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Creating a Modern Web Presence for a Local Bank: PointBank

There are few things more gratifying than helping out your local community. PointBank’s been doing it over 100 years, and now MagicLamp can proudly say that we’ve partnered with them in their efforts. In creating a modern and fully integrated website for PointBank, we’ve been able to take part in building them a web presence that shows off just how much they care about their community on a personal level.

WordPress

Our new site design for PointBank was completed in WordPress, allowing us to use the numerous tools and plugins WordPress offers to create the perfect site for PointBank. Our WordPress design included a useful mobile design, a Loan Calculator widget aimed at making the loan process a bit more approachable, SEO optimized copywriting, a custom locations widget with all bank locations mapped out, and WCAG 2.0 AAA compliance levels, all on a custom theme we created specifically for PointBank.

Mobile Web Design

Probably the best way for a local business to ensure it has a good relationship with its surrounding community is through accessibility and good communication. With this in mind, MagicLamp created a new, user-friendly mobile platform to ensure that mobile viewers land on comfortable, easily-navigated site. The new mobile site allows viewers to get a very clear view of how much PointBank cares for its community, carefully demonstrating that it is indeed a “people bank.”

Custom WordPress Theme

As both PointBank and MagicLamp know, every business is unique. While PointBank acknowledges this through their flexibility and desire to help local businesses succeed, we show it by designing not just a custom website, but a custom theme to create a truly distinct web presence that showcases PointBank’s dedication to their customers.

Loan Calculator Widget

Let’s face it, going online to figure out loan specifics can be more than a little bit difficult and certainly a bit intimidating. PointBank recognized this and asked us to design a loan calculator widget that would enable their visitors to figure out at least the basics of their loan. This makes the loan process a good deal more accessible and less daunting by showing some real figures so viewers can have an idea of what expect before entering into the loan process.

Locations Widget

The locations widget plays a key role in crafting PointBank’s online image.  At the bottom of each page, the widget simply and clearly shows off the various PointBank branches, their hours, and contact information. It even shows which branch is closest to the visitor. The locations widget allows visitors to see that PointBank has branches across much of Denton County and is viable banking option for anyone living in that area.

SEO Content Writing

What good is even the best web design if it doesn’t show up in Google search results? Through search engine optimized content, we were able to secure PointBank’s position as a top search result without sacrificing the usefulness good content writing affords.

WCAG 2.0 Compliance

You don’t have to take us at our word when we call the new PointBank site user-friendly. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has certified the PointBank with the highest possible rating of AAA according to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), meaning that the site flawlessly demonstrates all the key characteristics of a functional, well-designed website.

MagicLamp is proud to be partnered with PointBank in their community-oriented approach to banking, and we thoroughly enjoyed getting to work with a business that cares so deeply about the people around it. We can’t wait to see what the future holds for our relationship with PointBank!

Bringing Simplicity to Complex Subject Matter: Radiography CE

Between X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and all the technology that makes them possible , radiography is a fairly complicated field. Couple the natural nuances of radiography with massive technological advancements caused by digitization, and the result is a need to educate radiographers in the new and upcoming developments in their field. Radiography CE, a program created by Digital Imaging Consultants, is designed to help practicing technologists and educational programs fully transition to digital imaging technology.

At MagicLamp, we specialize in building websites that complement their owners, so we worked closely with Radiography CE to find the best way to construct their web presence. As radiography education is nuanced enough on its own, Radiography CE required a useful streamlining of their web design. Through our work in WordPress, we were able to set them up with a site that simplifies the process of beginning an education.

WordPress

Radiography CE was something of a unique development case for MagicLamp. Prior to working with us, Radiography CE was working with another who partially created the site but was unable to see it through. Fortunately, we were able to help them get the site back on track. Our WordPress experts worked not only to get the website up and running, but to complete Radiography CE’s entire web presence by finishing out the small details that can make a difference in retaining visitors. The fully finished site is straightforward and allows visitors to quickly find information and customers easy access to learning materials. The website contains the standard Home, About, and Contact pages as well as a customized Learning Management System for customers.

