KMP Digitata

We are hiring! Job Vacancy: Web Developer

2013-04-11T18:31:21Z

Location: Stockport
Duration: Permanent
Probation: 6 months

Overview

We are currently expanding and looking for an experienced web-developer to join our technical team in Stockport, Greater Manchester. The role is varied and will involve a combination of new development for a major client as well as working on r&d products and supporting existing sites and applications. You will liaise directly with clients/internal project managers, develop innovative websites and applications and be responsible for helping to estimate and cost work and development.

You will work alongside an experienced technical architect and other developers to develop cutting-edge commercial solutions.

We love the web and we love going the extra mile, if you share these values you will fit in well!

Essential Skills

Good knowledge of programming principles and the web
Good knowledge of scripting and mark-up languages (JavaScript/jQuery, HTML, CSS etc)
Experience of Java/J2EE programming (1.6 or higher ideally)
Experience of relational databases (SQL / DB2)
Ability to undertake research and self-study in a disciplined manner
Good interpersonal & communication skills
Ability to manage time, prioritise tasks and work under pressure
Desire to learn new technologies and ways of working

Desirable Skills

Experience of C#.net
Experience of IBM WebSphere
Experience of CMS platforms such as Lotus Domino

Benefits

Bonus scheme based on company performance
Free lunch every Thursday
A fantastic team environment
Flexi-time for urgent/personal matters
Child care voucher scheme

Company

KMP Digitata excel at creating and managing user-centric digital experiences that deliver outstanding ROI for our clients, who include TUI, Asda, Manchester Airports Group, Sue Ryder and Nokia. Recent projects include e-commerce website builds, iPhone, Android, Facebook and Twitter apps.

Since our inception we have been at the forefront of cutting edge technology and marketing strategies as well as dedicating ourselves to discovering and nurturing fresh talent, many of which you will find carrying on our ethos within various digital agencies and blue chip companies throughout the North of England.

Please send your CV to recruitment@kmp.co.uk

NO AGENCIES PLEASE

Blood on the High Street

2013-04-17T19:26:07Z

With so many high profile retailers disappearing, what can be done to stem the tide of large scale retail failures? And what can ‘traditional’ high street retailers do to exist in the connected, digital world?

If you are a high street retailer maybe it is time to start thinking about your digital mix differently. There is an opportunity out there to deliver a retail experience that will not only ensure your survival, but positively impact your real world sales.

Most retailers think of their channels as slightly separate – online and offline, with the slightly disruptive mobile element proving to be a difficult one to contend with. With the odd nod to click and collect there are retailers using digital to drive store footfall and provide a level of convenience to todays connected consumer, but is this enough? And more importantly is this the right mind-set?

Think Differently

For more than a decade consumers’ expectations have been set by online shopping, a retail experience that is augmented by a wealth of information from a variety of sources – a place where the consumer is in charge. That being said, the fact is people like to shop physically with average e-commerce conversions running at 2 – 3.5% versus bricks and mortar conversion rates of around 20 – 25% (Source: Verdict Research, May 2010) it is clear there is opportunity to provide consumers with the best of both worlds.

What if retailers begin to think differently, what if this is the biggest opportunity that retail has seen in over a decade?

Key Themes

There are some key themes that retailers should be looking at right now:

Immediacy and real time data

Where retailers can start to link the research and purchase phases together there is a powerful opportunity to provide a real time, really fast experience for consumers that allows a much richer, much more informed impulse buy. Take the Burberry smart mirrors for example, offering customers the opportunity to see product information and reviews by linking real world and digital world. What if this linked back to stock and went as far as to say – “that’s the last size 12”, creating urgency and conversion messaging similar to online retailers. Why not have the amazon price available to your customers – they will have to wait to get what is in their hands right now.

Know your customer

In many cases if a customer is in your store they have visited your site, provide a way to recognise this, enable access to purchase histories, items in a wish list and link this back to the store experience with conversion in mind. It is the old adage of a corner shop – where the shop keeper knows his customers by name, only on a larger scale, harness the power of this and it will facilitate personalisation, enhance customer relationships and help to create significant cross sell and upsell opportunity.

