ZURB

The Amazon Effect and How Retailers Can Slay the Beast

Fri, 09 Jun 2017 12:00:00 -0700

The past year has been brutal for retailers, with many respected brands closing stores or shutting down completely. Traditional retailers like Sears, Kmart, JCPenny and Macy’s are struggling to find footing and losing customers. It’s not as if this wasn’t expected- Amazon has been disrupting the world of retail the last twenty years by driving online shopping growth and creating record breaking revenue. People call it The Amazon Effect.

But is this Amazon Effect real? Or is it just the natural turnover of poorly performing companies? According to the Census Bureau, retail spending as a whole is up 5% year over year, and up 17% in the last five years. The ACSI also says there is a rise in how people feel about retail in general. The overall score on the report, which is pulled from the input of roughly 70,000 people, showed a 5% overall improvement rising to a 78.3 on the 100 point scale. Customer satisfaction is at an all-time high.

It’s hard to directly calculate how shopping is affected by Amazon’s presence, but it’s clear that it has gotten into the heads of every retailer, both offline and online. Surveys suggest the main reason for fear is based on organizational inertia, which in the product terms, means companies have no clue how to get their teams to move forward. If you look at the data further, 60% of executives believe they will invest in “digital,” but making this investment will be futile without a clear plan on how to create value. Amazon clearly has inertia with 80 million people bought into the Prime service and every retailer understands that this loyalty will be difficult to break. Amazon is making it extremely difficult for traditional retail stores because they’re disrupting the future of everything in shopping.

Amazon isn’t satisfied with just winning online shopping, they’re also setting up pop up stores, establishing physical grocery stores, taking over shipping while creating new delivery methods, manufacturing their own product lines, and providing access to their technology know-how. Their incredible growth trajectory sets them up to be the first trillion dollar company.

Over the last few years we’ve learned a lot in our retail design and customer advocacy work at ZURB. We’ve worked with many retailers that are bucking the trend as their traditional counterparts struggle to find a path forward. In this post, we’ll explore areas product managers and retailers can tackle over the three areas of the customer lifecycle to improve their odds of success to avoid getting caught up in Amazon’s wake.

Lead Generation

Generate new customers through awareness

How can retailers attract customers in ways that Amazon does not? The majority of Amazon’s lead generation comes from years of investing in three channels: search rankings, paid ads and their affiliate network. Here’s the deal- they’re really good at these channels, so it’s better to look for other techniques to drive awareness of your offerings. Find ways that don’t directly compete for people’s attention in the same places as Amazon.

Let’s be blunt, companies that expect to attract customers on price alone might as well forget that since Amazon’s dynamic pricing model makes it almost impossible to consistently win customer’s attention on price. It’s better to focus on telling a better story, as Simon Sinek puts it, “People don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it.”

Craft better content

Amazon has created a strong affiliate network of Associates who drive traffic to their product pages. In order to compete, retailers must create unique product pages to capture the attention of shoppers. Forty percent of shoppers seek inspiration and discover products online prior to making a clothing or footwear purchase according to a recent report.

Amazon has a lot of rich content on their product pages- reviews, manufacturer information and other customer purchases. Product reviews are an essential part of Amazon’s business, and while it’s an incredible resource for customers, a recent study suggests that positive user ratings can only objectively predict quality 57% of the time. That leaves plenty of room for retailers to bring in content that improves the value of product pages.

Here are a few ways retailers can attract customers with better content than Amazon.

Compelling Product Pages
Amazon sells over half a billion products- this selection variety and inventory is absolutely astounding. However, this becomes a disadvantage when it’s forced to present products in a relatively uniform way to prevent unnecessary overhead for users browsing their site. A toothbrush product page gets the same treatment as a TV.

Let’s be honest, Amazon is not going to win any visual design awards, especially for their product pages, but they do win at continuous optimization to enhance the content. Amazon deploys to a production server every 11.6 seconds. To put this in perspective, if the average visit time on Amazon is over 11 minutes, the site will have changed 57 times in a customer visit and that doesn't even include the personalized learned preferences that Amazon is applying in real-time!

The subtle and continuous manipulation of the product pages limits the disruptive change in the customer's experience, but this advantage quickly becomes a disadvantage when greater changes are needed to adapt to customer behaviors. It’s an organizational mindset that that starts to set into the design process. I’ve witnessed this first hand watching a prominent internet retailer get stuck in a two year cycle trying to update a product page, despite data that suggested a big change in design was necessary.

Harrys.com

There are well over a hundred elements that retailers can include in a product page to influence a purchase, using everything from reciprocity and social proof to authority. To compete with Amazon, retailers need a point of view that tells a story with the content. Harry’s is an excellent example of a company that has created a compelling product page. The bold images clearly highlight and magnify every subtle detail of their products and the neat presentation elevates something as simple and ordinary as my daily shave to a near art form. Looking at this page, I almost feel a little guilty for how I hurriedly try to breeze through this tradition that has been passed down for generations, Harry’s treats it with the respect it deserves!

Compare this with Amazon’s shaving cream story:

amazon.com

I’m pulled out of that reverence for the timeless tradition passed down by my father and his father and back into the fluorescently lit drugstore, and no, I don’t feel compelled to buy. There are other content areas retailers should explore such as well- written manuals, third party reviews, FAQ’s with personality, maintenance guides, tips and tricks and warranty information.

Guided Selling
Another growing content area that retailers can explore is guided selling. Domain experts should use their specific know-how to support purchasing decisions. Guided selling aims to inspire a purchase and simplify the buying process by understanding the customer’s intent, recommending possibilities and then suggesting ways to fulfill those needs.

Retailers must effectively understand the needs of a shopper relative to the available inventory and recommend products that help them feel confident about the purchase. Victoria’s Secret does a good job of helping women make a better sport bra purchase.

victoriassecret.com

Sephora takes it a step further by encouraging visitors to sign up for their club before they provide recommendations. Sephora showcases targeted products direct from the experts, humanizing the purchase decision journey by attracting curious shoppers with an engaging voice, much like you would experience in a store.

Since more than 50% of millennials use their smartphones to research products or services while shopping, it makes sense for strong retail brands to capitalize on the trust they have created by providing well thought out recommendations in a guided shopping experience. There’s an expectation and need for expert recommendations.

Video Explanations
According to a report by Invodo, shoppers who watch a video are 1.7 times more likely to purchase something than those who don’t. This makes a lot of sense, especially for purchases where there are more variables in a decision. As a novice camper, planning a camping trip for a weekend can be difficult, especially when you don’t know a thing about tents.

Cots World Outdoor created a video showing off the product features of one of the MSR Hubba Hubba NX tent. It is an awesome tool on the product page, but it also serves as a lead generation tool on YouTube to create awareness. They share and demonstrate immense value in the video and present themselves as an expert to the customer.

Scuf Gaming leverages video as well, but they use it to present short lifestyle montages to evoke an emotional attachment, rather than provide instruction or product details (those are included in the web page). There’s merit to both approaches, but what’s most important is that retailers bring authenticity to their video production. Scuf Gaming also sends product out to gaming influencers who create elaborate 20 minute unboxing videos. This third party validation is compelling and reduces production cost by utilizing an audience to produce the video content.

Online video marketing is now viable because retailers no longer have to deal with a glut of bad connections and incompatible technologies interrupting our viewing. Instead they can and should focus on looking for ways to involve influencers in the marketing of products.

Supporting Pages
Amazon has a mind numbing amount of products and pages within their site, but they don’t focus on compelling vertical content. Retailers can use their expertise to set themselves apart by creating blog pages and how-to guides around a topic.

Threadless, a custom t-shirt company based out of Chicago since 2000, has a unique blend of artist blog content that attracts a specific type of customer. The blog reflects the community it serves by keeping a finger on the pulse of individuals in the community. It taps into the community conversation with responsive posts that build in their content so it remains relevant to the audience.

threadless.com

Just throwing up content, however, isn’t going to work. Retailers must create highly valuable content that is far better than sites currently ranked in the top 10 for the keywords they are targeting. The content must be 100% original and engage readers to stick around. In a Hubspot study, businesses who blog just 16 to 20 times per month get over 4 times more leads than those who didn’t blog.

FAQ pages, while often overlooked, can also have a huge impact on building trust with customers. The Flex Company, who sell a disposable tampon alternative that lasts up to 12 hours, does a great job incorporating videos and precise information in its FAQ page to inform women.

Win the email battle

Retailers must provide more context and a better experience in email through personalization and targeting. In order to compete with Amazon, retailers must address people with a personal touch that makes their offers more relevant. Amazon has done a great job of building a matrix of email triggers that ping and prod us at all the right times, but as Malcolm Gladwell brought out in David and Goliath, "Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.” Amazon emails are dry, sterile, and automated. They do little to build excitement, anticipation, or even make us laugh.

Transactional Emails
The average mobile internet user spends 42% of their time on email- that's email for correspondence, task management, marketing and notifications. There’s a ton of different transactional emails including welcome emails, password resets, and receipts/invoices. These emails are a retailer's lifeblood and can be used to drive up to 6 times more revenue than the average marketing email.

I recently rented a lens from Borrowlenses.com and got a quick email response. Below is an example of an email I was sent with the subject line, “An email you won’t want to skip.”

BorrowLenses.com

Now, given that they just gave me an extra day for my rental because of the Memorial Day holiday, they’ve missed a key opportunity to connect with me to make this email special. Why do they want me to know I can still order? I can order any time. This is a lost opportunity to give customers more reasons to try lenses in the future after having a great first experience with their service. In fact, everything in this email is skippable!

A better approach would be to give me more information on the lens I rented, a story from a previous renter with their photos, or a coupon to use for a future rental. Perhaps they’ve found getting customers to add an additional lens is possible, but long term relationships are built on trust, not the transaction. Most companies make the mistake of separating all their emails into transactional and promotional buckets and putting them on autopilot.

Promotional Emails
Retailers can try to outspend Amazon attracting customers, but it’s more cost effective to find clever ways to reduce marketing costs and increase the loyalty through engaging promotional emails.

Gap.com

Gap popularized the friends and family email technique to create a “velvet rope effect” to make people feel like a valued member of the “club” by presenting their campaign as an exclusive offer that’s just for a small group. So why does the Gap email work? 94% of social media users use it to connect with friends and family, and consumers turn to friends and family when seeking advice about a product or brand. When combined with email, this is a proven tactic to convert consumers to purchasers.

