Welcome to Bloomreach Headless Experience Manager, a headless content management system with the APIs and flexibility to power any front end while retaining powerful personalization and authoring capabilities!
This guide helps new developers get started with the platform. Step-by-step through a series of milestones, you’ll learn the first steps of developing websites using Headless Experience Manager.
Paris, France & Walldorf, Allemagne, le 16 févr. 2022 – SAP SE (NYSE : SAP) et le cabinet de conseil en management et technologie BearingPoint ont annoncé unir leurs forces dans le domaine des solutions liées à l’empreinte carbone et environnementale. Les entreprises collaboreront afin de faire progresser la conception et le développement d’une solution de pointe aidant les clients à atteindre l’objectif de neutralité carbone.
Mesurer, contrôler et piloter l’empreinte carbone est un élément clé pour atteindre l’objectif de neutralité carbone et fait partie du programme d’action climatique promu par SAP. Les entreprises sont soumises à une pression croissante pour déterminer leur empreinte carbone, non seulement au niveau de l’entreprise, mais également au niveau des produits. Cependant, l’acquisition, la consolidation et la cartographie des données sont des défis auxquels de nombreuses entreprises sont confrontées. Avec le récent lancement de SAP® Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises les solutions SAP pour le développement durable et la longue expérience de BearingPoint en matière de calcul des émissions sur le marché, les entreprises sont bien équipées pour développer des solutions innovantes permettant de répondre aux préoccupations de leurs clients en matière d’empreinte environnementale sur l’ensemble de leur chaîne de valeur.
« Le partenariat de codéveloppement entre SAP et BearingPoint permettra de réunir deux propositions de valeur fortes. BearingPoint a une longue expérience dans l’identification des potentiels de réduction des émissions de gaz à effet de serre et l’atteinte des objectifs de développement durable des clients. SAP apporte des capacités d’innovation, un large éventail de systèmes et un accès aux clients. Ensemble, en tant que partenaires, nous repousserons les limites pour faire avancer l’économie sur la voie de la neutralité carbone », a déclaré Gunther Rothermel, SVP, responsable du développement durable de SAP S/4HANA, SAP.
Bilan carbone pour l’ensemble de la chaîne de valeur : scope 1, 2 et 3
Si de nombreuses entreprises ont déjà évalué leurs émissions de scope 1 et 2, il est essentiel d’évaluer l’ensemble de la chaîne de valeur en introduisant les émissions de scope 3. Pour ce faire, les réseaux environnementaux doivent permettre l’échange de données avec des partenaires tels que les fournisseurs, les clients, les auditeurs et les pouvoirs publics, même s’ils utilisent des systèmes informatiques différents. S’appuyant sur le savoir-faire approfondi de BearingPoint en matière de calculs et d’algorithmes relatifs à l’empreinte des produits et des entreprises, la solution SAP Product Footprint Management prend en charge la collecte et le calcul des données permettant la réalisation d’un bilan carbone et environnemental de bout en bout. La solution SAP est entièrement intégrée à SAP® S/4HANA et à l’architecture d’entreprise intelligente, mais se connecte également à d’autres sources de données. Cela lui permet d’effectuer des évaluations automatisées des empreintes à travers la chaîne de valeur, y compris dans des paysages de systèmes hétérogènes.
« Avec SAP, nous allons codévelopper – en utilisant notre logiciel propriétaire – et fournir une solution unique sur le marché permettant de mesurer et d’optimiser l’impact climatique des produits tout au long de leur cycle de vie. SAP Product Footprint Management dispose de fonctionnalités sophistiquées permettant de déterminer l’empreinte carbone d’un seul produit. Notre expérience industrielle éprouvée depuis plus de 10 ans dans le calcul et l’optimisation de l’empreinte « CO2 » des produits et des entreprises permettra à nos clients communs d’atteindre leurs objectifs de dé-carbonisation. Chez BearingPoint, nous sommes convaincus qu’avec les solutions innovantes de SAP, son organisation commerciale et son expertise du marché, nous pouvons avoir un impact positif sur le climat », a déclaré Donald Wachs, Responsable des Business Services et membre du comité de Direction BearingPoint.
« Le partenariat avec BearingPoint accélère la feuille de route de la solution SAP Product Footprint Management et contribuera à faire de nous un leader du marché des solutions de calcul des empreintes produit aidant nos clients à optimiser la durabilité de leurs produits et services », a déclaré Peter Maier, président de la division Industries et conseil à la clientèle de SAP.
