think wise | act smart | live simple

With Inventify, you can keep the customers updated about the availability of various products on your store. Your visitors can sign up for a notification on the store. When you have the item back in stock – it sends the customer an email notifying the availability.

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Quality is a word that a lot of people like to use when describing their web design services. But what is quality, how do you know if a design is quality or not. Well, I think that there’s quite a few ways to spot quality within web designs. Once you can see just what goes into making a quality web design, you can use the techniques to perfect your own style.

I’ve put together a few pointers, and collected some examples to explain just how I look for quality within a website design.

01. Spacing

One of the main things that I look for within a good website design is clever use of spacing with design elements. Paying close attention to how certain things are spaced out and lined up can really make a difference to the overall appearance and sense of quality of your design.

I think the key to getting your spacing right is to look at all of the elements within your design. Looking at the bigger picture really can help you get a good idea of how best to space your elements. Sometimes zooming out and taking a different look at your designs can be a great help.

Examples of Excellent Spacing

Great Spacing on the Good.is Website

As you can see here, there is a very clean and open feel to the content here. This is completely down to the designer allowing a good amount of space around the text & images.

A very well spaced out Digital Mash Website

Having well spaced out elements can make them a lot more attractive, and a lot more clickable. Digital Mash is a great example of a very welcoming website.

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(Edit, to draft, un-top, Slurp)

Take a look at the 2009 Lifehacker Pack for Mac OS X – DOWNLOAD FREE!.

Like our 2009 Lifehacker Pack for Windows (and its predecessor), the Mac version has the same goal in mind: to provide Mac lovers with a single, handy list of the best free applications that you’re likely to use on a regular basis.

Note: You can head directly to each application’s download page from the [Download] links and see what we originally wrote about them at the [LH Post] link.

Productivity

• Smultron:
  Whether you like the distraction-free environment of a plain text editor or you like to fire up a powerful environment where you can churn out some serious code, you can’t go wrong with the open-soruce Smultron. It sports a nice tabbed interface for working with multiple documents and working inside a directory, syntax highlighting, and even a fullscren mode for those times that you want to work without distractions.
  [Download] [LH Post]
• Quicksilver:
  Even though it’s no longer in active development by it’s creator, we still can’t get enough of this incredible application launcher and-then-some. We’ve taken you on a beginner’s guide to Quicksilver, walked you through the various settings, provided video demonstrations of some of its coolest features, and in general have drooled all over this productivity-boosting application. And even though we’re keeping a close eye on Google Quick Search, the Quicksilver-like app from Google that was developed by the same guy who made Quicksilver, it’s still no replacement.
  [Download]

Internet/Communication

• Firefox:
  All debates about security, memory use, or compatibility amongst the web browsers aside, Firefox can adapt to nearly anyone’s browsing habits through a range of adaptations. Whether that’s an extension/add-on (and here are our top 10 picks), a Greasemonkey script (again, our 10), or some deep-down about:config tweaks, Firefox can probably be what you want it to be.
  [Download] [LH Post]
• Adium:
  Pronounced like “stadium”, Adium is a free, powerful multi-protocol instant messaging client that connects to everything from AIM and Google Talk to Facebook Chat, MySpace Chat, and everything in between. Adium is extremely customizable, works like a charm, and brings way more options to your chats than the OS X standard, iChat.
• Postbox:
  If you’re not using your email’s web interface, use this. It’s basically Thunderbird, the open-source email client we’d previously included in our Lifehacker pack, but remixed with stronger, almost Gmail-like powers. It finds and indexes all the attachments in your email account, groups together conversations with similar subject chains with the “Gather” command (like Gmail’s conversations), offers tabbed inbox and message views, and lets you organize emails under your own chosen “Topics.” It’s also got built-in easy setup steps for Gmail and other webmail systems-in other words, everything we’re waiting to see Thunderbird implement.

  [Download] [LH Post]

Utilities

• Unarchiver:
  OS X’s default Archive Utility handles a lot, but the first time you come across slightly more unusual (but still very common) archive types like RAR, you’ll notice it stumble. The Unarchiver handles ZIP, TAR, RAR, 7Z, StuffIt, and several more obscure archive types without flinching.

  [Download] [LH Post]

• Transmission:
  The most popular BitTorrent client for OS X, Transmission rolls virtually every feature you’d want out of a good BitTorrent application into one clean, easy-to-use package. You can even remote control your BitTorrent downloads with Transmission, or get clever and start new BitTorrent downloads at home from any computer with Dropbox (mentioned below).

  [Download] [LH Post]

• AppTrap:
  One of the best parts of OS X is that uninstalling an application is as simple as deleting it, right? Yes, but not exactly; often simply deleting the file leaves your computer with old junk files sitting around that used to belong to the application you just deleted. AppTrap automatically detects when you’re deleting an application, looks for associated files, and automatically deletes them for you along with the app in question.

