The Manifest Names Create Ape as one of the Most-Reviewed Global Product Design Agencies

Sometimes the best way to recognize and make up for our mistakes is to laugh at them first. That’s what the sub-reddit /r/assholedesign is for, to call out the UX and industrial designer that insists on making people’s lives harder. Almost everyone’s been subjected to the great feat of simply trying to cancel your account only to be met with a thousand step procedure or a technological design that just complicates or confuses the process. That’s why this sub-reddit hits the mark.

As an offshoot of the popular sub-reddit /r/CrappyDesign that features everything from signs, advertising, and third grade projects gone wrong, /r/assholedesign has over 400,000 subscribers who delight in the humor of “designers who know exactly what they’re doing…but they don’t care because they’re assholes.” The site serves as a place to shame bad design varying from architecture, packaging, and web interface.

Some of the posts will have you wondering what the conversation was like in the design meeting. I can only envision “Ah, let’s make it harder by adding three steps, or better yet, let’s make the unsubscribe button invisible!”

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According to the moderators, “satire is ridicule of asshole design techniques” and the amusement of posters reveals exactly that. Not only does it intend to amuse, but the sub-reddit reveals dark patterns in design, “tricks used in websites and apps that make you buy or sign up for things you didn’t mean to.” These patterns have implications for society, but also for the future of design.

This guy is definitely a subscriber of /r/assholedesign:

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Doesn’t everybody love a classic dark pattern?

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We need this type of sub-reddit because sometimes, even professionals need a reminder of what and what not to do. Anyone with an iPhone 6 or above feels this struggle when trying to listen with their headphones and charge their phone at the same time (that’s some serious “asshole” design).

Although framed in a comical way, /r/assholedesign reminds us that looking at our failures in a UX/UI community allow designers to focus on designs that make the experience better, and not worse, for the user. Laughing at our mistakes and old designs help us grow as a group of professionals. We’ll be the first to admit that sometimes a lesson needs to accompanied with a good laugh.

Make the most of your online product with a UI/UX evaluation.

Designing with a specific purpose in mind is a fast track to profit, especially when you know what needs to be fixed. We’ll take a closer look at how Amazon used a UI/UX evaluation to make millions from one seemingly minor change.

At this point, we’re sure everyone’s well aware of the now larger-than-life corporation dominating the online marketplace, but there’s a reason why the company saw an 18,233% increase in online sales across their first 20 years.

Amazon built themselves through informed decision-making by constantly performing UX evaluations on their own site. They focused on improving where they believed it mattered the most and continued to enhance in a constant growth cycle.

Their logo, for example, underwent two drastic iterations before the one we see today. They completely redesigned and expanded upon their site over 15 years. Though this isn’t the focus of this success story.

Around the middle of their growth, Amazon decided to change a single button. This change required the insight given by numerous UX evaluations to point them in exactly the right direction.

They performed four key steps when evaluating their site, and it’s the very same process CreateApe uses when conducting UI/UX evaluations:

• Research
• Analysis
• Recommendations
• Planning
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Research

Much like most things, Amazon wasn’t perfect. They had a massive problem regarding their checkout process, but the issue wasn’t apparent at first – the corporation merely noticed something was causing customers to abandon their carts.

Amazon decided to look a bit further into why they were experiencing such a high bounce rate around checkout.

This stage of the UI/UX evaluation revolves around the gathering of information. The goal is to learn about the users, competitors, and potential usability issues to get the best possible idea of where to start analyzing.

Think of it like a map. At a glance, it’s just a myriad of lines that offer too much information to go by. However, if you have a destination in mind, you can focus on a specific area and avoid data overload.

The research process is, by far, one of the most important aspects of a UX evaluation because it focuses your attention on what needs to be done.

Analysis

By working with UX consultants and tools like Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Usability Hub to turn that initial concern into insight, the now multi-billion dollar company noticed a glaring issue regarding the aforementioned process.

During the middle of Amazon’s lifetime, people would generally treat them like any other website. Some users just didn’t want to create an account, so why force them? The site unknowingly perpetuated the problem by bringing up a menu, requiring the user to log in or register during checkout.