À propos de SAP
La stratégie de SAP est d’aider chaque entreprise à fonctionner comme une entreprise intelligente. En tant que leader du marché des logiciels d’application d’entreprise, nous aidons les entreprises de toutes tailles et de tous secteurs à fonctionner au mieux : les clients de SAP génèrent 87% du commerce mondial. Nos technologies de machine learning, d’Internet des objets (IoT) et d’analyse avancée contribuent à transformer les activités des clients en entreprises intelligentes. SAP permet aux personnes et aux organisations d’avoir une vision approfondie de l’activité et favorise la collaboration, cela les aidant à garder une longueur d’avance sur leurs concurrents. Nous simplifions la technologie pour les entreprises afin qu’elles puissent consommer nos logiciels comme elles l’entendent, sans interruption. Notre suite d’applications et de services de bout en bout permet aux entreprises et aux administrations publiques de 25 secteurs d’activité dans le monde entier de fonctionner de manière rentable, de s’adapter en permanence et de faire la différence. Avec un réseau mondial de clients, de partenaires, d’employés et de leaders d’opinion, SAP aide le monde à mieux fonctionner et améliore la vie des gens.
Pour plus d’informations, visitez www.sap.com.
À propos de BearingPoint
BearingPoint est un cabinet de conseil en management et technologie indépendant aux racines européennes et à la couverture mondiale.
Le cabinet est structuré autour de trois entités. La première couvre les activités de conseil en mettant clairement l’accent sur les domaines d’expertises clés du cabinet à développer dans le monde entier. La deuxième fournit des solutions technologiques avancées combinant conseil et logiciel, et offre des services gérés à forte valeur ajoutée aux clients. La troisième se concentre sur des investissements innovants ; par exemple dans des solutions logicielles très spécifiques permettant de répondre aux exigences réglementaires ou d’accompagner la transformation numérique. Elle a également pour vocation d’explorer des business models innovants avec les clients et les partenaires, en favorisant la création d’écosystèmes, le financement et le développement de start-ups.
BearingPoint compte parmi ses clients les plus grandes organisations mondiales publiques et privées ; fort d’un réseau international de plus de 10 000 collaborateurs, BearingPoint accompagne ses clients dans plus de 75 pays et les aide à obtenir des résultats mesurables et durables.
Informations complémentaires:
Site Internet: www.bearingpoint.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/bearingpoint
Twitter: @BearingPoint_de
Contact presse Bearing Point
Alexander Bock
Global Manager Communications
Téléphone: +49 89 540338029
E-mail: alexander.bock@bearingpoint.com
Publicis Consultants pour SAP
Chloé Jalaguier : chloe.jalaguier@publicisconsultants.com
Robin Legros : robin.legros@publicisconsultants.com
The post SAP et BearingPoint s’associent sur la voie de la neutralité carbone appeared first on SAP France News.
As a UX designer, you get to work on creative, rewarding, even life-changing projects. It’s an industry with flexible working and countless opportunities. All this, and you get paid well too.
It doesn’t matter if you’re not a creative prodigy, or a tech grandmaster; you can learn to become a UX designer with the right mindset, a few tools you pick up along the way, and some committed learning.
By the time you’ve finished reading this post, you’ll be well on your way to designing your new career.
You can do this, let’s get started…
Every career is different, but generally speaking, a UX designer works on making a user’s interaction with a product or service (normally websites) as intuitive as possible.
Just as a golf architect designs the layout of a golf course to flow through greens, tees, and holes, with buggy paths for access, and the odd bunker to add a challenge; so a UX designer creates the optimum experience for a site. A golf architect doesn’t need to reinvent the game of golf, and neither does a UX designer need to reinvent websites.
A golf architect will not design a course with a 360-degree sand bunker surrounding a tee (well, they might, but they really really shouldn’t), or a hole too small for a golf ball. In the same way as a UX designer, you’re not going to design an ecommerce site with a cart in the bottom left, a non-existent search feature, or hidden pricing.
The best thing about being a UX designer is that you don’t need to spend years in formal education to get qualified. The flipside is that if you want to be a great UX designer, it’s not a walk in the park.
Every designer is different, but some of the main traits of successful UX designers are: an enjoyment of problem-solving; good listening skills; curiosity; open-mindedness; attention to detail; creativity; communication skills; process-driven; and adaptability.
Before committing to this career path, check out a few podcasts, and read a few blog posts, to dip your toe in the water.
Still interested? Excellent, the next step is…
UX design is a practical skill. It’s all well and good knowing the theory, but without practice putting the theory into action no one will give you a chance to prove what you can do. So how do you get practical experience? You get certified, and there are three popular options: online, in-person training, or self-taught.
A good UX syllabus will include portfolio-building projects, tool mastery, networking opportunities, and even 1-2-1 mentorship. As well as learning the fundamentals of UX, you’ll cover user research and strategy, analysis, UI design, and more.
Online courses tend to be much easier on the bank balance, as well as being flexible, which means you can fit them around your current job. You can work at your own pace, and in many cases choose modules that interest you, once you’ve completed the basic introduction.