WooCommerce

While working in WordPress, there’s no better way to build and ecommerce presence than WooCommerce. MagicLamp uses it for nearly every ecommerce project we undertake, as we believe it is the best and most versatile tool for the job. Radiography CE’s business model is a testament for such versatility. They required an online store that could link directly to their Learning Management System, and through WooCommerce, MagicLamp was able to deliver. The online store operates simply and intuitively, allowing customers to focus on their lessons first and foremost.

Learning Management System

Considering the specific nature of radiography as a field, Radiography CE required a custom educational system in order to properly utilize the time of their customers. By working closely with Radiography CE, MagicLamp designed a Learning Management System (LMS) built to ensure that students get the most out of their experience. The LMS MagicLamp created for Radiography CE featured use of videos, online quizzes, and other educational resources to help customers take in and retain the information they learn. Additionally, LMS users can receive certification via the online program, further simplifying their education process and ensuring they can focus exclusively on the materials. Through use of our custom designed LMS, Radiography CE is able to see the progress they want to see in their customers.

Working with Radiography CE has been a particularly rewarding experience for all of us at MagicLamp. When we started this project, Radiography CE was stuck with an unfinished project, and now, they have a fully functional website, ecommerce presence, and educational system working as well as it can. At MagicLamp, we pride ourselves in giving our clients the best possible service whatever their situation, and we thoroughly enjoyed helping and working with Radiography CE to improve their web presence.

Building a New Type of Shopping Experience: Intnt

Though the world of online shopping has drastically improved and is more far reaching than ever before, there are still all kinds of unexplored possibilities waiting to be discovered. Intnt is one of those businesses that are built solidly on innovative ideas, like their Text to Shop service. Intnt allows its users to send text messages out asking for advice on retail purchases, and then links the users directly to retailers who make recommendations based on what they asked for.

The prospect of working with such a forward-thinking business was exciting for all of us at MagicLamp. Considering Intnt’s tech-based business model, we were thrilled to work with them to fulfill their unique needs, so we designed a custom website and mobile design to fit their one-of-a-kind personality.

WordPress

With a product as technology-heavy as Intnt’s Text to Shop, a healthy web presence is incredibly important. While a solid web presence is necessary to support such a product, it’s also instrumental in inspiring confidence in visitors and customers. WordPress was once again the perfect platform to develop an ideal web presence.

MagicLamp crafted a simple but informative site that shows visitors what Intnt is and how to use it. The site is completely inviting and draws visitors in with clear explanations and friendly graphics. Simplicity works to Intnt’s advantage, effortlessly explaining such new concepts as shopping by text. MagicLamp’s WordPress design features a home page, an overview, and extremely useful FAQs page, a page to connect with retailers, and a sign-up for the Beta. This site is just another example of how our efforts are always well spent working in WordPress.

Web Design

When working with a brand new idea, making sure the website that represents it is cutting edge in appearance is almost as important as the product itself, especially to visitors. We kept this idea prominently in mind while creating the website, and we are quite happy with how the visuals turned out! The most important parts of the website are easily accessible and each visual component is designed to draw the eye the proper place. The modern aspect of Intnt is represented well by our design, making sure visitors are comfortable and free from the frustration of difficult navigation.

Mobile Friendly

Considering that Intnt’s system is called Text to Shop, a mobile friendly site is certainly a pretty important part of their business, and though mobile friendly sites are increasingly necessary, they can still sometimes be hard to come by. We at MagicLamp are committed to creating the perfect web presence for our clients, and for businesses like Intnt, a big part of that is the mobile design. Our mobile design allows visitors to easily view and navigate every part of Intnt’s site with ease. It transfers the intuitive design of the desktop site seamlessly into the mobile format.