Self serve and peer to peer support

From mobile checkouts to a customer checking out the stock to find out ‘what’s in the back’ self-service will not only save a customer time, but ultimately reduce the cost to serve for any retailer. Having all payment information stored would vastly reduce the barrier to sale of there being a huge queue if a customer can skip it and pay using their online account. Increasingly consumers are willing to help themselves – and each other, so why not enable this and start to build on ideas like social validation in store.

Make it real

Part of the brand experience of retail is the physical product – there is something tangible, don’t replace this with digital thingamabobs. The psychology of retail remains unchanged, there are just a lot more tools that empower your customers and help you to deliver what you do best, real people, real products – the retail experience.

Of course much of this requires investment, and with investment comes risk and with risk comes challenge. It is possible to change the perceived wisdom, just look at the airline industry, and for those retailers willing to start taking steps towards the connected high street the rewards will be rich. So start small and convince those around you that this can be done.

Things you can do now

There are ways, over and above what many retailers are currently doing to harness the power of the connected consumer right now, these are just a few examples:

Link your products to a mobile enabled space that gives richer information on the product, if there is a cheaper price elsewhere, help the customer to get the product they want at that price or demonstrate that the convenience is worth the difference.

If something can be done using a smartphone help customers to do it on a smartphone. Whether that is paying for product, finding something in store or asking for help enabling customers to do this, will reduce the cost to serve.

Start to create channel convergence – as a first step, let customers check store stock on a mobile / website or invite customers to check their mobiles for the day’s hot offers whilst in store.

Be smart with social – Enrich key elements within your environment with social to provide reassurance and validation to your customers. For example receipts that contain unique codes for customers to immediately share there amazing purchase or an in store display of your most popular products on pinterest (or facebook, or twitter).

Drive footfall – Use your digital channels to encourage customers in store, no doubt you have been using in store promotions to drive them online for years. The experience may just enhance your brand with digital natives.

Ultimately for retailers to survive and thrive in the ever shrinking gap between the digital and real world retail space there needs to be a change of mind set from channel to consumer. With the growth of the connected and empowered consumer comes opportunity – the opportunity to build stronger relationships with your customers through engaging and rewarding digital and real world experiences.

Job Vacancy: PHP Developer

2012-12-18T15:03:53Z

Location: Stockport
Duration: Permanent
Probation: 6 months

Overview

Are you an experienced web-developer? Would you like to become part of our development team helping to produce cutting edge e-solutions? If so read on…….Your role will primarily involve the creation of websites and web solutions across a broad spectrum of clients, both new and existing, ranging from SME to Blue Chip. In addition you’ll be supporting existing web sites and systems, be exposed to cutting edge technologies and liaise day to day with our clients and internal project and account managers. Our recent projects have included ecommerce & corporate website builds, Facebook apps, Twitter apps, iOS & Android apps.

We love the web and we love going the extra mile, if you share these values you will fit in well!

Essential Skills

Thorough understanding of PHP development language
Good understanding of object oriented programming
Experience of developing websites in Drupal (ver 6.4 preferable)
Experience of MYSQL databases
Java Script / jQuery
HTML/CSS

Desirable Skills

Java Script / jQuery
HTML/CSS
Worked in an agency environment
Experience of WordPress integrations

Benefits

Bonus scheme based on company performance
Free lunch every Thursday
A fantastic team environment
Flexi-time for urgent/personal matters
Child care voucher scheme

Company

KMP Digitata excel at creating and managing user-centric digital experiences that deliver outstanding ROI for our clients, who include Asda, Manchester Airports Group, Sue Ryder, IMI Cornelius and Nokia.

Please send your CV to recruitment@kmp.co.uk

A marketer’s guide to the ins and outs of responsive web design

2012-10-11T13:57:28Z

The proliferation of tablets and smartphones over the last couple of years means that digital marketers now understand that they need to deliver content that looks great on a multitude of platforms and devices. One way of doing this is to adopt a responsive web design (RWD) approach.

We’ve previously written a basic guide to responsive web design but in reality there are a number of different methods, each addressing different issues that can arise. It’s important to note that the seemingly simple decision to have a responsive website is not a silver bullet solution to optimizing your site for all devices. There is still much to consider.

This post is aimed at people like me – digital types with just enough technical knowledge to grasp the fundamentals. If you are a serious techie looking for tips, there are plenty of posts out there by people much more technologically astute than me. This post is aimed at helping digital marketers navigate the decisions that are made when choosing the right approach to deliver content on a variety of devices.

