The Official Fluid Blog

Responsive Web Design (RWD). The digital industry is buzzing about it. Our clients are asking whether to invest in it. And Fluid is at the forefront of it.

In order to get you answers I sat down with Steve Reichgut, Fluid’s Director of Engineering. He is a respected industry leader in RWD. Steve and his team live and breathe cutting-edge technology. They’re smart about when to, and when not to, apply it.

My top three take-aways:

1. This isn’t just about technology: Responsive Web Design with a “Big R” is about ensuring that the user experience responds effectively on multiple devices in multiple contexts. This broader concept can be implemented in many different ways.

2. RWD is not an all or nothing decision: The question ‘Should I use Responsive Web Design or not?’ is probably the wrong question to be asking.

3. Thinking through support for RWD is essential: Content updating challenges that currently exist between marketing and tech teams get amplified with RWD. Trade-offs between cutting-edge and desire for control are inevitable.

Now on to the interview…

[Amy] What is Responsive Web Design?

[Steve] In it’s purest definition, the “Big R” RWD, is about ensuring that what the user is experiencing responds effectively on the device they are using in whatever context they are in. This can be achieved in a lot of different ways.

RWD though is usually used as a technical term. It is literally using three things to build a responsive experience: a grid system, media queries to determine viewport size and flexible images that size appropriately.

[Amy] What’s the best thing about RWD?

[Steve] The best thing is the whole idea that the user gets an optimal experience no matter where they are coming from. RWD gives the user a great, seamless experience.

[Amy] What’s the biggest challenge?

[Steve] Determining how it’s going to be supported operationally. RWD doesn’t create new problems, it amplifies the ones you already have. Who’s going to make changes? And who’s going to make sure the changes render right on all devices?

The other challenge is that people are combining the “Big R” definition of RWD with a specific technical solution. So they end up asking “Do I do RWD or not?”

[Amy] Is “Do I do RWD or not?” the wrong question to be asking?
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Facebook Home has launched. And it’s been in the marketplace long enough for opinions to be formed. My Tweet-like summary?

Status update: Facebook Home / Phone is more marketing campaign than product innovation. #homesortasweethome

How I described it to my mom: “Facebook Home is a screensaver for your phone that showcases Facebook activity.” I was feeling quite proud of this analogy until I realized that it’s a widely used description.

The exception to this is chat heads – which allow your live chat to carry across the mobile experience. This benefit is comparable to being able to talk on the phone and surf the web at the same time. It makes the user experience seamless instead of siloed. Yay.

The #1 thing Facebook Home has in common with digital commerce?
It achieves the goal of removing a click. It literally brings Facebook one layer up in the user hierarchy. And in the process trumps all other apps.

As anyone involved in digital commerce knows, this is a big deal. A bigger deal if adoption is large (or even a small percentage of Facebook’s users).

That said, I’m not sold that Facebook Home is a big deal. Interesting? Yes. Here are five reasons why…

1. Facebook Phone is not Facebook’s phone:
The phone is an Android. Facebook is usurping Google’s OS and user interface. Okay a different way to put it – Facebook is utilizing Google’s open source operating system. What makes it the Facebook Phone? It’s being marketed as such via Facebook and AT&T. And Facebook becomes the default experience on the Android. This could never happen on the iPhone because Apple’s OS is locked down.

Mark my words: Wherever Steve Jobs is – he is laughing.

At the end of the day, if open source thrives, Google will be laughing too. Who gets the last laugh remains to be seen.

2. There’s no bouncer at the open source door
Google got an unexpected partnership with this product. In fact, Google may not have even known about Facebook’s plans. Eric Schmidt has expressed that Facebook Home is a good thing. It definitely reinforces Google’s open position (and by default, Apple’s closed position). But if I’m on the Google brand team I’m thinking through the implications. If I’m on the Google+ team the gauntlet has been thrown.

Don’t get me wrong I love open source (and um also my iPhone). Open vs. closed is the creativity of a crowd of developers vs. controlled one-source creativity. It’s a dreamy head-to-head. (Although Google and Apple may actually be fighting different fights altogether.)

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This year omnichannel is omnipresent. Consumers are at the forefront. And retailers are sold on multiple touch points as the pinnacle of user experience.

Research via mobile while standing in a store aisle. Share an ecommerce purchase via social. Revel in catalog imagery gone interactive on a tablet. Order online, pick-up in-store.

You’ve seen the wheel diagrams with arrows pointing every which way. Seamless interaction is the panacea.