A substantial amount of people were lost due to them forgetting login information or outright not wanting to create an account.

Especially around the early stages of online ordering, requesting user information often led to first-time shoppers abandoning their carts. Not to mention Amazon noticed roughly 160,000 “forgot password” page results each day.

For perspective, this was back in 2009 and roughly three stadiums worth of people had problems daily.

Online shopping has increased by around 800% since then. With 2.14 billion online shoppers now in the mix, the stakes are much higher to get things just right.

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Thinking back to the map example, imagine this step as connecting the dots between two locations. You now have a better idea of where you are, and you know where you’re going.

Moving forward, Amazon now knew where to go, and so they went.

Recommendation

If you were in Amazon’s shoes, what would this problem look like? 

A several-million dollar corporation wanted to fix a menu to make sure potential customers don’t abandon their carts.

Amazon could’ve gone about solving this in almost any direction they wanted. If they thought it was necessary to redesign the entire website, then that’s what they would’ve done.

However, it was up to the decision-makers to listen to the advice given by UX consultants, and the UI/UX evaluation process provided those recommendations in order to solve the problem as effortlessly as possible.

These recommended alternatives are based on the insight created from the analysis process. To reiterate, Amazon could’ve chosen to do any number of things to fix this problem. They took the recommendations of those with industry experience to see which process could fix it most effectively.

Imagine this step as choosing the path forward on the map. At this point you know the start, the end, and now you’re finding out the best way to get there.

To get from point A to point B, the company listened to their UX consultants.

Planning

The pros made the recommendation to change just one word.

All they did was replace the “register” button with “continue” on the same menu that popped up on checkout.

The seemingly minuscule change allowed users to complete a transaction without creating or logging into an account, resulting in a drastically increased engagement rate as users wouldn’t abandon their carts as often.

This surgical replacement of a single word in a button would result in a $300 million increase in yearly revenue.

On the map, we’ve arrived at our destination in the most efficient way possible.

Where To Start With Your UX/UI Evaluation

The UI/UX evaluation process exists to put your site on the right track.

For example, our partners at DigitalPosition hired us to optimize and fix their website. Even with the request being fulfilled in Q4, the website saw a 133% increase in overall success. Their conversion rates had reportedly skyrocketed, resulting in a strong end to 2021.

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With that said, we make it our mission to research the best possible methods, and move forward with a clear goal in mind to make your website the best it can be.

Every site has aspects of it that can be fine-tuned or even entirely redesigned, but ultimately it’s up to you on how to proceed. Perhaps you don’t need an entire overhaul, and your million-dollar button is just waiting to be found.

Or on the flip side, maybe a total redesign is just what your site needs.

We have the industry experience, specialized tools, and tried-and-true processes in place to prove which would work for you.

CreateApe offers you a broad, yet focused view of your project through actionable ideas to enhance your product with proven data in mind and your success in hand.

Without something to back up an idea, the design is created for the sake of design, and CreateApe can put purpose in your website with user-backed data that speaks for itself.

It’s a jungle out there, and we’ll be your guide.

Over the years we’ve worked with some great companies and amazing individuals. We love the work we do (or we wouldn’t do it). But more importantly, we love and value the relationships we create with our clients. This is the story of one of those relationships.

Six years ago, we met Steve Feldman, founder of Renovation Angel. In addition to what was at the time two subsets of their company, Green Demolitions, and Kitchen Trader. Since 2005, Steve and his super talented team have conducted thousands of projects for members of the Forbes 400, professional athletes, and everybody else in-between. With a long term retainer in place, Renovation Angel, America’s premier recycler of luxury pre-owned kitchens and renovation items, allowed CreateApe to lead them on a digital rebrand.

What Are The Benefits Of A Retainer?

First, let’s discuss the parameters of a retainer. Retainers are beneficial for several reasons. One of the most obvious is that the client receives a discounted rate in exchange for a long-term commitment. In the bigger scheme of things, however, the best benefit of a retainer is the freedom of collaboration. Both the client and the design team know there is a wealth of hours to allow room for excellent products to be created. Neither side is worried about pinching hours to stay within a certain budget. All the work being done is already included!