At ZURB we’ve helped many companies use our responsive email framework to build a system approach to reduce the headache of managing email styles across different marketing platforms. Emails must be timely and on point to be effective- you shouldn’t have to constantly spend time on creative.

It’s also important to focus on the intent of each email in the customer lifecycle. Amazon is very good at this, but their voice still comes from a large, faceless company. Using the right words, persuasion techniques, and stories can separate you from the competition.

Curate and find your voice

Create a movement around your mission and find believers! Many brands are able to use platforms like YouTube and Instagram to build engagement with their fans. Social media is a great place to hone a distinct and compelling voice, especially since Amazon struggles to really put a clear purpose behind their efforts.

It might be intimidating to begin creating an effective social channel, but original and distinct content will drive engagement. Retailers must be consistent and invest in the long term to find success. And to do this right, the effort should be limited to a couple social sites to find success.

Blackmilk Clothing

Building a unique following requires getting followers excited about the brand story. Blackmilk and Trixin are two examples of companies that are using social to drive engagement. The content they share is product focused, but carries unique theming between each post and they utilize Instagram stories to give the viewer a look at photo shoots of new lines and the packaging process.

Cameron Parker, marketing manager at Blackmilk highlights, “My marketing budget is zero dollars. I didn't spend a cent on advertising, don't do AdWords, don't do campaigns, don't spend any money at all.” They attributed their success to three key factors on social media: authenticity, storytelling, and accessibility.

GoPro.com

Public companies like camera maker GoPro are also able to capitalize on their storytelling by rarely sharing content that is directly designed to sell product. Most of their Facebook posts highlight great quality videos and pictures taken on their cameras. The content strategy for GoPro is designed to highlight the best, most unique, and exciting things about their products.

Brands can also leverage the content created by their users. L2 found that just 12% of the retailers hosted dedicated UGC pages and only five percent integrated socially generated content into their product pages. Building brand equity through social campaigns can also bring in new customers, especially when it’s coupled with a cause. A good example is Marriott, who ran a check-in campaign to encourage guests to check-in to the hotel. Marriott donated $2 to charity for each check-in, and by turning a routine social interaction into good, they created more awareness of their efforts.

Build a selling network

It’s predicted that 40% of the American workforce will be independent workers, which means there will be many people eager to provide value to retailers without adding heavy infrastructure costs. Part-time work allows people to set their own hours, have time for their family, and not have to worry about the grind of a daily commute. It’s worked well for Uber and services like Doordash, and we’ve helped many companies at ZURB build services around part timers.

This network concept isn’t new- direct selling has been around since the 1920s, improved by Stanley in the 1930s and made a bonafide success half a century ago by Tupperware. Tupperization was not popularized when Earl Tupper started out selling his Poly-T products. What had to be overcome was consumer distrust- plastic still had the image of being brittle, sticky, unreliable and smelly.

If you think this is a multi-level marketing scheme preying on the middle class, think again. My wife was persuaded to host a Stella and Dot party to encourage her extensive network of friends to eat, drink and wear. A home party plan like doesn’t require sellers to begin a downstream team. They’ve made it a social event to create awareness of the brand, as customers can still purchase jewelry directly from the website.

Another example of building a network is Monster Cable. They invested in training for sales people at Best Buy and other electronics retailers. They made an army of salespeople that would recommend their high priced cables and it totally worked. Their unique and differentiated training program gave retailers who carried Monster products a way to separate Monster products from all others in the minds of their partners. Monster products became the go-to brand for salespeople representing many products to customers.

Connect with a social cause

Retailers are smart to capture people’s attention by aligning their efforts with social causes that are important to their customers. When shopping for products, 50% of millennial parents say they try to buy products that support causes or charities. In fact, 90% of U.S. shoppers are likely to switch to a cause branded product when choosing between two brands of equal quality and price.

Many retailers are listening and have taken their initiatives to the next level by integrating their causes into their business models. Blue Apron supports sustainable food production, TOMS donates a pair of shoes for every pair a person buys, and Warby Parker have distributed over two million pairs of glasses to people in need. There is a clear connection between the service, what the customer is buying and how their purchase contributes to the collective effort. Amazon is going to have a hard time creating the same type of emotional connection to the purchase.

Not all programs need to be about donating- Patagonia even has a program, Worn Wear, to help repair and sell used patagonia clothing to help the environment. Patagonia’s repair department is the largest garment repair facility in the U.S. and does about 30,000 repairs per year. In creating such a compelling story, it can highlight how it’s helping the environment, but more importantly, make sure people are aware of the value behind its products. Instead of just donating money, they’re using storytelling to turn customers into activists.

red.org

The (RED) product movement has raised over 465 million dollars and impacted over 90 million people across Africa to make it easy for people and businesses to join the fight against the deadly HIV virus. Companies like Apple and Swell create a positive sentiment among customers who identify with the cause- they become part of a larger marketing effort without having to invest in running an entire program themselves.

Acquisition

Acquire new customers with trust

Amazon has done an amazing job bringing innovation to the sale. From one click purchasing, to inviting other vendors into their marketplace, they’re experimenting with new techniques regularly. Not only are they making it easier to shop on price and shipping time, they have created the world's largest inventory of products.

From every rational angle, Amazon has made sure to win customers over as they decide to make a sale. However, most of the time our brains run on autopilot, convincing us that we know what we are doing when making purchases. Which explains why our subconscious often dictates our consumer behavior better than our conscious brain. Gerald Zaltman, a Harvard Business School professor, says that 95 percent of our purchase decision making takes place in the subconscious mind. Which means, if retailers can win over the hearts of customers, there’s room to pull customers away from Amazon.

Sell unique products

Amazon has done a great job growing its third party marketplace, which makes it easier for retailers to reduce their marketing spend by helping them capturing new customers. Sellers are paying Amazon to store, pack and ship products through the Amazon Fulfillment service. In 2016 Amazon delivered more than two billion items from other sellers, more than double the previous year. This puts retailers in a tough dilemma. While retailers get access to a larger new customer base, they no longer have a unique selling proposition to truly stand out.

Retailers can compete by offering largely exclusive product assortments by choosing a “our-website-first” strategy. In order to accomplish this, retailers can do two things: buy from smaller manufacturers that lack mainstream distribution or manufacture private label products that can’t be found anywhere else. It’s an incredible advantage to sell exclusive products because this one-of-a-kind product can’t be price-compared with Amazon.

Ugmonk.com

Ugmonk is a popular clothing brand started by Jeff Sheldon, a designer that sells his own uniquely designed shirts. He produces unique, one of a kind limited run anniversary kits of his products. In his own words, “Ever since the beginning, Ugmonk has been about my passion for design. Yes, we have more than four shirts available now. We’ve grown in a lot of ways, but at our core, we’re still the same. Every single item is still personally designed by me, and I think the designs are maturing alongside my own taste. Ugmonk will always remain a design-driven brand where design and quality come first.“

Mancrates is a unique company and it’s positioning frames all it’s products uniquely. Buying gifts for men is notoriously hard, so they organize by men's interests and package collections of items in a unique wooden crate that has to be opened with a crowbar! It’s important to highlight that there’s a point in which brands can go too far creating unique items. Urban Outfitters has been on a roll lately, but it’s gotten in some hot water with some tasteless clothing items it’s produced like the concentration camp tapestry and bloody Kent State sweatshirt.

Another way of making products unique is to limit their availability. Supply and demand is an insane motivator. For example, Blackmilk clothing out of Australia makes extremely limited collections, some only available for 48 hours. In the words of our team coordinator at ZURB, “You better believe if it's a collection I'm interested in, I'm stalking the website right when it drops.” In a 2013 DigitalCommons study, it monitored shoppers reactions to limited quantities and limited-time sales and found that the retail stores that had perceived scarcity produced psychological effects such as consumer competitiveness, urgency to buy, in-store hiding, and in-store hoarding.

Get it today products

Big products that have high social currency value are needed today when the "one of a kind" experience has a timeframe- think new video game systems, cell phone launches, and Nike shoe releases. The retail experience and excitement around buying them becomes the driver of the purchase. Surprisingly, it’s not just products that drive these behaviors. People have also been known to wait for hours and even sleep overnight just for the right to buy food at new Chick-fil-As, Dunkin Donuts and In-N-Out Burger restaurants.

So what drives people to waste their time waiting outside a store or restaurant? The willingness of these consumers to wait has nothing to do with the giveaways, or buying, or stuff according to Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist. Instead, these people participate with similar-minded people in what they perceive as a cultural event. They want to be a part of the experience and be able to say they were there. If retailers can foster the human connection, it gives people an excuse to be with others, like a festival or event.

Not everything has to be event driven though, as Millennials will consider "Buy Online, Pickup In Store" as an incentive. An impressive 88 percent of millennials say they would consider buying online and picking up in store to save $10 on a $50 item. Retailers with physical locations need to create reasons to visit stores!

Provide customization

Shoppers have come to expect more individuality in their purchases and retailers can reap the rewards of this desire to personalize. Consumers will pay approximately a 25% premium for customized goods based on a NPD Group study conducted in 2011. Not only that, users who interact with products by designing and personalizing them are far more likely to purchase them.

However, this doesn’t mean retailers need to shift their business or product model, as personalization can be as simple as letting customers choose color schemes or adding their name to an item. It doesn’t need to be complicated, in fact it can be outsourced. Steve Chou of Bumble Bee Linens says, “Even better than the competitive edge over Amazon, we have found that many of our most profitable products are personalized or custom items! We have developed a relationship with a local embroidery shop who customizes some products for us. Others are products like our hand-painted shower curtains.”

We’ve worked with retailers like Zazzle that have a huge inventory of products that can be personalized and customized. Ten years ago we helped them overhaul a twenty screen wizard into a single page experience that created a 3x lift in conversions.

Brands and manufacturers that don’t want to compete directly with their retail partners can implement strategies like Nike by implementing exclusive, customized inventory. Even smaller brands like Republic Bikes and Scuf Gaming do a great job of building excitement around customization. Fashion brand Mon Purse turned quality customization into a multimillion dollar fashion business.

Sell products direct

It’s more work for retailers to design and source their own products, but those that successfully do are rewarded with higher gross margins because they cut out costly middlemen and avoid direct price competition. According to a recent Forrester Research study, over fifty percent of consumers are already visiting websites of manufacturers with the intent to make a purchase. One third of those consumers actually prefered to buy from the manufacturer.

