Memphis MPO on the Move with New Logo and Website

Hornsby Brand Design is proud to announce the launch of their latest logo and web design and development project for the Memphis Urban Area MPO (memphismpo.org) on June 3, 2013.

The Memphis MPO is a doorway to this region’s growth and future. So, the logo was designed by taking the “M” in Memphis and creating a doorway with an infinite path to the future. Additionally, it also does a triple play by being a building block as well as a gauge for community growth.

The website takes these same ideas and conveys them throughout through the look and feel, and the functionality of the site. Developed within the Drupal content management system, in a responsive design framework, the Memphis MPO was looking for a complete website solution (design, development, training, support, maintenance, and hosting) along with a new logo, and rebranding.





Overall, the finished product needed to be educational and informative regarding transportation issues facing the Memphis MPO, user-friendly, and attractive. The website incorporates a calendar of activities, interactive indexing of transportation projects, a photo gallery, language translation, and surveying capabilities. It also implements SEO-optimization to maximize its reach and is, of course, mobile phone and tablet friendly.

Key Features 

• Responsive design 
• An extensive menu with multiple connection points
• Beautiful brand photography throughout
• Slide shows 
• Engaging, intuitive design and navigation
• Polling capabilities 
• Search features
• Client portals 
• Contact forms 
• A media center 
• Live social media streaming and integration 
• Calculable Performance “Gauges”
• V-cards 
• A localized environmental widget
• Calendar with Google Calendar and iCal integration

In addition to a cutting-edge responsive website the Memphis-MPO also wanted a very easy-to-use administrator CMS system where updating is made easy.

CMS Features 

• A password-protected CMS area dedicated to the administrator with easy-to-use navigation. 
• The ability to register new users, control access, and create updates with ease. 
• A complete set of comprehensive tools for in-depth editing, adding, and deleting of videos, photos, additional pages, navigational control, tracking, and more. 
• A help section (users manual) design to answer any question 24/7.
• Easy form creation with CAPTCHA integration.

Mobile on the Move: Is Desktop Running Out of Steam?

An increasing part of our business is developing mobile sites and mobile apps, reflective of the societal shift in media usage, of course. In fact, mobile is growing so rapidly and so fiercely that some techs-perts have predicted that desktop computers will go the way of steam engines and the pony express. It's almost become a cliché: “Desktop is dead.”

But is this true? Will mobile devices ultimately replace desktops for good? Will desktops only be found in museums in the next ten to twenty years?

You know, “they” said the same about theaters in the eighties and nineties. With the advent of VCRs and DVDs, pundits asked what reason would people have in forsaking the comfort of their own home and wallets only to deal with the hassle of time schedules, parking, and expense of going to the movie theater? Surely, VCRs and DVDs would replace the movie theater.

Let us answer that in one word: “Bigness,” and as they say in Texas, “big is always better.” One theater chain even uses “Go big or go home.” in one of their campaigns. While there was a decline of theater sales from the mid-eighties through the early nineties, attributed to home video, the theater business has seen a 30% increase in the number of tickets sold since 1995, while DVD sales and rentals are now in a decline. (Just ask bankrupt Blockbusters.) Of course, theaters had to change a few things to survive. We now have cineplexes showing 20 movies at one time, stadium seating, surround sound, larger screens, IMax, and a resurgence of 3D. All good stuff that makes a fun event for the movie-goer. I believe scientists would call this adaptation.

This same philosophy (and then some) applies to the desktop. While mobile devices typically cater to the consumer, desktops typically cater to the producer, i.e. business, and ultimately, that's what makes the world go around. Here are our top five reasons desktops will remain alive and well in 2013 and beyond:

1. Screen size: Desktop monitors typically run from 21 inches to limitless for external displays while laptops reach a mere 17”. Tablets are around 9.5”, and smart phones...well, you get the picture. Phones definitely have their place in this world, but so does the big screen. In fact, because the smaller screens are space-restricted, special websites and apps have to be created to accommodate them as well as the user's finger, meaning you may not have full access to a website and all the wondrous information and integration that a desktop computer has. As the canvas goes, so goes the painting.
2. 9-to-5 Ergonomics: Smart phones and tablets are great for couch-potatoing in your recliner as you tweet about the TV show you're watching, but put them on a desk to crunch some numbers and their limitations are quickly evident. Bending over a flat screen on a flat surface for eight hours a day will only increase backaches and neck strains, not your paycheck. The large vertical screen and detached keyboard of a desktop lends itself for better posture during extended computer use. Not even using a tablet stand with a blue-tooth keyboard suffices during an eight-hour shift.
          And speaking about keyboards, information workers want a detached extended keyboard that's not virtual because when you push an “e”, you know it's there by the feel of the key. On a virtual you have to do a double-take to ensure your entry is correct and that your big fingers didn't accidentally hit the “w” instead. Not very efficient for the one who translates a lot of information digitally.
3. Storage: Ten years ago 64GB of storage was unheard of on a desktop. Now, it's commonplace on tablets and even available on some smart phones. But guess what? That doesn't compare to the TBs that you can get on the cheap for a desktop computer. Consider this: An average family of four stores between 20 to 60 GB of photos and home videos, and that's before iTunes music and app downloads. There are Internet storage options, but they usually require subscriptions and you have to be connected to the Internet to use them, which can also slow down both the upload and download of those files.
4. Computations. As we've stated, mobile devices currently cater more to consumers than to producers. There are exceptions such as Square credit card reader, where producers use their mobile phones to process credit cards, but ultimately somewhere, somehow, sometime, that transaction needs to be recorded in a bookkeeping database or spreadsheet application, which is usually found on a desktop. Even in an cloud situation, the multi-core processor and rich system memory that a desktop offers parses and delivers that information much, much, more quickly than a mobile device could, if it can at all. Additionally, designers, architects, videographers, and other creatives inherently process large files by virtue of their trade and need big processors to accomplish the task. Desktop to the rescue.
5. Less abuse. Longer lifespan. Let's face it. Because it's mobile, it will be dropped, lost, left in the cold, left in the heat, just left, or dented, scratched and cracked. It's the nature of things. A desktop, however, is much less likely to receive such abuse and, by extension, will last longer.