It isn’t just the security, trust, and speed; it’s the collaboration and the teamwork. As an agency, we’re able to fully enmesh ourselves into the brand. We learn the nuances which help us deliver consistent success. Working with Renovation Angel, we knew the brand inside and out. We knew the stakeholders and what they were expecting and the best way to approach success. This kind of investment from both the vendor and client is priceless.

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How A Retainer Transformed Renovation Angel

When Steve initially contacted us it was to revitalize their website’s User Experience design. Since then, we’ve helped them kick off and improve their entire digital footprint from Renovation Angel to Green Demolitions. Now that they have let go of their other two brands: Kitchen Trader & Green Demolitions.

What had begun as an initial “UX-friendly” revamp turned into a full-blown site re-launch. At the time, not only were we just working on Renovation Angel, but also Green Demolitions, the e-commerce portal of their company. With our help, their website traffic increased by 40%, and their overall sales increased by 15%. Brand engagement almost doubled, and the sleek modern feel we helped to create was being mentioned by consumers and industry professionals alike.

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Increased Flexibility

There are many moments when both the client and us, as the vendor, benefit from the flexibility of being on a retainer. On a retainer, the client can pivot from idea to idea. Because they have a clear outline of the scope of work possible, (the actual tasks we can do), without worrying too much about budgets. Our dedication to transparency keeps expectations manageable and deliverables on schedule.

For example, every month Renovation Angel had a monthly sale that required a lot of soft and hard collateral to be created. Several different web banners of various sizes, an email design, and a price tag design (for use on the showroom floor) were created. Being on a retainer allowed the entire team the flexibility of trying different things over a period of time. That eventually served as the foundation of our well-oiled design process.

Design Processes

Flexibility and agile design processes are definitely important parts of our long-term client success. When redesigning their site to be an e-commerce website, it made it easy to spec out the scope of the project together. Even while decisions were being made, we were able to maintain the status quo of business as usual while putting our best foot forward. We had accumulated knowledge over the span of several years on their target client demographic. This allowed us to come up with impactful conversion-centric designs in much less time.

“That was a really big win for the retainer because we were able to work even at times when they weren’t available to provide guidance and ultimately help move the needle forward. Having the opportunity to work within the boundaries of a retainer proved to be advantageous for the business in more ways than one,” said CEO Alessandro Fard.

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Efficiency of Operations

Renovation Angel took many risks over the years, especially when it came to brand architecture. While Renovation Angel focused on the donations side of their company, both Green Demolitions and Kitchen Trader were e-commerce based sister-brands. Each sold luxury kitchens and home renovation items. Fast forward to 2019, the brand organization is has undergone another transformation. All three brands have merged under the Renovation Angel umbrella, bringing its own set of challenges and opportunities.

Our new job was to capture the attention of many verticals. The new website, one that merged all three aspects of the brand so far, had to be luxurious, modern, edgy and welcoming. It’s part non-profit, part recycling, part luxury, and interior design. We had to create a fully immersive online space that customers could easily shop and understand.

The feedback from their team was, “Oh my gosh, this makes it so much easier to not only upload information and keep the information up to date for the users to see, but also for our team to manage information.” Now, when Renovation Angel would receive phone calls asking questions about their products, they were able to reference a fully robust website. They now had up to date information that was not only easy to engage with, but impactful. Not only did they see an increase in sales, but in their daily efficiency of overall operations.

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A Synergistic Win

One of our favorite aspects of collaborating with a client within a retainer framework is the opportunity to work on exciting new projects all the time. As Renovation Angel took off, we had the privilege to work with an organization that had undergone many iterations for continued quality improvement. We ultimately saw improved success markers across the board.

Not only were we working on keeping their websites up to date and ensuring things continued to convert, but we also got to develop social media channels, and direct marketing campaigns. The work that we did went from just a one-off project to become a six-year collaboration that we’re very lucky to be a part of.

