In today’s world, website is considered as one of the most important tools of a business. It represents your brand online and makes your business stand out in the crowd. To add a different touch to your website in this New Year, make the most of animation. Besides making your website more attractive, animation also makes it web app friendly. But, before using animation for your website, you must know about the technologies used by developers to animate web elements. Hiring a recognized custom web development company in UK can help you to get an animated website according to your preferences.
Here are some of the most popular technologies that developers use to build animated websites:
#CSS Animations: Set CSS properties on the web page elements in the Document Object Model (DOM) to animate them. You can also use JavaScript to move DOM elements on the website as per the patterns laid by a function or an equation. There is no requirement of external libraries with CSS animations for an excellent performance of a website. The best thing about CSS animations is that you can use them easily to customise animations with media queries. You can only pass their values straightaway rather than creating key frame objects and timing properties. The drawback of CSS animations is that you cannot make complicated physic effects and replicate realistic motion. If you require more than three consecutive animations, CSS may not be a great choice. In that case, writing sequential and complex JavaScript animations can be a better decision.
#JavaScript animations: With JavaScript animations, you get several options and command over website animations. JavaScript comes with its own animation functionality, where most of the animations are executed via extra libraries. The efficiency of JavaScript is dependent on the selected library. The complex JavaScript animations increase the download time of a web page. JavaScript animations are more flexible than CSS transitions or animations. They are appropriate to be used for exceptional animations like stopping, slowing down, pausing and bouncing. The professionals of a leading mobile application development company in UK can make the best use of JavaScript animations to modify your website.
#Canvas animations: Canvas animations let you animate a good deal of visual objects. You can create high-quality and complex animations on a visual space offered by a canvas. Canvas animations are mainly about playing with pixels and are an ideal way of making advanced animations. You can actually create complicated things without compromising the performance of your website. Thus, canvas animations are any day suitable for complex design and interplay.
#SVG animations: SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is a vector graphics format that can be applied on the website. As the vectors have no pixel constraints, SVG animations appear to be very pointed. They keep on looking similar and never lose their quality like raster images when you resize them. You can animate the SVG elements easily with CSS. SVG is available with its own syntax for animation, known as SMIL, which is more effective than CSS. By using CSS, you cannot animate certain SVG properties like a path shape.
#WebGL: WebGL(Web Graphics Library) is used most of the times for creating complex effects and 3D. You can also implement Web GL to make animations for virtual reality (VR). It lets you to produce graphics at 60 frames in a second. Use canvas for WebGL animations, but it can be quite difficult. Web GL are applied by many website developers these days to build innovative and catchy visual effects.
So what are you waiting for? Revamp your website in an exquisite way by utilising the above-mentioned technologies for animation. A preeminent custom web development company in UK can implement the forefront technologies perfectly to animate your website. A beautifully animated website can work as a wonder to leave a good impression on a maximum number of target customers. In this New Year, go for an animated website and enjoy stupendous growth in your business.
Tags: Animation Video, branding, Canvas animations, digital marketing, JavaScript animations
With every passing day, the number of Smartphone users is growing at a rapid pace across the world. We all have become habituated to using mobile apps due to which business owners are investing huge amounts to develop them and stay ahead of their competitors. It is expected that 2019 is going to bring a brilliant future for mobile app development. Do you want to do mobile app development in the best possible way to take you business a notch higher in the next year?
Here are the reigning mobile app development trends worth considering for 2019:
1.Machine learning and artificial intelligence: Machine learning and artificial intelligence have grown to be extremely popular in the mobile app development world. Artificial intelligence has made its presence felt in the form of chat-bots. Siri is one of the main evidences of why artificial intelligence and machine learning are still a significant part of mobile apps and cannot be set apart yet. The growing demand for machine learning and artificial learning in chat-bots and virtual assistants forms are something to watch out for in 2019.
2.Accelerated Mobile Pages via AMP and EMM: In 2016, AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) listings were included into Google search. After that mobile app developers have never delivered below at par performances. They started using the app framework with the simplified version of HTML to offer better user experience and customer retention. One of the biggest achievements of the development is Facebook Instant Articles. Such metrics and monitoring help in removing the obstacles and improve the entire performance of an app.
3.Chat-bots: Chat-bots have acquired prominence in the digital marketing world. They are already acting and will act as virtual assistants within mobile applications. The app developers are grateful to the commendable advancement in artificial intelligence as it has become easy for them to include chat-bots in apps without complex coding. As per the reports, approximately 50% of purchasers favor self-service CRM. Effective implementation of chat-bots is an innovative way to enhance that type of customer relationship management.
