Responsive Experience Design Thinkable

RxD THINKABLE I ©2012 I RESOURCE.COM

RESPONSIVE EXPERIENCE DESIGN:Scaling for deviceS, optimizing for conSumerS

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2RxD THINKABLE I ©2012 I RESOURCE.COM

DEVICE PROlIfERatION CONtINuES tO hEIGhtEN CONSumER EXPECtatIONS

in the fourth quarter of 2011, smartphone and tablet shipments outnumbered pc shipments.We have officially entered the “post-pc” world. in just a few short years, the emergence of tablets and smartphones has drastically changed the digital landscape and in turn, dramatically altered consumer behavior. the way brands displayed information in the past was uniform and anchored to the desktop or laptop. today, a brand’s message and its interaction with consumers are no longer chained to a pc experience. rapidly evolving technology has made brands accessible and on-demand to consumers, elevating their expectations. Brands have a tremendous opportunity to reach and interact with consumers anywhere and anytime, and if they fail to deliver consistent, engaging brand experiences at every touchpoint, they run the risk of losing sales opportunities and relationship-building moments.

RESPONSIVE WEb DESIGN (RWD) DElIVERS ON SCalE at EVERy tOuChPOINt

in the past, agencies designed experiences for growing screen sizes, first the 800p x 600p, then the 1024p x 768p, followed by the 1280p x 1024p. in 2007, apple’s first attempt to crack into the smartphone market was a home run, with the integration of a touchscreen display and the best web-browsing experience yet to be offered on a mobile device. the explosion of smartphone sales forced the industry to shift its thinking and create separate experiences for the smaller screen. Just as the small screen was being accounted for, focus shifted again with the introduction of the tablet and the eruption in sales that followed.

With tablet sales expected to double to 119 million units in 20121 and smartphone sales on track to reach annual shipments of over 1 billion by 2014 2, consumers utilizing their mobile devices to shop will continue to push the 6.7 billion dollars mobile commerce hit in 2011.3 as device sales outpace pc sales for the first time, the demand for a mobile strategy among brands is high. and while the industry standard has been to create separate experiences for each screen, brands run the risk of diluting their message or delivering experiences that no longer meet consumers’ high standards and growing expectations. instead of building a separate experience for the phone, the tablet, the pc and whatever comes next, the development approach of rWd allows brands to build an experience once, and with flexible grids and fluid content, scale it across every touchpoint. With rWd, the brand’s website layout adapts to any device in either orientation (portrait or landscape), using bigger or smaller images and fonts and reprioritized content to optimize the user’s experience. and while this is great progress, it’s not enough

1 d.H. Kass, “tablet Sales to double in 2012”, it Business edge, http://www.itchannelplanet.com/trends/gartner-tablet-sales-to-double-in-2012.html (april 2012)

2 “Smartphone Sales to touch 1 Billion-unit mark in 2014”, chicago tribune, (april 2012)

3 michael essany,“mobile commerce catches fire Without Burning down Bricks and mortar”, daily deal media, http://www.dailydealmedia.com/876mobile-commerce-catches-fire-without-burning-down-bricks-and-mortar/ (January 2012)

Brands run the risk of delivering experiences that no longer meet consumers’ high standards and growing expectations.


for today’s truly mobile consumer. our approach goes beyond scale. We believe that content should not only be scaled, but be optimized for the most meaningful experience. after all, it’s not just about the size of the screen; it’s about how and why a consumer is using a particular device at a particular time.

RI’S RESPONSIVE EXPERIENCE DESIGN (RxD) ElEVatES RWD aND thE CONSumER EXPERIENCE

While rWd adapts digital experiences for devices, it doesn’t always provide the most thoughtful user experience. So we took rWd several steps further and created responsive experience design, or rxd.

the practice of rxd has advanced rWd by transforming mere omni-channel brand presence into heightened consumer relevance. not only does rxd deliver on content and layout scalability, it also enables cross-device continuity, click-based and gestural interaction, and multiple-user real-time collaboration. it puts consumers first by giving multidisciplinary teams control of all the factors that can deliver an optimal experience. When we layer onto a consumer's experience their device choice, physical location, past purchases and product preferences, marketing triggers become targeted and a brand becomes more relevant.

With rxd we can tailor features for each device and user experience. gestural features can be layered into the tablet experience, a barcode scanner can be added to the smartphone, and richer visuals or a robust product line can be tailored to the pc experience. rxd maintains brand consistency throughout the consumer journey, from moment to moment, from device to device, while utilizing each device’s unique features.

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rxd maintains brand consistency throughout the consumer journey, from moment to moment, from device to device.