But what if you’re a branded manufacturer? For you, channels are retail chains upon which your business relies. Distribution networks may not look kindly upon direct competition. Retailers have been carefully courted and any perceived alienation could negatively impact your bottom line.

Feel conflicted about going full force into direct digital commerce? At Fluid, we’ve seen a resurgence of branded manufacturers grappling with this issue. You are not alone.

Internet Retailer reports that web sales for consumer branded manufacturers in their Top 500 had a 2011 YOY increase of 12%. Web-only merchants 32%. Store-based 15%. Catalog call center companies 12.3%. No one likes last place.

In 1998 Levi’s famously false started into ecommerce when their retailers negatively responded to their aggressive online strategy of retaining exclusive online rights to the Levi’s and Dockers brands. Long before digital, brands like Coach sold in branded stores and via department stores.

In other words, this is not a new dilemma.

The good news: With the right strategy the dilemma can be diffused. Branded manufacturers have a right to pursue the rich opportunity of digital commerce directly. Not doing so runs the risk of lost revenue. In the right circumstances this can be collaborative vs. competitive.

So how to strike the best balance?

At Fluid, we’re seeing six main models of direct digital selling for branded manufacturers:

1. Full On Swagger
2. Full Price Promise
3. Sharing the Spotlight
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Visual has snuck up on verbal and become the new darling of digital. What do I mean? Digital shopping, design and communication are now ruled by vivid imagery that aims to stop consumers in their tracks. This is a window shopping world of show and tell. Sharing becomes irresistible. Making a statement can happen without words.

What’s driving this trend? At Fluid we see four main factors:

1. Mobile (and tablet) first design: Mobile is no longer the second thought to web design. The minimalism and functionality needed to make mobile sing is where designers are starting. Strong mobile growth projections and the shift in consumer behavior towards mobile access are fueling this fire. Just ask Facebook and eBay. Responsive design fits into this niche nicely.

2. Facebook timeline: In January 2012 Sophos conducted a poll that found that 51.29% of respondents said Facebook Timeline worried them (32.36% said they didn’t know why they were still on Facebook). With the roll out completed these numbers have likely changed. 900M active users now see their history of interactions visually.

3. Pinterest: In February ComScore reported that Pinterest passed 10M monthly uniques faster than any stand alone site ever. In March Pinterest served up 2.3B page impressions to 4M unique visitors. That’s 4000%+ growth YOY. Pinterest serves as such a strong source of referral traffic that two things are happening: Digital commerce sites are proactively pinning on Pinterest and Digital commerce sites are adapting their site photography to make pinning to Pinterest easy (and appealing). At Fluid we think infinite scroll is Pinterest’s secret sauce.

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I’ve $30 on my mind. $28.57 to be exact. This is the per user price that Facebook paid for Instagram last week based on Facebook’s $1B offer and Instagram’s 35M users. In my favorite article about the acquisition Andy Baio of Wired (my ten year-old self hopes he’s related to Scott Baio) breaks down the cost per user of thirty notable internet acquisitions over the last ten years.

His conclusion: Instagram was a good deal. And not indicative of a bubble. See his analysis here.

Three reasons why this is awesome:

1. Cold hard facts. Baio uses a cost per acquisition model to which any marketer can relate. It makes $1B tangible. eBay paid $84.42 per PayPal user. Yahoo $111.11 per Flickr user. Google $48.53 per YouTube user. Intuit $113.33 per Mint.com user. At $28.57 per Instagram user, Facebook is looking rather savvy.

If the relative data cohort was how much it costs to feed hungry children or how far to the moon Kevin Systrom’s 400M new $1 bills would reach, we’d be telling a different story. This is what I love about data – it holds rich stories.

2. $30 can get you a lot of different things. Some ways to spend $30:

15. Fifteen days of access to a San Francisco gym
14. 3.75 months of NetFlix (streaming)
13. Five round-trips over the Golden Gate bridge (cash not FastTrak)
12. Thirty $1 tips to buskers on the L subway platform in NYC
11. 37.5 clicks on a Facebook ad (based on average CPC of $.8)
10. Ten minutes of a therapy session
9. Two mixed drinks in a swanky Manhattan bar
8. Thirty songs on iTunes (more…)

The social inspiration and curation market is on fire in digital. The land grab for market share and consumer pins, posts, hearts, bookmarks and nails is obviously on.

Pinterest remains the marshall of this parade. This has not changed since my last Pinterest post. The one where I said stop reading about Pinterest and start playing with it – but bear with me. I like what I’ve seen this week.