What will likely happen in the future is that the desktop, like the theaters, will evolve and change. Who knows what desktops will look like in the future...Ironman holograms? MI6 touch boards with voice activation instead of keyboards? What the past tells us is that the sky is the limit. What the present tells us is that theaters have outlasted VCRs, businesses will still need to do business, and mobile devices and desktops are not mutually exclusive.

Sources:

“Yearly Box Office.” Box Office Mojo. http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/

“Movie Ticket Sale Surpass DVD Revenue.” D. McIntyre. Jan. 4, 2010. Daily Finance. http://www.dailyfinance.com/2010/01/04/movie-ticket-sales-surpass-dvd-revenue/

“Talking Points: Ticket Prices.” The National Association of Theatre Owners.

http://www.natoonline.org/pdfs/Talking%20Points/TP-Ticket%20Prices%20.pdf

The Mobile Solution...What's Right for Your Business?

Mobile is exploding in all directions--tablets, mini-tablets, smart phones, iPods, laptops, and more. Unlike a website built for large viewing on a desktop (a bigger canvas, so to speak), the mobile site is designed to appear on a much smaller handheld display, so it naturally requires a different solution than your desktop version. Some things to consider in mobile web development include the following:

• Smaller canvas – Smaller screens mean the text needs to be larger and graphic elements need to be more limited. 
• Window monogamy – On a mobile device only one window at a time can be viewed while on a desktop computer multi-open-windows allow for multi-tasking. 
• Fat fingers – Because mobile devices are touch screens, navigation loses some flexibility by generally being limited to scrolling and swiping, instead of implementing the finesse of pointing and clicking with a mouse. 
• Drive-thru pages only, no cafeterias – Mobile devices are much more limited in the type of online page options they can process. For instance, secured connections, Flash sites or other similar software, video sites, PDFs, etc. can't be accessed by many mobile devices. However, things are improving rapidly in this area. 
• A snail's pace – On most mobile devices, the speed of service can be slow, sometimes slower than dial-up Internet access due to broadband and processor limitations. 

So, as a business, how do you accommodate all these devices and limitations and still reach your customers? There are several right answers within the world of mobile, but first you have to know what those options are and which one is right for you. The mobile highway contains four lanes to your destination: Responsive mobile website, mobile-specific website, a mobile web app, and a native web app.

Responsive Mobile Websites—Resized or Reformatted?

A responsive mobile website responds to changes in the size of a browser window by adjusting the width and its content to fit the space available. It is easy to update, cross-platformed, and optimized for search. There are two approaches in building a responsive mobile website: resized or reformatted. A resized responsive mobile website is scalable, meaning it is the same as the desktop website, but it can be pinched down, up, to the side, or zoomed in. The benefits of this option are that it is the most cost-effective and contains the identical information that is on the desktop website. The reformatted responsive mobile website is a limited version of the desktop website reorganized, meaning it can have elements removed from the original desktop website (such as images, blog entries, and other components), so that what remains are the bare necessities, a simplified mobile version of the desktop. The benefits of this option are that it is cost-effective, eliminates the need for pinching and expanding for readability, and reduces load time by removing any element that can tax the mobile processor.

The Resized Responsive Mobile Website in this example above presents a miniature, scalable version of the desktop website. All elements are present and can be pinched larger for readability. This is the most cost-effective mobile solution, but depends on the methodology of the desktop development to be a viable option.

The Reformatted Responsive Mobile Website in this example above captures the essence of the main website with elements (such as videos, images, special integration, etc.) that require extra processing removed for mobile compatibility. All content information is pulled from the same database the desktop draws its content from.

Mobile-Specific Website

A mobile-specific site is one that is designed completely separate from the desktop. Its design and content keep the integrity of the brand, but the mobile-specific site is experientually and exclusively designed with the mobile user in mind (i.e., large buttons instead of links, menus that fill the screen, swipe capability to accommodate touch screens, and limited and optimized use of photography and video to cater to the smaller processing capabilities). The hierarchy of information is pared down from the desktop, directing mobile users to their likely purpose more quickly. A mobile-specific site is either automatically redirected from the desktop URL according to the the device's screen size or it has its own URL altogether. The benefits of this option are that it is a cost-effective solution (albeit typically more than responsive options) and is designed specifically with touch screen nuances and mobile-user engagement in mind.

