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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(BEFORE ANY OF US HAVE SEEN IT, TOUCHED IT OR YOU KNOW, ACTUALLY LIKE USED IT)

Facebook will unveil its phone Thursday. Chances are, it won’t change the world. Why? Because the phone is a reflection of how the world has already changed rather than a shiny new device that is going to transport us to new heights.

But while the launch doesn’t warrant stocking up on either champagne or canned goods, it is a good reminder to pause and take stock of the three key things this event signals for retailers.

WHY SHOULD RETAILERS CARE:

1: IT’S OFFICIAL: SOCIAL’S PEANUT BUTTER IS IN MOBILE’S CHOCOLATE

Ultimately this is not about a phone. It’s not even about Facebook. It’s about the fact that social interactions are increasingly mobile. Which makes complete sense. People have more to say and share when they are on the go or on their couches watching TV.

50% of Facebook interactions take place on a mobile device. Almost all of Instagram & FourSquare use is mobile (Comscore Media Metrix 11/12).

Takeaway for retailers: Don’t worry about designing websites for a special phone. Think about how your customers are using mobile and social to shop. This impacts how you reach them and where transactions will take place. Hint: Shopping will be the next peanut butter – but bacon flavored of course.

2: “DIGITAL EFFORT” IS DEAD

Some are heralding the importance of the phone’s experience. By “experience” they mean everything Facebook is more or less automatic and seamless. From streaming status updates to your phone home screen to connecting your actions to your social graph, the design is reported to be more personal and customizable than that of the mobile Facebook app the rest of us poor slobs are hobbling along with.

Again, this is not about the phone or Facebook. Really, it’s about human nature. If necessity is the mother of invention, Laziness is the baby daddy. If you put it right in front of us, we might look at it. But if we have to download/register/type/think, well then you will lose “eyeballs.”

Takeaway for retailers: Surfacing, integrating and connecting are the new “designing.” Stop designing digital shopping experiences that require user effort/sign-in/registering etc. and start designing systems and features that magically surface what the customer wants and needs at each juncture.

3: IT’S NEVER EVER EVER ABOUT THE HARDWARE. IT’S ABOUT THE PLATFORM.

Not many people care that the Facebook phone platform is reported to be MSM8960 (Dual Core). And neither do we. Why? Because we don’t design for hardware, we design for people. And people need agnostic platforms that provide what they want and need, regardless of the device they are on.

The most interesting thing to emerge Thursday will not be the phone but rather the “Facebook Home” software. The software will potentially provide the Facebook home screen for any Android and let you Facebook chat while using other phone features, among other things. In other words, Facebook might be getting better for all Androids – not just the special Facebook phone.

Takeaway for retailers: Don’t get caught up in the technology. Focus on creating adaptable, transportable digital shopping experiences that provide the best features for everyone everywhere regardless of their device.

Like thousands, we will watch the Facebook phone launch webcast Thursday and read all of the reviews and probably buy one for “research purposes.” But the real news has already happened. The Facebook phone is just a reminder call that easy, everywhere experiences are a must.

Will Your Site Withstand the Onslaught of Holiday Shoppers on iPads?

It’s likely over the past 12 months you’ve seen an increase in traffic to your site from iPads. If you’re lucky, you’ve also seen a corresponding increase in revenue driven from iPads. With the holidays right around the corner (you’ve started holiday planning, right?) and no shortage of growth in the iPad user arena, it’s critical your site be ready to deliver on customer expectations when they shop (and purchase) from their iPads this holiday season.

We know that customer behavior and purchase tendencies are different on tablets than from standard browsers and also from smartphones and those behaviors are starting to drive a serious divergence in customer expectations as they traverse your site across their various devices. As far as tablets go, customers expect a richer, more immersive, and, well FUN experience relative to their standard browsing and smartphone usage and that demands a different design approach to meet customer expectations. Simply delivering the standard browser experience to your iPad visitors will not differentiate your brand in the emerging ‘tablet-first’ design space. Customer expect more and if you can capitalize on that expectation, it’s likely you’ll also capture your visitors’ dollars.

