Hardcore fans of the previous black mnemonic interface will find a new crisp, white background balanced with space on both sides.  Market data streams on the top banner, updating in real-time.  Banner display ads are not overwhelming in the top and right panels.  In the middle, you have a mix of Flash banners leading to feature stories of the moment. Several headlines to relevant sectors fit into two columns, making it simple for readers to quickly scan while scrolling down the page.  It is a smart interface strategy for a brand which hold a deep reservoir of content.

Web analysts will see a rise in time spent on the page, and clicks go to a solitary landing page with the search engine optimized for news, quotes, and opinion pieces.  As you enter your query, a short menu of matching keywords shows below until you hit return. The return button lists your index results according to relevance or date. When searching for stock data, enter the symbol, where you’ll get a short panel of company news along with a large interface of performance data with landing pages of historical quotes and graphs.  A beginner with minimal knowledge is capable of interpreting the data. Be mindful, however, of searching for a stock quote from a news result query.  You will have to go back to the original search engine on the home page.

This is merely a small quibble which could be adjusted after feedback is reviewed. Otherwise, I think Bloomberg has potential in becoming the premiere hub of information. Click on the photo to experience the new site.

How does this theme apply to website design? This structure carries a lot more weight than many consider today. As we know, the world is cluttering the senses.  Minimalist design can pay dividends for the UX (user experience) while growing your brand equity.

First, a digital marketing producer must speak with the website designer about the fundamentals. Creators know these by heart: color, layout, white space, graphics, and typography.

This writer discusses how to apply minimalist aesthetes to your site, leading to improved traffic and ultimately revenue.  I will list a few short examples flowing into the root piece.

Color

Color choice is not only an important strategy for appeal. It also unifies the visual experience. Horner recommends using a minimum palette base of black, white, and grey.  This allows a single accent color to have a greater impact. Contrast is key to generating a more dynamic, sensual expression.

Layout

Cleanliness is godliness when it comes to layout.  It is important to maintain some white space to honor category differentiation. Fonts must be able to display cleanly across platforms, since people view content from multiple sources. Mobile marketers must keep this in mind when constructing their site architecture.

Logo

The logo must be cemented since it is the symbol representing a company. It encompasses the mission, reflects brand strategy, and hints at product development. A minimal logo can speak fluent notes to an observing customer. If you inquire with the United Colors of Benetton, I bet their executives preach that less is more. Click on Benetton to receive more minimalist design tips.

I received the email today about this e-commerce portal from Amazon, and figured that I would give a short review.  The competitors include Gilt Groupe, Ideeli, and other flash sites.  The website design effuses minimalism from many angles.  You see few diversions in font type or color scheme.  Navigability includes drop-down menus to segmented pages of product for men, women, and children. The load time was pretty swift.  Product photographs display excellent lighting to reveal fabric texture.  I do wonder about the lack of social media widgets. You can follow through Facebook and Twitter, but no option for YouTube is available.  The online product mix includes seasonal clothing from nominal designers like Report Collection, Rebecca Minkoff, and Rare Editions.

I think that an introductory video to describe the mission behind MYHABIT would have been a good brand differentiation strategy, much less online video advertising.  I mention this last statement because Gilt Group is still investing in new consumer products, valuing itself at $1 billion this year. The article in the Wall Street Journal mentions that the flash e-commerce industry is getting saturated with copycat websites along with corporate investors reaching for that high-end level. Inventory for luxury goods is coming off of shelves at full price, affecting the online trader’s purchasing flexibility.

Overall, it is doubtful if Amazon will emerge as a serious player in the e-commerce private sales industry.  A lot more vision must take place in terms of the label inventory and market segmentation since it is so dynamic. Take a look by clicking the logo. Come back to give thoughts.

In South Africa specifically, Wrigley’s is allowing users to create their own building projection. Those who create their own illustration can have it shown in Cape Town or Johannesburg. Winning creatives will be contacted of the show location.

Mobile application users also have the option of downloading the Nightjar from iTunes. The UK and South Africa seem to be the only marketplaces holding the campaign at the moment.  Experience the 5 below.