There are many online course providers, including Coursera, Udemy, Skillshare, and Career Foundry.
Whatever option you choose, it is a good idea to get as broad a perspective as possible, so consider following more than one course — perhaps mix and match a paid course with a free one.
This could be a university course, or a local boot camp where you physically sit in with an instructor and classmates.
This is more expensive, but it provides benefits that nothing else does. Firstly, you’ll have classmates you can bounce ideas off, collaborate with, keep motivated, inspired, and accountable. You can also get real-time, intensive coaching and advice from someone who’s been there, done that, bought the T-shirt (and redesigned it so it fits better).
Seach local boot camps and workshops, check out workshops at local conferences, and ask your local college what courses they offer.
Being self-taught is the cheapest of all options. Work at your own pace, where, and when you want to. Watch YouTube videos, read blogs, garner information anywhere you can find it.
This option involves a lot of stumbling around in the dark. The biggest challenge is that you don’t know what it is that you don’t know. For this reason, it can pay to follow the syllabus of a local college course, even if you’re not enrolled and don’t attend lectures.
In reality, all education is self-taught to an extent, even the most prescribed courses need self-motivation.
Some of the most in-demand UX designers in the world are self-taught, so why not? Start exploring UX blogs like Nielsen Norman Group articles, Google Design, UX Planet, and UX Matters.
Recruiters and hiring managers will seek your technical ability and your experience using popular tools from user research, to wireframing, to prototyping. When you get your first job in UX, the tools you use will be determined by your project manager, so it’s a good idea to have a passing familiarity with the most popular. These will include Maze, Userzoom, Sketch, XD, Figma, Marvel, and Hotjar.
If you’re following a guided course you should get an introduction to at least a couple of important tools. Once you understand one, you can probably pick the others up quite quickly… because, after all… they should be intuitive.
You do not need to know how to code, but understanding the roles, and restrictions of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is very beneficial. When you get your first UX job, you’ll need to be able to talk about how technologies fit into the plan.
Your portfolio is your résumé. The golden ticket. The silver bullet. Amassing a content-rich portfolio is paramount. You don’t need a real-world job to build your portfolio, and you should already have content to add from your course.
You need to demonstrate knowledge of UX tools and processes (what future employers will look for). Case studies that incorporate research, problem-solving, strategy, imagination, and (if possible) results are the best way to do this.
There are a variety of ways of building a portfolio, but the best is taking a real website, and redesigning it. Don’t worry if your first few projects aren’t the best; as long as you demonstrate improvement and growth, that counts for something.
You can showcase your portfolio on sites such as Behance, Dribbble, or preferably create your website.
Start combing the job boards to see which companies are looking for UX designers. There’s a global shortage of qualified UX designers, so if you can’t find anything you’re looking in the wrong place! Make sure your whole network, from your Mom’s hairdresser to the barista at your favorite coffee place know that you’re looking; you never know where a good lead will come from.
Some companies are looking for UX skills as part of other roles. Others are looking for full-time UXers.
Don’t be disheartened if “Junior UX Designer” positions require 2 years of experience; HR just throws this in as a pre-filter. If you think you can do the job, apply anyway, if your portfolio’s good you might get an interview regardless, and if you get an interview they think you’re worth taking the time to meet.
If you don’t get the job, don’t be downhearted. Remember: every time someone else gets a job, that’s one less person you’re competing with for the next job.
So, now you know what it takes to get into the field, it’s time to start applying yourself to this newfound and richly rewarding career. As the great writer Anton Chekov said, “Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice.” So get out there and practice, practice, practice. Add and add and add to your portfolio.
To become a UX Designer, enroll in a great course, build your portfolio, network, apply for roles, and always be learning. Always be open to new ideas and suggestions. There’s a lot of leg work, but the juice will be worth the squeeze.
Featured image via Unsplash.
The post How to Kickstart Your UX Career in 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Source de l’article sur Webdesignerdepot
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Another excellent guide to help people to prepare for job interviews to give them the best possible chances of success and not make some common mistakes can be find here : https://www.ireviews.com/interview-resources/
Customer reviews are incredibly valuable to your company. Around 95% of customers say they read reviews before they make a purchase. Another 72% say that they won’t even consider buying your items until they’ve read the reviews associated with your business or product.
No matter how good your marketing and promotion strategies might be, your audience will always turn to other customers for a credible insight into what buying from your brand is really like. That’s why it’s so important to leverage as much social proof as you can.
Unfortunately, gathering reviews and displaying them correctly on your website can be challenging.
In this article, we’re going to look at what you can do to make your reviews stand out when you’re ready to display them online.
Before we get into looking at all the different ways you can effectively display your reviews on your website, let’s get the basics out of the way.