Working with innovators like Intnt is always a pleasure, as is getting to play part in new products and services like Text to Shop. We found it to be a rewarding and fascinating experience, and we look forward to our partnership with Intnt as they continue to grow.

MagicLamp Launches 3 New Sites – Including WooCommerce!

COWBOY CHARCOAL

MagicLamp’s site design for Cowboy Charcoal is grilling on all burners. This WordPress site features barbecue photos so real, you can smell the beef! The responsive design introduces you to a readily explorable site.
First up is a side scrolling display that sumptuously showcases Cowboy’s Roundup recipe blog, events and products just below a menu bar to help locate retailers and buy online. Also featured are drop down menus listing all products, how-to videos, recipes, events and blog options. The bottom half of the page provides an integrated link to Cowboy’s YouTube channel with videos on grilling’s best practices and charcoal selection, and a newsletter signup.
Cowboy’s Roundup blog with its frequently posted on-the-fly barbecue menu ideas as well as a trove of entrée, side dish, dessert and drink recipes provides a clickable print option next to the name of each dish. The blog also has categories that include products for purchase and gift selections for the family grillmaster.
As if all of this weren’t tasty enough, Cowboy’s site also has share links with Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google + and Instagram icons featured on the top right of each page. Instagram also has a presence of clickable foodie tiles on the Roundup blog.
Cowboy Charcoal is a division of Duraflame, Inc. and, as you’ll discover on its product page, is also home to Stubb’s barbecue products. Come and get it!
ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design

www.cowboycharcoal.com

APTARE

Next up is APTARE, a Fortune 50 company who now has a website that efficiently showcases its StorageConsole 10, “the industry’s only independent, open and extensible IT analytics platform”. MagicLamp’s web design reflects that uniqueness through its successful application of parallax scrolling effects and video backgrounds on APTARE’s home page.
APTARE tracks raw, assigned and used storage across its customer platforms, securing data to be integrated accurately within billing systems.
With MagicLamp’s web development for APTARE, information on these capabilities and the responsiveness of APTARE’s B2B/IT analytic infrastructure flow seamlessly throughout the site. Use of key terms like backup management, data storage, etc. make APTARE’s site easily found by search engines for customers seeking these services.
This ease of use includes accessing the site via mobile devices where the scroll of information shifts from horizontal to vertical without forfeiting any key elements, even retaining access to peripheral content like white papers and data sheets. The user interface and screens – featuring the use of big beautiful lightboxes on screenshots – provide a detailed breakdown of not just what APTARE offers its customers, but how those customers can optimize the StorageConsole 10’s capabilities and customize it to their specific data and storage needs as well as that of their own customers.
APTARE services now support software-defined storage, Open Stack, Flash and hybrid infrastructures, making it an enterprise-ready platform to meet your company’s IT data backup, storage and real-time access needs.
MagicLamp completed APTARE’s byzantine site in only 45 days.
ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design

www.aptare.com

GREI

Fashion is key at GREI of New York where handmade horsehair fobs and keychains greet your eyes upon landing.
That’s just the first offering shown at GREI’s new website created by Magic Lamp. The WooCommerce site, MagicLamp’s first use of the platform, provides flexibility and compatibility in accessing and ordering any item from its handcrafted inventory of scarves, robes, shirts and more.
The beautifully tactile, rich selection of hand-dyed gray and indigo fashion items float effortlessly between the tabs under each category of apparel. You can display all items under women’s or men’s apparel collectively or review each category by clothing item.
MagicLamp’s web design facilitates the purchase of GREI’s catalog of items online as well as from a select group of stores located in a few key American cities as well as Japan where the fabrics originate. Add to that the ability to customize and even override WordPress features to make use of WooCommerce’s open source platform with its hundreds of options for tracking, buying and selling of merchandise.  It even lets you know how many of an item are left in stock. MagicLamp’s exit intent pop-ups for cart at checkout include a discount offer on your order from GREI as well as one on any future order. There are also share buttons for Instagram and Pinterest to show off what was purchased.
MagicLamp has enhanced GREI’s website further with a tight integration of MailChimp and email marketing with slide-in signups to capture more subscribers, and custom email notifications for order statuses. UPS label printing is also made available onsite for easier fulfillment.