The first and possibly most important decision is choosing a responsive design approach rather than a dedicated mobile website. It’s almost certainly true that RWD will require a smaller investment than a separate mobile site but there are still those situations when a separate site is more appropriate. For example, if the mobile user has a completely different set of requirements, you might need to design a completely different user journey for the mobile experience. In this case responsive design won’t cut it. Even if the site structure and user journeys are comparable, there may be good reason to serve different applications or media to different devices and this is best handled server side. A server side solution will detect the device and/or browser and only send what is required. This might mean delivery of completely separate sites for desktop, tablet and mobile or if you use a CMS with advanced templating (like Sitecore for instance), delivery of separate versions of a particular page.

But let’s just assume that a responsive approach is right for you. What should be your next considerations? I’ll give a brief run down on the three main flavours of responsive design together with a few pros and cons.

Responsive Web Design

OK, let’s start with the basic approach. Responsive Web Design, first described by Ethan Marcote, allows the client (i.e. browser) to display content in different ways depending on environment parameters (usually width). The page uses CSS media queries to determine the pixel ratio of the browser and then uses different CSS style rules to adapt the layout. In order for this to work effectively, the page should be designed using a flexible grid layout. It should also deliver images at an appropriate size, using browser resizing or displaying different sized images at different resolutions. The concept of graceful degradation, used for many years to handle the varying capabilities of different desktop browsers, is used in RWD to ensure an elegant experience in smaller resolutions and less capable feature phones.

Sounds great, so what are the drawbacks?

The main problem is the extra work being asked of the browser. By forcing the browser to download extra code and images, using image resizing to reduce the size of large images to display on smaller browsers and increasing the number of requests to the server, you are potentially severely impacting the speed performance of your page. You can probably see how this conflicts with providing a great mobile experience. Downloading images at a resolution much bigger than they will be displayed is simply a waste. Over 3G it might be noticeably slow and a waste of data allowance.

Also some browsers (especially mobile) don’t handle image resizing well or at all so it can’t be considered a solution for all mobile devices. Not all applications and third-party plug-ins or widgets will be compatible with this approach. It’s possible to use scripts to allow the browser to optionally download heavier page components but that in turn increases the server requests. In addition more devices of various screen resolutions are being released all the time. So how many different screen sizes do you need to design for once you consider the new wave of small tablets, large smartphones and smart TVs? More variations require more layouts which compounds the speed problem.

Pros

Delivers content elegantly to multiple screen resolutions.
Removes the need for significant investment in separate mobile sites.

Cons

Can impact the performance of a site by increasing code and media assets downloaded and the number of server requests per page.
Hard to futureproof in the face of new and diverse sized devices being released.
Might not be compatible with essential applications or third party widgets.

Mobile First Responsive Design

If the reason you need a responsive design is to deliver a great mobile experience then it would make sense to develop an approach that makes this your primary concern. That is the basis of the mobile first approach.

Standard RWD usually starts with desktop and removes or simplifies elements for smaller browser resolutions. Mobile first flips this approach on its head and challenges the web designer to start from the simplest and most efficient design and build up for the larger browsers. Whereas standard web design and responsive web design uses graceful degradation, mobile first employs a progressive enhancement approach, adding layers of enhancement as required to provide an elegant and optimized experience to all browser types.

The basics for mobile first responsive design are the same as standard RWD; the page still uses media queries and style rules to detect the browser width and deliver an appropriate layout, but by forcing the design and content strategy to place the needs of the mobile user first, you really address and focus on core content and functionality. If it’s not truly essential, it doesn’t go in the page. What you end up with is a page stripped to its bare essentials that looks great on whatever sized browser it’s viewed on. It also frees up the designer to consider mobile technologies such as camera integration and geo-location in the first instance.

Sounds great, so what are the drawbacks?

It’s not as easy as it sounds to drop content and functionality. There is a lot of planning and compromise required. Anyone who has had to mediate the discussion between different departments about whose content should go where will know this. Imagine if you had to decide that certain content was removed entirely. Prepare yourself for lots of content strategy meetings and workshops. It also depends on what kind of site you are building. If a large and complex piece of functionality is vital to your site but not applicable to mobile this may not be the approach for you.

