Slick Shopping for Web-Spenders

I wouldn't class myself as a conventional female highstreet shopper. Don't get me wrong, I love getting new things, but I prefer things which are either shiny, have an 'on' switch, or make a noise. But the one thing I do have in common with every other shopper on the planet is that I dislike standing in the checkout queue. Spending money should be as quick and painless as possible. In that sense, shopping online is just the same as shopping on the high street.

So how can you acheive a slick online checkout? Here are a few quick wins:

1. Have a minimal number of uncluttered steps
2. Have a 'progress indicator' (this is just a fancy way of saying breadcrumb navigation)
3. Have a visual of what's in the shopping cart
4. Allow shoppers to edit their selections easily
5. Have a price guarantee
6. Build confidence and trust by having the SSL certificate clearly marked

And there's one last thing to remember about the 'successful' checkout. I don't know about you but I'm a sucker for the last minute impulse buy - I have an entire section of my bag dedicated to the chocolate, gum and mints which have this strange jedi-like power over me when I'm standing at the checkout. It works exactly the same way online. Cross-selling and upselling work brilliantly at the checkout stage for ecommerce stores, especially if you are clever enough to advertise products which are associated with those already in the user's basket.

And one last little secret to the successful checkout - once a customer has bought and paid for their products, don't send them back to the last product they put into their basket because it's a waste of their time. If you want to keep them interested, they should be directed either back to the homepage, or straight to the special offers page.

JavaScript and the Curse of the Pop-Up

JavaScript is NOT the same as Java - they are distant cousins but Java is a programming language whereas JavaScript is primarily a scripting language for use within HTML pages to add functionality. Because Javascript is embedded into HTML in order to be read by a web browser, it means it can be copied easily. Although annoyingly there are variations of JavaScript and different browsers don't always support the same JavaScript. It is supported by recent browsers from Netscape and Microsoft, although Internet Explorer supports only a subset, which Microsoft calls Jscript.

So what exactly does Javascript do? Well, JavaScript can spice up websites with dynamic content, open pop-up windows (which are really annoying), create mouseover menus (equally irritating), and change images as the mouse cursor moves over them.

So is it really that great? In my opinion, not really. Although it might be able to do a few snazzy things, there are browser incompatibility issues and SEO isses - most search engines are unable to index these scripts properly. So what's the alternative? Well, you can achieve added functionality such as the mouse 'rollover' effect by using standard compliant CSS. And where JavaScript really is essential, make sure you follow the W3C DOM Level 1 or 2 standards and most browsers should execute it correctly.

Breadcrumbs - Top Tip for Navigation

Breadcrumb navigation is actually one of those rare IT terms which makes a bit of sense. The terms makes you think of a trail which leads you somewhere. Exactly right. It shows where in the website hierarchy the currently viewed page is located. Here are a couple of good examples:

Using this form of navigation process, not only does it tell you where you are and how you got there, but it also provides user friendly shortcuts to other sections of the website.

For e-commerce sites, breadcrumbs are really useful during the checkout process to give shoppers a bird's eye view of where they are and how far they have to go in the order process.

Using breadcrumbs can also improve your search engine ranking because they use contextual text links - google loves those. But beware - multiple clickpaths can lead to pagerank dilution (if there are many different breadcrumb trails to the same loaf of bread). To minimise page duplication for the search engines, you can append the parameter containing the breadcrumb trail to the end of the URL using javascript. Ok, quite honestly I don't know how you do that but perhaps that's a good subject for tomorrows blog.

In short - breadcrumbs are a great navigation tool particularly for complex websites. They are both user friendly and google friendly so they definitely get my vote.

Web 2.0 - pointless buzzword or technological revolution?

It seems that the term 'web 2.0' has made it to the mainstream. I was hoping it wouldn't because I never really understood what it meant - I don't even believe that the guys who made it up knew what it was about. They were just trying to reinvent themselves after the dot-com bubble burst in 2001. But now with millions of people blogging, uploading videos, dating, and downloading every second, it seems plainly obvious what web 2.0 is all about.

A few years ago the internet was an information portal unlike anything we've ever known. But as the technology has advanced, so has the sophistication of the internet. With the advent of web 2.0, users can actively participate and interact online by leaving reviews and posting comments. Not only that but there is a new breed of web-based applications produced by businesses and software companies who are using web services to share data. Even RSS, the subject of my last blog is none other than a product of web 2.0.

Web 2.0 is nothing but another layer of complexity, the icing on the cake perhaps...actually lets just call it the first layer of marzipan - web 3.0 has already made it to the wikipedia. I better catch up!

What's all the frss about?

RSS has been around for quite some time although it has recently become a bit of a buzzword in my office. RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, Rich Site Syndication or Really Simple Syndication - yet another acronym which doesn't really describe what it is or what it does.

Using RSS you can pull content from a website database without actually having to go to the website. Obviously the website which you are pulling from has to allow it which it does by registering the document with an RSS publisher. So in essence it's a great way of sharing and transferring information between websites. Content types such as news feeds, event listings, project updates and headlines are often displayed using RSS.

The even greater thing about RSS is that you can use it to pull any information you want from any website or blog straight to your desktop. More and more sites now offer feeds which you can identify by a small button that says either RSS or XML. To read them you need an RSS feeder which you can download for free. I use sharp reader but there are plenty to choose from. I'm subscribed to Baldy's Blog, our internal project log and a great bbc news blog which means I get alerted any time one of those sites is updated.

So, why all the fuss about RSS? That I can answer - RSS is the way forward for all e-commerce stores. It is the best e-marketing tool available and will bury those horrible spammy email newsletters that nobody ever reads. But more on that another day.

Lesson #1: Have a cluster of black boxes

My first blog is on the subject of servers - I hear the word server so many times during the course of my day and it seems to me that it is the crux of our business. So I suppose I should know what they are, where they are and why they are there. I'm told that they're all the black boxes scattered around the place - we even have a 'farm' of them up the road! I've seen it - it's not as exciting as it sounds believe me. The one under my desk is not as important as the ones in the cupboard and at the farm but I find it pretty useful.

There are different types of servers used in the web business: web servers, file servers, database servers, mail servers and servers which are a mixture of the above. The web server does what it says on the tin - it serves up web pages. To do this it needs an IP address. So far so good. The file server stores all the files that might appear on the web page, and the mail server stores the email. Easy.

And then there's the database server.

In my place of work whenever someone mentions the 'sequel' server I start to feel anxious and out of the loop. Incidentally, I am aware that 'sequel' is not referring to Superman 2 and it is in fact an acronym which stands for 'structured query language'. There you go, I do know something after all!

The SQL server is nothing but the industry favourite for database management systems, kindly provided by none other the Microsoft. You ask it questions (in its preferred language of course) and it spits out the answer.

And last but by no means least, there's the backup server. Even I know the cardinal rule of the IT industry: back up your files regularly. Even the most reliable computer is liable to break down eventually - I think it's called planned obsolescence. At Webreality we are especially safe (or paranoid) so we keep one backup on a totally separate server to the others.

So when it comes to our servers I suppose I have a lot to learn. But here's what I think are the good practice basics when it comes to servers:
1. Keep them dedicated to their task - this streamlines internal processes by distributing the workload between the servers.
2. Give them plenty of Ram to do their job .
3. Always have a backup to prepare for the day your server decides to give up the ghost.