4.IOT and Wearable Devices: Mobile app developers will always be developing apps for wearable devices, mainly smart watches. Presently, the fitness industry and horology are investing on smart watches. Popular brands like Uber and Zomato have opted for wearable app development and experienced growth in business. In the upcoming year, movement trackers, fitness bands, watches and other wearable devices are likely to be in the foreground.
5.Augmented reality and virtual reality: Mobile app developers are hoping for a long time stay of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in market. It is predicted by experts that they gain massive revenues by the year 2020. The app developers are expected to build thrilling mobile app user experiences with adaptable hardware emerging in the market in the next year.
6.Cloud integration: The mobile app development world is embracing the facilities offered by cloud computing and integration. Some of the main benefits of building mobile apps across the cloud are capacity loading, better user retention, increased storage, streamlining operations and decreased costs in hosting. In future, developers are likely to make the most of cloud integration to develop mobile apps excellently.
7.Payment gateways and mobile wallets: In today’s world, customers always expect for hassle-free payment methods while using any app. Due to the growing advancement of mobile apps, there has been a symbolic change in the ways customers like to shop. The shopping mechanism has gradually modified from cash payments to debit, credit, digital currencies and mobile wallets. Shopping enthusiasts adore mobile commerce to buy the products of their choices. Businesses must focus on offering an excellent app experience to users by working on mobile wallets and integrating payment gateways. People can really hope for fully secured payment gateways in the coming year.
8.Mobile App Security: It is expected that mobile app developers will focus more on cyber security and link it directly to users’ data privacy and protection laws. Thus, users will be able to access the apps in a secured way in 2019.
9.Instant Apps: Instant apps came into scene in the year 2016. They are native mobile applications which are smaller in size as compared to general apps. As the instant apps are not required to be downloaded, they are highly user-friendly and convenient. One can use the apps right away without downloading. Due to the increasing demand of users for better experience and decreasing download durations, instant apps are ought to be one of the most prominent things in 2019. They will also reduce the waiting time needed time for installation.
10.On-demand apps: On-demand apps are expected to rule in the mobile app development sphere in 2019. An increasing number of industries are investing on such models to make the most of predictive analytics, mCommerce benefits, business bots and UI/UX improvements. Apps with booking features are likely to be better in functioning in the upcoming year.
11.Predictive analytics: Mobile apps will no longer be considered as only utilities in 2019. They are going to be an essential part of a workflow. Facebook, Google and Apple have already implemented AI for using predictive analytics. It boosted the customer journey throughout the UI/UX of the apps. In 2019, one can hope for seeing a lot of advancement in the mobile app development world.
12.Beacons Technology: Over the recent years, beacons technology has garnered quite acceptance among the mobile app developers. It is predicted by experts that the technology will retain its popularity in upcoming year. Mobile payments beacons, beacon-activated airports and automated personal beacons are likely to gain prominence in future. The developers are expected to build more accessible apps based on beacons technology, create virtual guides and make sharing of personalized information easy.
If you are planning to build exceptional mobile apps, keep the above-mentioned trends in mind. Put into consideration your business type and your target customers prior to choosing the app development styles. You can also consider hiring a leading mobile app development company in London to get performance-driven apps for flourishing your business.
Tags: branding, jobs, web development
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has got a significant impact in the marketplace. It saves time and manpower that leads to comprehensive cost reduction. It is considered to be a great thing to bring in an improvement in business from every aspect. If you want to make a difference to your business at all levels, you need to embrace AI. To stay ahead of your competitors in business, you need to be aware of AI future trends.
Here are the leading AI Trends to Consider for Your Business in 2019:
Internet of Things (IOT):
The Internet of Things (IOT) is a system of home appliances, vehicles, physical devices and other items installed with software, electronics, sensors, connectivity and actuators that enable these components to connect gather and exchange data. Thus, it can be said that IOT is mainly about machine-to-machine connection and results in smartness of ‘smart homes’ via home automation. The excellent combination of AI and IOT can build a centralized ecosystem where diversified systems and devices can function together like the way you prefer.
Chat-bots and conversational commerce:
Do you know what chat-bots are? They are like people who active on a website or app throughout a day to offer constant assistance multiple brand users. Chat-bots are basically AI-based programs that ‘speak’ with users while providing them guidance or assistance. The chat-bots utilize machine learning to enhance their communication. The conversational commerce via chat-bots is expected to make shopping extremely easy and enjoyable for the customer
Personal technology:
AI is based on various latest technologies and will keep on making our lives exciting in future. Smart devices have made its presence felt everywhere from your room, kitchen to swimming pool. The cutting-edge AI elements let smart devices to communicate with each other.
Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that has made a huge development in the digital world. It has paved ways for the development of an increasing number of websites and apps.
Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous cars combine AI with different sensors that let the drivers see what is around them. The self-driving cars allow the plotting of city streets and highways with no requirement for direct control. They can actually car driving quite for people in upcoming year.
Capsule networks:
The new capsule networks overshadowed the convolution neural networks (CNN) on various fronts. CNNs had some limitations that resulted in poor performance and gaps in security. The capsule networks permit AIs to discover usual patterns with less data. The network is expected to occupy relevant positions and transformation of an object into consideration with no requirement of getting trained vigorously on variations.
Decentralization and democratization:
Gone are the days when artificial intelligence was only restricted to dynamic supercomputers and large devices. Nowadays, it has become an intrinsic part of Smartphone, wearable devices and equipment. By using it, you can train your personal AI assistants regionally on your device so that they can easily understand your unique accent and recognize your face.
Voice assistants:
Voice-enabled computing was quite evident in 2018. Most of the biggest brands are adopting this technology to make a strong connection with the target customers. In 2017, LG made all of its appliances WiFi enabled. Samsung is focusing on the development of its own voice assistant, Bixby. They have a plan to make all its products to be connected with each other and acquire intelligence from Bixby within 2020.
Implementation of AI will always prove to be beneficial for your business. So, you should go for it with no second thoughts. Keep the above-mentioned latest AI trends in mind and apply it in the best possible way to boost your business.
Tags: branding, digital marketing, iot devices, web development
Instagram has turned out to be one of the most popular social networking medium. Millions of people from various parts of the world are using the medium not only to connect with their followers, but also to promote their business. Instagram Stories can really help you to make a strong connection with the target audience and transform them into customers. If you wish to build a network with a maximum number of potential customers, make the most of Instagram. But, before moving ahead you need to know what Instagram Stories actually is and how it can work as an excellent marketing strategy for your business. Let’s get started…
Things you need to Know about Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories are a special feature that allows users to post photos or videos which disappears after 24 hours. It means that any content shared via Instagram Stories will neither be visible on feeds or on profile grids. The feature has made it easy as well as interesting for people to share photos and video clips about their daily schedule. People got the scope of expressing themselves in an innovative way.
How to Find Instagram Stories?
If you want to have a look at someone’s Instagram Stories, you need to tap on their profiles. Their Stories will get displayed in a chronological order. You will get to see whatever they have posted in the last 24 hours. On your feed, you will notice a list of Instagram accounts you are following on the top. When you see a colored ring surrounding it, you will have to understand that there is something new to watch out for.
Ways of Creating an Outstanding Instagram Story
To strike a chord with the genuine customers, you need to build an exceptional social media marketing strategy for Instagram Stories. This makes it necessary for you to be aware of fundamentals of creating a story.
You can tap on the icon at the top left corner of your mobile screen or swipe right on your screen to reach the Story camera. You can click a photo or record a video using the camera, exactly like a general Instagram post. Add filters and modify with drawings and text to your main content to make it catchy. Tap ‘Your Story’ on the bottom left of your screen after you complete the editing. If you want, you can select a picture from your Smartphone’s photo gallery by swiping anywhere on the screen.
Innovative Ideas for Instagram Stories
To grasp the eyes of maximum Instagram users, your Stories demand to be uniquely creative. You get a wide range of options to customize your Instagram posts. By using Instagram Stories stickers, you can add a different touch to your posts. Add location to your posts as it draws people’s attention towards your local business. Using hash tags on Instagram Stories is a trend as that makes the posts easily viewable when people search for the specific hash tags. Tap on the hash tag sticker to include the most relevant hash tags to your posts. You can also add suitable location stickers to your posts for making them easily discoverable.
To interact with your target audience in a better way, use poll stickers on your posts. They will let you ask a question to the potential customers directly and get replies from your followers. It will help you to understand if your newly launched products or services have been able to impress the customers or what kind of improvements they are expecting.
Marketing Objectives for Instagram Stories
Instagram Stories have made it quite convenient for the marketers to communicate with their target audience. You can promote your brand extensively via Stories and form a long-lasting relationship with potential customers. You can arouse interest among them about the products and services offered by your brand that results in growth of your business. As it is not a typical form of marketing and the customers actually get to see what takes place behind the closed doors, they feel like you care for their choices.