Pros

Forces page design to be stripped to the essential elements.
Creates a faster and more elegant mobile solution that also looks good in larger resolutions.

Cons

Requires lots and lots of planning
It may not be possible to simplify your site to the level required

Responsive Web Design with Server Side Components (RESS)

I’ve previously described how device specific sites or page templates can be achieved by using server side detection and delivering a site or page version most suited to that device. I’ve also highlighted that one of the major drawbacks to standard responsive web design is the fact that you require the browser to download images and other media in the largest size and resize in the browser for the layout used. One way of modifying the RWD to address this issue is to develop a server side approach only on certain elements of the page, such as images and video and let media queries and style rules handle the layout. This is known as RESS (a mix of responsive and server side – get it?) and it could be the perfect balance to provide futureproof, multi device content delivery for your website.

Sounds great, so what are the drawbacks?

Well, there aren’t any really. RESS is a perfect compromise when you want to deliver a great experience on multiple browsers but don’t need or want to invest in separate mobile sites. It does require a bit more investment than the standard RWD approach and it helps if you have a content management system like Sitecore that can automatically resize images and store cached versions of the different sizes until they need to be served.

Pros

Solves one of the major drawbacks of standard RWD.

Cons

Extra development work required compared with standard RWD.

Summary

So as the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. And as another saying goes, it’s different horses for different courses. Before I completely exhaust my list of clichés I’ll finish by saying there are many ways of addressing the issue of optimizing your web content for different devices and the route you decide to take will be shaped by the requirements of your users and your business. If you want to know more about responsive web design and how you can use it to your advantage, get in touch. If you’re in the mood for more technical details on RWD in its various guises you can have a look through the reading list below, some of which was used to inform this post.

Reading list

Responsive Web Design by Ethan Marcotte

Mobile First responsive web design by Brad Frost

CSS Media Query for Mobile is Fool’s Gold by Jason Grigsby

RESS: Responsive Design + Server Side Components by Luke Wroblewski

There is no mobile web - a presentation by Jeremy Keith (summarised by Luke Wroblewski)

Crap! It doesn’t look quite right – presentation by Lyza Gardner

Job Vacancy: .Net Developer

2012-08-20T08:16:09Z

Location: Stockport
Duration: Permanent
Probation: 6 months

Overview

Are you an experienced web-developer? Would you like to become part of our development team helping to produce cutting edge e-solutions? If so read on…………Your role will primarily involve the creation of websites and web solutions across a broad spectrum of clients, both new and existing, ranging from SME to Blue Chip. In addition you’ll be supporting existing web sites and systems, be exposed to cutting edge technologies and liaise day to day with our clients and internal project and account managers. Our recent projects have included ecommerce & corporate website builds, Facebook apps, Twitter apps, iOS & Android apps.

We love the web and we love going the extra mile, if you share these values you will fit in well!

Essential Skills

Thorough understanding & experience .net with the C# language
SQL Server
Java Script / jQuery
HTML/CSS
Make a good cup of tea

Desirable Skills

Experience of one or more of the following CMS: Sitecore, Umbraco, Drupal
Experience of PHP
Experience of .NET MVC

Benefits

Bonus scheme based on company performance
Free lunch every Thursday
A fantastic team environment
Flexi-time for urgent/personal matters
Child care voucher scheme

Company

For all enquiries please email: recruitment@kmp.co.uk

NO AGENCIES PLEASE

Tesco brings its Korean virtual shop to Gatwick Airport

2012-09-20T14:29:20Z

Following the success of Tesco’s virtual stores in Korea (known as Home Plus), where they covered train station walls with pictures of produce laid out as they were on shelves in a real life store allowed commuters to add items to their online shopping baskets via QR codes, they have now launched it’s first UK version in Gatwick Airport.

The Korean Virtual Store:

Tesco have now used the same idea in Gatwicks North Terminal. The virtual stores are displayed on interactive advertising displays, which allows user to scroll through a virtual fridge and add items to their shopping basket by scanning the related bar code. Order can be placed up to 3 weeks prior to delivery with the intention that customers order there basic food shop while in the departures terminal ready for when they return home from their holiday and in doing so, avoid that annoying need to go the the supermarket to restock your fridge after their fridge.