Blueliner Marketing specializes in website design amongst other digital strategies. Our CEO Arman Rousta is hosting a free webinar on Thursday, April 21st. Long experienced in consulting with graphic designers and programmers, Rousta will give you an insider’s perspective on the development of a website. He’ll explain how to organize your site map, build the architecture, and many other details to help get you started. Click the button below for more details and to register.

RIM is maintaining its strong security protocol standards with the Playbook, as it does with other devices in their portfolio.  This will prove advantageous to web developers that are concerned with the open source platform of Android, where little restrictions exist. From the start, developers get a solid standard of quality without sacrificing proprietary control as Apple executives demand for the iAd.  Adobe Flash Interactive, a major source of contention with Apple, is a key point in differentiation for tablet users, as it allows interactivity with a simple finger swipe.  Blackberry users can multitask through applications, play music, and upload videos.  The device is also light in size, fitting easily into the palm of your hand.

Despite all of this promise, the jury is still out on RIM’s marketing strategy for the tablet.  It is unclear if solely targeting the Blackberry customer base will generate enough revenue since they use the least amount of applications.  The App World grew approximately at 543% from 2009, but still has only 18,000 total applications, trailing even Nokia by 7,000.  Third-party developers are being asked to handle a lot of the software creation, but the incentives may leave them wanting more.

On the other hand, business customers should be content with the current package.  They could find the improved 5-megapixel camera useful for its dual viewpoints, including frontal.  Videoconferencing is a possibility, and rumor has it that Skype is already located inside the Playbook.  Apart from that, RIM may have to target different bases in order to gain market share for the Playbook.  They have a current marketing campaign with mashup DJ Diplo.  The emergence of online video advertising could create an opportunity for the brand to explore the peripatetic nature of his music enterprise.  I think that a commercial unit with exclusive audio and visual clips for both the smartphones and tablet is a starting pillar.  We will see if the Playbook has enough strategy to last in the tablet playoffs. Here’s the latest demonstration from CES 2011.

1.  Microsoft Kinect Launches Nationwide

The Kinect was released yesterday by Microsoft, and it aims to promote a whole new interactive experience where entertainment and communication merge to free consumers from gadgetry.  I spoke yesterday in more detail about the product, which can be found in the title. Microsoft has been aggressive in promoting their new products on several channels, through social media and e-commerce stores such as Amazon.  As the holiday season approaches, we’ll see the effectiveness of their efforts.

2.  Blekko Arrives To Slash

Blekko is a new beta search engine that aims to reduce spam content in your search list by using the slashtag.  I discussed the search engine in greater detail this week, and although the premise is good, I feel like it is more of a specialized engine for digital professionals.  In order to segment your searches properly, one must create their own slashtag by linking it to a specific URL, which seems to counter the current search trends which are running algorithms for consumers to interact less e.g. Google Instant.  I am not sure that the average person is interested in taking those steps to have a deeply personalized search.  One must also be careful of making sure that their slashtag is public or private. After you designate the tag public, it is permanent.  Beta sites always have funky glitches to be mindful, so it will be interesting to see their future development.

3.  H&M Launches Lanvin Collection Online

This week, the new collaboration between H&M and the French house Lanvin set the blogosphere on fire.  H&M has done these collaborations the last few Novembers to spur foot traffic and generate visibility for haute couture designers.  For Lanvin, they are using a higher price point for the collection pieces, which will improve profit margins but may decrease unit sales.  If unit sales beat expectations, then a good earnings report should surface come early 2011.  This time, H&M opened the lookbook to its fans with a vivid display of the collection in a dollhouse setting.  The website design is a tour de force of Flash, although the subject headings on the top right and left margins blend in with the color scheme and overlap messily.  H&M does not run an e-commerce store online in the States, but word is that will change in the near future.

4.  Privacy Breach Tops Google Index List

Google is guilty of crossing the line of personal data collection from wireless networks.  The cars that Google uses to catch Street View footage collected data from sources such as emails, usernames, passwords, and the like.  The FTC made a ruling that Google should halt the campaign immediately, but Google has yet to formally comply in public and private.