Surprisingly, the majority of Internet Retailer Top 500 sites not only haven’t starting delivering tablet-specific experiences to deliver on customer expectations, but a wide swath of them deliver sites to the iPad that have serious usability issues. Issues that aren’t problems for the standard browser, but can present serious barriers and frustrations to visitors on iPads.

Assuming there’s no time at this point for a tablet-specific design for your brand’s site, I’ve created a list of common usability issues seen when standard experiences are delivered to iPads, as well as some hints on how to avoid them. Take a look and see any of these issues plague your site, and fix them pre-holiday. Then, start planning for next year!
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An article was recently published claiming “Marketers Find Less than Half of Analytics Useful for Decision-Making!”   In full disclosure, I added the exclamation mark to the headline because I felt like the tone of the article implied a minor hysteria over the implication that ‘less than half’ was a staggering figure.  In fact the article caught my eye because that seemed to be a higher percentage than I’ve witnessed. Not because companies don’t understand the potential power of analytics but because “analytics” often simply becomes “data collection” which in and of itself, is not useful to anyone really.

Let me back up.  I’m a big believer in Avinash Kaushik’s “So What?” analytics philosophy that says if you can’t answer what action or recommendation could result by tracking a certain metric after asking ‘So what?” three times, you shouldn’t bother tracking it. It’s a great philosophy and in theory any organization subscribing to this philosophy should be running a lean, mean analytics discipline.  In practice however, most companies don’t ask “So What?” or even “Why?”.   Instead they are swimming in a sea of data with the end result being analysis paralysis.

Sometimes this is self-inflicted (tag everything and review hourly!) but in most cases they’ve companies implement an analytics package and now that data is being collected, they just don’t know what to look at or care about. So they end up doing nothing.  As a colleague once put it “Your web analytics tool is the best tool you’ve already paid for but aren’t using.”

Here at Fluid we’ve recently overhauled our Analytics practice within our Strategy group to make sure even our approach to data is user-centric.  Why?  Simple.  We want to help our clients:

• Achieve a deeper understanding of customer behavior and motivations
• Answer the “why” behind the “what”
• Make quantitatively as well as qualitatively informed design decisions
• Work within a clear framework for measuring success and proving ROI
• Get past analysis paralysis and turn mountains of data and isolated metrics into insights and actions

As digital design and user experience experts, we have the talent, knowledge and expertise to help our clients get beyond the “what” of their data and get to the “why” and “So What?”   Sounds great, right?

If what you’ve read so far is resonating, you know that it’s not always as easy as it sounds.

When we start working with clients on an analytics strategy we focus on a few key things.  If you are at a place in your organization where you’re ready to re-evaluate your analytics strategy, focusing on the following could help you get started.

1. Forget about current data, infrastructure, platform, etc.  What are the primary goals of your digital initiative whether it be web, mobile, social?

When answering this question don’t think about metrics.  Think about answering as a narrative. For example, “We want customers to learn more about our company.”  or “We want more people reading our blog.”  or “We want to increase revenue coming from our website.”

2. What are your current benchmarks?

It’s okay if you don’t know.  This may be a rhetorical question that turns into a ‘to-do’ once #1 is answered. In some cases we find out the benchmarks are completely arbitrary – in other words, not benchmarks at all but pipe dreams.  We don’t want to be set up for failure so establishing real benchmarks from which to set goals in imperative.  In other cases we find the benchmarks have nothing to do with the articulated goals and they need to align in order to really measure success.

