Use digital asset management for video and media management. Today’s DAM tip highlights how you can use DAM to streamline video conversion.

Tip #87

Easily convert video with customized or standard encoding presets for viewing across smartphones, tablets, Youtube HD, and more. Learn more about WebDAM’s Multimedia Module here.

If you’re a designer or a creative professional, then you are aware of how important it is to keep up with popular design trends. You have about 3 seconds or less to capture your audience’s attention, so it’s critical to produce eye-catching designs. This year, the use of mobile devices and tablets, adoption of social networking, and focus on user experience has had a great impact on best practices web designers should be utilizing. Looking at the most current trends, we’ve come up with the top 10 design tips that will help you create innovative and inspiring visual content for the web, regardless of the device used by your audience.

1)      Focus Design on User Experience

Before even starting the creative process, know exactly what you’re trying to accomplish with your design. Identify who your audience is, what the main purpose is, and what type of effect you want it to have on users. Your design will effortlessly become more intuitive when you consider those factors. All of the following tips influence the user experience, and are creative ways to optimize your design.  For more information on UX design, take the advice of Silicon Valley experts and follow the 4 Rules for User Experience Design we’ve outlined in a recent article.

2)      Create Responsive Web Design

Whether you’re on a large desktop screen, mobile phone, or tablet, a responsive design will adapt to your viewing environment. Consider how your design will look in a diverse set of displays, and make sure it can adapt to all screen dimensions. This is a key element for web design and should always be tested across all devices including the vertical and horizontal displays on mobile and tablets.

3)      Keep it Simple

Simplicity is a fundamental design concept that is constantly stressed when designing graphics and images, but in web, it has recently made a killer comeback. Newest trends follow the idea of minimalism to keep the viewer’s focus on what is important. Like with landing pages, keep the core product and call-to-action the main focus, because with too many design elements web pages can easily become distracting and frustrating to the end user. And since your audience is using tablets and smartphones, you don’t want to compromise their experience with clutter.

4)      Select Unique Typography

Make your design stand out by opting for original typography, other than overused fonts like Arial. Guide your reader to important content by adding contrast to headlines with carefully selected typography. The visual hierarchy of your site can easily be guided by particular styles, sizes, and family of fonts. Using unique typography is an easy way to take your design to the next level.

5)      Use Flat Colors

Just like keeping the entire design simple, choose flatter colors over the bold bright and loud hues.  You want your focus to be content and your company and brand. Single tone colors are proving to be more appealing, drawing audiences into what’s really important on the page.

6)      Drop In Full Screen Photos

Many landing pages are now incorporating large photo backgrounds. These visual elements are sure to engage your audience. Use large photos to create engagement with your audience.  Choose relevant photographs that blend well with the rest of your site and this technique can really capture your visitor’s attention. Also repurpose them for photo sites like pinterest, instagram, etc.  This will improve brand consistency and recognition.

7)      Consider Vertical Scrolling

Vertical scrolling might not be a great fit for every web design, but it’s definitely a trend worth considering.  With the popularity of portable web devices, it’s only smart that designers think about creating an effortless experience for their user. Product tours are beginning to transition to the one-page layout where all you need to do is scroll down to navigate through the content.  Pinterest really revolutionized this model, with infinite scrolling, and even sites like Google images followed suit after the large rise in popularity.

8)      Embrace Social Media Icons

Be sure to include fun and creative social media badges. Strategic design can encourage viewers to share and promote your site and its content. You can either create your own branded social icons or easily download them from any social community online.

9)      Incorporate Big Buttons

Use big buttons to optimize your design for conversion. They also look great on tablets and smartphones. A large button and prominent call-to-action might seem aggressive, but it is effective. It makes things simple for the user. Help your visitors easily get what they are looking for without any difficulties.

10)   Produce Amazing Content

Content is still king, and holds more weight than ever.  Make sure the content that your design is supporting is extraordinary.  Providing content that is thought-provoking and novel is the easiest way for websites to gain traction in the digital world.  Having incredible content is the first step, and your design can be the understated factor that can create a viral marketing effect.

We hope you find these design tips useful and can incorporate them into future designs. If you’d like to hear more about trends and best practices in the creative community, attend the HOW Design Live Conference. We’re excited to be speaking and exhibiting at the world’s biggest gathering of design & marketing professionals.