These incidents are appearing in the headlines constantly as consumers uses several channels to collect information on goods and services.  Technological firms are trying to keep up with one another in this race to tailor their online advertising campaigns, which will increase traffic, reset PPC rates, and so forth. Google may have taken a clandestine methodology in its acquisition of personal data.  Now, the search giant gets subject to further blockage in the European market, which has not been welcoming to the penetration of Google’s local strategy.  Be careful what you type for.

5.  Facebook Deals A Hand to Places

Facebook added further segmentation to its burgeoning application, Places.  The new “Deals” feature looks to align corporate entities with consumers that are purveyors of their products.  Gap started a promotion of giving away 10,000 pairs of free denim for those who check in with their iPhone or Android smartphone.  Currently, the four types of deals include these subjects:  Individual, Friend, Loyalty, and Charity. Facebook executives are seeking future partnerships that will manifest themselves into more chances over time.  At the moment, deals can be found with Chipotle, McDonalds, and 24 Hour Fitness.  For iPhone users, a quick refresh enables you to score by location, location, location.

That’s the Blue news this week.  See you next time.

The web designers at Mint are back with a fresh vein on the leaf.  MintData aggregates the budgetary habits of their anonymous members nationwide, tracking trade at businesses while analyzing the trends.  The new website gives the member a keen understanding of our consumer habits along with an opportunity to see the straw that stirs our economy.  In short, it uses a similar algorithm that is applied on the individual and branches it out for the Mint community at-large.  With only 4 million users, Mintdata is a sample size of working professionals that have consistent access to cyberspace. They are a factor in our demographic, and have the ability to push the marketplace.  If interested in analyzing commercial business data, or just want to observe purchasing trends at your local Brother Jimmy’s BBQ, crunch some leaves here.

1.  Regular Upkeep or Rigorous Pruning

This sounds easier than done, but with technology advancing at light speed, it is paramount.  Your customers’ needs and access to content changes with the passing of time.  It is critical to constantly research new software advancement and see if they fit in with the mission of your website.  Otherwise it is much ado about nothing.

2.  Ponder the Questions

The thought above may seem silly or impractical, but in the long run, you can minimize customer service by anticipating the errors before they come into existence.  Gremillion lists a few thoughts that can go a long way towards expediting the design and empowering your user experience.

1.  Turning the ‘About’ page into your home page.

2.  Turn the website sidebar into a footer

3.  Swapping the colors of the heading and background

For more details on his thoughts, click the Smashing logo.

Here is a list of social games on Facebook that I picked up based on reviews and voting from friends and others.

o    Farmville
A virtual world game developed by Zynga is the top social media game available on the Internet right now. With a small piece of land and money, users can start playing this game. 11 million active daily users reported.

o    Mafia wars
Be your own Mafia boss, do jobs, earn money and buy weapons. This is idea behind this game. Developed by Zynga and with about 4 million active users daily, this is the second on list of popular games on Facebook.

o    Zynga Poker
This is another social game from Zynga, where you can play poker with your friends and win daily bonus. This game has attracted players from more countries with about 30 million active monthly users.

o    Yoville
Just like the ones above, Yoville from Zynga is another virtual world game that allows users to create personal avatars, Yovillians who can play games, chat, attend events and interact with friends.

o    Pet Society
This free game from Playfish allows the users to create their own pets, involving in activities and earning coins to buy cool stuff. Pet society has about 13 million active monthly users.

o    Word Challenge
Another social game from Playfish is Word Challenge, where you are asked to create 3-6 letter words from the given 6 letters. Players are awarded a ranking based on the results for a comparison with their friends.

o    KickMania
The animated Kick Ass game on Facebook where every kick is unique and fun filled. A lot of people are playing this game developed by The Broth.

o    Happy Aquarium
This is a cool social game on Facebook with 12 million active users who can adopt a cute baby fish, watch them grow and build a happy aquarium.

The above list is a small one and soon this may increase in numbers. Now, go ahead and add the one you are really addicted to play and do it again.