Yes, It’s easy to understand why WooCommerce powers 37% of online stores, and now GREI’s website further distinguishes those offerings.

ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design

www.greinewyork.com

New sites for Q2 2016 – Clean Web Designs and WordPress

HEARUSA and HEARCANADA

 

WordPress once again displays its flexibility in hosting a database-driven site, this time to serve the hearing challenged customer in both the USA and Canada.

Through use of Google Maps and integrating the importable data in Microsoft Excel worksheets, MagicLamp has created a responsive, highly functional and updateable resource that can locate the office of a HearUSA or HearCanada provider as well as any surrounding services the customer might seek.

The Google map on the site’s home page displays a list of 200 providers searchable by clicking on the “View Center Details” link for the customer’s geographical location. There the customer can review the menu bar of options about hearing loss and hearing aids along with the customized content of that specific provider (i.e. provider’s profile, local special events, etc.).

The dual-skinned database can switch between both sides of a geographic border to provide the most accessible location for the customer seeking hearing services. MagicLamp has also given the customer the means to either sign up onsite or call for free hearing evaluation. Bottom of the home page features discount coupons for hearing aid purchases and services, as well as HearUSA and HearCanada’s accreditation.

HearUSA     HearUSA     HearUSA
www.hearusa.com
centers.hearusa.com

 

 

CANNA-MANAGEMENT Corporation

 

As legalization of medical marijuana becomes more mainstream, the need for governance and guidelines for the growing and processing of it leaves a void to be filled. Enter Canna-Management Corporation.

This authoritative WordPress site designed by MagicLamp reflects CMC’s masterful foresight in assembling a comprehensive resource of information and a knowledgeable support team to advise and guide businesses considering legal cannabis production.

The home page features a slideshow of custom drawings that illustrate how CMC can help a cannabis company’s operation grow. The site’s clickable links on informational topics as well as drop down menus provide a fuller sense of what the requirements and considerations are for this type of business. The responsive design also features a blog with posted podcasts displaying what questions are answered by some of the leading experts on medical cannabis issues.

CMC’s site is also integrated with MailChimp along with a slide-in subscriber signup; and ads for several CMC-sponsored organizations who can provide even more insight and information on staying legal and growing.

CannaManagement     CannaManagement     CannaManagement

www.canna-management.com

 

 

 

JOHN MAHONEY DESIGNS

 

MagicLamp subtly showcases John Mahoney Design’s creations with its various categories of home décor.

The responsive clean lines of this WordPress site introduce a slideshow dissolve of Mahoney’s Asian-themed rugs, wallpaper, linens, fashion and more. Just below it is featured a double row of clickable interactive tiles featuring galleries of his beautifully elegant work expressed in a portfolio of textiles, home accessories and one “wild card” entry of a re-imagined Tarot card deck called “The Tenebrae Tarot”.

Mahoney’s handmade and handcrafted décor items resonate with his philosophy: “The objects we choose to surround ourselves with have the power to transform our environments and influence our lives. Color, pattern, and decoration can delight the eye, engage the mind, and lift the spirit.”

MagicLamp’s uncluttered design allows Mahoney’s work to speak for itself with only sharing links for Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook added.

JohnMahoneyDesigns     JohnMahoneyDesigns     JohnMahoneyDesigns

www.johnmahoneydesigns.com

 

MagicLamp Sites Take Home Two Awards from Marie Claire!

UPDATED (March 2016): We’re on Racked too!

Marie Claire’s Annual 55 Best Online Shopping Sites has just been published, and MagicLamp has not one but two clients on the list!
In Claire’s “definitive list of best online shopping destinations,” MagicLamp site Opening Ceremony was selected for the Fashion section of the list, joining upscale online clothiers like Net-a-Porter, STYLEBOB, and Pixie Market.