For more info, click here:  http://www.howdesignlive.com/ehome/47001/pricing/?&

Courtesy of WebDAM, get a $100 discount on registration by entering the discount code  “WebDAM13”.  Be sure to also sign up for our presentation, The Creative Power of Brands Without Boundaries.  And stop by our booth (1414) and say the secret codeword “I’m DAM Creative” to make us dance and give you a cool gift!

Batch actions allow you to work faster and easier. Today’s digital asset management tip highlights how you can edit multiple assets in your WebDAM account at one time.

Tip #86

Save time with batch actions! Select the assets you’d like to edit and mouse-over the pencil icon in the top menu. Then, choose from a variety of editing options. You can even batch edit from search results.

Since the rise of the social customer, there has been a dramatic increase of available information about customer behavior. According to 2013 statistics, 6 out of 10 Americans have a profile on at least one social networking site — Wow!  Amazingly enough, according to Edison Research, the stat jumps to 3 out of 4 when looking at ages between 18 and 54.  Today, most smart businesses have already caught on by increasing their social efforts, but many are not adequately leveraging the valuable info that social sites can offer.

To really benefit from social media and increase social media ROI, you should understand how your efforts can improve real business opportunity and improve intelligence around audience behavior.  Active social campaigns might be great for increasing brand awareness, promoting new offers, and growing your online community, but there’s also a tremendous amount of untapped value in social data.  Collect strategic information about your target audience and potential customers. Gain a comprehensive overview of the social customer, identify different personas, and then learn how to use past behavior and current trends to predict and drive future actions.

Technology provides an easy way to achieve this. Most companies already have a CRM in place. But, your CRM solution doesn’t contain the full story.  A true 360 degree view of the customer comes from utilizing other resources. Social media, analytics, purchasing history, and other data sources help paint a complete picture, including:

- Identity: Key demographic info, such as gender, age, earning power, location, and education

- Past behavior: Purchasing habits, decision trends, and preferences

- Relationships: Associations, employers, even colleagues and friends

- Interests: night owl or morning person, events attended, other products/services they like, etc.

- Key drivers: Critical reactions to marketing initiatives, both internally and externally

Online technology can help drill down data into appropriate segments to create the foundation of a 360 degree view of the social customer. Depending on what data is available, a much clearer — and more detailed — picture can be determined. Then, you can make the right decisions and tap into the right resources to drive business. Social apps like Sysomos, Spredfast, and UberVU can help you visualize high-level social data easily, but social profiles can give you even more detailed information on the individual level — giving you a more insightful perspective.

LinkedIn

Public LinkedIn profiles vary in available information.  However, most people’s public profiles provide a snapshot of the person’s professional identity — work history, education, and associations. These factors are critical in demographic decision making, giving insight into how the customer might think and behave, even what a potential budget might be. And if they’re not the right decision maker, chances are they’re connected to the person that is. Use this resource paired with data around your closed deals, to get a better understanding of your target market and refine job positions and titles to hit. Identify commonalities among background, skills & expertise, groups they are members of, and news they are following. This will spark creative new ways to market to your audience.

Facebook

While LinkedIn offers a professional perspective, personal social media provides a glimpse into a customer’s psyche. Some of this is explicit, like which brands they publicly Like. Others can be inferred based on activity or public status updates. Like LinkedIn, this is dependent on privacy settings — but even the smallest amount of data helps humanize a potential customer and provides a competitive edge.  For consumer products and services, people are more likely to promote and recommend them to their Facebook friends. Make sure to keep a close eye on who is mentioning you and what else they are recommending. Learn why this persona is your “target cheerleader” and your best bet for word-of-mouth marketing. Also, consider striking up a partnership with socially active businesses that offer complimentary products, that go hand-in-hand with what you’re providing.

Twitter

Twitter histories go back a long, long, long time, all in a very public way. An active Twitter account not only provides remarkable insight into what a customer thinks, but also how he or she views social media — that in itself provides key demographic data which can be categorized into general spending habits for various personas. Pay close attention to comments about other products whether it’s positive or negative. This will give you a ton of insight of the expectations of products and services. Target people that will become cheerleaders for your business. If they’re tweeting about products and businesses that they love, you’re sure to be mentioned too. The social customer can give you more insight and help you grow your business at the same time.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter are the most adopted social media networks, but feel free to explore others like Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, etc. to gather even more information. As you now know, social media can give you an in-depth look at an individual’s details, giving you a 360 degree view. The next step is to use this data to determine future customer behavior and to be there when it happens.  In our next article, we’ll take a look at how social behavior and big data can help you predict the future.