Noteworthy parade participants:

- Juxtapost: 52 days in operation. 50K images bookmarked. They are hot on the heels of the lead dog.
- Little Monsters: It’s Lady Gaga. Her touch is social gold. And she loves a parade.
- We heart it: Around since 2008, this serious contender draws more than folks who dot their “i”s like Junior High girls.

Remember the race last year to optimize men’s style and fashion (Mr. Porter, Gilt Man and CLAD)? The men have officially entered the social inspiration arena. Notably Gentlemint, Fancy and Manteresting. Note: Items are “nailed” on Manteresting, not “pinned.” Put those pins away.

For the record, pinning used to be how a sweaty man in a singlet won a wrestling match.

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Like a designer loving, unique style finding, in-the-know fashionista who ends up in a room full of people dressed just like her, I delve into writing about Pinterest. I almost feel silly. What can I say that hasn’t been said by the volume of articles flooding my in-box and social media?

I made a Pinterest board to show a sample deluge of articles from the last two weeks. This doesn’t include tweets or Facebook posts:

For the record, my favorite one is Bianca Bosker’s The Secret of Pinterest’s Success: We’re Sick Of Each Other.

The whole digital industry is running to catch-up with a high school friend who lives in Minnesota and discovered Pinterest first. She’s busy making bird nests out of cut string with her kids (found on a How to Make or Grow board) while we all try to figure out when she got so cool.

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In 1997 I worked on a March to Conquer Cancer. Modeled after Earth Day, it aimed to increase funding for cancer research through the power of grassroots coalitions. Well funded, the kick-off involved full page ads in the Washington Post and The New York Times with a phone number call to action. On the other end of those phone calls? A small team figuring out how to organize a movement on the fly – without the full benefit of digital.

It was fantastic. And frightening. And fulfilling. All at once.

SOPA, Komen and Planned Parenthood scrolling on my Facebook wall, have me thinking about that project. I still spend my days figuring out how to get people to take action – but now that action centers around interaction, engagement and conversion on behalf of consumers and retailers. A social movement still moves me – especially when it uses the uniqueness of digital to compel action.

Specifically, the reaction to SOPA reminded me of the power of the medium in which we work – and the power of people who purposefully engage with it.

Frankly, it fired me up.

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In the holiday season when hope reigns and we all want to believe, consumers came up with a “campaign” that was (in my opinion) one of the best in 2011.

Read about it here. Agencies (including Fluid) take note.

It started in Michigan when a woman anonymously paid off three Kmart layaway accounts. From there it went viral. It spread across social networks in a way that makes those of us who create social strategies salivate. And to top it off, the content was user generated.

Let me clarify. The story spread, so did the giving. And in a time where social updates define status, the majority of those who donated did so anonymously.

Sure there are naysayers who called it “Kmarketing,” saying Kmart was exaggerating a few instances and plugging them into their PR machine. But whether that’s the case or not, I don’t care.

The bottom line: People had an idea about being good to others and it caught fire. It was one of those ideas that I, at an agency, wish I had thought of first. It told an irresistible story, hit the social goals we usually set for our clients and felt good.

Are consumers eligible for a Clio? Could they win at the One Show? If they tweaked this to pay lists off via digital, perhaps a Cyber Lion?

I love the look of the new competition.

Happy New Year,
Amy

2011 was a big year for digital commerce. At Fluid we saw leading brands fight back to own the innovation that start-ups owned in 2010. We saw digital shopping finally and fully break beyond the boundaries of ecommerce sites. And we saw brand and commerce mix and mingle in matches that were incredibly exciting – products told stories and stories sold products.

At years end, Fluid celebrates ten digital retailers that took bold action in 2011 – some are our clients, some are not. The order is purposeful. We count down to the brand actions we see as boldest. The gauntlet for 2012 has officially been thrown. Fun.

Think there’s a bold action that should to be on this list? Send it on.

Happy Holidays,
Amy

Bold Action #10 NetFlix: Facilitate visual navigation just for kids
In November Netflix revised their Wii app to include a “Just for Kids” section, navigitable by cartoon and kid characters. The under-12s will never be computer-centric – design is changing accordingly. In fact independent of age, design for tablets and touch-screens began to heavily drive web design in 2011, instead of vice versa.

Bold Action #9 AmEx: Bolster small businesses with their own Saturday
AmEx isn’t a digital retailer but in a year of bold moves by payment systems (Paypal’s Facebook app, Square’s rise, etc.) they sparked digital commerce success. Lodged between Black Friday and CyberMonday, Small Business Saturday drove social traction, offline sales and fueled Davids over Goliaths. Another brand focused on small business buying, Etsy, saw 80% YOY CyberMonday sales growth.

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