  [Download] [LH Post]

• Burn:
  OS X comes with Disk Utility—a very nice burning application plus some—out of the box, but it’s often used only for more advanced ISO burning, disk formatting, and other heavy-lifting type activities. Burn, on the other hand, is a simple, user-friendly CD and DVD burning application that does data, audio, video, and disc copying with aplomb.

  [Download] [LH Post]

Multimedia

• VLC – Got a video or audio file to play? VLC probably plays it. Don’t like how heavy Quicktime is? VLC is lighter. Want it free, working on any system, and have it show album art from your tracks? Done and done.

  [Download] [LH Post]

• iTunes:
  We’ve seen stronger competition for your music management in OS X this year than ever, particularly with the recent release of Songbird, but right now you’re still better off sticking with iTunes on your Mac. Not only does it integrate seamlessly with your various iPods, but it also integrates with most of your Mac’s iLife applications and other Mac apps. So while you’d better watch out for the competition, iTunes, you’re still the favorite for music.

  [Download] [LH Post]

File Backups/Syncing

• Dropbox:
  Put simply, Dropbox makes synchronizing your files across Windows, Mac, or Linux systems a very simple, almost magical process. Put a copy of what you’re working on or want saved in your Dropbox folder, and it’s synchronized to your account, which has 2GB to start with, and gets bigger if you recommend friends. When you’re at another one of your own computers, your Dropbox updates and grabs those files. If you’re at someone else’s system or on a smartphone, head to Dropbox’s mobile-friendly site and grab what you need. It’s not quite a backup tool, but it is one of those utilities that makes a lot of old habits—thumb drive copying, CD burning, emailing attachments to yourself—seem unnecessary.

  [Download] [LH Post]

• Mozy:
  If Dropbox is where you stash the stuff you’re working on or enjoying at the moment, Mozy is the backup service that saves everything for when your system goes black on bootup. The free accounts for Macs (and PCs) offer 2GB of free online space, and with the really smart filtering tools, you can have Mozy crawl your whole system and back up financial documents, Excel sheets, and any file with “Steve” in it. If you spring for a monthly unlimited plan, Mozy is a smart whole-system saver—one that doesn’t eat bandwidth when you’re using it, and works when you’re not working.

  [Download] [LH Post]

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If you were to compare this pack of software with our Lifehacker Pack for Windows, you’ll notice a fair amount of overlap. That’s because, luckily for all of us, in many cases free, cross-platform software is thriving. In other instances, we didn’t include a Mac version because the system default is already a very solid choice. (For example, where we recommended Foxit Reader on Windows for lightweight PDF duties, we’d just suggest the built-in Preview in OS X). Other utilities, like Texter, don’t have a completely free Mac alternative (though we do very much like TextExpander, which has a free trial beyond which it turns nagware).

Things change daily in the world of free software, and we by no means believe that this list is absolutely definitive, so if you’ve got your own I-can’t-believe-they-didn’t-include-X must-haves, tell us all about them—and share any other thoughts on our list—in the comments. Happy downloading!

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When was the last time you called customer support because you were having problems checking out online? Probably never! Cart abandonment rate is at around 60%, and most of it happens before the user even begins the checkout process. Sometimes, convincing your customers to trust you is your biggest challenge.

There is no “Consumer Trust for Dummies,” but as eCommerce designers, we need to focus on some fundamentals. The following topics may seem as obvious as walking into a seven-foot Wookie, but rest assured you will find plenty of websites with a mouth full of fur.

1. Paint Your Pictures At Home

If your core demographic is women between the ages 35 and 65 who have an annual income of $60,000+, you would treat them different than the 18- to 25-year-old male demographic. First and foremost in e-tail: forcing your visitor to think is a bad idea. When creativity stops being subjective and can be measured by a dollar amount, making sure you’re designing for the customer is a no-brainer.

Years ago, I had an SVP of DotCom tell my team, “You can go home if you want to paint pictures.” And for the rest of the day, I couldn’t wait to get there so that I could make sure the next morning his inbox was full of expletive material illegal in most counties. After calming down, I realized he was right. All along, what he was telling us was simply to design for the customer and not ourselves. This was a challenge for designers working in an eCommerce corporate atmosphere but a very important lesson to learn.

2. Good UX Is Like A Perfect Movie Score

Build brand loyalty to gain patient, forgiving customers for a lifetime. For instance, Apple’s customer loyalty exceeds all other brands with an unusual cult following. Apple lovers forgive the company when it makes mistakes and zealously defend the company’s products and reputation.

How do you make your customers trust you this much? The answer is to give the user an “Experience.” It is not enough simply to make a website usable. The experience you create for the customer has to make them not realize that they are “using” it. It’s a tough concept to grasp, and the recipe changes from website to website, but the right combination of usability, creative design, writing, psychology and metrics and a strong brand will create an experience through which your customers learn to trust you.

Like the perfect score to a film, a good user experience is unobtrusive and transparent to the consumer because “it just works.” The Apple model will not work for everyone, but I often find myself challenged with a W.W.J.D. moment. Ask, “What would Jobs do?” and then look at other websites for inspiration.

