Website or Web Site
Pick one and stick with it (I prefer the former).
Typographic Etiquette
This article from Smashing Magazine is all kinds of awesome. This is the kind of stuff that I spend far too much of my time deliberating over and, I am sure, rarely gets noticed by readers.
“One Space After a Period. Not Two.” YES! Thank you!
That said, life is too short for smart quotes (I only use them in headings) and I do wish someone would just decide that em dashes aren’t required any more and do away with them.
You know websites that say things like “This website is intended for viewing solely in the United States” on them? They need to remember what www stands for.
E-Commerce Copywriting: The Guide to Selling More - Smashing Magazine
Great article on writing effective e-commerce copy. My favourite tip is:
Flawless copy: The first way to establish trust is the most obvious; that is, to have flawless copy. Grammar and spelling mistakes make you look careless and incompetent. If you can’t put the time into flawless copy, visitors won’t invest time and money into your products.
I truly believe this is one of the most important aspects of my job; having frequently been disengaged by websites with careless errors. Sometimes it’s handy to be slightly OCD. :)
"Display advertising is increasingly problematic for us because consumers are blind to it."
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Mirror Group digital director: display ads in ‘depressing spiral of inefficiency’ - guardian.co.uk
I have yet to see a display ad on the internet that convinces me they are worth any money at all. Especially on sites that I visit a lot, I just don’t see them. If I click, it is invariably an accident and I just go straight back without even absorbing what the ad is for. And I work in marketing - I go out of my way to try to notice advertising!
While we’re on the subject of internet advertising, I have to say that the ads on the 4od and ITV players are the first ads I have actually seen and heard in a long long time - much harder to avoid that even TV ads.
OS + Browser usage
Taken from 20.5m recent visits to our sites, worldwide:
IE + Windows – 47%
Firefox + Windows – 24%
Safari + Mac – 9%
Chrome + Windows – 9%
Firefox + Mac – 3%
Safari + iPhone/Pod/Pad – 2.5%
Opera + Windows – 1.2%
Safari + Android – 0.8%
Chrome + Mac – 0.5%Mac users still in a small minority then, even for music sites. It also gives some perspective on the relative importance of mobile browser compatibility (though maybe better compatibilty would lead to more usage, of course).
(Source: yodaniel)
