E3 Sport

Gravytrain recently revamped the E3 Sport webiste www.e3sport.co.uk . The revamp included Gravytrain’s new social media package giving E3 the chance to interact with fans on Facebook and Twitter.

This Saturday (30.10.2010) E3 are racing at Donington for the first round of the 2010 Mazda MX5 Cup Winter Series where former BTCC driver will be racing the first of their brand new MK3 MX5 Racing Cars. Gravytrain will be sponsoring both cars over the two weekends of the Mazda MX5 Cup Winter Series held at Donington and Brands Hatch on 30th October & 13th November.

The Wilderness Down Town

Google recently released an HTML5 experiment; a music video to Arcade Fire’s “We Used To Wait”. The interactive film was directed by Chris Milk and works best on Google’s own browser Chrome. It uses HTML5 and Google Maps technology to play the video in a location of your choice. The interactive nature of this video by no means stops there however. This experiment shows off HTML5’s real capabilities. In a section of the song you will be required to doodle a note, which will then be picked up and flown away by a flock of digital HTML5 created birds.

This experiment is an exciting teaser as to what is in store for the future of HTML.

If you managed to catch my recent blog post on what place Flash has in web design today, you will know about Apple  going against using Flash in their iPad and  iPhone devices. This is because many Apple computer users are all too used to Flash crashing on their machines, so much so that Apple have looked to alternative ways to deliver video and other dynamic content. HTML5 might be the answer to Apple’s problem…

HTML5 is currently being developed by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) for the W3C who recommend the standards for web browsers.   Although the latest versions of Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera have started supporting certain elements of the BETA HTML5, it won’t be until 2012 when they have something ready for the W3C to consider for candidate recommendation.

It is also predicted that we will have to wait until 2022 at the earliest until everyone will be using HTML5 as standard. 2022 is long way off! China will have taken over the world by then, Pandas will be extinct,  Venice will be flooded and I will be the ripe old age of 35! Plenty of time for Flash to get it’s act together.

So, how will HTML5 improve the way we view websites? The primary reason for it’s creation is to remove the need for people to constantly have to update plugins like  Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX. The new <video> and <audio> tags will allow content to be inserted without all the extra laborious code that is required in XHTML to pull outside sources.

This will mean that sites should load faster which will benefit users, and of course is likely to be looked on favourably by search engines.

The aim of HTML5 is to standardise how websites are rendered across all browsers – at the moment without careful testing sites often look vastly different even in the popular browsers.

As a web designer, I am delighted to know that HTML5 is on it’s way – even if it may be quite some time before it’s launched.  I certainly won’t miss the trials and tribulations of getting websites to work in all browsers!

Image credit: Justin Insomnia

I confess to being a late convert to WP Plugins. For those who do not know what a plugin is… it is an ‘add-on’ that is used to add functionality to a WordPress blog or site.

In the past when I have wanted to add something to a blog, I would commence battle and try to hard code the elements into it. That was until I tried to put a form into a post. I stubbornly tried and tried to find a way of doing it, before deciding to take a look at some forums. I then conceded to go the plugin route and have since been a little addicted to them.

It was a bit like discovering Aladdin’s Cave, all these add-ons that people had sweat, bled and cried over when building, available to simply browse and install at will. There are plugins for all sorts, from funky image galleries to e-commerce solutions. You have to be prepared to sieve through a fair amount of results and sometimes the plugins won’t have the desired outcome but you have to remember, you are getting cool functionality for free and ultimately less work than building it yourself!

There are quite a few sites that offer WP Plugins, I find the best way is to go to WordPress’ own plugin directory http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/ . There are over 6000 plugins to search through and each display information like how many downloads it’s had, version compatibility, screenshots and a star rating system.

Implementing WP Plugins is relatively easy. The traditional way of doing it is to download it and then upload it to the plugins folder (wp-content/plugins).  You can then activate them in your admin area. However WordPress have made it even easier to install plugins if you have or have updated to one of the later versions (2.8.2 onwards). You can now search install and activate plugins all from your admin area (you will need your ftp details to complete the installation).

