We wanted to move away from the Flash from their old site and instead replaced this with JQUERY scripts so that the site worked well not only on a PC but also looks and works great on an iPad or iPhone.

Aimed to get users to interact more with the site we developed the competition module so that once a member is signed into the site they can enter any new competition with just one-click - taking away from entering the info again - there is also code written in to prevent them entering twice.

Once again developed using Expression Engine 2.0,  the framework set up for this site allows for great extendibility as new technologies come on board.

www.prettypolly.co.uk

So that means you have 2 seconds to make an impression. That’s quite a task.

The stats go on further to state that in the very best campaigns 77% of people fully read the email. 0.12% actually print the email (do people still put that “save the planet and don’t print this email” footer on their emails anymore ?),0.63% actually forward the email unless it was a really viral campaign in which case 9% forwarded it.

So What does this mean for your campaigns ?

Here are a few points I’ve put together :

1. Mediocre won’t cut it anymore , personally I think theres nothing worse than dull dreary “newsletters” with “safe” design, tons of content and endless scrolling. Due to the very nature of the email inbox there does need to be some scrolling but try and keep it to a minimum, and make it look great.
2. Break up the text, short paragraphs, emphasize key phrases, readers that get past 2 seconds will scan and not read.
3. Have a powerful statement or image at the top of the email that will keep them on the page. If you came to this blog post from the email we sent out then you can see how that approach works.
4. Put the content on your site not in the email, create links from the email to that content. You can track who’s clicking and if they are actually interested in that content then they clicked on it !
5. Remember the email is about THE READER not the writer. The reader doesn’t care about Joe in accounts getting married, they’re reading that email to see what THEY can get out of it. Whether an offer you’re making or some knowledge that will benefit their business, write it for THEIR benefit, not yours.
6. Don’t bombard your subscribers - once a month is more than enough, send me any more and I’m hitting that unsubscribe button.(UNLESS you’re an online store in which case if you’ve got special offers on, then once a week works - Wiggle and ChainReaction you can keep sending me your weekly cycling offers email).
7. Average open rates for a proper targeted email list has now dropped to 11% so if you’re not in that region then you need to reassess not only your list but the content and design that you’re using. Open rates have dropped significantly every year since 2004. Why is that ? Improved understanding, new tools (Twitter, Facebook etc.) as well as the almost invasive nature of email - “you’re in my inbox you better have a damn good reason for being there”.
   
8. Spend your time on the design, copy and proofreading. It takes us about a day to put together our email, we read it, re-read it and then test send it out many times before we finally hit send. Sometimes a mistake will slip through but we try our damn hardest to make sure we’ve checked and triple checked everything.
9. Be absolutely sure email is the best solution here, maybe a Facebook campaign, a mobile phone app or something else completely is a better idea. Include email as part your overall digital strategy by all means but don’t rely on it solely. You need an integrated approach to digital these days.

I think email is still a great tool but it has to be done well and sparingly. Before the plethora of social media tools out there it was the only way to disseminate your message, now it’s just one more gun in your communications arsenal, but if designed and developed properly it could just be the perfect weapon of choice.

How can we help ? We design emails for a large number clients and send out thousands on their behalf using what we believe is the best email out program available which in turn gives a huge breakdown on stats - API’s for site integration and Google and Litmus add-ons for really powerful interrogation of how your campaigns are working for you. BUT we also utilise all the other social media tools available to develop an all-encompassing strategy that brings all of your communications together So get in contact with us today.

Posted by Matt.

Working within strict brand guidelines developed by ERDF and EEDA under the parent brand of Solutions for Business the site is a showcase of the programme but also acts as a tool for partners to log in and access specific documents in a file asset management system custom developed using JQUERY whilst integrating with the Expression Engine backend.

The identity also had to be developed to work within Solutions for Business graphical identity requirements for sub brands.

Next stop Hyde Park and the Dextro Energy ITU in July…

Matt (with bottle) on his way to the mass swim start at Ironman 70.3 UK Wimbleball…

Great graphics and design although we think the standard council mounting poles aren’t the most aesthetic approach but these are an easy fix.

To save you wasting any of your hard earned dosh (and download time) heres a run down on the apps I’ve been using and the ones I think are over hyped and those that are just great…

We’re looking at developing a magazine app for a client so first of all we really wanted to see what the developments in this area are looking like, so the first apps we downloaded were the magazines that are considered to be breaking new ground in the digital magazine arena.

1. Wired Mag - launched yesterday and a year in development, I’ve been reading Wired for years here so it was about time they made it into a decent digital format (they re-designed their website a couple of years back and I’ve never liked the re-design). It’s had rave reviews as  being the future of publishing and it does have some clever elements. It may be a little overhyped but to me the really interesting work in this mag is how advertisers have taken on board the interactivity. There are some great examples of interactive ads from the Likes of continental Airlines, Heineken, Intel and Pepsi BUT (and we think it’s a big but) how do advertisers measure this interactivity as the entire mag (around 500mb) is downloaded to the iPad so you can’t measure if readers are actually interacting with the ads??? Saying all that it is nice that you can read the mag with all the whistles and bells once it’s been downloaded. Only £2.99 so well worth the money !!
   