In the end, the most important aspect of a retainer is the ongoing relationship between the agency and the client. Risks, opportunities, and great ideas don’t exist in a vacuum. Our retainer with Renovation Angel allowed us to bring those ideas to life in the best way possible. We feel so lucky and grateful to have worked with such an amazing team at Renovation Angel over the years and can’t for what lies ahead in the future!

Want To Learn More?

Let us help get you #JungleReady. Let our CreateApe expert team be your jungle guide. We will help you traverse the wilds as we take your project to new heights.

Google has officially announced that they will be moving to “mobile-first” indexing. This means that Google will now use the mobile version of a web page for “content indexing and ranking.” As of last year, mobile devices surpassed desktop internet usage worldwide as desktop became a secondary touch point for most users. So, it’s no surprise Google is moving away from a desktop-centric ranking system.

Historically, Google has used desktop versions of page content for indexing but are now using mobile to identify relevant content on the page. Mobile First won’t serve in conjunction with desktop indexing, but as a separate entity in which Google will utilize going forward.

Google is claiming that this new mobile indexing system won’t change ranking, yet in the developer notes it explicitly claims “mobile-first indexing means Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content for indexing and ranking.”

What mobile solutions exist right now?

Well, there is a spectrum of options.

Now that Google is penalizing your ranking efforts by prioritizing Mobile First designs, we all kind of have to follow suit. Most designers use a blend of already made bootstrap frameworks and custom design additions to automatically condense information into a mobile device. This is a lazy (but totally acceptable!) way to answer the Google First problem.  

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But what can you do to make sure your website is on top of the mobile game?

Depending on time and resources, there are different approaches you can take to design for mobile. Best case scenario is for every desktop design you have, a mobile design will also be created. This takes into account the nuances of each platform and still allows for maximum creativity and interactivity on each page. Now, I’m not advocating for you to suddenly spend an inordinate amount of time producing highly nuanced mobile designs in the next week. However, here are some tips and tricks you can implement to create a better mobile presence:

Sticky Navigation:

Sticky navigation is when a user scrolls through content and your navigation stays sticking to the top of the page. This is key on mobile. If you have an informational site, landing page, or even a product page, having navigation stay sticky will allow your users to easily find content instead of having to search for it. If they decide to take an online action, they can do it easily. Instead of having to scroll back up to “learn more” or Buy Now, it’s right there in front of them.

Truncation:

Things that make sense on desktop don’t necessarily work on mobile. A lot of business owners will have a website with simple navigation, a beautiful hero image, a main value proposition with titles, and maybe even a call to action button. These usually look great on desktop, but the moment you start to degrade that it into a mobile space, it will typically stack everything to look like an endless scroll. (You lose the CTAs and the emphasis you designed for.)

To avoid that, use truncation procedures like:

• Make icons smaller
• Have one sentence of website copy featured with an option to expand for more.

Truncation is adapting to mobile so that it’s easier to use and consume for the user. If truncation is done right, everything will be placed higher on the web page in a succinct and accessible manner.

Why is this important?

We don’t absolutely know what will convert the user, but what if it’s the testimonial that was buried in that giant scroll? Truncate your content intelligently when designing a mobile solution to increase user conversion and experience.

Image Sizing:

Sometimes clients will have a beautiful photo on a desktop page, but when it comes time to design for mobile the image is simply too big and decreases usability for the user. You don’t want everything on your desktop design featured on your mobile design. Make sure your images size gracefully or have your designer resize the image altogether so that it fits within your mobile solution.

The rule of thumb for mobile isn’t less is more, but to design with intention. A great UX/UI team will know how to guide you through these steps by first getting to understand your demographic, business goals, and budget. We do the research so you don’t have to.

Want to learn more?

Let us help get you situated for the Mobile First changes coming your way. It’s a jungle out there, click here so you don’t have to go at it alone! Let our CreateApe experts act as “jungle guides” and help you traverse the wilds as we take your project to new heights.

Gamification in UX is exactly what it sounds like — incorporating game mechanics into your digital product! It’s steadily growing in popularity, but what makes it so powerful? And why are so many web/app designers rushing to gamify their interfaces?

Think back to elementary or middle school. Maybe you had a teacher that liked to play review games with the class before a test. Did they want you to cut loose and have fun? Or was there an ulterior motive?