3.  Who cares about this information?

We try and be realistic when we answer this question by framing it as not only “who cares” but “who can authorize the action?”   It is difficult and frustrating to put together a fantastic analytics strategy and have wonderful, actionable insights, only to realize the people who need to authorize budget for changes as outcomes of the data findings were never part of the fantastic analytics discussions.  Answering this question can help you make sure the right stakeholders are involved in the analytics strategy.  It also helps you, as the analytics “guy” or “gal” keep focused on the the bigger organizational goals and objectives.  It’s all too easy to get so excited or so deep into the data you become one of those “tag it all!” people so by leading up a focused practice, it will be easy for you to build a solid business case for change with the decision makers when you’re able to tie clear KPI trends to articulated business goals and objectives AND those decision makers helped formulate the KPIs.

Once you establish the groundwork by answering the questions above you can get more specific; feature ROI, custom reports and dashboards, real time data analysis, multi-channel funnel reports, conversion optimization, interval reporting and automation, etc.  All that good stuff that really helps you get a deeper understanding of your customers and their behaviors and issues with the experience and start formulating a story around your customer’s journey.

Just make sure you are always answering “So What?” when you enter into discussions around tagging X,Y or Z to track A,B or C.

Footnote:
If you are a Google Analytics user, check out Avinash’s blog.  There are always interesting discussions about web analytics and some good Q&A.  Justin Cutroni’s blog is another good resource for you.  He’s currently an “Analytics Advocate” at Google.  His stuff tends to be a lot more tactical and has great report templates you can add to your GA dashboards.

Here at Fluid, we love the iPad. We love all the possibilities it presents, and all of the amazing types of innovation it makes possible. Fortunately for us, our clients at Craftsman share that view. Coupled with a DIY ethos and a drive to do something really different, we went about designing and building Torque, the first shoppable iPad magazine for Craftsman.

Fluid’s guiding principle as a company is that content, community and creativity together drive commerce. With Torque, we put that belief into action by creating an experience that took the best of Craftsman’s vast amount branded content, added in their highly engaged community of DIY’ers and brand enthusiasts and transformed it into a richly interactive, fully shoppable iPad magazine.

The list of innovative things we did for this app is pretty comprehensive:

• Almost all content within the app is actionable in some way. Whether it’s shopping, signing up for the Craftsman Club, engaging with the brand on Facebook and Twitter, following along with DIY projects, or accessing exclusive videos and articles, the content leads the way
• Using an updated version of Sears eCommerce API, we enabled users to add products to their cart right from articles and content within the app, then checkout seamlessly on craftsman.com
• Live video streams directly from the Craftsman Experience studio, and the app alerts users when the stream goes live
• Social media streams are universally accessible, giving every interaction a potential
• Blurs the line between editorial, branded content and eCommerce
• Content is streamed into the app via a CDN, allowing easier updates without having to release full updates into the app store

How Fluid designed it
Fluid started the discovery process by first auditing all of Craftsman’s existing content as well as their upcoming campaigns and initiatives. We then created an editorial structure and content flow for the app, which is actually much more like creating a magazine for print than creating an “app.”

After nailing down the table of contents, Fluid worked out all of the possible user interactions. This included everything from basic page behaviors all the way down to multiple content interaction scenarios. As we worked on the interaction design and started merging it with our editorial structure, we began brainstorming ideas for an editorial voice and identity. Fluid presented one naming option to Craftsman: “Torque”. Craftsman promptly trademarked the name.

We then began the process of breaking the editorial structure apart into smaller chunks to work on. For content that already existed (like the step by step projects), Fluid redesigned it to fit into the edgier, grittier, DIY-inspired look and feel of the app. For content that needed to be created or expanded, Fluid designed those sections from scratch and provided clear direction and guidance to the Craftsman marketing team so that they could start writing those remaining sections – the most notable of which are the Top 100 and Mystery Car Vault. Our process continued on iteratively until the content for the entire experience was completely fleshed out.

How Fluid built it
On the UX and visual design side, Fluid began prototyping very early on in the creative process. In some of the very first designs presented, we used video layers in Photoshop and exported the files as quicktime movies so that the client could immediately see how both the look and feel and the interactivity worked together.