FACE Stockholm was included in the Beauty category and commended for their sophisticated cosmetics, all stylishly displayed on their bold, sleek, custom-designed user interface.FACE Stockholm

http://www.marieclaire.com/fashion/best-online-shopping?click=pp#slide-30

OC and FACE have been clients of MagicLamp for years now, and we’re proud to see them getting this recognition.

Opening Ceremony shows up on Racked.com’s Best Online Shopping Stores

Among others such as Anthropologie, Forever 21, H&M, J.Crew, Nasty Gal, Norstrom, and Zara, Opening Ceremony gets Racked.com’s vote for best online shopping stores:

Once simply a quirky boutique; now a fashion force to be reckoned with. Find brand new designers, niche lines from around the world, exclusives from big-name brands, and the store’s own in-house line in the expansive mix.

Science Fiction or Science Future? Web Design Meets Mobile Tech



The Future of Mobile is the Future of the Web.

Why is it so important to build for the future now?

Mobile site design has barely grazed the capabilities of today’s mobile devices, let alone the features to come. Most people haven’t even begun to comprehend the unique opportunuties of web design when it comes to mobile.

Handheld technology companies have anticipated this future shift by building extremely sophisticated tech into devices. Now, web development is beginning to take advantage of them. There are staggering possibilities, just waiting for us to tap into them.

Most new smartphones already come standard with gyroscopes, accelerometers, pressure sensors, proximity detectors, fingerprint scanners, and more. Combine those with cameras, microphones, and GPS capabilities, and you’ve got a wheelhouse of powerful tools to tap into and engage users. The ways designers will do this is limited only by our imaginations.

For example, most devices can already detect the weather and store users’ locations automatically. Mobile sites could customize displays to the weather in a visitors’ zip code- showing your company’s swimsuit inventory in a hot climate, for example, or your winter coats wherever it’s snowing.

It’s not unthinkable that in a decade, devices could even be synched with users’ pulse rates or brainwaves, allowing servers to load the site version most likely to engage users based on their current mood. We’ll also see more and more stunning device hardware- 3D printing technology, for example, could even allow your site to project physical objects into user realities.

This might sound like science fiction, but the hardware included with today’s smartphones already has far more possibilities than mobile web design has evolved to take advantage of. The next few years will see sites getting more interactive and user-specific in ways most consumers never imagined possible.

Before too long, websites might pop complimentary sticks of gum out of a port on your smartphone! Just kidding….or are we?

Mobile tech advancements are happening faster than we can build for them. MagicLamp can get you ahead of the game with an professional mobile approach that makes it easy to adapt to tomorrow’s frontiers.

New Web Sites: Major Ecommerce Upgrade & Redesign with Locator Integration

HEARUSA

Amplifying a client’s content above the “noise” of its competitors is nothing new at MagicLamp. Hence the newly launched and multifaceted web design it recently created for HearUSA.
MagicLamp has blended features that include registering online for a free hearing test, and a hearing quiz to help the site’s visitor determine how much hearing assistance he or she needs. Alongside these tools is a fact sheet sharing the many reasons why it’s important to treat hearing loss and the social and psychological consequences for not doing so.
As for the tech side of things, MagicLamp has also integrated a Find a Provider database to locate the site visitor’s 15nearest audiologist. This includes a signup screen so the visitor can be contacted directly by that provider.
The total responsiveness of MagicLamp’s site design is upped another notch with Microsoft Dynamics’ software to oversee and monitor the HearUSA site’s CRM capabilities, making HearUSA’s value loud and clear.
ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design

