenge and that solving it is within our collective grasp.

The model of Hypothes.is is further explained in Dan’s intro video.

Note how Hypothes.is differentiates themselves from WikiPedia which Dan refers to as a, “Top-down editorial Bureaucracy”. Separating themselves from WikiPedia will naturally be a challenge for them – even if what they are doing is fundamentally different. Perception is still reality.

Nevertheless, Dan is an experienced Silicon Valley elite. He booked the first travel reservation in his living room – the software he built would eventually become a part of GetThere – a company that was purchased by Sabre Corporation in August of 2000, for 757 MM.  Why do I know all this you ask? Well, that’s where ‘yours truly’ had his start. In fact, GetThere is the reason that I was able to start my own business.  Do I have faith in Dan the man? Absolutely, as he – by way of fate and circumstance – allowed me to start Jivaldi.

So what does a startup do when it needs money and doesn’t want to be tied into Venture Capital right away? Well, it uses a service like Kickstarter. Kickstarter describes itself as the, “World’s largest funding platform for creative projects”.

Kickstarter allows companies to move away from investment or lending – allowing project creators keep 100% ownership and control over their work. Sounds nice eh? I guess it then just boils down to having a good idea – one that will get family, friends and beyond to make a donation.

How can anyone argue Free money?

Good luck Dan & Team!

Probably one of the more amusing ads we’ve seen in a long time.  An ad from John Nolan films that went viral in Europe in 2010 but is making its way throughout the US now.

Apparently Nolan trained said mouse for the opening shots but used animatronics for the rest. “The rat was actually a robot I made covered in silicon. It still had its real hair and nails of a dead rat, but I had to punch this in individually into the synthetic skin, a bit like how hair transplants work.”

So what’s really cool about this video is that they feature their in-catalog products within the video and turn it into a little story. Slightly corny perhaps, but why spend tens of thousands on a in-studio shoot? The video does its job and it does it well. Turn it on full screen while your young kids are around and you’ll see what I mean. And they won’t think it’s too long.

Next up, the product pages. (see live example)

Notes:

• Simple interface with key product info.
• They don’t bombard the user with too much description.
• They cross-sell with other related products (fog liquid in this case)
• They provide audio and video examples of individual products! (see product video below)

So why go through all this effort for Halloween? Well, first the US Candy Industry is worth $20 billion. $6 billion of that comes from sales of decorations, candy, costumes, cards…etc leading up to Halloween.

The point here is that GrandinRoad just gets it. They know the market. They know their customer. And most importantly they know how to effectively blend their direct marketing (Print) efforts with their online efforts.  Though I see things that I would like to adjust that would further refine their efforts (i.e.  redesign their Halloween Haven landing page),  this website is a very good example of how to support offline efforts with relevant and engaging product info and story-telling. Oh and they also have their Twitter and Facebook accounts in support as well.

Well done GrandinRoad! Though I’m not sure if it’s me or my 3 kids who are getting more enjoyment out of this catalog and website.

For a bigger picture view of the Candy & Halloween industry in the US, check out the infographic below from CreditLoan. The only thing I question is the Candy Corn info – 20 million pounds consumed per year? How can this be given that it is the worst candy ever created!