Here at First Internet, we always encourage our clients to see their online activity as one element of their whole marketing mix. Indeed, for us, our most successful online campaigns have been those which integrate all online activities, from web design and PPC to SEO and Affiliate Marketing.

Today, a recent report by Sky.com has shown that consumers are now demanding that brands take integration online, one step further. According to research by Sky Media more than one in three customers interacting with red-button campaigns go on to buy the advertised brands online for the first time.

Love him or hate him, the legendary co-founder of computer behemoth Microsoft has had a bigger impact on the communications industry and web design than any other individual.

On a personal level, his influence can be tracked back 25 years to a time before PC’s and easy-to-use software applications. Students today have a PC on every desk – as do most homes, as Gates famously predicted – and the thought of writing anything long hand is an anathema.

And without the PC would the internet become so all-encompassing and ubiquitous or –subsequently – web design so advanced?

No doubt computer technology would have developed apace with or without Gates, but I suspect the world – and especially the world of media – would have been a very different place without his drive, vision and influence.

Social networking and digital gifts – small images that user trade with each other – seem to be a match made in web design heaven. There’s a vast array of social networks out there and everyone on them seems to be sending someone else something.
But when does this seeming bit of web design fun, become something much more serious – in short, when do the lawyers get involved? As we are aware brand owners take their intellectual property rights very seriously, this also extends to the way in which there brand is managed online.

A developer taking brand logo and publishing it onto a Facebook page or making it into a digital gift which users can buy, may seem harmless, but consider this sobering thought; brand owners enforce their intellectual property rights with an almost obsessive quality. And judges don’t just award damages when the brand owners win, the hand over a share of the developer’s profits

A recent report has revealed that the number of people in the UK who are worried about the threat of e-crime, when they shop online has fallen by almost 40%.

The report, conducted by online watchdog the IAB, found that only 38% of consumers in the UK are worried about crime online. This figure has decreased exponentially.

Mark Foster, from internet security software maker AVG, comments ; “ As a result of the increasing sophistication of security technology and web design, consumers no longer feel so concerned about crime when the shop online. Indeed, as Christmas proved, online is a shopping channel that is on the rise.”

In yesterday’s post we discussed the fact that many sites are losing business due to a poor returns policy and today a report reveals that e-tail businesses in the UK are losing millions pounds worth of custom due to poor web design and errors in web analytics.

Web analytics failing to detect hidden errors occurring during customer journeys, according to the SciVisum, Lost Online Sales Study.

The report said that analytics results fail to show errors such as pages not delivered, jump backs and shopping basket faults, so etailers are failing to rectify problems.

Etailers with a high street presence are failing consumers, with two in five restricting customers from returning items bought online to stores, according to a report by ecommerce technology specialist Snow Valley.

Of 43 retailers that had a network of store, only 13 allowed items to be returned by post. Sarah Cleland, marketing manager at Snow Valley, said although some online divisions of retailers’ offering operate as a separate channel to the in-store arm, consumer aren’t always aware of this.

This again highlights the importance of effective web design in e-tail sites.

The Green Cross Code was taught to millions of children, teaching them the importance of road safety. We now turn to the Internet and web design and present you with a new safety code for children using the Internet from Gordon Brown and Ed Balls, “Zip It, Block It, Flag It”.

Youngsters will be encouraged to use the internet and establish new relationships but not to disclose personal information. Using simple and easy to remember tips will help to protect children online.

Zip It: Do not share personal information with strangers. PINs and parental controls can be set up to forbid access to certain parts of the internet.

Block It: Block all contact from unknown people or companies and block children’s access to certain web design.

Flag It: Suspicious individuals or web design and unusual activities must be brought to attention. Notify the relevant authority.

Matt Ross, a teacher in Manchester agrees that the comparison to the road safety code is a good one and will improve the way that children access web design.

The Google Translate feature is a handy tool whereby the search engine translates foreign sites into your preferred language. It is a useful tool within web design as it translates content for you at the touch of a button.

Many users were not aware of this feature so Google are now incorporating it into the Google search engine. This will allow you to source information from all over the world, accessing web design in all different languages.

To translate a word between multiple languages is a feature which Google already caters for. The definition link which appears next to the number of results for your keyword can be used as a dictionary when you are writing new content to compliment your web design.

Rosie Gibson, a Spanish student in Manchester agrees that this is an excellent tool for language learning and it is interested to see how it works with good web design.

Stephen Fry is at it again, Tweeting, that is. But this time he is using the latest innovation in web design Twibbon. Twibbon is the new way to publicize a cause online.

Historically, social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been under exploited in terms of generating traffic for charitable causes. Twibbon enables users to put their web design skills to the test, by customizing their own online space with a cause of their choice.

The web design process is easy, using Twibbon.com, Twitter users can paste the branding of their charity of choice in their status update bar.

Dan Moss, used the web designs skill he learnt in Manchester to promote his charity of choice World Aids.

The UK’s top online brands have come under fire for blocking access to disabled users, due to poor or ill-conceived web design

Facebook, Gmail and Yahoo! Have all been criticized the disability lobby for their continued use of Capatchas: distorted visual and audio codes used to block spammers.

Widely used visual Captchas are often unreadable by those with visual impairments, while audio Captchas, which are increasingly used as an alternative to visual ones, exclude those with hearing impairments.

Online giants such as Google and Facebook do offer audio Capatchas, though they are incompatible with some browsers, while Yahoo!’s decision to only offer visual Captchas has seen it targeted by bloggers and an online petition to get alternatives offered.

This recent controversy again highlights the importance of considering all angles in your web design; from accessibility to aesthetics it is vital your web design says what you want it to about your brand online.