www.hearusa.com

Graytex

Sometimes being a trusted resource for quality paper products just isn’t enough. Sometimes you have to fluff and update your look. So with MagicLamp’s technical assistance, Graytex has now segued from its previous website’s functionality to a much more responsive web design.
This required MagicLamp to import hundreds of Graytex’s paper products on about 50 pages from the old site, then re-organizing and creating multiple improved ways to browse those products. Now you can search for paper by category, size and finish as well as by description for each type of paper product. Quantity per pack, product code and individual properties of each paper type are searchable via an at-a-glance product catalog and a master table of elements.
The result has been an improvement in both Graytex’ ecommerce flow and its SEO ranking. Add to that the integration of MailChimp and a coupon code for new subscribers, and you’ve got Graytex moving to the top of the paper pile on the internet!
ecommerce web design     ecommerce web design width=     ecommerce web design

www.graytex.com

The Future is Mobile: Which Kind of Responsive is Right for You?

Your customers are mobile now! Are you?

Are we really entering a post-PC world? Surging numbers of mobile users certainly make the future look that way. Mobile will soon become the standard web browsing experience- your “main website” will be your mobile site! This seismic shift means it’s crucial to build excellent mobile sites now to offer mobile visitors everything your desktop version delivers- and maybe even more. A solid mobile design is essential to prepare your company for the next big leaps in technology, too, which will focus heavily on mobile possibilities. You probably already know your mobile site should include something called responsive design. What you may not know is that not all responsive design is the same.

Just a couple of years ago, mobile-compatible sites were rare. Most administrators didn’t even have mobile versions of their sites- users had to deal with frustrating load times, painfully tiny text, awkward oversized navigation, and some non-functional features if they wanted info on the go. Development lagged behind hardware, reducing mobile browsing to a desperate measure most only resorted to in a pinch, maybe for quick driving instructions or business hours. Things have changed quite a bit since then!Historical data shows us that ancient mobile strategies were not very efficient.

Mobile users are everywhere, and they no longer have patience for anything less than full mobile optimization.

Mobile sites of yesteryear were not very much fun >

Users expect pages that load lightning-fast and give them exactly what they’re looking for, front and center. They expect mobile-specific features that automates much of the work for them, detecting location, device type, preferences, and more. They won’t poke around your site, pinching and zooming to find what they need. They’ll get frustrated and go to another site with better mobile design.

These users expect to meet objectives in even less time than PC users, in a simpler format, on an even smaller screen. This calls for some creative new approaches made just for mobile.

 

Some developers will approach your mobile site by delivering a great-looking desktop version and then simply “scaling it back” for smaller screens. They might use a plug-in to automatically condense your info, or resize and rearrange your layout to fit, or even cut out crucial features to produce a “lite” version of your site. These are outdated approaches to mobile design. Not only do they consume more work hours (and presumably more cash) than current strategies, they also weaken your site overall.

Flaws with these Common Mobile Development Strategies:

1) Mobile sites shouldn’t be conceptualized or executed as watered-down versions of the full site. The WC3 recommends a “One Web” approach to design today, which means “making the same information and services available across all device platforms,” as much as reasonably possible.

Mobile is a huge design opportunity- not a downgrade-
and the future belongs to those who realize it.

2) Mobile users are not just desktop users on a smaller screen, and simply resizing your desktop site won’t cut it for them. They have different sets of expectations, needs, and priorities. They use the web differently and need sites designed specifically for them. Starting with the question “What do mobile visitors want to do on your site?” is key. A good designer will know the answers and get them right in front of your customers.

Mobile-friendly doesn’t just mean your site will load on a smartphone or tablet screen; it means your site is responsive, not only in terms of size or layout, but responsive to actual mobile user needs.

3) Great mobile design isn’t something you tack on to the end of development. Mobile design that works- gets you sales and prepares you for tomorrow’s web- is embedded in the development process from start to finish.

Mobile design is a huge design opportunity, not a downgrade, and the future belongs to those who realize it.

So What’s the Smart Way to Design for Mobile?

There are three basic approaches in professional mobile design today. Each has their own benefits. MagicLamp can help you pick the one that best fits your particular goals.

Responsive Web Design is the most common one web approach. It uses CSS queries to modify the presentation of a website based on the device display.