Being able to go directly to customers reduces the risks of holding onto costly inventory and removes the supply chain headache. Turning over inventory is key to the success of retail chains as well, though they lose opportunity when product companies sell direct. And if there’s hesitation to go this route, things like Kickstarter and Etsy have created markets that enable companies to practice going directly to customers.

Create a subscription service

Busy shopper buying habits are trending towards easy, hassle-free experiences. In order to meet those expectations, retailers can provide subscriptions that create convenience by removing the regular purchasing decisions that happen with replenishing supplies. Subscriptions also have the benefit of keeping a set rate, which helps shoppers stay within their budget. In many cases, these subscriptions bring greater value through bundling of items to reduce the need for making multiple purchases.

Subscription services have obvious benefits to retailers because they can get cash quickly by automating and optimizing cash collections while minimizing write-offs. Building strong relationships is at the core of the subscription business model… and without customer relationships, there can be no sustainable, recurring revenue growth! It’s much less costly to build on existing customer relationships than to acquire new ones.

Retailers must track member churn and engagement to insure success. Successful membership businesses focus on the long-term relationship and consider the first transaction as a way to service customers and continually evolve to meet the needs of members. No one product or delivery is as important as meeting the goals of customers- the subscription member’s mission should drive engagement, not the specific products or services.

The range of services vary from the mundane and practical, like men’s replacement razors, to the novelty items that bring delight, like Geek Boxes. Netflix, one of the most popular subscription services of all time, used physical delivery of DVDs before switching to an on demand digital subscription. There’s even premium community services for advice, where people can connect with experts on topics that range from healthcare to creative art lessons. Retailers must find opportunities with customers to build strong relationships.

Other innovative subscription companies include organic tampon maker Kali, underwear fashion retailer Meundies, food website Japan crate, and beauty and makeup retailers Ipsy and Birchbox.

Greater company access

Amazon has mastered the automation of almost every part of the purchasing process. What it doesn’t have are accessible service representatives ready to help customers through a purchase. Retailers can humanize their brands by bringing in community managers and partners to offer real-time support through social media channels, or on page chat. In fact, 44% of online consumers say that having a live person answer questions while making an online purchase is a key feature retailers can offer in the online experience. Providing live chat is the path of least resistance for many customers.

In much of our work, clients struggle to rationalize this customer investment, but the truth is, not talking to a customer is potentially a death sentence. Live chat can reduce the overall customer service costs by lowering average interaction expense. Chat also increases efficiency of each service representative by enabling them to handle multiple chats simultaneously, potentially eliminating the need to expand service center help.

Really active social engagement and super attentive customer service can be both reactive and proactive. Live chat and social media provide immediate access to customers’ pain points, and gives retailers earlier awareness to turn these problems into revenue opportunities. Discovering pain points can help retailers learn what new content to write for a blog or article or create benefits for marketing campaigns.

Instead of going all in with live chat, at ZURB we recommend creating a list of all the important pages on the site that are likely to attract prospective customers and focus on providing attentive support. Chat doesn’t have to solve every need, and much of the content can live in a support portal, like printing company Moo.

Retailers that want to utilize more technology for their customer engagement can hop on the latest trend of chat bots. Facebook launched their bots for Messenger Platform last year and companies like beauty retailer Sephora have been aggressively building chat bots, like the Sephora Reservation Assistant that lets users book a makeover appointment through Facebook Messenger and a shade-matching chatbot that that identifies lip colors to match photos uploaded by users. It turns out people are engaging deeply and averaging 10 messages per day with the Sephora bot. Companies like Octaine AI make it easy for brands to create useful and entertaining bots and forge deeper connection with their audience.

Better search filters

Amazon has over half a billion products, which makes it a one stop shop for everything. The big problem with that large inventory is finding what you need, but it turns out it’s not just a Amazon’s search problem. In a recent 2015 study, only 16% of major e-commerce websites offer a reasonably good filtering experience. In some categories, basic search is enough to find an adequate product, but more nuanced product categories like bras need more specificity.

Retailers can customize the search to the needs of a niche by being more focused on nuanced decisions, like filtering on a popular new category like Bare Necessities does with Racerback bras. That highlight a definition on the top of the page, “Racerback bras have become one of the more popular bra styles for women.” Bare Necessities shows they are staying relevant with their technology, but they also explain the benefits of this bra type.

It’s important that retailers think about what people really want to differentiate between the various items. In our experience, the most important filters should stay at the top. Other important ideas could include theme filters or compatibility features when a device type or operating system matters. When niche site improve their search, good results happen. eConsultancy noted that kilt retailer Buyakilt.com saw a 26% increase in conversions and a 76.1% boost in revenue after creating a product filter to shop by kilt type and kilt pattern.

Hipmunk.com

Hipmunk, a popular travel planning site, uses an interesting results page to help customers visualize which flight to select. Results are presented in a visual timeline to allow people to select the best flight for them at a glance, and users can also create multiple search tabs for easy comparisons. Hotel results have visual presentation as well, and are shown on a map so that people can view where in a destination they will be staying.

Retention

Keep customers by surpassing their expectations

Marketers often fall into the trap of chasing their next customer. In a recent report from Adobe, online retailers spend almost 80% of their digital marketing budgets acquiring shoppers, and for each 1% of shoppers who return, the overall revenue increases 10%. So if retailers held onto just 10% of their existing customers their revenue would double. Sounds good.

But in the high stakes game of competing with Amazon, the costs of acquiring new customers is a heavy burden, especially when dealing with a competitor that has deep pockets to outspend. Retailers must find sticky services and products that build loyalty with customers to reduce the challenge of acquiring new customers. According to Gartner Group, 80% of your company’s future revenue will come from just 20% of your existing customers. With Millennials about ready to surpass Baby Boomers in spending power, brand loyalty will be a factor in retaining these new customers. Millennials are 1.75x more likely than Boomers to say they’d like to be brand-loyal, but many of the challenges Millennials face with retailers are unique to them.

More personal service

Amazon doesn’t make it easy to talk with a person, and only recently have they enabled callbacks. While they have an amazing ability to deliver service with the volume, they lack a personal touch that can be exploited by retailers. But that doesn’t mean retailers need to rely only on people to bring this personal touch, they can use their service as a way to connect better. Opening up different communication channels can be challenging to manage, but they can separate a retailer’s service in a crowded space.

Dominos.com

Domino’s Pizza refers to itself as a technology company- more than 60% of Domino’s orders are now executed on digital platforms. Using a smartphone app, Amazon Echo speaker, Domino’s website or online via Facebook, Twitter and other platforms, customers can order with discounts often included. There’s also a loyalty rewards program. The Domino’s app includes an order tracker that lets customers follow the preparation and delivery of their food to create more transparency in the ordering process.

The flip side of this personal communication however, is potentially detrimental to customer loyalty if it’s implemented in a way that is focused too much on the needs of the retailer. Target has rolled out a beacon strategy within stores to attract wandering customers to potential store isle deals. While it’s an opt-in experience, why would I want to be harassed to purchased unrelated, discounted products during a store visit?

Retailers can start small, even a personalized message or sketch on an invoice can inspire customers!

Make a loyalty program

It turns out that Millennials love loyalty rewards, and more than Generation X-ers and Boomers, they’re 80% willing to switch brand allegiance or shop at a different store if the switch would enable them to earn rewards they can redeem on purchases. Given their comfortability with technology, they also check their loyalty program rewards on a mobile app- 30% of respondents in fact, which is double that of previous generations. Retailers must know that Millennials are open to supporting stores if the benefits earned are relevant, convincing and cost saving.

Urban Outfitters

Urban Outfitters gets 20% to 30% of their sales online with it’s investment in technology. Their loyalty program, UO Rewards, is strong and gives customers points for posting on social sites, and offers the ability to scan items and create a wish list. The learnings they get from the online data makes the retail stores more effective and helps the experiment online by being more aggressive with their hunches. It makes sense to pursue customers this way- a multichannel shopper spends 2-3 times more than a single-channel shopper.

Retailers that want to set up a loyalty program should note that personalization is important to the success of creating a compelling customer experience. Companies should study Starbucks’ loyalty program.

Provide local access

With big box stores proliferating in all areas around the world, you’d think the desire for local products and services would be waning. However, a huge growth market right now is local food and it’s expected to be a 20 billion dollar industry by 2019. Customers are willing to pay more for the certainty that their food purchases do things like create jobs, promote local communities, guard groundwater, protect the environment, preserve farmland and support the treatment of animals. It’s called being a "locavore" and the food industry has found ways to bring the local stories into their products.

While Etsy has struggled as of late in the market, it’s focus on bringing local products to the masses has helped it create consistent revenue growth and positioned it as a world leader. Their focus on local search brings local products front and center, while it’s events and retailers search makes it easy to connect with producers in local markets.

Organizations like SFMade create interest in local goods. The city of San Francisco has global awareness, but organizations like this can be advocates for manufacturers that want to directly reach their home market. SFMade is a voice for locally produced products.

Create a movement

Selling online is not just about building a solid, appealing retail website. It’s also about bringing people on an amazing journey where they can visualize a better tomorrow. You can buy a watch, shorts or a kettle anywhere, but they can’t necessarily make you feel part of a larger purpose. Retailers can find unique ways to build a story that makes their customers feel like custodians of the brand.

Huckberry.com

Huckberry is a great example of a site that wants to build a passionate community. By forcing a website login upfront, they’re serious about telling customers that this journey is only for people who want to be part of the movement. In their words, “Huckberry is equal parts store, magazine and inspiration to help you suck the marrow out of life.” They share stories on Dwell from bloggers, capture lifestyle video segments, and create a blend of stories and products on their social feeds.

They take it a step further in their welcome email. “Thanks for joining the 1-million strong Huckberry community. We started the Huckberry community in 2011 for people like us- those who live in the city but live for adventure. Today we’re 100% funded by our customers, and having the time of our lives.” All of their emails build on the idea of bring you along on the adventure.

What does it take to make a movement happen? Time and patience are most often required, but Derek Sivers breaks this down into one, very clever video. There’s a lot of hard work, but the key to creating momentum is found in Guy #3. Find people who align to your vision, but don’t tell them how to live or buy… invite them on the journey!

Provide mobile ordering

Convenience is an area that Amazon continually wins, but there’s room for service oriented businesses to use the talent of their people as a competitive advantage. It’s tough to create consistency in a service business, but retailers that are able to incorporate technology into their plans will put themselves in a better place to compete with Amazon.