On the technology side, Fluid’s developers immediately started testing different options for build and eventually settled on using a combination of HTML 5 and Javascript. Structurally, Torque was set up in a way that makes content updates achievable without having to push an update to the app store. All of the content, from videos and images to text, is served via an Akami CDN. In other words, much of the content doesn’t actually live “inside” of the app, so the initial download is very fast and all of the content loads on-demand.

In order to make sure that the eCommerce layer worked seamlessly with Craftsman’s existing system, Fluid worked with Craftsman’s technology team to create new API’s that allowed Craftsman’s “Quick View” to be displayed within the app. Adding items to a cart was seamless via the UIWebView (in-app browser), and checkout was handled by craftsman.com. Once the app was in working order, the entire tech, creative and ux team all spent time working together to test for bugs, optimize, and refine the experience. The final handoff was to the Sears Mobile team, who then submitted the app to iTunes for approval. The app was approved in one weeks time.

Why we think it’s cool
Opportunities like this are rare. Fluid got to create, name, design, and build a branded, shoppable iPad magazine on the hottest technology platform in existence for one of the most well-respected brands in the world. At Fluid, we believe strongly that experiences like this – the ones that merge content, community and creativity in delightful and innovative ways – are the future of eCommerce and brand engagement. We were honored to work with a legendary brand like Craftsman and their very talented marketing team to create a cutting edge product that their consumers are thrilled about.

When people step outside their immediate comfort zone, amazing things can happen.

We witness it when football players take ballet. We see it when a furniture designer looks to nature for inspiration. We hear it when Tony Bennett teams up with Lady Gaga.

Unfortunately, we don’t witness this in the digital world enough. Instead of being open to a range of influences, site design processes often have a narrow focus that can result in  “me too” looks rather than differentiated designs.

How does this happen?

As part of the discovery process, companies typically limit their review of the digital landscape to direct competitors and “top sites.”  This practice is important for benchmarking and informing feature prioritization. But done alone, a competitive review can be limiting and inadvertently create a “keeping up with the joneses” effect rather than setting the stage for a differentiated experience.

How can you avoid this pitfall and create a more differentiated experience?

By expanding your circle of influence. By supplementing competitive reviews with brand spheres.

What Is A Brand Sphere?

A brand sphere is a map of your customers’  “go to” brands across verticals. It identifies the brands they choose as they go about their day and the brands you can find in their home.

What is in their refrigerator? Which labels do they wear? What car do they drive? What kind of phone do they have? Where do they eat out? Which gym do they belong to? Which hair and body care brands do they prefer?

A brand sphere draws a more complete picture of your customer. It illuminates their preferences and expectations. And it provides new fodder for inspiration.

For example, if you are designing a consumer electronics shopping site, why limit your influences to only other electronics sites or even ecommerce sites in general? Why not look at music and video sites where your consumers most likely spend more time? Why not look at the CPG sites that fall in their brand sphere? What can you learn from the news sites they visit? The social networks they use?

By looking across verticals, you will expose yourself to different design approaches and feature sets. The purpose is not to imitate these approaches but to take a step back and see if there are any distinct designs or features that spark an idea.

Undoubtedly new perspectives will fuel new ideas. Ideas that are as elegant and powerful as a football player who can both rush and plié.

I had the pleasure of attending the Adobe MAX 2011 conference in Los Angeles this year as a featured speaker, and Fluid was selected to appear in the keynote address for our work crafting customer experiences for multiple devices across channels, from web to kiosks to mobile phones and tablets.

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Once a week, the XD team at Fluid New York explores offline experiences outside the confines of our studio. We think it’s important to take a step back from the digital world and approach design holistically,  experiencing physical manifestations of brands in person. This week, we walked through New York’s SoHo shopping district to see how branded offline experiences relate back to digital spaces and vice versa.