Benefits: Designers can use a single template for all devices, and just use CSS to determine how content is rendered on different screens.

Limitations: Testing can be a tedious process and may require some work to get site sections to size cohesively, otherwise sites can end up looking like puzzle pieces that don’t fit quite right.

Responsive sites can be sluggish in loading and performance. Why? Because they load media templates for all possible devices at once, and users have to wait for every page element to load before they can browse. This can be mitigated by incorporating a mobile first approach, where the mobile use case is prioritized during development. However, this often entails a lengthy development process, which can mean rebuilding your site from the ground up. When it’s done, though, you’ve got a really solid foundation for future mobile development and a site that’s truly responsive.

See MagicLamps’s work on these fully responsive client sites:
Aptare
HearUSA

Client-Side Adaptive Design can deliver experiences targeted at specific devices and contexts. Adaptations happen on the client side, right in the user’s browser.

Benefits: Client-side adaptive uses JavaScript to detect device types and display your site in different ways depending on device capability. For example, smartphones with retina displays will receive retina-quality images, and phones with regular displays will receive standard quality images. You can even target your marketing to specific device models, offering iPhone users a site that’s dialed into conversions for apple users, for example.

Another big advantage of client-side adaptive over responsive: you don’t have to rebuild your website! Your developer will simply build an adaptive layer on top of your existing content and code base. Testing is also a snap with client-side adaptive, since you’ll use one set of HTML and Java templates across all devices.

Adaptive design also performs better and loads faster than responsive, because only the required resources are loaded by the device. CDN networks like Akamai and Edgecast can use most of their caching functionality without disrupting user experience.

Limitations: Client-side has a higher barrier to entry than responsive. You’ll need a developer with advanced skills and a solid grasp of JavaScript. You’ll also need to maintain and update your client-side adaptations regularly, since they’re a kind of layer on top of your existing code base.
Server-side adaptive design offers you the most customized marketing opportunities.
See Client-Side Adaptive in action:
Threadless
iDeel

Server-Side Adaptive makes the web server do the heavy lifting of detecting a user’s device and loading the appropriate template. This approach goes beyond customized experiences for devices, so that you can even dial marketing into specific user behaviors and preferences.

Server-side adaptive features multiple device-specific templates, but unlike responsive, only the necessary template is loaded to the device, eliminating the slow performance issues responsive can suffer from.

Benefits: Server-side adaptive utilizes distinct templates for each individual device model, allowing for even greater customization, and it keeps device-detection logic on the server, making for lighter mobile pages that load faster.

Many server-side plugins are available for common CMSs and eCommerce systems like Magento.

If you’re looking to invest in an ultra-customized user experience with high performance capabilities, server-side adaptive is the way to go.

Limitations: When mobile user agent detection is performed on the server, many common caching mechanisms deployed by CDNs need to be turned off. This can result in slower user experience for both mobile and desktop users.

Server-side requires the most extensive upfront changes of these three approaches, including significant upgrades to your back-end systems, which can require hefty development time and investment. Managing multiple templates also raises ongoing maintenance costs, and performance can be impaired when servers are under heavy traffic.

See how server-side adaptive works:
Etsy
One Kings Lane
OnlineShoes.com

With so many different capabilities to compare, it can be tough deciding which approach is right for you on your own. MagicLamp developers have experience with every type of mobile approach, and we would love to tell you which one would fit you best and why.
Tell us about your project and get a free consultation now.

Graphic Possibilities With Open Source Web Fonts.