There’s more than one type of review. Some are simply comments left on the bottom of your product pages by customers that were impressed by whatever you sold. Other reviews are available in the form of videos or badges. When you want your website to look as credible as possible, the best thing you can do is decide which types of reviews will have the most impact.
Ideally, you’ll want a combination of different review types to add depth to your site. Putting various kinds of reviews on your website increases your credibility while also boosting your SEO.
Here are your main options:
Testimonials are one of the most common types of review. Essentially, these are the messages shared by your customers that highlight the things they liked and didn’t like about your product. Testimonials often include a picture of the person leaving the message, and their name, to give them a greater sense of authenticity. You might also include a link to a website or case study with a testimonial to give it more depth.
Most testimonials go at the bottom of pages. You can showcase these reviews on your home page to start generating credibility as soon as someone interacts with your brand. Alternatively, you could allow users to place their reviews on product pages. Here’s an example of what a testimonial might look like from ducttapemarketing.com:
If your customers tend to leave reviews about your company on other sites, like Angie’s List or Yelp, then you can add a widget or badge to your website that makes it easier for other customers to find them. Sometimes, you’ll just include a small button on the bottom of a website pay that says, “find us on Yelp.” Other times, you can add your star rating too.
Some review sites will also give you the option to showcase the actual reviews in a widget that frequently updates with new messages.
If you’re only showing reviews from one third-party site on your website, it’s best to focus on Google reviews, as it’s one of the most recognizable options.
Provided that you’re using them correctly, badges and review widgets shouldn’t slow your website down too much, and many can be customized to suit the style of your site too. However, it’s essential to ensure that you don’t add too many widgets to your site if you want to avoid performance issues.
Case studies go beyond the basics of the standard review and provide potential leads with a tremendous amount of information about how you’ve previously interacted with other companies. With a case study, you’ll often create a structured document that demonstrates a customer’s problem and your strategies to overcome those issues.
Case studies often exist on their own pages, so you can go in-depth with sharing valuable information. For example, you’ll include an overview that introduces the customer you worked with and details on the outcomes you achieved together.
Although it’s much harder to interview customers for complete case studies and get all the statistics and numbers that make these reviews appealing, it’s often worth the effort. Particularly if you’re running a B2B company, case studies demonstrate the effort you go through to support your customers. They also act as proof of your success and set valuable expectations for customers. Here’s an example of a case study page by Fabrikbrands.com:
If you’re just posting basic five-star ratings on your website or asking your customers to give you a number between one and ten for how positively they’d rate your service, then you can use a few handy automation tools to create one of these visuals.
All you need to do is add a little basic CSS to your website or use a star rating widget that automatically calculates your average score based on all of the reviews that you collect from customers.
Just make sure that your star ratings are positive not just on your website but on other review sites too. For instance, if you give yourself five stars by adjusting the CSS and then get three stars from Yell, customers will begin questioning your authenticity.
Notably, while star ratings grab customer attention, they are a little basic if you’re trying to convert people and convince them to buy an expensive product. Most customers will often need more information than a basic star rating can provide.
Now that you know what kind of reviews customers can leave about your product or brand, you can start exploring ways to display them on your website.
You could decide to let your reviews show up on other third-party sites and leave it at that. For instance, if you’re a hotel manager, you may know that your customers are already leaving reviews on Booking.com and TripAdvisor. However, leaving your audience to seek your reviews out for themselves means that they spend less time where you want them – on your website.
There’s also a risk that failing to add reviews to your site will make you look less credible. If you don’t own your rating or score, customers might wonder what you have to hide.
Fortunately, we’ve got some great options to help you get started.
The first and perhaps most accessible option for showcasing your reviews and testimonials is to design a page where your customers can easily find all the information they need about your brand. Having a dedicated testimonials page can be a great way to demonstrate transparency as a brand and show your customers that you’re not hiding anything.
You could even add a form at the bottom of your testimonials page that allows other customers to leave their reviews and information. Just make sure that you have a CAPTCHA or another security measure in place to prevent people from spamming your site.
It makes sense to showcase some of your most positive reviews at the top of your page, so your customers see those first. However, it could also be a good idea to showcase some negative reviews alongside them. That’s because customers generally expect to see at least some negativity associated with your brand. If all your reviews are positive, they might assume that you’re hiding something.
When displaying your negative reviews, make sure you also show that you’ve responded to them and are working hard to address any issues. You can even publish the “thank you” you get from an unhappy customer after rectifying the problem.
The great thing about using reviews and testimonials on your website is that if you have a little coding knowledge and the correct information, you can display them wherever you choose. Most companies leave the reviews at the bottom of the website, but this could mean you’re missing out on an excellent opportunity to connect with your audience as soon as they visit you.
Having a positive review highlighted at the top of your page could immediately boost your credibility and give your audience a reason to keep reading. Remember that a picture of the person sharing the review and their name can make them look a lot more credible when you’re trying to build trust.