Ken Towle, Tesco Internet retailing director:

This isn’t just about moving customers from using one channel to another it’s also about attracting new customers. Online is becoming increasingly important. We are responding to the wider use of smartphones as there’s a huge amount spent online via mobile. It’s another way of providing customers with access to Tesco.

The virtual fridges are on a 2 week trial with a views to do a fuller roll-out if consumers embrace this new shopping method.

Tablets overtake Smartphones in driving E-Commerce traffic

2012-07-26T09:22:11Z

Back in January we published a blog post about how Tablet users, on average, spent 50% online than Smartphone users. Although the transaction values were higher with Tablets the amount of traffic generated by them was considerably lower than Smartphones. Tablets only represented 1.66% of all E-Commerce traffic, whereas Smartphones and desktop computers was 4.23% and 94.12% respectively. This has now changed!

Research done by Montate has discover that consumers are quickly moving away from their desktop computers when shopping online. In the first quarter of 2012 E-Commerce traffic from Tablets rose to 6.52%, an almost 400% increase from the same time in 2011. This increase now puts Tablets above Smartphones, despite the amount of traffic from Smartphones increasing to 5.35% over the year.

Devices used for M-Commerce

Further research by Affiliate Window looked into the individual devices used in M-Commerce. It is no surprise that the iPad represents 55% of all M-Commerce transactions made during the study period followed by the iPhone, which was responsible for 29%. The study didn’t differentiate between Andriod phones and tablets but combined Android only accounts for 11% of transactions and Blackberry 3%. The remaining 2% is put down as “Other”.

Retail Sectors influenced by M-Commerce

The rise of M-Commerce isn’t spread evenly across all retail sectors. There are a number of sectors that have experienced huge growth and other that has seen almost none. Fashion Retail experiences the greatest amount of M-Commerce, with 35% of all mobile traffic. Another notable sectors experiencing higher than average M-commerce is the travel sector and department stores. Trust is a big issue with M-Commerce, with consumers not comfortable with putting credit card details into mobile sites, because of this high value retail such as electronics experience much lower than average mobile transactions along with the financial sector.

So what can you do?

Make sure you website functions properly on Tablet devices. An example of this is not to rely on hover state drop down menus
User larger navigation with a focus on bigger add-to-cart and check out buttons
Use responsive web design for future websites

Job Vacancy: User Experience Designer

2012-10-11T13:59:29Z

We are looking for a User Experience Designer to join our interactive team. You’ll be working closely with the Head of Interactive, UI designers and front end developers. This is a fantastic opportunity for a user experience designer with some experience to work on a wide variety of projects and learn the ropes at a fast paced agency working with big brands.

If successful you’ll be working on clients including: ASDA, Manchester Airports Group, Sue Ryder, Trek America (TUI plc), Carrier (Kuoni) and Noise Festival.

You should be passionate about all things digital and have a deep understanding of user centered design. We’re looking for someone who can balance user needs with business needs across a range of projects from websites, to mobile, to social media applications.

If you’re a logical thinker and problem solver adept at conducting user research and user testing, as well as producing UX deliverables (sketching, wireframes, user journeys, personas, prototypes), maybe you’re the one. Crafting usable, accessible and delightful online experiences should be your number one priority.

You’ll be heavily involved in the discovery process, assessing user needs and designing solutions to meet those needs. You should be interested in new interaction concepts and be comfortable participating in and sometimes running client or user workshops. Knowledge of what is and isn’t possible with regards to web standards and mobile is also required.

Being able to articulate clearly and effectively your proposed solutions and rationale to both colleagues and clients goes without saying. You should have a strong attention to detail and be a team player who is confident managing your own workload and hitting deadlines. Not shirking your brew round responsibilities is also essential.

Although this is primarily a user experience position it would be beneficial to have some knowledge of any of the following information architecture, content strategy, graphic/visual (UI) design, copywriting, HTML/CSS/JavaScript.

We will work with the successful candidate to help them learn new and develop existing skills. This will include developing visual design, running effective workshops, front end development skills.

A competitive salary is available for the right person. Benefits include numerous training opportunities, career progression, company bonus scheme, excellent working environment, free fresh fruit, sandwiches, tea, coffee and hot chocolate.