Presenting a story in a slideshow format can work as a wonder on Instagram. It boosts audience engagement till the end of presentation. You can also go live to give an edge to your Instagram Stories and engage more target customers.
What Makes Instagram Live a Great Choice for Social Media Marketing?
People of today’s generation believe on living in the moment. Curated videos have always been able the target customers. But, Instagram Live has got its own charm as it shows the audience what is happening at that very moment. If you want your video to remain forever on instagram, going live may not be a good option. Though, the other Instagram Stories for all time, live Stories vanish when you are done with broadcast.
Share a replay of it with your Instagram Stories so that target audience who missed the live video can watch it later. Do you know about influence marketing? It can work excellently when you mix it with a live video. As per the reports, more than 90% of brand and retail experts believe that live streaming events create a genuine interaction with the target audience. The youth prefer to go for live videos and presentation by influencers to boost audience engagement.
Engaging Q&A sessions can always benefit the brands and their users. As a brand owner, you get the wonderful scope of knowing your customers’ demands. You can ask each other question to build a firm relationship. One of the best things about Instagram Live is that users can ask you questions in the ‘comment’ section and you can give replies to them instantly.
Product launching and demonstrations via Instagram Live can fetch a myriad of reliable customers. By going live on Instagram, you can highlight the positive features of your newly launched products or services. Live stream gives the impression that you are not exaggerating the characteristics of your offerings as the customers get to see what is happening at the moment without any edit.
Take Your Brand Ahead Using Instagram Stories
Many brands have really made it big in the competitive market by making the best use of Instagram Stories. So you need to implement your innovative ideas perfectly to post high-quality Instagram Stories.
Well-crafted Instagram Stories communicate directly to the target audience. Being a business owner, you can inform the potential customers about your brand and its offerings in engaging way. Once you succeed in enticing them, it leads to enhanced brand recognition and increased sales.
Tags: branding, web development
The holiday season is coming soon. People love to shop during the season due to which the brands earn abounding profits by selling their products. The presence of innumerable brands makes it crucial for you to adopt the most effective marketing strategies to grab maximum eyeballs to boost your holiday sales in 2018.
Here are the most effective marketing techniques to increase your holiday sales:
1.Video marketing: Intriguing videos can always attract attention of a maximum number of potential customers. Video marketing gives you the scope to promote your brand and not only your offerings. Customers always love to know more about their preferred brands. You can spread persuasive message to your target customers via an engaging video. It does not matter what kind of business you are involved in, you can always record an excellent holiday video to share your message with your customers.
2.Discounts: Offering great discounts to customers on purchase of products can always work in favour of your business. On holiday seasons, customers always look for which brand is providing what percentage of discounts on their products. It is up to you to implement the right marketing strategies to strike a chord with an uncountable number of customers and grow your sales. Offer single or attractive discounts to pull in plenty of customers. You can also arrange a series of short-term promotional strategies changing on a weekly basis by giving buyers an incentive to return.
3.Customer loyalty: While drawing attention of new customers, do not ignore your genuine shoppers. Customers who come back to you all the time contribute immensely to your growth in sales. So, it is essential for you to be in touch with them forever. Offer an exclusive gift to your most loyal customers like an attractive discount. Send beautiful cards to your ardent customers via email or in a traditional way. By doing so, you can grasp attention of numerous customers and make them believe that you are concerned for them.
4.Social media channels: You must be active on social media marketing via popular networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay connected with your target customers. But, social media channels like Pinterest, Reddit and Quora let you reach innumerable target customers in a different manner. They may not be famous like the networking sites, but they have got millions of genuine customers who wait for your content to get posted. Go for the social media channel that is perfect for your product and lets you build a strong connection with many customers.
5.Free shipping: Do you sell online your products? Offer free shipping as it can help you retain your loyal customers throughout the year. Give the special offer to customers during holiday season to increase your sales. It is important for you to make your customers aware of free delivery of your products. Try to make it as visible as possible on your online store or display about it in your marketing emails.
6.Mobile marketing: Over the recent years, mobile marketing has garnered quite acceptance among the business owners. They have experienced a massive growth in sales in 2017 holiday season as compared to in 2016. It is predicted that mobile sales will beat desktop sales for the first time in 2018. So, make sure your mobile marketing strategies are mobile friendly and your ecommerce website is mobile optimized.