The borders between physical and digital are further being blurred as traditional brick and mortar retailers are laying stake in the digital space. Mobile computing is nearly ubiquitous and instant access to information is almost at everyone’s fingertips. In addition, the attention span of people have become shorter and this poses a challenge to brands. Brand consistency is key to communicating to your target audience and in today’s fast paced retail environment, there’s no room for error. A marketing message that runs astray can have a huge impact on business.

During our outing, we’ve noticed many retailers doing great things with new technologies and some not so great. There has been a recent trend with stores using tablet computers to allow their consumers to browse through their product catalogue within store. It’s a static and passive experience that most of the time, does not engage the customer. Some of the problems with this technology are:

• The technology does not tell you where to find items in store.
  
• Proper QA testing of the app wasn’t performed. The app crashed many times while browsing.
  
• It may not be inline with your brand aesthetic. If your brand has a gritty, industrial feel to it, placing modern, shiny tablets throughout the store takes away from the overall brand experience.
• While the “cool” factor may be there the fact of the matter is that it can alienate the consumer, especially in tablet form.
• You cannot replace good old customer service with shiny tablet device. There is no substitution for face to face human interaction.
  
• Instead of focusing on the products in the store, your consumers are fixated with trying to figure out how to navigate through a mobile experience.
  

To conclude, always keep the end user in mind when designing an experience and remember that he/she comes first and the technology follows. With new technologies being released daily, it’s easy to lose sight of who you’re designing for. As Experience Designers it is our responsibility to make the transition from physical to digital as seamless as possible for users and the focus should be getting to know the end user and their technological needs and wants and then finding the technology that suits them. The tablet computer will not be the the answer to elevate your brand and increase conversion and raise customer satisfaction. There is one trait that successful brands all have in common:  Their solid dedication to Customer Service. When designing, think of ways to design user experiences that enhance customer service and engagement.

Follow Andrew Sirotnik at twitter.com/asirotnik

An article in The New York Times this morning headlines that luxury brands, once wary of the web, are now embracing it. The most interesting piece is on Christopher Bailey, Burberry’s chief creative officer: “…high-end brands should go further in trying to give Web stores the rich texture of physical stores. ‘Whether they are walking into our store on Bond Street or tapping in from India or China, it’s about making sure the consumer is getting the same experience…’”

This resonates. Fluid’s philosophy on designing customer experience is that sometimes it’s good to go outside.

When you do, stop by REI’s Seattle flagship store in Seattle. A 3-story high climbing wall dominates the entry. There’s a rain room, a bike trail, a hiking boot test course, and a JanSport play treehouse swarming with marauding children. The interior design and finish details are rustic and rough-hewn, evoking a carefully architected outdoors experience.

Virgin Megastore in Hollywood has 100+ interactive kiosks that offer as much entertainment value as they do access to inventory. And it’s a great place to see bands. And, of course, there’s always Apple. You get the idea.

The point: these elements of the in-store experience are not about thrusting product at the consumer at every opportunity.

Rather, the objective is to create an “emotional moment” with the customer — immersive, uniquely branded and entertaining. Experiences designed to meaningfully connect with the customer. And, by doing so, foster a deeper relationship with the brand, a gratifying experience, and eventually more sales.

Most online retail sites aren’t especially fun. They are usable, clean and bright. Super functional, searchable, and safe. But compared with real-world shopping, they are sterile. Today’s e-commerce sites are like retail spaces 25 years ago: white boxes, bad lighting, uninspired fixtures. Products are well organized and findable but there’s not much retail therapy happening.

The evolution of the in-store experience will absolutely be echoed in the digital realm in one form or another and then taken further than it can be in the physical world. It is inevitable. The online store will soon be the ultimate “full price” flagship, a store experience fueled by interactivity and media, free from the constraints of square footage and physics.

Proof points: Fluid’s recent launches for Vera Wang Princess and Craftsman Customizable Tool Storage

Whether or not brands are ready to embrace this point of view, consumers are demanding it.