Mobile Specific Websites have their own design and URL or redirect to cater specifically to the mobile user and the touch screen environment. It's the best option if you have a highly interactive desktop site built in Flash, a highly engaging site, or want to cater and market to the mobile-user. They typically cost more to develop than responsive solutions, but are less costly than app development.

Native Mobile App

Native apps are downloaded applications–from, for example, Apple's App Store, Google Play, or from other online application-related resources—and then installed on a mobile device, eliminating the need for a browser. The name is derived from the fact that these apps are written in the same language as the operating system of the device they are installed on. The native app can interface with the device's native features, information, and hardware (camera, GPS-location, etc.), and usually perform faster than mobile web apps. However, this product can cost more because it takes a good deal of time to develop. A separate app must be developed for each operating system to work on every device: Java (Android), Objective-C (iOS), and Visual C++ (Windows and Mobile).

The benefits of choosing this mobile option solution include a superior, feature-rich mobile-user experience; mobile-optimized performance; a polished look and smooth navigation; and the capacity to maximize the software and hardware capabilities of smartphones, such as GPS, the camera, push notifications, and the accelerometer. Additionally, users can access and use native apps when they're offline, which you can't do with mobile websites or mobile web apps. Note: Some native apps also require Internet connection for updates and data integration even though they are actually installed on the device.

Mobile Web App

While mobile web apps appear similar to the native app (most mobile users can't tell the difference), they differ in the manner in which they are built and rendered. Unlike native apps, a mobile app requires an Internet connection and a browser (at least initially) as it is not actually installed on the user's device but rather implemented from a web server.

A mobile web app is a hybrid of a mobile-specific website and a native app. The biggest advantage to a web app, besides the look and feel, is the enormous cost savings as well as the reduced development time. Because most Android-based products and iOS (iPhone, iPod, and iPad) leverage sophisticated mobile browsers (i.e. Mobile Chrome and Mobile Safari), mobile web apps are an excellent alternative to the more expensive native app. They are easy to update, cross-platform-developed, optimized for search and analytics, and can work double-duty as a mobile website and a native app. A web app can even be made available for "download" from your homepage or from an app store.

Another advantage a web app has over a native app is that the mobile user never has to "update," because the "updates" are controlled by the company, meaning the company ensures that the mobile user has the latest version of its app. Some Goliath examples of web-based apps are Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, eBay, and many more. Benefits to mobile web apps are that it can deliver broad, constantly changing content like a news readers or sports score site; is more cost-effective than a native app to develop; is much easier to include advertising as a source of revenue than a native app; and is not subject to the approval process and revenue sharing agreements that the App Store, Google Play and the like require.


Now that you know what mobile solution options are out there, which one will help you reach your destination? First of all, it's important to always keep your mobile users and their needs in mind by asking yourself a few questions...

• What is your budget? 

• What is the purpose of the mobile site? Information only? E-commerce? Entertainment? Personal account access? 

• What kind of interactivity or features do you require? (And what kind would you like?) 

• Do you need to access mobile devices' capabilities? If so, which ones? 

• How is your desktop site built? 

• What kind of data mining do you need to retrieve? 

Answers to these questions, and more, will help determine the best route for your company. Navigating the mobile information highway can lead you through some rough terrain, but with a good mobile strategy, you'll find yourself cruising the highway with the sun at your back.

Letter from the Editor: Let Your Voice Be Heard

Dear Friend,

These are exciting times we live in. Digital marketing is moving at lightning speed. Social media is growing daily with Google+ and Pinterest snapping at the heels of Facebook and Twitter. (See “Pinterest Q&A” this month.) Increased Smart Phone usage is displacing desktop and laptop usage for online information. (See “Are you mobilized?” this month.) And Search Engine Optimization and Search Engine Marketing will have to reinvent themselves now that Siri has arrived.

Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) on iPhone 4S lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls, and more. Ask Siri to do things just by talking the way you talk. Siri understands what you say, knows what you mean, and even talks back. What a fantastic invention and the epitome of technological advancement. And as this technology gains momentum, you’ll begin to see “Intelligent Automated Assistants” on all platforms that respond to the user’s voice, allowing them to not only find locations, add to their calendar, find trivia answers, download coupons and specials, but also to purchase items online...all with YOUR voice and without a keyboard.

It’s still in its infancy; Siri’s features are limited to the iPhone 4S and its default applications, as well as some applications that seem to have preferred status (e.g., Google Maps, Yelp, Wikipedia, and Wolfram Alpha—Best Buy’s shopping app). So, for small businesses, it’s important to be where she is pulling information from -- and that is Google Maps and Yelp.

The appearance and evolution of Siri gives good reason to pause, contemplate, and reevaluate your digital marketing strategy. Certainly something to think about. Let us know if we can help.

Best,

Chris