The International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education shows that gamification increased retention by 12% and overall performance by 7%. If you add an incentive (tangible or intangible), you're giving someone extra motivation to participate and improve. In layman's terms, people are more receptive when they're having fun!

Gamification is a great way to ensure a pleasurable UX because the interface focuses on positive reinforcement. When used right, it holds the user’s attention, helps them understand the interface’s function, and boosts your brand’s identity and reputation.

Whether your product is learning-based or not, you can incorporate game mechanics into non-game products in subtle and clever ways. Let’s look at the concepts behind gamification in UX and how to use them to create a user-centered experience.

Goals

UX is all about the user's goals. If they are trying to learn a new skill, book a hotel room for the weekend, or browse your e-commerce store, they have goals they want to accomplish with your site. Interfaces with an excellent user experience are aware of the user's goals and have easy, creative ways to solve problems.

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Competition

Humans are competitive by nature. A UX that taps into our primal instinct is a surefire way to keep your user engaged. For some, competition motivates them because it satisfies a need to win. If they can win within your interface, they walk away feeling gratified. Healthy competition encourages users to improve and often excel past their initial goal.

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Progress

Motivation drives us to achieve our goals — and knowing we are progressing helps fuel that fire in us. It helps when users know they are on the right track to completing their goals. If they know they’re getting better each time they use your interface, they’ll feel inspired to come back.

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Reward

Gamification inspires loyalty and lets you give back to your users! Rewards (real or digital) are a tangible way to let users know they overcame a challenge or completed a goal. If you offer a reward, you give them the extra push to complete their journey and become repeat users.
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Conclusion

Games transcend demographics by appealing to our natural desire to have fun! If you’re a 14-year-old boy playing Call of Duty or a 60-year-old woman playing Words with Friends, we all enjoy a good game. 

By building your site or mobile app around the concepts behind games, you elevate your user experience into something far more enjoyable.

When you’re planning out your interface, think about how you can incorporate game elements to make your experience interactive. It could be something as simple as giving your user a “Top Fan” badge or a challenge to unlock a new feature. 

Give your user something to aspire to while using your product!

Need some help gamifying your website and mobile app? Our apes are on standby and ready to play! Start a project with us today!

There’s a common misconception that a UX designer is just a glorified graphic designer who knows how to design for mobile. I mean, we get it. They both do graphic design work, and it’s a totally valid mistake. But the two couldn’t be any more different.

Every designer has a niche and a medium, things that they’re very good at and specialize in. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, you want to get the best fit service you can to make it happen. That’s where the differences come matter most.

Simply put, a UX/UI designer creates the interface and architecture of a website. UX/UI design  includes copy, content, branding, and translating stakeholder wants with stakeholder needs in a web medium. UX/UI designers make sure that all digital designs created will look good  for mobile and desktop. They pay special attention to where buttons should be placed, where titles must go, and everything in between to help best produce awesome metric-conversions. A good UX designer is going to take the content provided and come up with intelligent suggestions for design in order to create a conversion centric website.

A graphic designer may cover a multitude of things. Are they a print graphic designer, or illustrator designer, or do they make motion graphics? They are most likely  specialized in one area specifically.. If you want an illustration that’s incredibly unique to your brand and not something that’s just tweaked on Shutterstock, that’s when you would utilize an illustrator. Regular graphic designers, of the average variety, will often focus on beauty before function.

You might be asking, well can’t a graphic designer just come up with a website? Sometimes we’ll see business owners and stakeholders go to a graphic designer to design their website, and the lucky few will have zero problems there. But a graphic designer that doesn’t specialize in web, and it’s not what they do day in and day out, will no doubt miss critical steps that are incredibly important to the success of your website.  

If you want someone coming to your site, purchasing your product and sharing their experience on Facebook  you’ll need a UX/UI designer (who’s a proper villain). You’ll be in good hands, and what you're hoping to create will come to life in the best way possible.

Want to learn more?

Let us help get you #JungleReady. Let our CreateApe expert team be your jungle guide.We will help you traverse the wilds as we take your project to new heights.