7.Thanksgiving: Besides the traditional Christmas and Hanukkah card giving season, send thank-you cards to your reliable customers at Thanksgiving to set you apart from your competitors. It will leave a good impression of your brand on the customers and they will always prefer you over your rivals while shopping on holiday season.
If you want your sales to grow exceptionally in 2018, follow the above-mentioned tips. It is not imperative for you to implement all the discussed marketing strategies. Implement those that are suited for your business and can boost your sales to a high level.
Tags: branding, web development
There are many operational, financial, and logistical benefits of outsourcing. Still, a lot of companies consider outsourcing to be a risk. There are risks in these types of ventures, no doubt. But you have to understand that digitalisation has made the world a much smaller place. Despite the lack of accountability and the risk in the business model, there are enough efficient and responsible companies, who are getting the work done. Efficient companies introduce various processes and infrastructure into their systems to keep the work running smoothly. The clients are kept in the loop about the project updates over emails and phone.
There is always some risk in any business venture. You cannot overlook issues like lack of communication, accountability, and security. There are certain things though that you can do to avoid or minimise these risks. This is why investing time in finding the right development partner is crucial. Here are certain factors you need to calculate if you are planning to outsource for your company.
- The Efficiency of the Company
The most important factor is the efficiency of the company. When you are outsourcing from a UK based Branding Agency, you need to know if your development agency will be able to complete the project. Otherwise, you will just end up wasting valuable time and money. If your project requires a significant amount of time and money, then you need to be sure that your agency has all the resources for it. Of course, an agency with more resources will charge more than the ones that have limited resources. You have to realise, that these projects will have a long-term effect and investing in a good project will benefit you for years to come. So, keeping these factors in mind, it may not be in the best interest of your company to go for the “budget” option.
Consider a few of these factors before choosing your branding agency, to avoid confusion later.
1) You need to find out about the company’s crisis management efficiency. Factors, like being able to work through a power or internet outage is something you need to consider. You need to find out how strong their security is to avoid security breaching.
2) Find out if their website has enough proof of their previous work, such as portfolios or case studies.
3) Learn more about how they handle situations like employee turnover and how efficient their project management is.
When you are outsourcing, maintaining the control on the development is a two-part process. You have to see that this balanced remains uninterrupted. There are many Web design and Development agencies in London who will gladly do the work for you. The problem arises when either party aims for higher expectations. Appreciate your branding agency if they are doing a good job, but do not expect that your high expectations will always be fulfilled. On the one hand, agencies will often agree to give you unrealistic deadlines, milestones, and budget plans. On the other hand, trying to control every aspect of the project will just lead to more procrastination. You have to understand, that a lot of developers work best when they are not constantly scrutinised. Also, learn to expect bad news at times and keep the transparency between you intact.
- Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket is Never a Smart Choice
This theory is especially applicable when it comes to development and design. Depending on a single person or agency to do all the work is a risk. You need to question your outsourcing UK branding agency and confirm with them if they are able enough to handle such projects and have the required resources to get the job done. Find out if the company is able to quickly replace workers if they need to. The development of the project should not have to rely on the shoulder of one single person or a small team.
Nowadays, there are various ways of payment available to us. With options arises confusion. No single payment model is suitable to cater to every situation. Entrepreneurs often tend to rely on a single fixed model, but it is not always a smart way to go. This is good for small projects, but the outsourcing partner will not be able to deliver the same amount of work, within the same budget, when the work pressure increases. To avoid future communication problems; you need to avoid a fix payment model. Usually, companies opt for per-hour payments when they are outsourcing. You get an estimated value, and often the actual cost varies. The mark of a good branding agency is that they will always keep it as much transparent as possible. There is also the “design and build” model in which you pay for the services or products delivered by the agency. You need to understand which type of financial model will suit your needs before starting a project.
Your design and development agency should have legitimate security. Digital crime is a real thing, and your invaluable data needs enough protection. Directly ask your outsourcing UK branding Agency about their security and privacy processes. To avoid any delay in the work, ask these questions beforehand. Avoiding misjudgement can prevent the crisis.
Conclusion:
You need to stay calm and not rush into making a decision. Your excitement for your new project is understandable, but you need to do your research first. Many outsourcing agencies provide a free consultation. You can take advantage of this to find out if your requirements fit together. You can ask all the questions to ensure that the project remains private, secured and under your control at all times. If you start paying attention to the smallest details, then you can avoid making any mistakes regarding outsourcing, and it could prove to be successful.
Tags: branding
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