It’s best not to hide your reviews somewhere your customers will have to search for them, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t scatter a few testimonials around other pages. A great way to give more credibility to your brand and your website is to create a sidebar on your “About Us” page or just showcase a handful of reviews underneath the description of your business.
Suppose you don’t want to show customer testimonials on your About Us page. In that case, you could always show different kinds of reviews, like badges that show your certification with certain industry bodies or awards and recognition you’ve received.
Showing that you’re connected with major industry groups and that you’ve been recognized in your sector is a kind of review in itself. It indicates that other people have already assessed your business and see you in a positive light.
Every review doesn’t necessarily have to come from your customers. Any business or person who can give more credibility to your business deserves some representation too!
As your business begins to grow, the number of regular reviews and testimonials you get from happy customers should start to skyrocket too. You might even get to a point where you’re not sure how to fit all the reviews you want to showcase onto the same page of your website. If you already have a dedicated “reviews” page where people can go to get more insights into your growing collection of social proof, try a carousel.
Carousels are a great and dynamic way to showcase customer reviews while getting your audience more involved with your website. Give them a button they can click so that they can browse through a broader range of reviews after they’ve seen the ones that show up straight away on your carousel. It’s also worth including a link nearby the carousel widget that the user can click to visit your review page or your company’s page on a dedicated review website.
If you want to go beyond putting carousels on your home page, remember that you can add them to your product pages and menus too. Online reviews impact around 67.7% of purchasing decisions, so it makes sense to put them somewhere your customers will see them when they’re figuring out whether or not they should hit the buy button.
Reviews can be an excellent way to add an extra spark to your advertisements elsewhere in the digital landscape. Telling your audience on Facebook that you have the best steaks in the country is great – but it’s not going to make a significant impact on most of them. That’s because every business claims to be the best. Most of your clients expect you to speak well of yourself.
However, if you can combine an attractive image on social media with a quoted review from one of your happy customers, your ads will make more of an impact. You can include the quote from your customer in the text above your Facebook ad or create an image to display it instead.
Remember to add any hashtags and extra information that might make your ad more appealing and share it as often as you can with the right audience. Targeting your audience carefully towards people who are in the “consideration” stage of the buyer journey may help you to get more conversions.
While customers usually scroll past dozens of social media ads every day, a genuine statement from a real person still shakes up the status quo and grabs attention. Include a button below the ad so your customer can learn more about the product the customer is talking about.
Finally, social media ads aren’t the only way to bring attention to your reviews outside of your website. If you want to get more external customers to go and check out your products or rediscover what your business is all about, you can add review links to your email signature too. These links can go directly to the case study or review pages on your website, reminding customers what it is that makes your service or product special. Alternatively, you can get dedicated signatures for your email that link to specific review sites too.
Showing your clients how many ratings you have on Yelp or how many stars your products have earned with Google Reviews gives every message you send a lot more credibility. Most email marketing software solutions make it relatively easy to add information like this to the footer of your email.
Remember, your signature shouldn’t take up too much space in your email, so don’t add any specific reviews from customers. A star rating and a link back to a page where consumers can get more information will spruce up your content without weighing down your emails.
Successfully collecting positive reviews that show your prospects how much customers love your company can be challenging enough. However, that’s just the first piece of the puzzle. Once you’ve got all those great reviews, you also need to show them off in the most effective way. From dedicated pages on your website to scrolling carousels and Facebook ads, there are a million ways to prove your credibility to your customers with testimonials.
Featured image via Pexels.
The post How To Leverage Social Proof Successfully first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
Many markets are saturated with competition; it’s no surprise that customers are expecting top-of-the-line experiences. Businesses must keep up with these ever-changing demands to remain competitive and drive forward.
One way to ensure customers have positive experiences is to take a look at your website. Your website is like your digital headquarters, where customers can browse through products or services, have frequently asked questions answered, and be able to reach you if they need direct support.
Making a site user-friendly and customer-centric will assist businesses while they work to build a loyal customer base. Customer happiness is more important now than ever and has the potential to make or break your business. We all know that happier customers spend more, and delighted customers will always come back for more.
Let’s explore some ways you can level up the customer experience on your website to foster customer loyalty and retention, as well as garner brand advocates for your business.
As a site manager, your goal should be to meet customers’ needs. Creating a website is no simple task but can transform CX (customer experience).
Suppose a customer visits your site only to see a buffering symbol or a lag on their desktop or mobile device. This wouldn’t make for a positive experience, would it?
When customers have to spend extra time navigating your website to find what they’re looking for, it can directly lead to site abandonment, where customers leave the site before browsing. It’s vital to consistently monitor your website metrics to see if abandonment rates impact your overall traffic.
Customers who have enjoyable experiences browsing through your site are more likely to appreciate your brand and strongly consider purchasing whatever offerings you have.
