No doubt, development firms and tech gurus are being inundated with questions surrounding the now infamous Heartbleed bug. According to various sources, more than two-thirds of the active sites on the web could have been affected. Coupled with the Target security breach, businesses and consumers alike are becoming more and more uneasy when it comes to data security. To assuage widespread concerns, bloggers, journalists and reporters are pushing info into the mediasphere with explanations and advice to keep the general public...

As websites become more sophisticated, users are expected to get on board with new functionality and contemporary designs. And although cutting-edge websites can give a business a competitive edge, they can also come with a learning curve. To get users to make the leap, UI/UX professionals are often asked to come on board to ease the transition.  User experience – the UX in the UI/UX – requires a deep understanding of what potential website visitors want and need. According to usability.gov,...

As far as most folks are concerned, the actual shopping part of grocery shopping isn’t that bad. It’s the unloading-the-car portion of it that’s not exactly a good time. Loaded up with 12 rolls of toilet paper, an economy sized jug of laundry detergent and a case of soda – amongst all of the other odds and ends – reinforces the case for grocery delivery services like AmazonFresh.     Currently, shoppers on the Amazon website can buy quite a few...

When the Americans with Disabilities Act was set into motion, lawmakers were making a passionate push to ensure that those with disabilities were protected against discrimination and afforded equal access to public entities and accommodations. At that same time, the Internet was still a burgeoning idea. Its future reach and significance was unknown, meaning accessibility issues for those with was disabilities hadn’t been taken into consideration.  Today, however, the U.S. Department of Justice is working diligently to create new regulations that...

When a website is slow to load, consumers are quick to leave. And when consumers don’t stick around, revenues suffer. According to an often-cited study conducted by the Aberdeen Group, something as minimal as a 1-second delay can result in 11 percent fewer page views, a 16 percent decrease in customer satisfaction and a 7 percent drop in conversions. For most business owners, a 7 percent decrease in online sales is motivation enough to improve page performance. Unfortunately, however, sales aren’t...

Technology evolves about as quickly as the second hand moves around its dial. But as technology speeds up, businesses, too, must do their best to keep up at the same pace. The challenge, however, revolves around the ever-growing duties of eCommerce development staff. With IT departments being rained down on with new responsibilities and requests, the growth of an online store is inevitably stymied. And that’s where IBM and its WebSphere Commerce business users come into the picture. In its much-anticipated...

Consumers are a demanding bunch. And apparently, they’re also a busy bunch. They don’t have time to twiddle their thumbs waiting for a website to load. So, when a website doesn’t render fast enough, they’ll take their business elsewhere. It’s as simple as that. Because of these time-strapped consumers, eCommerce website owners must make performance optimization a priority. Tuning a site to load quickly is a multi-faceted effort, however, seen in the fact that page load performance is often broken into...

Every element of a website can have a subconscious effect on visitors. Dotting every I and crossing every T becomes an understatement for UI/UX designers when something as seemingly insignificant as the placement of a dollar sign affects buying behavior. If a dollar sign can have a big influence on sales, imagine how important color choice can be. Because color can have such a weighty effect on purchasing habits, designers put a lot of stock into their choices, far beyond a...

Let’s face it. Although there are tons of surveys and research projects focused on issues prevalent to the eCommerce community, there aren’t a lot that drill down on website page performance. That lack of insight has led numerous individuals to continue to reference outdated studies, like the one conducted by Akamai in 2009. Five years ago, when Akamai reported that 47 percent of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less, the eCommerce environment was much different...

When budgets are tight, do-it-yourself projects come to the rescue. In fact, a study released by Lab42, a market research firm, highlighted DIY as one of the top three searches on Pinterest during the 2013 holiday season. Of those surveyed, 15 percent said they spend less money by using Pinterest, “likely due to DIY projects.” So what do arts and crafts projects on Pinterest have to do with eCommerce page load performance? Well, they usher in the idea that slow load times can...