Starbucks.com

Starbucks has done a great job incorporating mobile payments into its service, turning 7% of all their transactions into mobile payments since rolling out mobile ordering nationwide in 2015. Its mobile-order-and-pay success in the US is fast becoming the pillar of Starbucks loyalty program which is one of the most successful programs in foodservice. Starbucks is continuing to innovate- they just recently launched My Starbucks Barista, which uses AI to allow customers to place orders with voice command or messaging, to 1,000 US consumers with a more extensive roll-out planned in 2017.

When the Starbucks payment service was first launched about a year ago, it was at about one-third of all orders in some stores where the customer density in high, but it has recently increased to over half of all orders in some locations. It has the potential to improve customer experience, but from a financial perspective, it can fuel an increase in revenue per employee (Starbucks has gained 50% more per employee since 2010).

I’ll be honest with you, I’m a 20 year Starbucks drinker that started dating Petes, and then Philz Coffee after interviewing their CEO at our ZURB Soapbox. However, my recent trips to Starbucks have me impressed by the digital adoption of their mobile ordering app. It seems each time I walk into the a store more people have their drink orders ready. There’s a feeling of being left out and the idea of gaining another five minutes on my commute is more attractive, especially when traffic seems to be backed up.

Fast food chains like McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, and TGI Fridays are seeing the benefits of using mobile ordering. Taco Bell has seen an increase of 20% per mobile order.

Collect prototype reactions

Prototyping is great way to get customers invested in your products and services. A 2011 Forrester study tracked the evolution of economies from the Age of Manufacturing (1900-1960) to the Age of Distribution (1960-1990) to the Age of Information (1990-2010) to our present day reality of the Age of the Customer- an era of power that comes from engaging with demanding consumers.

An industry that has to quickly adjust to customer trends and demands is fashion. Fashion retailers that produce product can cut their lead times in half to six to eight weeks by using a supply chain strategy that enables testing and reacting. Steve Madden uses a sample factory at its headquarters to launch prototypes that are sent to stores within days to get customer reactions, thus reducing risk of overcommitting to costly mass production overseas.

Madden, the designer and owner, proudly states in Vibe, “Unlike other brands that have to send prototypes out to get shoes made, we go right into our sample factory twenty feet away. We have the ability to design a shoe, make whatever changes we want, all in one day. Then we send those shoes to our stores in New York or Miami, and we’ll see very quickly how they perform in those regions. If it looks like they’re hot, we’ll go all in and roll out those shoes to the rest of the world.”

Steve Madden has focused on being consumer-centric. Successful fashion brands understand their customers and integrate their reactions into key product and experience decisions through direct interaction. In order to meet the demand, Taylor Stitch and Gustin use crowdsourcing to determine what and how many products to make.

In our project work experience, customers are excited when they’re asked for feedback and feel more invested and loyal to the brand as a result.

Stock shallow and exclusive

Costco and fashion brands like Zara choose to stock up only a limited quantity of each product to keep their merchandise new and fresh. It’s a strategy that retailers are using more frequently in order to compete with Amazon. The inventory turnover competitive advantage Amazon used to have has slowly eroded over time as it’s added more and more products to its site.

Zara doesn’t try to predict styles, it limits clothing runs and switches them out frequently. Basically, Zara's brazen and unique business model eliminates the risk of competing with fast-fashion retailers, which have buyer teams that source trending fashion from third-party vendors, and traditional specialty retailers, which have design teams creating product they believe will be popular twelve months out.

"The company's strategy involves stocking very little and updating collections often. Unlike brands that update only once a season, Zara restocks with new designs twice a week,” Suzy Hansen writes in The New York Times Magazine. The strategy works two ways, according to Hansen. “First, it encourages customers to come back to the store often. It also means that if the shopper wants to buy something, he or she feels the need to buy it to guarantee it won't sell out.”

Larger retailers like Costco can take advantage of this strategy. Jim Sinegal, CEO of Costco, reveals how the warehouse chain takes advantage of that mindset, "We refer to it as a treasure hunt. We carry about 4,000 stock-keeping units, and about 1,000 of them are constantly in that changing mode.”

Build experimental stores

Stores large and small have begun to utilize retail space in different ways to build new relationships with customers. Whether the purpose is to experiment with new products, get feedback or give customers a chance to experience a home entertainment setup, retailers are finding unique and clever ways to engage potential customers.

Lab store
The Lululemon NY lab is a unique 2,893 square foot store that is split between retail boutique floor space and a studio where 15 designers and pattern makers work amongst the customers. You shop with the designer who was responsible for the pants in your hand as you browse the latest collection.

Lululemon.com

Experimental stores won’t necessarily create revenue, but it does give Lululemon a pulse of style trends and a chance to try new ideas out. “The Lululemon lab is a centre of creativity for functional and experimental design that taps into the culture, trends and technology of the people and place it celebrates,” says Lee Holman, creative director. “It serves as a hyper-local conceptual design and retail space within Lululemon and an incubator for design innovation and functional product experimentation beyond activewear.”

There are plenty of other unique concepts that retailers have experimented building. In the NY Meatpacking district, Starbucks has a Roastery superstore, Pepsi is opened a swanky restaurant, and Pernod Ricard's Absolut Elyx vodka set up an apartment.

Showroom
Showrooms are essentially a safe place for editors, buyers and stylists to experience a new fashion collection. Like any industry show, it’s a place to ask questions, inspect details, feel fabrics and understand a garment’s nuances.

Nike has taken an innovative approach to showrooms at 45 Grand, where trainers are some of the same ones that create workouts for Nike’s Training Club app. They trainers also teach at other higher-end workout spots around town which creates a word of mouth, exclusive experience. Nike has made the fitness studio space invite-only and it doesn't even sell clothes.

Prototype store
Prototyping isn’t just limited to products. It might seem counterintuitive to invest in a store that might be torn down, but a physical retail store can be prototyped for consumer feedback. The overhead of investing in construction, employees, tools and experiences can seem intimidating, but the learning and experimentation can be a catalyst for growth.

Extra office space, or a small rented space, can be all it takes to mock up a new store or service concepts and rituals can easily be tested and iterated in actual stores. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Most consumers can exercise a bit of their imagination.

Conclusion

As the Amazon juggernaut continues to roll on, companies unwilling to adapt will find themselves squarely in its path. Applying these suggestions will enable you to not only exist alongside them, but take them on with your eCommerce business. Over the last two decades, we’ve been fortunate at ZURB to help dozens of eCommerce companies develop strategies, storefronts, and integrated systems that help them carve a unique niche in the marketplace.

If you’re interested in the PDF download and want these ideas and additional resources sent to your inbox, give us your contact information below.

Bryan Zmijewski

Leading the charge at ZURB since 1998

Our fearless leader has been driving progressive design at ZURB since 1998. That makes him quite the instigator around the offices, consistently challenging both the team and our customers to strive to always do better and better.
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Follow him at @bryanzmijewski

How Design Insights Transformed Foundation Building Blocks

Fri, 26 May 2017 14:00:00 -0700

Foundation started out as an internal tool to help our team build cutting edge applications for our clients more quickly. Little did we know, it would blow up to be one of the most popular open source projects ever, accelerate the adoption of responsive web design, and power hundreds of thousands of brands all across the world. We're proud that Foundation has become a leading voice helping shape where the web is heading. However, through our constant conversations with students, the community, and Yetinauts, we discovered that many users were not harnessing its full power.

A Clear Purpose Drives Meaningful Design

So when we asked ourselves, 'What's next?' Giving users more access to Foundation's power was front and center.

Of course, it will always be important to keep growing the power of Foundation to fulfill ZURB's mission of changing the way people design connected products and services. However, to get there we realized we needed to empower a new generation of web developers to engage with the platform so more people can contribute to, and benefit, from its power.

In short, we wanted to make it easy for anyone to quickly and easily build world-class web products, and share their best practices so the entire community can grow from their hard-won successes.

The Right Challenges Frame The Right Conversations

There were some BIG challenges.

First, only a small subset of users were taking full advantage of Foundation's power. Our client work showed that this was a problem many companies struggle with, and few solve well.

Secondly, sacrificing robustness in the pursuit of learnability was out of the question because what makes Foundation special is that it is the world's most advanced front-end framework.

And finally, the experience of using Foundation needed to stay a focused one. Through the years, client after client have expressed how they tried to serve multiple audiences and ended with a splintered, compromised experience they need our help to re-strategize.

Design Insights Reveal User Behavior and Drive Bold Decisions

To solve these challenges, we did what we do best and got outside the design bubble to talk to users. Through these conversations, we found pivotal Design Insights:

When users are able to quickly find code snippets that closely match their project type, they are much more likely to adopt Foundation into their workflow.

When technical contributors in the Foundation community are able to contribute using public repositories rather than proprietary platforms, they contribute with higher frequency, and with a greater sense of ease, transparency, and power.

Because of the breadth of project types users work on and the infinite nuances in each, components that were flexible are more likely to to used by a larger audience.

Because users typically look for components during their build process and there is scarcity of time, only components that immediately fulfill a need with minimal effort are used.

When new users of Foundation saw examples of components built with Foundation, they understand the product better and start incorporating it more quickly.

Opportunities Bridge Design Insight and Design Innovation

With these insights in hand, we found key organizational strengths that would drive the product direction. Our diverse client work gave us a treasure-trove of the most common and up-to-date web design patterns. Internally, there is an amazing and committed Foundation community ready to support the tools they love. And within the framework itself, styling was largely done on a system-wide scale, which lent easily to creating assets that were transferrable without breaking styling rules.

Powerful Building Blocks Turns Learners into Pros, Pros into All-Stars

After weeks of ideation and prototyping, Foundation Building Blocks was launched. Building Blocks are designed to be quick, plug-and-play components meant to speed up any project. Because users need to see how they would fit, they're organized by how they might function within a particular project. Users can promote and find the best Building Blocks by liking specific Building Blocks and sharing it with others. To give credit where it was due, each building block card and page has large Building Block images and visual links to users' GitHub profile. Lastly, the flow is built around quickly grabbing and plugging in complex objects into live project, creating the perfect experience for the mid-project learner.

Project-Specific Kits Kickstart Rapid Prototypes and Rapid Learning

While Foundation Building Blocks speed up projects mid-flow, Foundation Kits was launched as sets of curated Building Blocks meant to help any user get up and running with rapid prototyping in any situation. To make it as useful as possible to as many people as possible, Kits are organized around the most common project types in our 20+ years of client experience, with only Building Blocks that lived up to the best in web usability being included. And the best part - anyone can get started using Kits within 5 minutes of exploration.