For more social media tips, check out these articles:

• DAM Improves Social Media Marketing for the Enterprise
• Protect Your Company’s Reputation with Social Media & Brand Management
• 5 Marketing Tips Inspired by Olympians

Improve the findability of your assets in your digital asset management solution.  Anyone accessing your DAM will be grateful you followed this tip..

Tip #85

Make sure that keywords are being added to assets upon upload.  This will make the assets in your DAM a lot easier to find, so you can get what you need right when you need it.

Silicon Valley is synonymous with innovation, from the mythical HP garage to the remarkable Apple and Google campuses and product launches. What is it about Silicon Valley that drives this success?

Companies are turning to user experience design to revolutionize product value, customer happiness, and technology advancement.  They are taking their products to the next level by applying remarkable focus on every second of the end user experience. Whether it’s a business software solution for the enterprise or a consumer product like the iPhone, users adopt these innovations because product functionality is just as important as usability. So, how do experts in Silicon Valley define the rules for user experience?

Let’s dive into the four totem poles of UX design. 

#1 Simplify the Complex

Since the dawn of the Internet generation, there has been a seismic usability shift anytime a new search engine appears. Historically, while most companies went for the “kitchen sink” approach with a dense portal of information, Google found success through simplicity: a simple search field underneath their logo. Today, the less-is-more approach has trickled down to virtually all aspects of user interfaces, whether it’s a mobile app or website. In most cases, complexity, density, bells and whistles wind up creating clutter rather than adding value and power — so simplify, simplify, simplify.

Don’t make your users think, click, and hunt more than they have to.  Identify their end goal and focus on how to best get them there.  There’s a reason why some of the best user interfaces tend to have the least amount of buttons.   The fewer the decisions, the better. Time is money.

#2 Manuals are for Dinosaurs

No one enjoys reading a manual. That’s a time-tested axiom, and while that’s pretty true across just about anything, it especially applies to software. The video game industry began shifting about a decade ago, relieving instructional manuals and instead focusing the first moments of gameplay on gradual in-game tutorials. That user experience translates to just about any application, and whether it’s a Wizard system, tutorial videos, or pop-up guides, intuitive interaction has trumped the old giant book of instructions. Make the initial experience with your product fun. Personalize the experience or even gamify it with achievement badges or user scores for completing tasks.

Sure, online help and paper/PDF manuals are still great resources when you’re stuck, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone who sits down and reads a manual from Page 1. Make the user experience interactive and contextually appropriate. You’ll find that learning curves and adoption rates will quickly accelerate.  Follow the example of trailblazers in user experience like Apple, Adaptive Path, and Digital Telepathy.

#3 User Experience is not User Interface Design

During the mid-2000s, Flash-based websites were all the rage for developers. With Flash, you could make all sorts of interactive animations and icons, but overly zealous designers got a little too ambitious. In those cases, the pretty designs looked great but users got lost while trying to find the right buttons and links — and if you couldn’t figure that out, the whole purpose of the website was defeated.

Fortunately, user experience design has moved past that and further towards focusing on intuitive interactions. It’s a good lesson to draw from when looking at any UX — the top priority, beyond aesthetics and traffic generation, is to give users an immediate sense of “I know how this works.” Website studies have shown that online attention spans last less than ten seconds. If those ten seconds provide a frustrating experience, your click-through rate will drop off considerably. When designing any user interface, put yourself in the mindset of the user and make sure to focus on the functional elements and not get too crazy with over-designing.

#4 User Experience is More than just Usability

So you’ve got a clean design with an intuitive menu and strong branding. What next?

There’s one final layer on UX and that’s the element of human response. Are you getting the interactive reaction you want, be that click-through, purchase, or something else? There are different ways to gauge this. If your site/app has analytics, you can see where your call to action is statistically strong and weak. You may discover patterns and habits that spell out where call to action is adopted quicker or at a more sustained level.  For instance, we follow these top 4 rules at WebDAM. As a result, we have been recognized for having the best user experience design compared to other digital asset management platforms.  By constantly gathering feedback from users about the ease-of-use and intuitive design, you can continually optimize their experience and achieve leading advancements in UX.

Talk to your users. Even just a test group of 5 can substantially increase your knowledge of what is working and what is not. Whether you have your customer support collect info, send out a survey, or host user meetings, it’s extremely important to hear directly from your users.  Remember, the cleanest interface in the world doesn’t do much good if it’s not ultimately delivering the desired response by the end-user.