Additionally, positive customer reviews can help your business gain new customers — word-of-mouth marketing is still relevant in 2021’s digital marketing landscape. Earning those 5-star reviews can help other potential customers see that they too could have a positive experience with your brand.
As you can see, CX is just as important as the products or services you offer, so keep that in mind as you set out on the journey to improve your website to advocate for your customer base.
Below, we’ll cover some of the most important elements and features of a strong business site so you can implement them.
The features of your website are the foundation of your business. One of the best parts of building a killer website is that you can get as creative as you’d like with all of the features at your disposal.
Whether you use WordPress or another platform to host your website, you can always explore other paid services or offerings online to bring your site to the next level.
For example, the WooCommerce WordPress extension allows e-commerce sites to improve the overall appearance of their site, add customizations and, generally speaking, create a high-quality e-commerce store.
Below are some examples of elements you should consider incorporating into your web design. Offering these features will surely keep your site visible, relevant, and attractive to all types of customers.
Every type of customer can benefit from a personalized experience, and it helps you turn them into loyal customers.
Personalization is becoming more prevalent in web design, whether it’s including past products they’ve viewed on your landing page or making it simple for them to log in to their account.
Maybe you allow your customers to create a wishlist, just as Amazon does. You could also make personalized deals or recommendations for your customers based on their past purchases or search history. When customers see this level of personalization, it may influence their purchasing decisions and make it simpler for them to order products.
Every professional in the digital marketing space knows that content is king. The companies that include the most compelling content garner the most attention and increase the number of customers who make up their customer base. Here are some examples of what your content should look like:
By following these descriptions, your content will improve. Whether it’s a blog post or a photo or video, quality content is a driving factor in your user engagement. It helps to support your SEO strategy and will undoubtedly keep customers coming back.
Because technology is an integral part of most people’s lives, customers expect to visit a fast, reliable website. No longer will customers wait patiently for a site to load. The dreaded buffering symbol is a clear indicator that your business is not taking customer experience into account.
It’s critical to create a website that loads quickly and is easy to use. Avoid organizing any tabs in a confusing way. Ensure that your website is visually attractive without overwhelming color schemes or photos that take up too much space.
Go for a more modern, contemporary look that’s easy on the eyes. Customers will appreciate this and will likely spend more time browsing your various website pages.
Users should be able to access any page on your website with ease. They shouldn’t have to search for the right drop-down menu or type into the search bar unless they’re searching for a specific product or service.
The majority of users on a site, 70% to be exact, spend most of their time navigating freely without using the search bar. This should tell you how vital good navigation is to your business website. Placing menus on the top of your site is common practice — if you would rather place your drop-down menu somewhere else, make sure you’re putting it in a section where it’s easy to find.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. See what types of designs you can incorporate into your site to elevate UX and make browsing simple.
One of the best ways to grow your customer advocates is by leveraging your existing customers. Your customers should be able to easily send your product or service descriptions to their friends and family.
Rather than copying a link, include a share feature. If something on your site is worth sharing with other potential customers, make it easy for them to send it.
Social sharing plays a significant role in digital marketing — it helps to garner organic traffic to your website. You can reach a larger number of people than originally intended, which is the most important benefit to reap by making it easy to share links from your site.
Offering customer support by using chatbots is something major companies are incorporating into their website designs.
Suppose your customer is trying to complete a purchase but runs into a problem with a coupon they’d like to use. Rather than wait on hold on the phone or for an email in their inbox a few days later, an automated chatbot can step in and assist them.
Chatbots are on the rise, and it’ll be critical for your business to include them on your site. Proactive web actions can increase your site’s conversion rates and improve the overall customer experience.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that allowing your customers to share their experience with your brand can help you better understand them and the solutions they’re looking for from you.
Did you know that brands with superior customer service can generate 5.7 times more revenue than their competitors? When you’re in touch with your audience, you’re better able to include features they want and need to have a positive experience. By taking advantage of customer feedback, you can make necessary changes to your site to better serve your customers.
All of the examples listed above can help elevate your site and improve the overall experience for existing and potential customers. Isn’t that the goal of any business, regardless of industry?
To serve your customers effectively means they’ll feel valued and come back for more. Whether that’s ordering more products or requesting more services, you’ll see the benefits of including the elements we’ve covered in this post.
As a recap, here are some steps you can take to advocate for your loyal customers:
Overall, customer experience will become more important in the future as customer expectations change. Standing out from your competitors is no longer an option but a necessity. So many markets are struggling to do just that — so if you’re able to offer unique features on your site, it could potentially draw more customers in and drive them to purchase.
Featured image via Unsplash.
The post 7 Simple Ways to Boost Your Website’s CX first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
This article should give a step-by-step guide of how to install and use the git-tfs tool to transfer TFVC data to a Git repository correctly.