Meaningful Metrics Validate Product Direction

As Foundation Building Blocks and Foundation Kits launched, the initial feedback from our community was positive in helping keep the power of Foundation while making it easier for anyone to use:

A site that would've normally taken experienced web designers a day to fully scaffold now took less than 15 minutes.
Students in our Intro to Foundation course consistently expressed how much they were able to learn the basics of Foundation and move onto more advanced projects.
Within the first month after launch, 20% of the Building Blocks were built by members of the community.

Foundation was created to help our team design better, and went on to help millions of designers and developers create amazing things. Foundation Building Blocks worked in reverse. We thought we were building something for our community, and ended up with a resource that has helped us deliver some of our best work ever to our clients. That's the amazing thing about Foundation, that it empowers a whole community, and that community empowers us to make even better tools.

We're thrilled to work with our wonderful community to keep pushing it forward and breaking new boundaries! And this is only the beginning. Check out the Foundation Building Blocks site and see how it can revolutionize your workflow.

The New Foundation Docs: Learn Your Way

Wed, 17 May 2017 12:00:00 -0700

Whether for internal use or for an open-source project, most programmers hate writing technical documentation. Not just dislike, hate. They hate it. And because they hate it, it usually isn't very good. It can be hard to follow and incomplete, which is irritating to experienced devs and causes panic attacks for newbies just trying to learn something. RTFM, or Read the F@$%& Manual, is an expression commonly thrown at people trying to learn some new coding language or technology, but how can they if nobody wants to WriteTFM?

But even if a developer or team wants to create good documentation, it will inevitably fall short because not everyone learns best through reading. Many people are visual learners, and even more learn best through the act of doing. Docs do nothing to engage those two groups of people.

As the creators of some of the world's most popular open-source projects that incorporate other technologies and integrate with dozens more, we've both felt the pain of combing through terrible documentation to try and learn something and the pain of writing comprehensive docs for our own projects. We believe technical documentation can be much better, so we set out to reinvent the very idea of what documentation is and how it could be done with the new Foundation docs.

The new Foundation docs was designed to help people learn through Reading, Seeing, and Doing:

Videos demonstrating how to use each component - Each and every component has an easy to follow video walkthrough.
Live demos to play with in real time - Quickly experiment with and edit components without having to setup a full install on your machine with our live CodePen demos.
Easy to understand descriptions - We've rewritten all of the descriptions to be clearer and more concise than ever.

In addition to all of these new features, the interface has been streamlined to be easier to navigate and find what you need. It's technical documentation without the frustration, with easily digestible content for each of the three learning types. Welcome to the new Foundation Docs.

Combined with our recent Foundation Building Blocks release, we've made a huge investment in helping both veteran Foundation users and newbies better harness the power of Foundation!

Check out Foundation Docs!

Foundation Building Blocks: Over 100 Components to Jump Start Your Projects

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 10:00:00 -0700

The Foundation team has cut your development time in half again. Today we're thrilled to share Foundation Building Blocks with you- a comprehensive, open-source library of coded UI components you can drop into any standard Foundation project to give yourself a massive head start in your projects.

Hundreds of Coded UI Components for Your Foundation Projects

The Foundation Building Blocks library has been rebuilt from the ground up with over 100 code snippets in six categories including Navigation, Status, Control, Media, Containers and Form components. Built by the ZURB team, these are the most common and useful design patterns and UI components we've found in our two decades of web development work. Just browse the library, select the Building Block you need, and copy and paste the code into your project.

Powerful Kits to Help You Build A Diverse Range of Sites

Download ZURB-curated bundles of Building Blocks called Kits that are organized by project type so you have exactly what you need to build specific kinds of websites and apps. There are seven kit types available including Blog, Portfolio, Ecommerce, Marketing, Dashboard, Mobile App, and Travel - each containing the specific mix of Building Blocks you'll need to complete your project. Unlike a template, a kit doesn't dictate a page layout or design, but rather gives you a set of ready-to-use components that integrate naturally into your design.

Components Created by the Global Foundation Community

Battle-tested by designers and developers around the world and reviewed by ZURB, the Foundation Building Blocks library will continue to expand with components created by the Foundation community. Have an idea for component or pattern? Submit it using our easy to follow guidelines and it will be reviewed by the ZURB team and made available to the community.

Code That Will Cut Your Development Time in Half

Building Blocks are specifically built for Foundation projects, which means you won't need to worry about compatibility issues or dependencies. You won't find any pointless experiments or explorations, either. Instead, you'll find real, usable, and practical components every designer needs based on our two decades of designing for the web.

Both Kits and Building Blocks can be easily downloaded from the website. You can also copy and paste individual Building Blocks into Foundation projects. After installing the new 2.2.0 version of the Foundation CLI, Building Blocks and Kits can even be downloaded and installed automatically into ZURB stack projects, available instantly as ready-to-use partials. Simply run npm install -g foundation-cli@2.2.0 and then foundation kits install <kitname> in any project for Kits or foundation blocks install <blockname> for individual Building Blocks.

We've been using Building Blocks internally in our client work to give ourselves a head start in our projects, and we've seen our development time cut in half. We're excited to see the Foundation Building Blocks library continue to grow with new Building Blocks and Kits from the ZURB team and our amazing community of Foundation users!

Check out Foundation Building Blocks!

Foundation & CSS Grid: Think Beyond the Page

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 16:55:00 -0700

There's a revolution happening right now. The way we think about and design websites is going to change again. Old conventions and methods are being replaced by exciting new technologies that open up entirely new ways to design and build the web. And they're available today.

Out With the Old

Most early websites in the 90’s were little more than digital brochures, which makes sense since the web was born from the world of print. Our options as web designers for laying out content fell short of what was available to print designers for many years. Slowly but surely, our tools got better and we discovered new methods and techniques that allowed us to do some incredible things. The web came into its own, but the world of print still exerts its influence on the way many designers think. To this day we still call web files “documents,” arrange our content in “pages,” and try to fit the experience of users into sitemaps.

But pages are limiting. Pages are a convention of print- they don’t fit for the dynamic, interactive medium that is the web. Users don’t look at websites in some linear order, they journey through them, they explore through multiple pathways. We have a completely transformable, liquid canvas to paint this picture with, but we aren’t using it! The next decade will see more customization, personalization and predictive technologies that make the content and presentation fully dynamic. The factory line, widget production line mentality no longer applies- each user can have a unique experience.

In With the New

Over the last two decades, ZURB has pushed the web forward through our design work, and wth Foundation, the world’s most advanced front-end framework. Foundation was designed to help people take full advantage of the power of the web. It was the first framework to give designers a responsive grid to work with, the first to be mobile-first, the first to be semantic, and the first to be constructed with Sass, and the first to have accessibility built in to give designers and developers the tools they needed to make a user experience. Just last year, Flexbox was added to expand layout options even more. And we’re continuing to bring technology advancements to you. We're excited about a new technology that we think has the power to dramatically change the web, a technology that finally transform websites into the completely moldable, interactive, and customizable experiences we have always envisioned they would be. That technology is CSS Grid.

CSS Grid is a pure-CSS implementation of a grid layout. It enables truly 2 dimensional layouts of all sorts using dramatically less markup than previous tools. What’s more, because it pure CSS, it is all easily changeable with media queries. This means that designers can create layouts and components that are responsive to browser size in radically new ways - layout changes that previously required JavaScript and complex logic to manipulate structural elements can be done with simple CSS and relatively minimal markup.

We’ve been experimenting with the possibilities of CSS Grid for months, and we’re incredibly excited about what we’ve been able to achieve. Here are three Playground Pieces that demonstrate the possibilities of CSS Grid, each with huge ramifications for Foundation:

1. Foundation CSS Grid Examples

First, an exploration into the the possibilities of CSS Grid with Foundation. In this grid we explore three different possibilities enabled by CSS grid. First a responsive data component that uses tabular views where space permits, second a responsive navigation “mega menu”, and finally a complex layering of content that previously would have been complicated and fragile to implement. Each of these can be a new component within Foundation. These also highlight how with CSS-grid, we will be able to evolve even components that previously were dramatically different to morph into one another responsively.

Foundation CSS Grid Examples

2. Foundation CSS Grid + Container Queries

Next, we take one of these CSS-grid enabled components in Foundation and explore the possibilities that arise when combining it with another hot new technology: Container Queries. Container Queries take the concept of media queries and allow you to apply it to containers within a page - letting you truly create components responsive to the space available to them. In this exploration, we combine a responsive data view with an expandable navigation, using container queries to automatically adjust the data view based on the space available to it. While container queries do not yet have browser support, there is a first class polyfill and we are making them a first class citizen within Foundation.

Foundation CSS Grid + Container Queries

3. Foundation Grids within Grids

Finally, we take these concepts to the next level. Proponents of CSS Grid often talk about the page-level layout possibilities, but by combining CSS Grid with container queries we firmly believe that we should be thinking beyond the page, and into nestable, reusable, grid-based components. In this final exploration we explore the possibilities of nesting grid based components with Foundation, with the inner component able to move seamlessly between parts of the other grid, formatting itself intelligently based on the space available to it. Foundation’s grid has always been flexible, but with CSS Grid hitting browsers the potential to mix, match, and combine grids is quickly becoming a reality.

Foundation Grids within Grids

What CSS Grid means for Foundation and the Future of the Web

Foundation has always led the way for how the web is designed and built, and we’ve been preparing ways we can help you harness the power CSS Grid. We see a future filled with radically responsive components that morph and change depending on the circumstance or device. The development of CSS Grid will enable the very concept of grids to change from a massive structural choice to something more like components. Imagine having a set of grid components that allow you to get entire layouts and sublayouts right out of the box, and then nesting, combining, and recombining them.

Browser support for CSS Grid is exploding, with several adding support just this month:

Chrome. Enabled by default since version 57.
Firefox. Enabled by default since version 53.
Internet Explorer. Enabled by default since IE10
Opera. Enabled by default since version 44.
Safari. Enabled by default since version 10.1.

The term “web page” is starting to feel very, very... inadequate. CSS Grid opens up layout in ways that were not possible before, and our minds are racing with the opportunity in front of us. We hope these experiments will get you as excited as we are, and demonstrate a little of what’s possible with this new tool.