2. Outside Magazine - Outside is a GREAT print mag, it has had some of the greatest travel writers contribute to it over the years (from good friend of ours Tad Friend to Sebastian Junger to Jon Krakaeur) and I was pleasantly surprised by it’s approach to navigation and ease of access to articles. As well as having a PDF style magazine view it also has a “rapid feature navigation” where you can just get to the articles quickly, read them without any page breaks (ala magazine style) and also view videos and photos in their own galleries. A few areas to tidy up here but overall a great experience (and as ever great content).At £1.79 an edition this is GREAT value.
   
3. Popular Science - considered the best example of an interactive mag yet, it has some interesting features for navigation but a lot of it feels like interactivity for interactivity’s sake. The 2 button swipe for the main menu works well and it makes some clever use of page scrolling but overall it just didn’t seem as effective an approach as say Wired or Outside.£2.99 a copy. Outside hit the pricing just right, this feels a little too expensive for what you’re getting.
   
4. Alice in Wonderland - There’s been a lot made about this as an interactive book being a groundbreaking innovation etc. etc. Well its nice but it’s not as great as I was expecting. It’s almost like a Flash website from 10 years ago - really basic interactive elements wrapped up in an iPad app with some nice (original) drawings. Not as many interactive elements as there could have been and they’re all the same. Also when you interact with a lot of them an 8 year olds fingers tend to cause the page to flip to the next page, which after 20 or 30 times become very annoying !! £5.49 - too expensive for what it is.
   
5. USA Today - if newspapers are going to become digital then this is the approach they need to take. Can’t find anything to fault with this it’s just a great example of the future of newspapers. And it’s FREE !!!
   
6. Pinball HD - The iPad is perfect for pinball, the rectangular shape mimics your avergae pinball table and the physics work perfectly. Just wish there were some more table layouts and with more animation, but it does what it says on the tin and it does it well !! £1.79
   
7. Marvel Comics - A great example of how subscription based apps could work (magazines and newspapers) and the dynamic approach this app takes for displaying each storyboard is really, really nice. The artwork just seems to pop from the screen too. If it wasn’t for the tactile feel and smeel of comic books (that sort of add to reading them) then all comics should be shown this way. Free app, comics £ vary.
   
8. TweetDeck - works really well on the iPad, big screen display and intuitive navigation. Could do with some enhacement for multiple accounts but otherwise a joy to tweet from.FREE
   
9. Pocket Pond - kind of pointless but a great example of how the graphics engine works, really powerful imagery.FREE
   
10. Photopad - a scaled down photoshop, intuitive to use and fast editing of imagery from painting to levels and curves, almost everything you need her for some quick and dirty photo editing. Very cool AND FREE !

This review has been written by Matt, so read into it as you will !!

To date we have the identity and printed materials all developed and the signage is due to follow. Below are some examples of the work produced including the highly stylised map of the park developed by Richard.

More information on the fort can be found here : http://coalhousefort-gallery.com/

And as a piece of general knowledge Coalhouse Fort was used as the Chinese Prison in Batman Begins !

Our remit was to develop this idea into a visual style and actual physical collateral. From the style developed we produced work books for the participants to generate their ideas in, as well as presentations and a website.

And you can view Lucy talking about the project here :

STUDIO 10A is the homebase of three designers - Tom McPhillips, Mike Rhoads and Charlie Cook.  Tom is one of the pioneers of Concert Design, he is the founder of Atomic Design and with Studio 10A he’s taking production and product design to a new level.

Tom wanted a site that could showcase his extensive body of work (featuring a truly astonishing client list), enable easy addition of new portfolio pieces, news and blog items as well as  allowing clients to login to download concepts and supporting files.

The design had to give a nod to Russian Constructivism and complement the Studio10a logo which also had foundations in that era of design. Studio 10a are also based in Pennsylvania so we had the added challenge  of working with an East Coast client, however our experience of working with the Explorers Club allowed us to realise we could action a lot of work in our morning so that the client could feedback to us by our afternoon (and their morning) so that process actually worked really well for all of us. With Basecamp, iChat, Skype and VOIP lines we found very few issues with this approach.

Solution

We once again utilised Expression Engine as our CMS of choice, as this allowed us rapid development of the CMS, with some custom coding for the client area we had this up and running in a few hours. Design wise we played around with various colour schemes but because of the bright design-led style of the work we kept the site as black as it made the art work really “pop” out of the screen.

With an eye on the future of web design (and HTML5) we eschewed Flash in favour of JQuery as we felt that the site should be able to be viewed on a variety of platforms (in particular iPhones and iPads) so whereas Flash would be the obvious way to go for popups and menus JQuery gave us more flexibilty and the Portfolio section of the site works rally well when viewd on the portrait screen of an iPad.

Results

We rewrote some of the code on the portfolio section to allow for faster loading and now have a great looking site that is easy to manage, easily editable by the client and as it’s built on Expression Engine allows for rapid development changes if required.

“BRILLIANT!  LOVE IT!”

Tom

www.studio10a.tv