@"%SystemRoot%System32WindowsPowerShellv1.0powershell.exe" -NoProfile -InputFormat None -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "iex ((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://chocolatey.org/install.ps1'))" && SET "PATH=%PATH%;%ALLUSERSPROFILE%chocolateybin"choco install gittfsgit config --global user.name "Some Name"git config --global user.email "some.em@i.l"git config --global push.default simpleThis gives the git repository your user info for when you push the git repository to the server.
I’ve just been appointed the CTO of a small company with less than 10 employees. Companies of this size typically don’t have the luxury of hiring a professional Project Manager, hence the role almost automatically goes to the CEO of the company, since he is the product owner – Which creates a problem for me, summarised in the ingress of this article. But as the CTO, I’m also responsible for all IT choices, including infrastructure choices, so let me go through all of my choices below – Since these have consequences for the process we must follow.
Cloud systems such as Azure or AWS are amazing products, with a feature list covering everything you can imagine. However, they’re also ridiculously expensive, typically at least 10x as expensive as a simple VPS providing the same value from an application deployment point of view. At my last company we paid €5,000 per month for Azure, and probably something similar for our AWS account (Sigh, yes, we used both! Not my decision though!) – Let’s say €8,000 per month to make sure we’re within the boundaries and that I am not exaggerating. I told my developers back at that company that I could have ran the whole company on a handful of VPS servers from DigitalOcean paying no more than €200 per month in total. Nobody believed me until our CTO confirmed my numbers more or less by saying; « At my former company we ran a 300,000 EUROs daily profit FinTech company for some 200 EUROs worth of droplets from DigitalOcean. »
If you and your team are dealing with tools like Git or Subversion, you may need an administrative layer where you are able to manage user access and repositories in a comfortable way, because source control management systems (SCM) don’t bring this functionality out of the box.
Perhaps you are already familiar with popular management solutions like GitHub, GitBlit or GitLab. The main reason for their success is their huge functionality. And of course, if you plan to create your own build and deploy pipeline with an automation server like Jenkins you will need to host your own repository manager too.
Choosing to work for free, pro bono, gratis, without charge is something that most of us find ourselves doing at one time or another. Whether we’re filling a hole in our portfolio, there’s a friend or relative we feel beholden to, or because there’s an opportunity to aid a cause we value.
Recently, I agreed to take on some work, free of charge, for a charity whose goals I share. Because it’s a cause I believe in, I enjoyed the idea of being able to contribute in a more meaningful way than donating money. But my initial goodwill rapidly diminished as the project spiraled out of control, leaving me resenting the time I spent on it.
No one should feel obliged to give away their time for free, but if you do choose to, there are rules you can apply to ensure that everything runs smoothly and you’re left with a positive experience.
The most obvious problem with working pro bono is that there is no correlation between cost and value.
Budget reins in project ambitions in a regular designer-client relationship; the more you ask for, the more it costs. Everyone encounters clients who want an ecommerce store “just like Amazon,” only to then rapidly downscale their plans when the actual development cost of a site on that scale is made clear.
working pro bono…there is no correlation between cost and value
But when there is no development budget, ambitions quickly escalate. Clients do not necessarily understand the work involved, and if they’re not footing the bill, there’s no incentive to learn.
As the professional, you need to guide them. Set limits on what you’re expecting to donate, and use that to frame what is reasonably achievable.
“I’m donating 40 hours of my time, which normally costs $3000.” Or, “I’m donating my SEO package, which is enough to meet your initial goals as discussed.” They are both perfectly fine.
The purpose is not to highlight your generosity; it’s to establish clear boundaries to prevent scope creep.
Any client who suggests that their project will be good for your portfolio or gain you “exposure” knows they’re underpaying you. When you hear it from a pro bono client, walk away immediately.
The client needs to understand you are donating your expertise, not because you need to, not because you’re expecting something in return, but because you’re an awesome human being who wants to make the world a little better.
A client who thinks you’re getting something out of the arrangement does not understand your commercial value and will treat you as a novice. Your evidence will become guesses, your decisions will become suggestions, and the client will have little faith in the project outcome.
Clients, whether paying or not, need guidance. If they don’t respect you and believe in your guidance, they will start to cast around for other opinions to the detriment of the project outcome and your relationship.
This brings us neatly on to…
Q. What’s the difference between an amateur and a professional? A. Professionals get paid.
You’re not getting paid, so in the client’s eyes, you’re now an amateur. Hey, guess what? Their 12-year-old daughter is an amateur too, and her views are now equally valid.
When you’re working pro bono, you can expect a lot of “help.” You’ll find that someone’s niece is planning to major in graphic design…when she graduates high school…in four years. You’ll find that someone’s partner has a hiking blog, read an SEO article, and is happy to “give it a try.” You may even find that the client themselves fancies a career switch to web design and doesn’t think it looks too hard.