ZURB works with companies every day to help them reimagine the possible with regards to their web applications, websites, and products. Do you have a project that deserves to push the limits? Feel free to get in touch, we’d love to work with you.

17 Web Design Trends That Will Take Over 2017

Fri, 10 Mar 2017 12:00:00 -0800

Designers working on web projects in 2017, in some ways, face more challenges than ever before. They have to create engaging websites, apps, and services that work seamlessly across all devices and work for a global audience at a pace that seems to speed up every year. That audience too is more tech savvy, have higher expectations and are more design literate than ever before and expect near perfection. Faced with these challenges, it's more important than ever for designers to be aware of emerging trends, solutions and patterns that can help them solve common issues, capture the full attention of their audiences, and deliver amazing experiences.

Here at ZURB, we've helped hundreds of companies surface the best solutions and take advantage of new patterns in their websites and products. We've created this list of 17 design and development trends we think every designer should be familiar with to shape their 2017 and well beyond.

(In no particular order...)

1. Brutalism

Taking its name from the architecture style of the 60's and 70's, Brutalism in design consists of bold, in-your-face collages of text and images, where anything goes. Echoing the web from yesteryear, Brutalist sites often employ simple markup, inline styles, and harsh colors and gradients. Some even argue that Instagram's new(er) gradient logo could be classified as Brutalist, with it's 90's esque neon colors and gradient design.

theoutline.com

Pascal Deville, an authority on the Brutalism trend, and founder of brutalistwebsites.com defines the movement as this:

'In its ruggedness and lack of concern to look comfortable or easy, Brutalism can be seen as a reaction by a younger generation to the lightness, optimism, and frivolity of today's web design.'

But not all Brutalist websites are an all out attack on the eyes. A few sites like Bloomberg News and TheOutline.com borrow from the aesthetic while adding a level of polish not typically seen in most sites.

We think designers can use Brutalism to set their site apart from the rest with bold color choices, large typography, and layouts that break away from the common hero-image-then-3-up pattern.

The Brutalist aesthetic makes good use of typography, so choosing the right typeface is critical. Check out these tips for conveying the right typographic voice.
Brutalist websites run the gamut from mild to wild. Get inspired with these examples.
Spotify has been flirting with this style for a while. Check out how they make use of bold colors, strong typography, and a collage inspired layout.

2. Large Screen Design

When most people think of responsive web design, they think of shrinking a website down from a desktop to something that looks great on a tablet or mobile phone. But this is ignoring a growing segment of users, those that have large scale monitors. Yes, while mobile has certain exploded in popularity over the last ten years, so has extra large monitors with ever increasing pixel densities. The problem is that most focus has seemed to be on the smaller side of the spectrum with, few sites truly catering to their large screen users. By looking at your data, you may find that the majority of your users, or at least you're converting users are on displays of 1920x1080 or higher. There are a lot of cool and creative ways to use that kind of screen real estate and clever designers are not afraid to go big.

apple.com

We think designers should be well acquainted with the data and know exactly who their audience is and what equipment they're on. By using techniques like resolution independent SVG's, bold typography, and serving up either high or low resolution photos with JavaScript, they can deliver a rich experience for everyone, even those with massive screens.

SVG’s are perfect for large screen design because they are scalable, resolution independent, have small file sizes and are supported by most browsers. Here are 10 resources to learn more about them.
Targeting SVGs with CSS allows you to do cool things like using media queries to hide and reveal parts of an image by screen size. Check out our lesson to learn the basics.
The Interchange component in Foundation uses media queries to load the images that are appropriate for a user's browser, making responsive images a snap. It decreases the load times for mobile users while still serving the bigger content to your visitors with higher screen resolutions. Learn how to use it.

3. Responsive Components

It's been nearly 8 years since Ethan Marcotte introduced the concept of responsive web design to the world, and we've seen it develop at an incredible pace. There are new techniques and technologies on the horizon though, that are going to dramatically simplify the write of responsive elements and make today's responsive sites look simplistic and naive. Some examples are element queries and the upcoming CSS-grid spec. These two technologies will enable web designers and developers to create experiences that are truly tuned to every device size. Element queries will allow creating components that are responsive based on the space allotted to them rather than the full screen size, while CSS-grid allows us to dramatically change layouts based on media queries.

Between the two, we believe we will see dramatic increase in the diversity of responsive patterns easily available to designers and front-end developers.

Element queries and container queries open a new horizon for responsive components, here are 10 resources to learn more.
The Foundation team broke down how responsive components work and what’s coming in the near future in this recent article.

4. Device Specific Microinteractions

Up until now, the mobile-first method has meant building a slick and usable experience for small screens, and then layering in more complex interactions and animations for the desktop. But as mobile web tooling mature and mobile traffic eclipses that on desktop, we think there is a ton of opportunity to take advantage of the native paradigms of different devices for mobile-focused interactions. With the rise of touch and gesture related JavaScript libraries, there is a ton of opportunity for subtle animations in response to gestures (e.g. the Twitter mobile app's tweet refresh interaction) to make their way into more and more web applications.

As Nick Babich pointed out in a recent post on Medium, microinteractions provide users acknowledgement they crave. Popular apps like Slack have skillfully weaved them throughout the entire experience, delighting users and making the app feel more intuitive.

By taking advantage of whatever is available to them, device specific microinteractions will only serve to make microinteractions more compelling and personal.

Learn the basics of microinteractions, why they’re important, and how to use them.
Playing around CSS animations and transitions can help you build and test some neat microinteractions. Here’s a few techniques.

5. Split-screen Design

A simple way to highlight a contrast, balance text with images, or share two different products, split-screen design has grown in popularity with many designers. Easy to implement, split-screen design is a great way to present content in a way that feels fresh and balanced. For products or sites that require a comparison, split-screen design is a no brainer.

theoceanfortlauderdale.com

We've seen some really creative uses of split-screen design, and we think people are only beginning to scratch the surface. We're looking forward to new ways this pattern can be used to tell a unique story and guide users.

Get inspired with some great examples of split screen design on Pattern Tap.
Still need inspiration? These 20 examples showcase some really creative applications of this trend.
Nick Babich offer some clear best practices for split screen design you should definitely adhere to.
Just because they’re simple doesn’t mean they’re easy. Here are three things to keep in mind when building a split screen layout.

6. Reactive Animations

The explosion of native mobile apps this decade put a spotlight on human centered design. Apple's iPhone and iOS were breakthroughs in part because of the way they used design to mimic humans and appeal to emotion. How good a design looks now plays second fiddle to the way it feels. While mobile apps have been the driver of these breakthroughs, desktop experiences have still felt clunky and unintuitive. But advances in desktop browsers, JavaScript, and CSS variables, have made it possible to add those human focused interactions in really compelling ways.

We think we'll soon see more technologies that push what's possible in the browser, led by animation heavy interactions.

Our Reactive Listener playground piece is a great example of how reactive animation can be used to highlight content to users even before they take action.
By harnessing the power of JS and a little CSS, combined with the capabilities of modern browsers, we can deliver experiences that are responsive, fluid, react to user input and give native mobile apps a run for their money. Here are 10 resources to start with.

7. Refreshing Card Based Interfaces

While cards have been around for years, they are a solution that is not going away anytime soon. A pattern tailor made for responsive web design, they make it easy to display large amounts of information in a way that is easy to browse and simple to implement. In recent months, we've seen them used for more than text and links, becoming hubs of all kinds of rich media. Designers are playing around with rich microinteractions within cards themselves, and are finding ways to make this old pattern new again.

google.com

We see no reason to abandon tried and true patterns that solve common problems, and are excited about the new experimentation we're seeing with cards.

Cards are all over the web, but we still see designer making these 5 mistakes.
Not a big reader? Learn how to avoid those 5 mistakes by watching this video.
Cards are the basis for a ton of successful interfaces. These 10 resources will help you figure out how to best use them in your project.
Foundation’s new Flex cards open you up to all kinds of possibilities. In this lesson, Rafi breaks down how to use this new component.
Nick Babich highlights some best practices of using a card based UI in this incredible article.

Download the PDF for 10 More Trends, Exclusive Resources and Tutorials

The world of the web moves at light speed. It requires designers and developers working in it to constantly soak up new information, techniques and strategies to stay effective and impactful. To help them stay up to date and on top of new trends and solutions, we publish Responsive Reading, an email magazine covering new developments in responsive web design each month. It's free to sign up, and if you join now you'll get a free copy of our 17 Responsive Trends PDF that contains all 17 trends along with links to resources, tutorials and articles that will help you implement these trends in your own projects today.

What's Underneath Matters: How MeUndies Increased Mobile Conversion by 40%

Thu, 02 Mar 2017 09:01:00 -0800

Did you know that most men own at least one pair of underwear that's over 7 years old? We didn't' and we sort of wish that realization stayed hidden from us, to be honest. MeUndies, a company leading the movement in underwear innovation by providing comfortable everyday basics and a transparent shopping experience, gave us this fact. They recently started using Foundation on their site in an effort to boost their mobile sales, which constitutes most of their traffic and we wanted to share their story.

After 7 years, it was time for MeUndies to change their site's underwear, which is to say their code. See, the MeUndies site was beginning to boom on mobile, but they were losing sales by not optimizing the experience and ease of use for those mobile users. The team began to put their heads together and started exploring solutions.

What's underneath matters, something MeUndies knows all too well, so they chose Foundation as the basis for their new responsive website. With the decision clearly made, the MeUndies team put on their freshest pairs of undies for coding and got to work. Since they're a small start-up team of 2-3 people coding, they needed to be able to work quickly and effectively. It was an ambitious project, involving rebuilding their entire website, but Foundation made it easy for them to work at lightning speed. Within just 3 months they were able to build a beautifully responsive site with some especially slick interactions on mobile. 'How did this help them?' you may ask. Well, after they put a new, fresh pair of Foundation-woven underwear on their site to make it responsive, they saw a 40% increase in their mobile conversion! Now their mobile traffic is 60% of their sales. Just like on any third date, underwear was the closer.

According to MeUndies, Foundation is the best underwear they could have put on their site. What makes Foundation such a good pair though? Check out the case study to see how the MeUndies team cleverly swapped out a non-responsive grid for Foundation's and how they configured Foundation's components to do their bidding.

Check out the case study

If you're site is in need of a refresh, we encourage you to check out Foundation- don't wait seven years to change out your underwear or your site's code! Hey and guess what? MeUndies was so happy with Foundation they wanted to give back to you, the community, by giving what they know best: undies!