If you think this is for you please send your application along with relevant work examples/URLs to Richard Clark on 0161 429 1481 or email rich@kmp.co.uk. If you want a chat about the role, that’s fine too.

Agencies; we love you and all but we’ll let you know if we need any help filling this role.

Job Vacancy: Digital Designer

2012-10-11T13:59:59Z

We are looking for a Digital Designer to join our interactive team. You’ll be working closely with the Head of Interactive, UX & UI designers and front end developers. This is a fantastic opportunity for a digital designer with some experience to work on a wide variety of projects and learn the ropes at a fast paced agency working with big brands.

If successful you’ll be working on clients including: ASDA, Manchester Airports Group, Sue Ryder, Trek America (TUI plc), Carrier (Kuoni) and Noise Festival.

You should be passionate about all things digital. You should also be brimming with ideas and be able to design for websites, mobile, tablet, social media, e-marketing campaigns, installations and other digital marketing channels. You should have a passion for crafting meaningful, delightful online experiences.

A keen understanding of design theory, colour, layout and typography is required. You should also care deeply about usability and accessibility. Knowledge of what is and isn’t possible with regards to web standards and mobile is also required.

Being able to articulate clearly and effectively your design decisions and rationale to both colleagues and clients goes without saying. You should have a strong attention to detail and be a team player who is confident managing your own workload and hitting deadlines. Not shirking your brew round responsibilities is also essential.

Although this is primarily a design position it would be beneficial to have some knowledge of any of the following languages or skills: user experience design, content strategy, copywriting, HTML/CSS/JavaScript or ActionScript.

We will work with the successful candidate to help them learn new and develop existing skills. This will include developing creative concepts, idea generation, user experience design, usability, front end development, copywriting, motion graphics and flash development.

Agencies; we love you and all but we’ll let you know if we need any help filling this role.

Another Hashtag hijacking – This time the Maldives fall victim

2012-07-19T12:22:18Z

Twitter can be a minefield for individuals and companies. Numerous times we’ve seen companies naively start a twitter campaign believing that it’s a great idea and that it’s going to elevate the brand image. What they seem to forget is the way that Twitter provides, not only their fans, but also their critics a voice and a place to share it.

The latest organisation to fall foul of Twitter is Visit Maldives, whose campaign involved tourists tweeting there holiday experiences and contain the hashtag #SunnySideOfLife.

What they didn’t consider are the protests and coup currently engulfing the islands, resulting in activists hijacking the hashtag to spread their message.

There is the occasional positive tweet with the hashtag but they are lost amongst tweets describing Police brutality and political corruption. Dispite the campaign taking a drastic downward spiral, at the time of writing, the Maldives is still promoting the hashtag through their Twitter account @myvisitmaldives.

This isn’t the first time an organisation lost control of a hashtag campaign, forgetting that once it’s created they no longer have control of what is added to the conversation and leaves themselves open for criticism. The most notable example of this is the McDonalds #McDStories campaign.

McDonalds #McDStories

McDonalds wanted to humanize their brand by putting their British suppliers and customers to the forefront with a twitter campaign based around two hashtags, #McDStories and #MeetTheFarmers. McDonalds spent thousands of pounds building the campaign with TV and print advertising promoting tweets such as:

When you make something with pride, people can taste it – McD Potato Supplier #McDStories

The campaign started in mid January and the hashtag #McDStories went viral very quickly but not in a way that McDonlds had hoped. Rather than stories of good experiences, Twitter was filled with horror stories of customers visits to the restaurant. The most retweeted tweet being:
My brother finding a fake nail in his fries #McDStories

Twitter Campaigning

With any twitter campaign based around a hashtag the main piece of advice is to “take care”. Both the Maldives and McDonalds campaigns failed because of naivety, the Maldives believed that only tourists would engage with the hashtag and McDonalds had a self image that didn’t match that of the majority of the public.

As with any company or brand, it is extremely unlikely that 100% of the human race is a fan of your products or activities. Therefore, you need to plan down to the smallest detail and be brutally honest with yourself when considering the public’s opinion on your company/brand.

Although these 2 campaigns paint a grim picture of Twitter, these are two exceptions and there are hundreds successful Twitter Campaigns.

Happy Tweeting