Plugin Menu in the WP Admin

Just before you go down the rabbit hole and into the wonderful world of plugins;  as with everything good there are always some downsides and here are some that I have noted.

1. Some plugins are only compatible with certain versions of WordPress. So you could update your wordpress only discover it has broken one of your plugins. Remember to check version compatibility before installing a new plugin.

2. It can take a lot searching and trial and error to get a plugin working how you want it to. Try and consult the installation instructions.

3. Because they are free some plugins might not have as much support and guidance as you may like.

4. Whilst plugins appear to provide general solutions for most things. They might not provide the exact solution you are looking for and you may find you have to compromise or end up trying to customise it yourself.

That’s about it I reckon; now go get stuck into some plugins!

Image credit Whatleydude

Thank you to all who submitted your answers on my previous post Which One Would You Choose; where I asked visitors to select from a choice of four site snapshots, which site they would complete a ESTA form on.

The lines are now closed and the votes are in…  Let’s see how the people chose…

Most people chose A.

The official site to complete an ESTA on is D. If you completed a form on D it would of been free and would be guaranteed to be processed. If you completed a form on any of the other three you would of had to pay approximately £30 – £40. These 3 sites are typical of many that are charging people to complete ESTA forms.

Official Sites Versus Unofficial Sites

The results here reflect reports that more people are paying to complete ESTA forms from unofficial sites. It’s important to note that the people who complete the forms and end up paying for them are not stupid. They are victims of well worked campaigns combined with efficient design.  Here are some design related reasons I believe people are paying to complete forms on the unofficial sites rather than for free on the official site:

Colour Schemes/Look & Feel

A lot of the unofficial sites appear have utilised ‘American’ colour schemes (reds and blues), flags and American imagery:

Whereas the official site is prodominently green which most would not immediately associate with America:

It’s possible that some people are electing to use the ‘unofficial’ sites as the appear to have more synergy with the USA, and therefore people think that they look more official.

Calls to Action & Usability
There are clear calls to action on the unofficial sites. Well placed and noticeable buttons labelled:  Click Here, Instant Download, ESTA Form or Continue, help make it easy for the site visitor to complete what they want to do, in this case fill out an ESTA form.

The buttons and links are placed in a combination of places some at the top of the web page, some at the bottom but they all have at least one call to action that appears on screen as soon as the page appears on screen.

However, the official site has no clear call to action; you have to work really hard to discover what you have to do next.  In fact (as illustrated below) you have to scroll about 1600 pixels down the page (i.e. well below the fold – if you consider that the average screen displays 1020 pixels) before you even see the apply button! Ordinarily we’d recommend that calls to action appear both above and below the fold.

It’s possible then that some come to the official site, but lose confidence as it’s not immediately apparent what they need to do.

Assurance and Confidence
Here, both the official and unofficial sites do pretty well. Most of the sites in this example use checklists or step by step examples . Each help to give an impression of transparency and encourage confidence in the site.

Example1:

Example 2:

Conclusion

One of the most important things to learn from this example is the importance of call to action and usability. Although  27% chose the official site based on a snapshot. Had the test been based on visiting the sites it may have been even less, seeing as visitors have to scroll down nearly twice the length of the screen to even find the apply button.

Every site needs a call to action whether it is to fill out a form, generate a phone call or submit a vote. The clearer the call to action is, the better the site will convert.

Similarly, consideration needs to be given to site look and feel. Use of colour and imagery, and theming to meet visitor’s expectations of how a site should look are key.

Suggestions for the Official Site

If I was tasked with redesigning the form on the official site, I’d look specifically at the following areas:

1. The essential difference between the official site and the others is that it is free to complete the ESTA form. Yet this is not mentioned on the the official site . The first thing I would do is alert the visitor that the form is free to complete on this site.
2. I would also address the call to action. I would place an apply now button close to the top of the page with enough white space around it for it to stand out.
3. I would also look to address the design / colour scheme in order to reflect an outsider’s perception of “America”