We're partnering with MeUndies to give one lucky winner a pair of underwear for each month of the year - that's 12 pairs! All you need to do to enter is sign up for our email newsletter and you're entered in to win. Not only will you be entered into the giveaway, but you'll also stay up to date with all the latest updates and news from us and on Foundation. That way, you can get the freshest code possible on your site, to always keep it fresh, clean, and sexy. So, open up those drawers (or terminals), throw out your old underwear and get a fresh new pair now!

Official Contest Rules

Design for Proximity, Not for Clicks

Tue, 17 Jan 2017 11:00:00 -0800

Remember when the web was a collection of static websites, largely HTML, no CSS, and layout done with tables and frames? How about even farther back ' when your choice of mediums for design were print, film, industrial, and maybe even radio?

What about the aforementioned mediums is consistent? They were all linear. That meant we could think about things going from A-Z and stop there. Even when we got digital interfaces (enter HTML), we continued to think of interfaces as static screens for decades. It made things simple, and we put our focus into cutting the amounts of clicks on that trail to get people to the end faster. The data even seemed to prove it, with more clicks equaling 'bad' and less clicks equaling 'good.' This especially seemed to ring true in the eCommerce world where it's been accepted that the more hoops you make your user go through to buy something, the less sales you'll see. It was estimated that $4 trillion (Yes, that's trillion with a 't') was left in abandoned shopping carts in 2014, and so an entire industry of 'click reducers' have sprang up, 'optimizing' checkout flows to get people from A to Z in 1, 2, and only if necessary, 3.

That Takes How Many Clicks?

Today MV* frameworks (Model View *Whatever; Angular, React, etc.) are all the rage, and even the most basic websites have some way to serve up content or state dynamically on the fly. In the early days of the web, and still largely prevalent today, this stuff got served up from the server side. AJAX, jQuery, and the late-comers like Angular and React took that concept and ran with it ' allowing us to render all that state on the client side, unleashing the power of front-end developers and designers alike.

Many practitioners of design across various mediums often try to divorce themselves from technology. Technology is temporal and transitory; it evolves and never stays still. Good design should be permanent and everlasting (Or so our hubris gives us cause to think). This is actually a good thing, as we force ourselves to think about the constraints of the opportunities in front of us, not the technology that currently binds it.

Unfortunately, the reality is that designers don't really divorce themselves from technology, they just root themselves to past constraints that no longer exist. We still think about our website designs like they're print designs. We think of proximity in design as keeping like-things grouped together nicely on the printed page. Those savvy enough to realize their designs aren't print, but a series of hypertext documents, think of clicks instead of nearness ' but they're all wrong.

How many times have you heard someone say, 'Yeah, but that'll add an extra click'. Hearing that comment 5 years ago, I would have responded, 'Gosh, you're right, we gotta rethink this interaction thing'. Today I would respond entirely differently, I'd say, 'I don't give a crap how many clicks it takes'.

Why not?

Websites used to be reeeeally slow. In pop culture we make fun of this fact, the stereotypical example is a nerd in his basement eagerly awaiting a pornographic picture to load on his screen. An hour passes, and he's thrilled to see it finally fully rendered on the screen.

Fast forward to 2016 and websites are lightning fast, that kid in his basement has more pictures than he knows what to do with. His mom is worried. And you, designer, should be too-- but not for the same reasons. You should be worried because you're still designing for static proximity, and the least amount of clicks to the desired input.

Where did we get this notion of clicks? Well, as exampled above, it used to take a long time to load a screen. Designing an interface that required a user to wait minutes before their content was available after clicking was, and still is, a big no-no. How long should we wait for a screen to load in 2016? According to Web Designer Depot, the desired time is 500 milliseconds to two seconds. Mere milliseconds more than the blink-of-an-eye.

We measure successful interactions in clicks because it was inferred that clicks take time, and add minutes to the end-user's experience. If I'm running an e-commerce store, or a marketing page, I need my user's experience to be as frictionless as possible. The logical result of this thinking is that we need to reduce the number of clicks it takes to get to checkout, or to that lead conversion form.

From a site-to-site point of view, as of 2016, the average page load is 5 seconds. But here's the deal folks, pages are a thing of the past. Conventional wisdom has it that If I've got a a checkout flow that's three pages deep, the absolute minimum amount of time it takes to get to that purchase is 15 seconds. But why do I need 3 pages of checkout flow? Why don't I have state changes instead of pages? The answer is, again, designers are still designing like it's 1999.

When we ask folks in user interviews how they think an application should work, they tell us. But it's important to remember they are telling us what-they-think, not how they actually prefer it; they tell us about their ideal interaction. Turns out, however, that the ideal state of things is not actually what they want. When processing the question they tell you what they think at that moment in absence of the actual real experience. Henry Ford is famous for saying, 'If I asked people what they wanted, they'd of told me faster horses'.

Following this logic, when people tell you they want less clicks, they are telling you they like the idea of less clicks. But really what they want is mental proximity.

Design for MENTAL proximity

I'm fond of asking people the question, 'How many clicks does it take to brush your teeth?' The point of the question is to lay bare the fact that humans don't think in clicks-- We evolved in a clickless world. This is something Amazon demonstrably understands as evidenced by some of their current innovations, like the Dash Button.

The Amazon Dash Button seems completely ridiculous on the surface to some. It's a button that does one thing, it reorders the product printed on the label. The quintessential example of the Dash Button is the Tide dash button. You place the button on your washer and dryer, and when you run out of laundry detergent, you press the button.

Upon first hearing of this, many of us thought this was a crazy stupid idea. 'I can already do that with my phone!' some said. 'Why do I need a dedicated button for something I can do on my phone with relative ease?!'.

If one analyzes the situation, they might reckon (and rightly so) that it would literally take more time to get up (from the couch, bed, etc.) and walk to the washer/dryer to press the button than it would to pull a phone out of their pocket and order more detergent through the web interface.

But, when I realize I need laundry detergent, I'm not in bed, on the couch, or anywhere else. I'm doing my laundry. The button is closer mentally and physically at the time of need than the same button represented in my phone.

What Do Your Users Need, and When Do They Need It?

Design Proximity is no longer about just physical proximity, it's about mental proximity. It's not measured in pixels from one button to another, but from one interaction to the next. It's not measured in clicks, but in the perceived nearness or proximity of that event to the next one in a chain of events.

When I ask how many clicks it takes to brush your teeth, it's easy to understand where physical proximity comes into play. I have my toothbrush, next to my toothpaste, next to the sink. I can successfully brush my teeth without having to run around looking for all-the-things.

But humans aren't solely teeth-brushing machines, we have other needs too. When I'm done brushing my teeth, there is a next event that almost always needs to happen: I need to pee. Thankfully, through who-knows-how-many-years, humankind has evolved a set of precedents that account for this mental proximity. My toothbrush and other aforementioned accoutrements all live in my bathroom, and my toilet is right there. We've got physical and mental proximity living together side by side.

So, whether you're a designer, developer, or designer/developer, we encourage you to think outside of static layouts and think about all that state you have to play with on the screen. Stop thinking about your sites and apps like they're real estate; trying to shove as much content into as small a space as possible. Remember there is no physical limit to your canvas, it's limited only by your powers of imagination. Unshackle yourself from the constraints of yesterday's technologies and open yourself up to the possibilities of today. Physical distance between elements is but one constraint, relying solely on these dimensions is like ignoring color and pretending the world is black and white; 2D instead of 3D. And don't forget what your user wants to do next.

Bring Your Page to Life with Reactive Animations

Thu, 12 Jan 2017 10:30:00 -0800

The explosion of native mobile apps this decade put a spotlight on human centered design. Apple's iPhone and iOS were breakthroughs in part because of the way they used design to mimic humans and appeal to emotion. How good a design looks now plays second fiddle to the way it feels. New terms like 'microinteractions' and 'reactive animations' have been thrust into the designer's vernacular. It's a new era of design, the 'Experience Era.'

While mobile has been killin' it in this area, desktop experiences have still felt clunky, artificial and unintuitive' until now. With advances in desktop browsers, JavaScript, and CSS variables, we're now able to add those human focused interactions that elevate the experience of using a website, app or service. They aren't just for looks either, they can help your app or website feel more intuitive and at the risk of sound cheesy, be more delightful to use.

We're exploring microinteractions and reactive animations in our own products, looking for unique ways they could add real value for users and enhance the experience. It was with one of these explorations that our latest Playground Piece was born, Reactive Listener.

Most of the interactions on the web are causal. We click a button, a window loads. We push 'submit,' an email is sent. But what if we didn't want to be so binary. What if we want to humanize our website (on desktops) by subtly making our users aware of something before they've actually interacted with it. That's where Reactive Listener comes in.

Reactive Listener allows us to affect change over an element from a distance that otherwise would not be possible. This has all kinds of potential uses. Highlighting a clickable region of the page as one gets close to it, showing and hiding extra information as one navigates related content, and even simply subtle changes in position to make page elements feel as if they are 'alive' and reacting to you.

Our minds are exploding at the possibilities of these types of interactions, and we'd love to hear any ideas you have in the comments!

Check out Reactive Listener!

Design or Get Off the Pot

Tue, 27 Dec 2016 12:31:00 -0800

Designers, it's time to elevate our game or get off the pot. Yes, I'm telling designers to step up. Because I'm not seeing it happen. What I see now are scared designers afraid to make decisions on behalf of their organizations. Creators and craftsmen struggling to tell other people what works best, and it's putting their own future along with their organization's in jeopardy.

Everyone wants the benefits that come along with authority and influence, but most don't want what inevitably follows: the responsibility of decision making. Making decisions all day requires tremendous amounts of mental energy. Sometimes it's not fun and it can be scary. These feelings, combined with impostor syndrome, put doubt into the heads of designers about whether they have authority to even make a decision. The ease of passing a decision on to someone else has kept many designers in perpetual limbo. They're kinda getting things done, but kinda not, kinda being useful but kinda not. And while for the time being most people aren't noticing, they soon will.

Friends, we can't stay here. We need to design or get off the pot. Making good design decisions is a fundamental building block required to influence our teams and guide them through creative decisions that can benefit our organizations. Machine learning and AI are already making inroads in our industry and will replace a lot of the design we're doing today. What will help us achieve the impact that we desire and keep us valuable to organizations is making good decisions, making them quickly and executing them. It's key to both our survival and growth. And it's not just limited to the design leaders among us. Leading by design can be learned and doesn't require a title or management position.