Firefox and Chrome's font display updates make it possible to create a typography-driven website like this one look good on any PC.Back in 2010, Google made big news by releasing their own open source web fonts. Starting with just 19 typefaces, it was a huge improvement for developers and designers who’d been stuck with the same 9-10 web safe typefaces for their font stacks. By 2012, Google Web Fonts (since renamed Google Fonts) had grown to over 500 font families. Adobe typekit became popular around the same time, offering even more web type options. Web creators were no longer limited to a handful of body text fonts, and we all basked in the happy glow of digital progress. Unfortunately, there was a hitch. Most web designers work on Macs, known for their pristine graphic rendering. While the new fonts were looking great on designers’ Mac screens, the letters appeared very differently on the average user’s PC: they were highly pixilated, blurry at the edges, and “crunchy-looking.” Once developers realized they should be testing the sites on PCs, they were shocked to see their new typefaces looked, frankly, awful.

The problem wasn’t with the fonts themselves- PC browsers just weren’t advanced enough to display the new typefaces cleanly. Internet Explorer was the first to optimize character rendering; soon, open source fonts looked better in IE than any other browser. This still wasn’t very crisp, but it was better than everything else out there. Firefox quickly followed suit and improved HTML text appearance even further. The rendering you see in Firefox today is the standard that set the bar for text rendering over the last few years. Chrome’s text looked jagged and pixilated in comparison until just this August, when Google’s Chrome 37 update raised the ante again. The update came with DirectWrite support for Windows, which transformed HTML characters into something crisper and cleaner than PC users had ever seen before.


Same Fonts, Different Browsers: Firefox and Chrome’s text rendering.
(Firefox: Left, Chrome: Right)

Looking at these Chrome and Firefox text displays side-by-side, you can see how Chrome text is distinctly crisper and more resolved, looking a lot like the rendering on a Macintosh, in fact. Chrome’s new super high-resolution type display is a a huge leap for browser technology. Suddenly, all fonts look incredible, no matter who’s supplying them.

We offer the complete inventories of Google Fonts, Adobe Typekit, and Fonts.com for our clients’ web projects. The foundry previews are real HTML, not bitmaps, and they show you exactly how your fonts will look. The right type sends a cohesive message about your company to customers, telling them exactly what “personality” your business has. We alsoCreative typography can communicate an individual style and leave visitors with a memorable impression. offer expert font selection advice if you’re having trouble deciding or want a second opinion. Between these resources, you get an incredibly broad typeface selection- a tool that gives you a fresher-looking site that stands out from the rest.

Graphics and Iconography with Open Source Glyphs

The evolution of typeface display technology actually gives us a powerful opportunity for rendering graphic elements, too. Recently, we’ve actually started replacing traditional graphic elements with HTML glyphs, using characters from font sets as symbols, graphics, or even images. You see glyphs like the TM and copyright symbols implemented this way traditionally, but the level of clarity in web text display now opens up a whole new world of possibilities.

Advantages of HTML Typeface Characters as Graphics:

  • Web font characters come ready to go as live, linkable text.
  • Faster loading than traditional JPG images.
  • Completely resizable as pixel-perfect vector entities.
  • They don’t require any special coding structures, like image files.
  • HTML glyphs are searchable by engines for SEM keyword optimization and visitor queries.
  • Many font packages are specifically designed to use as icons or ornamental elements, targeted to specific graphic styles, like the Adorn typefaces.
  • Now that browser technology has caught up, font-based graphics look just as sharp as any traditional graphic.
  • They cut design time and costs down significantly.

We can also create HTML iconography through typeface packages now. Whether you’re developing a web app, branding a new product line, or want some simple icons for your homepage navigation, we can offer you a whole new playground to experiment with.

These techniques not only open up possibilities for designers and creatives, they also empower developers, who can now use typography instead of graphics to stylize web apps, create brand identities, and unroll fresher-looking sites. Having access to all of these symbols opens up a whole new field programmatically. Instead of designing a graphic, resizing it to optimize loading times, coding it for html, and uploading it, programmers can literally just hit one key, paste in a character that’s already an html entity, and keep on trucking.

We've come a long way since wingdings! (Circa 1990)
We’ve come a long way since Wingdings!

Interested in updating your site’s typefaces? Want to see what we can do for your icons and graphic elements? We would be happy to give you a free consultation.
Contact us today.

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