3. eCommerce UX Pitfalls To Avoid

Just because a website is usable, does not mean customers will use it. Usability and user experience are in the same family, but more often than not user experience is the forgotten child. There are key areas in which the two must co-exist. Below are suggestions for some areas where websites should spend as much, if not more time, on the user experience.

Product Detail page

The product detail (PD) page is where some retail websites drop the ball. Too much focus is put on the design and usability of the home page, and that effort does not continue through to the rest of the website. More of the user’s time is spent on the product detail page than any other. Here, you need to offer customers all of the information they are looking for but present it in an intelligent way as well.

A few recent trends on eCommerce websites are “no-click” alternate images and swatches. A user simply has to roll over an image, without clicking, to get immediate feedback. The same approach can be used to zoom in to the image. Other UX options for the PD page are smart fields that let users know they still have to perform a required action before proceeding, without getting a typical error message.

The Checkout Process

Much like the PD page, the checkout process is a critical piece that engages the customer on a somewhat intimate level. However, unlike the PD page, where customers want to spend time to make sure they want what they are looking at, the checkout process should have as few steps as possible. Too many steps and the customer feels trapped.

But too quick and they feel like they have lost control. For instance, asking for credit card information too soon will seem out of order and no doubt scare even the most seasoned online shopper into abandoning their cart. Hidden taxes and shipping costs will make them feel like you are trying to take advantage of them.

Security

Always making sure your customer knows that your website is secure and that their privacy will never be compromised goes back to the issue of trust. It does not take much effort to display a message telling your customers that they are safe in your hands; a footer link to your privacy policy is not always enough.

Page Weight

A page’s weight is determined by its file size, by adding up every image, every line of code and anything that gets loaded when the user first hits the page. Libraries such as Scriptaculous, jQuery, MooTools and even Flash Shared Objects are often forgotten, but they all add to a page’s “weight.”

Some fascinating things are on the horizon for developers related to user experience and page weight. One notable development as of late was the release of Safari 4 Beta, which has support for HTML 5 media tags, CSS animation and CSS effects. As more and more of these features become standard in browsers across the board, we can look forward to offering users a better experience by using features directly in the browser. Read more

The next big step you need to take is choosing an eCommerce Platform.

There are several requirements and aspects to consider during this process.

But first, let me make one point – nothing you do here is permanent! Many people get stuck in this phase and take way to long to analyze the pros and cons of every single platform available. But Nothing is Permanent! Please don’t get stuck in the paralysis by analysis syndrome here. Choose something that looks like it will meet your needs and move on.

The most important aspects to look for are:

Reliability – will it be up and running when it needs to be and will it handle whatever volume you bring?

Security & Fraud Protection – credit card security is extremely important to your business and you want to be sure the platform you choose is secure and has fraud prevention mechanisms in place.

Scalability – even if you are starting with a small number of items to begin with, can the system handle adding large numbers of new products?

Usability – how easy is it for you to update and make changes?

Customizability – can you change the design and layout however you want to for all conversion and navigation needs?

SEO-Friendly – some platforms allow you more access to the site structure elements to allow you the freedom to optimize your site.

Shipping & Tax Calculations – your solution should have the ability to setup different shipping options and calculate the charges and taxes associated with each sale.

Promotions & Marketing – does the system have the ability to add coupons, cross sells, gift cards?

Technical Support – once you have your store up and running, it will be critical to have access to a technical support department that can help you if any issues arise.

Of course, I can’t help but recommend the platform I use – Yahoo! Merchant Services – for several reasons.

1. The setup is extremely easy for anyone to use. Entering products, processing orders, setting up shipping options – all of these configurations are quick and easy.
2. The solution is very reasonably priced.  And, while I do recommend outsourcing the design of your new site, the companies that specialize in Yahoo design are very reasonably priced as well.
3. Yahoo’s product database engine is very robust with many customizations available to how you store, present and even track inventory of your products.
4. They are secure and trusted.
5. Nothing is Permanent! When I outgrow Yahoo! Merchant Services, I will be migrating to an entirely customized eCommerce system, but I will also be able to afford the web development team for such an effort when that time comes. That expense would have never made sense before the business model was proven and the company was profitable.

There are several sites out there that can help you analyze the features and benefits of available platforms. Keep in mind that most sites I have found are “sponsored” by one of the platforms, so beware of that bias when you are reading.

Added:

For example, Yahoo Merchant Solutions (AKA Yahoo Stores) is one of the most robust platform which is available in the market. There are some real monters out there in the market which touch every corner of the ecommerce business – but what you need to look at is what fits right within your business model, your staffing and most importantly – your skills.

Business is not just about updating your ecommerce website. You may have a business that runs only on your ecommerce portal – but that means then it HAS TO BE backed by a reliable backend, bug free application and easily managable modules which requires least time to manage your orders and keep inventory synchronized with your warehouses.

Yahoo! provides exactly this – it is suitable for giant business and an enterpreneure. It has proved its existance by catering thousands of businesses across the internet – selling clothes, gifts, accessories, hardware, services, softwares and many more.
Find out more about the platform here:

http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/ecommerce