RxD DElIVERS multI-DEVICE CONtINuIty

consumers access the internet from multiple devices every day. Because of this shift in consumer behavior, as well as other drivers such as retail innovation, ecommerce sales are expected to rise 15.4% to $224.2 billion in 2012, turning online shoppers into omni-channel shoppers. “in the past, cross-channel shopping amounted to using retailers’ different channels one at a time for separate transactions,” says Jeffrey grau, an emarketer principal analyst. “But today, consumers are moving between a retailer’s channels—websites, stores, mobile devices, social media—in a fluid way.”4 dual-screen viewing has taken hold, with 86% of smartphone and tablet owners accessing their devices while watching tv.5 rxd takes all of these trends into consideration and delivers experiences that can be started on one device, then paused and picked up later on the next device when the consumer is signed in. With rxd, pause-and-play features ensure consumers never lose an experience, whether they’re watching a video, playing a game, or most importantly, making a purchase. at resource, we believe that ecommerce capabilities should extend beyond a destination site to multiple content-rich, social-fueled experiences that touch every channel—giving consumers the ability to buy what they want exactly when and how they want it. We believe the “e” in ecommerce now stands for “everywhere,” and rxd ensures these connected commerce experiences can happen anywhere and are never interrupted as a consumer moves from device to device.

RxD ENablES COllabORatION IN REal tImE

rxd also pierces the next dimension by giving consumers the ability to collaborate in real time. Since rxd establishes continuity of experience across all devices, a solo project can become a networked experience in many forms. from co-creating a t-shirt to group gifting, co-shopping to multi-user gamification, consumers can invite friends to collaborate on a different device whether they’re five feet or five thousand miles away.

RxD IS futuRE-fORWaRD

Smartphones and tablets are only the beginning when it comes to the number of ways we are going to be able to access the internet in the future. rxd is future-forward. it not only aligns brands with evolving consumer behaviors today; it provides insurance for emerging technologies tomorrow. When a new device hits the market, rxd’s fluid layout ensures the experience will easily adapt to the latest gadget. and if brands have put off investing in mobile until now, considering a responsive site redesign that is future-friendly versus a one-off mobile site will put them in line with elevated consumer expectations.

RxD uNIfIES tOOlS

rxd extends best-in-class website features to every touchpoint. from web analytics to content management systems (cmS) and marketing automation platforms, rxd unifies back-office

4 “omnichannel Shopping puts a new Spin on ecommerce”, emarketer, (march 2012)

5 “mobile Shopping framework: the role of mobile devices in shopping process,” Yahoo advertising Solutions, http:/advertising.yahoo.com/article/the-role-of-mobile-devices-in-shopping-process.html (January 2011)

86%

of smartphone and tablet owners access their devices while watching tv.


tools so that brands can easily manage and optimize the experience for every device from one place. for example, a change made within the cmS in the past would only update the desktop experience; changes to mobile sites had to be made in a separate location. With a website unified through rxd, brands have the ability to update the experience once and immediately see those changes across every device. tagging and collecting site metrics are also simplified because the planning and implementation only happen once. gaining insights from click paths and bounce rates is easier because the behavioral data from every user (regardless of device) can be analyzed from a single source.

bRaND bENEfItS

• Investment Optimization: With rxd, brands no longer have to build separate experiences for each touchpoint, saving time and resources in the long run.

• Brand Ubiquity: A brand’s experience will look and function as designed on whatever screen a consumer is using.

• Individualized Consumer Experiences: RxD allows us to examine the consumer journey and then tailor experiences based on the way a consumer uses a device.

• Search: One responsive site with one set of URLs means one set of links to build, leading to stronger link popularity and social equity and no redirects for mobile users, which add to server load.

• Realistic Site Previews: In lieu of a single, static view of the site in development, brands can review interactive prototypes.

Building one experience versus three separate experiences provides a much greater value in the long term.

maKing tHe caSe for rxd


RxD WORkflOW & NEW EffICIENCIES

With rxd, we’ve streamlined the process, utilizing an overlapping workflow to get a brand’s input earlier and responsive sites built efficiently. the rxd process is managed by a cross-discipline user experience team made up of ia, content, design and technology experts. our multi-disciplinary team aligns with the brand on a high-level vision and direction for content, functionality and design. the team then moves quickly into iterative cycles of prototyping to bring the responsive experience vision to life. prototype cycles are cumulative, each week adding to the features and templates that demonstrate the experience across devices to get brand and consumer feedback that influences later cycles. With rxd, we step away from some of the irreversibility of traditional static designs and the waterfall process and instead provide tangible experiences that a brand can interact with and impact earlier in the process.

What was typically three distinct projects—a separate pc site, mobile site and tablet site—becomes a single integrated project. our team will plan, design and develop a fully functional, consumer-centered experience that works seamlessly on the devices of today and the devices of the future. Building one experience versus three separate experiences provides a much greater value in the long term. Brands will see a cost savings and productivity benefit when it comes to site updates and maintenance. rxd’s unified views and tools allow brands to edit content once and see an immediate impact everywhere.

for more information on rxd please contact:

Melissa Dorkodirector, Business [email protected]

Kristyn Wilsonassociate director, media [email protected]

Technology

Responsive Experience Design Thinkable