The Last Mile: Category business

Design as differentiator

Rob — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:32:00 -0500

We run into sales opportunities frequently who have no idea of the realistic cost of bad design. These business leaders have done cheap business cards or used family members who had some HTML skill and are left with the impression that web site redesign should be a quick turn project for minimum expense. Many of these businesses treat design as if it were a commodity – when it fact it is one of the few things left that should not be.

What does Web 2.0 really mean?

Rob — Tue, 10 Apr 2007 22:02:00 -0400

You would have been asleep at the wheel over the past few years if you haven’t heard how Web 2.0 ideas have engaged individuals and consumers with cool new possibilities. But the Web 2.0 moniker is still undefined to many corporate clients. What does it mean to their business?

The web has moved forward from Hypertext to a more rich ability to share information. Michael Wesch, a professor at Kansas State, made this great video that demonstrates the transition from text to Web 2.0. It is worth the 5 minutes of history if you haven’t already seen it.

Social networking, blogs, wiki’s, RSS, widgets and mashups have been all the rage on sites created by individuals. Facebook, MySpace, Googlemaps even personal pages from Apple generated tremendous media coverage as personal publishing took center stage in the ‘always on’ internet space.

Design is Important Again

Rob — Sat, 02 Dec 2006 07:21:00 -0500

I’ve been carrying around the October Fast Company magazine for 2 months because of all the great articles in their third annual Masters of Design issue. The stories about brands like Puma are insightful, but the bigger picture is more important – Design matters in business again.

Retailers have shown us the lead in recent years as even Target and Walmart have pushed ‘brands’ over ‘value.’ Don’t get me wrong, they still have great value, but the empty big box stores across the suburban countryside, tell us that the 90’s are over and the bland version of the value story doesn’t sell long term.

Sell more this Holiday season

Rob — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 14:10:00 -0500

People are buying more online every year and annual ecommerce is expected to top $200 billion for 2006. And Forrester predicts that holiday sales will top $27 billion. With all those potential online dollars, are you doing the right things to improve your online sales?

Vialogix has long held that the user experience improves ecommerce (Creatas, Picturequest, Hinrichs case study examples). Recent collaboration between Akamai and JupiterResearch shows that the average time an online customer will wait is 4 seconds! More than one-third of shoppers will abandon the site with a poor experience. And 75% were not likely to ever shop on that site again! Those are pretty hefty penalties for bad design.

Haley & Aldrich in FastCompany

Rob — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 11:21:00 -0500

We recently helped Haley & Aldrich launch a redesigned web site for their October sponsorship of Pop!Tech. Company CEO Bruce Beverly and COO Larry Smith got great coverage in the November print edition of FastCompany magazine which can now be found online here.

Flexibility is Key to Success

Rob — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:21:00 -0400

While on vacation this summer I listened to my wife and started each day with more stretching. On the floor each morning I reminded my muscles that they have been spending too muchtime in an office chair. Stretching hamstrings and hip flexors before I windsurfed and kayaked and swam and jumped off the rocks with my kids made me feel younger and stronger. It also brought tightness I hadn’t had in my legs since high school sports. But I am slowly feeling stronger and more agile. And the hurt is the good kind.

Flexibility is the key to success in business today. The Internet gave consumers flexibility of when and where they find information. IT infrastructure gives companies, of all sizes, the flexibility to transact business from any location. Software services have given us the flexibility to scale that technology backend without the cost exorbidence of previous business models. Companies can no longer just “throw bodies” at projects. Large companies have realized that the game has changed and flexibility is key to their success.

Qualitative Measures Online

Rob — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 13:19:00 -0400

I remember a grad school course in Mass Communications research that made me think it would be hard to ‘measure’ advertising results (Grady Course Listing). 15 years in a creative service business have help prove that in more detail. Don’t get me wrong, I believe that the UI work we do definitely effects results in a measurable way. I just think that companies and service firms struggle with the need to Quantify results that are probably more Qualitative.

Common Sense at the turn of the century

Rob — Wed, 29 Dec 1999 13:49:00 -0500

It’s not the New Economy. It’s not the Old Economy. It’s the economy: simple supply and demand. Success in business has always been about solving customers’ needs with services or products for which they willingly pay. But during the past five years, the markets forgot that simple principle. Demand was so inflated by fear, uncertainty and lack of knowledge that supply couldn’t keep up.

True i

Rob — Sat, 09 Jan 1999 13:50:00 -0500

True Internet Intelligence – circa 1999

true i \`trü-`i\ n 1: a thorough understanding of and genuine belief in the Internet as an industry and communications medium 2: a belief in the fundamental principles of service, quality, knowledge, relationships, commitment, innovation, individual respect and integrity. 3: a clear understanding that the Internet has fundamentally changed customer relationships forever.