Shut that **** down immediately. Smile, be gracious. Explain that, of course, you’re happy for contributions, and then avoid them like the coronavirus.
You’re donating a professional service that you’ve spent years developing, and you’re donating it to a cause that you value. You’re not there to increase someone’s chance of getting into college or to distract someone from their boring day job. If you do want to mentor people, there are places you can do that.
The nature of pro bono work is that more often than not, the people involved actually are experts. The simple truth is that people who aren’t experts in something tend to be in low-paying employment and are too busy trying not to be in low-paying employment to donate their time.
Like you, the people volunteering their time are doing so because they can afford to. For example, you may find that the organization’s head of accounts spends Monday–Friday as a tax advisor; the head of outreach is a project manager at a construction firm; the head of safeguarding is a school teacher.
People bring transferable skills to pro bono roles. Be sensitive to the fact that just as you are an expert in your professional context, so may they be. Simply not being an expert in design does not make them an idiot.
It’s tempting to simply donate everything to do with the project: the domain name’s going to cost $10? Well, it’s only $10; hosting’s $5/month? Well, it’s not too arduous to set up a small space on your own server.
imparting your experience sets the organization up for future success
However, when you give everything away, the client doesn’t understand the cost or value they’re receiving. As a professional, it’s part of your job to educate the client on the costs of a project like this; imparting your experience sets the organization up for future success.
Be clear at the start of the project that the client will be responsible for all expenses.
If you wish to — and you should not feel obliged — you are always free to make a financial donation equivalent to the expenses.
When you agree to do pro bono design work, the chances are that you know the person or organization you’re doing the work for. There’s almost always a personal connection of some kind, which means that the person or organization doesn’t see you in the professional context that normal clients see.
All good clients will respect the fact that you don’t answer emails on a Sunday morning. Not so the charity client. Not only will the charity client assume that you’re available outside of office hours, they may even think they are doing you a favor by not disturbing you during your regular office hours.
It’s important that you find some downtime outside of work to live your life. If you don’t want your evening out with friends to descend into an impromptu planning meeting (you don’t), set clear boundaries about when and how you’re prepared to work on the project.
Unless you’re self-employed, you can’t donate time when you should be working; what you can do is append pro bono work to your paid employment — do an hour after work, on weekday evenings, for example.
If you are literally doing this in your spare time, then allocate a specific time slot, such as a Saturday afternoon, and stick to it.
It is a universal truth that projects run better when there’s a structured approach. It doesn’t matter if it’s lean, agile, waterfall, or whatever you want to dub it. What matters is that you have a plan that works for you and is suitable for the project goals.
A structured approach, especially one that includes a timeline, will combat most disruptions. On the project I was working on recently, I was preparing for final sign-off when one volunteer announced it was time to “start thinking about what pages we need on the site.” 
Discipline is crucial in pro bono work because different stakeholders will have different levels of commitment; some people will be full-time volunteers, others will be donating an hour per week. What matters is that the project that you are responsible for runs on your schedule.
Non-profits tend to talk to one another. When your friends and family see what you’ve done for Joe’s startup, they will start having ideas of their own. The client you’re completed the project for will have other projects lined up. When you aren’t charging, there’s no shortage of clients.
be prepared to say, “no,” at some point
Before you agree to do any pro bono work at all, be prepared to say “no,” at some point.
The simplest way out is to say you have zero availability: you’re already booked up with paying work, or your boss has let you know she needs you for overtime next month.
Don’t feel bad about it. It’s probably true. There are only so many hours in the day, and even if you do have some time to spare, doesn’t your partner, dog, or social life deserve some attention?
Working for free is not transactional. It probably won’t benefit your portfolio. It definitely won’t lead to paying work. Any skills or experience you acquire probably won’t be transferable. (It might give you the topic for a blog post.)
If the work were meant to benefit you, it would be called personalis bono.
Nevertheless, many of us will find ourselves agreeing to do pro bono work, either out of obligation or idealism. It’s not something to shy away from; changing the world — whether for a group or an individual — is a noble pursuit.
The key is that while you will not profit, neither should you suffer a loss. Volunteering your time, skills, and experience should be a sustainable process. One that you will not come to regret.
Featured image via Unsplash.
The post How to Work for Free Without Wrecking Your Career first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.
PostgreSQL is an open-source, versatile, and most popular database system around the world. However, it does not have any features for high availability.
Enter Patroni. Patroni is a cluster manager tool used for customizing and automating deployment and maintenance of high availability PostgreSQL clusters. It is written in Python and uses etcd, Consul, and ZooKeeper as a distributed configuration store for maximum accessibility. In addition, Patroni is capable of handling database replication, backup, and restoration configurations.