Making design decisions by doing

In my recent post I discussed the problems of thinking too much in our design work. Taking action is far more important to getting good initial results. Do, then think. Which brings us to the topic today- if we’re not spending time thinking, then how do we get started doing? Designers need to get good at reading situations and making decisions. Waiting for our teams to inspire action isn’t going to work anymore. It’s our job to help our organizations see the possibilities of design through clear, decisive actions.

Design covers all facets of business: strategic, tactical and operational. Designers that are most effective must know how to make decisions in each realm. And whether designers want to lead or not, faster decision making makes everyone on the team better. It’s crucial to solving the complexities of connected products and services. You don’t need to be a manager to make decisions.

...But making decisions is for managers

New designers get anxiety when I tell them they will make a great design leader. You can see the fear in their eyes, “Do I want to manage people?” And then they start processing, “Do I want to tell people what to do? Can I do this?” I tell them to slow down and not to get ahead of themselves- my compliments usually stem from a great design decision I see them make. They don’t realize it, but making a solid decision is the first step in leadership. It builds confidence and inspires action. Managing people may happen, but you’d be surprised how far a designer can grow in an organization simply by making good design decisions.

Design Deciding like a Boss

Making creative decisions can be hard, and very different from your typical business decision. We use patterns in design because rigid formulas quickly expire when we’re challenged with complex and chaotic problems. There’s just too much change happening in technology. So how do we do this? We use different methods of thinking to accomplish phases of our work. Here are a few:

Abductive reasoning- many design decisions are informed guesses that tie disparate pieces of data and knowledge together.
Effectual reasoning- emergent ideas require creating undefined outcomes from a set of means. Goals are many, and the results are all meant to be positive.
Divergent thinking- exploring the many possibilities of a concept enables the best ideas to emerge. Creating space for ideas to emerge is important for growth.
Creative collaboration- design work often requires shared ownership of an idea to truly flourish in a business.

The variability in our methods can create problems and more complexity. Anyone that’s worked in a design process understands that it can be a frustrating experience when the team isn’t working well together or decisions have stalled. Designers can avoid these problems if they are aware of the issues. So why is making design decisions harder than other business decisions?

Designers are wrong most of the time, which puts us in peculiar situations with our teammates who may not empathize or understand iteration. But it’s required for emergent ideas to happen.
Collaboration can be a trap and teammates who don’t participate can isolate quickly. Problems emerge when designers are forced to make most of the creative decisions.
Solving problems in a way that allows new ideas to emerge is extremely agitating to critical thinkers who seek clarity and want to execute.
Teams with limited design literacy fail to see how design can influence better outcomes through strategic, tactical and operational facets of the organization.
Continuous creative decision making is exhausting and taxing; often causing project fatigue in team members who aren’t used to expressing their ideas.

All of these reasons can put a halt to design progress. Designers need a quick first step to inspire action. An effective first step can be the difference between a successful outcome and disappointing result. The faster we can reconcile our thinking and actions, the more effective we will be in our design collaborations.

Start with a dribble, pass or shot

When you see an amazing athlete perform, it’s incredible to watch them make quick decisions. I’m a Warriors basketball fan (It doesn’t hurt that the Warriors also use Foundation!). I’ve become enamored by the energizing and spectacular play of Steph Curry. His play seems effortless as he helps his team win. Check out some of Steph’s magical moments:

So what can we learn from these super athletes? These amazing plays don’t happen randomly- they happen through the practice of a ton of small actions. Steph is a quiet force that leads through his actions and inspiring play. He’s not directing the play- that’s the coach's role. He’s encouraging his teammates to make better decisions through his own play. He makes his team stronger with quick, improvised decisions that start with either a dribble, pass, or shot.

Steph’s game performance starts by practicing his decision making. It looks like he’s doing and thinking at the same time, when in fact, he’s made the time between thoughts and actions so small, you can no longer see the difference. His performance feels like it’s on autopilot. His decisions are quick and effective.

Designers can get better at making decisions faster too. While it’s not quite shooting or dribbling, at it’s core, we’re also making decisions by doing and thinking to help our team and organization win. Practicing to produce successful results builds confidence and makes it easier to self-evaluate our performances.

Making a Quick Design Decision

Over a decade ago we developed a system at ZURB called Progressive Design to help us make better design decisions. Making good design decisions is something that can be learned, but it requires practice, repetition and a conscious effort. A quick first step can be the difference between a stalled project and a momentum building action. We practice decisions in three facets of design- strategic, tactical and operational.

Similar to a dribble, pass or shot, designers have a way to assess a situation and start making quick design decisions. By identifying the mental space, Lift, Leap or Land, we can choose the right design methods for effectively moving a project forward. In each space we must ask a couple questions that help us take action.

Frame the challenge with LIFT

Strategic, or important, projects require a strong lift to frame the design challenge. In this mental space, we’re not using design to solve a problem- instead, we’re creating a space for problems to emerge so that we can inspire incredible design thinking in our team. Design decisions are based on good questions to get our team seeing a problem from many different perspectives. We do this through needfinding, observation and problem definition.

It’s important to note that not all design challenges require creating lift because a problem may already be well defined. However, in each design project it’s still important to ask the right type of questions.

How come? We can find potential needs that may not be met by a current solution. We can ask, how come this is the case? By observing and reviewing users, trends and available insights, we can create a challenge that helps us learn.

What if? By suggesting different ways to look at a problem, we avoid narrowing the problem too quickly or solving the wrong problem. A current solution shouldn’t limit our thinking, instead, it should inspire us to ask, “what if we considered a new possibility?”

Assess the potential with LEAP

Creating an emerging product or service requires making big leaps. Technological advances and psychological factors, however, create uncertainty and increase the complexity of our design challenges. We can use design to assess the potential of an idea or concept to insure we’re solving the right problem. Complicated and complex problems require finding patterns and removing unknowns.

Designers can help their organizations overcome the doubt that emerges from this rapid change through iteration. This can feel very much like trial and error, and we do this through ideation and prototyping.

How about? Suggesting ideas can be an anxiety filled activity, but the right methods will inspire a team to think big. We use sketching as an efficient way to explore ideas and visualize workflows that work within specific opportunities.

Why not? We can evaluate interface ideas in prototypes and validate if our design assumptions and interaction design were good. Prototypes help us understand why our initial thoughts may or may not have been good ideas so that we can adjust in new directions.

Finalize the Choices with Land

Many great design decisions happen when we focus on execution. Teams build confidence through realizing an idea and finalizing choices. Production is an important part of design and it’s best served landing on agreed upon ideas. We do this by establishing best practices through testing and forming patterns in our frameworks and style guides.

Design is very good at solving production oriented problems. In fact, it’s the space design has played a larger role in over the past hundred years.

Which one? With the design structure agreed upon, we work with teams to create flexible, scalable designs that can inspire completion.

Why’s that? No decision is perfect. We breakdown the problem by looking at qualitative and quantitative data to arrive at some insights we can build opportunities from.

Designing with a System

Designers need to influence business decisions through quick design decision making. Creative environments are not always conducive to building confidence, so quick design decisions can inspire action and get everyone moving forward. Having the right system in place, just like a style guide, can encourage designers to step up and own these decisions. Knowing what design decision to make starts with understanding the right mental space to ask questions.

At ZURB we use Progressive Design to simplify our design decision matrix. A consistent, reliable approach helps us build momentum in projects by setting us up to use the right design methods. Choosing between Lift, Leap or Land questions is the determining factor in the success of our projects. We’re excited about the progress we’ve made in our approach and would love to hear how you make decisions. Designers, it’s time to own our decisions!

Bryan Zmijewski

Leading the charge at ZURB since 1998

Follow him at @bryanzmijewski

ZURB

The Amazon Effect and How Retailers Can Slay the Beast

Lead Generation

Acquisition

Retention

Lead Generation

Generate new customers through awareness

Craft better content

Win the email battle

Curate and find your voice

Build a selling network

Connect with a social cause

Acquisition

Acquire new customers with trust

Sell unique products

Get it today products

Provide customization

Sell products direct

Create a subscription service

Greater company access

Better search filters

Retention

Keep customers by surpassing their expectations

More personal service

Make a loyalty program

Provide local access

Create a movement

Provide mobile ordering

Collect prototype reactions

Stock shallow and exclusive

Build experimental stores

Conclusion

Bryan Zmijewski

If you’re interested in the PDF download and want these ideas and additional resources sent to your inbox, give us your contact information below.

How Design Insights Transformed Foundation Building Blocks

A Clear Purpose Drives Meaningful Design

The Right Challenges Frame The Right Conversations

Design Insights Reveal User Behavior and Drive Bold Decisions

Opportunities Bridge Design Insight and Design Innovation

Powerful Building Blocks Turns Learners into Pros, Pros into All-Stars

Project-Specific Kits Kickstart Rapid Prototypes and Rapid Learning

Meaningful Metrics Validate Product Direction

The New Foundation Docs: Learn Your Way

Foundation Building Blocks: Over 100 Components to Jump Start Your Projects

Hundreds of Coded UI Components for Your Foundation Projects

Powerful Kits to Help You Build A Diverse Range of Sites

Components Created by the Global Foundation Community

Code That Will Cut Your Development Time in Half

Foundation & CSS Grid: Think Beyond the Page

Out With the Old

In With the New

1. Foundation CSS Grid Examples

2. Foundation CSS Grid + Container Queries

3. Foundation Grids within Grids

What CSS Grid means for Foundation and the Future of the Web

17 Web Design Trends That Will Take Over 2017

1. Brutalism

2. Large Screen Design

3. Responsive Components

4. Device Specific Microinteractions

5. Split-screen Design

6. Reactive Animations

7. Refreshing Card Based Interfaces

Download the PDF for 10 More Trends, Exclusive Resources and Tutorials

What's Underneath Matters: How MeUndies Increased Mobile Conversion by 40%

Enter to Win!

Design for Proximity, Not for Clicks

That Takes How Many Clicks?

Design for MENTAL proximity

What Do Your Users Need, and When Do They Need It?

Bring Your Page to Life with Reactive Animations

Design or Get Off the Pot

Making design decisions by doing

...But making decisions is for managers

Design Deciding like a Boss

Start with a dribble, pass or shot

Making a Quick Design Decision

Frame the challenge with LIFT

Assess the potential with LEAP

Finalize the Choices with Land