Design@Symantec

Design Trends For 2013

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 0 comments

2013 It's a new year and with it comes new opportunities for design evolution on the web.

Looking forward, there are three trends I think we can expect to see more of this year.

1. Mobile no longer an after-thought.
There has been and will continue to be an increased and hyper-focus on mobile. There is still a lot of upside growth in the mobile web space to be had. Consequently, it can't be ignored and what we can expect to see is more inclusion and integration of mobile in website planning. There will be less of sites being thought of in silos based on desktop or mobile. Instead, there will be more of a holistic approach to web presences where desktop, smartphone, and tablet instances will be thought of collectively. This will manifest itself in more sites being...

Value Of Using A Digital Asset System To Improve Design Efficiency

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 0 comments

I will be speaking at the upcoming DAM LA Conference on digital asset management systems and the value of such a system.

One of the things my team does is create graphics, purchase stock imagery, and commission custom photography. We do this for many sites, domestically and globally, and for desktop and mobile. As a result, we amass vast amounts of graphical assets. The question then becomes how do you manage it? Do we have these assets sit disparately on designers' local harddrives or on a share drive?

What we have found to be valuable is to have a library or central repository to house, manage, and...

What Internet Growth Means To User Experience

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 8 comments

VeriSign CEO, Mark McLaughlin, recently did a blog post on Fortune where he refers to projections of 500 million more Internet users and 1.1 billion more Internet-enabled devices by 2013. Those are staggering numbers and could have far-reaching implications for - amongst other things - user experience across the World Wide Web and Website accessibility from varying user agents given that Websites have become such a critical part of our daily lives and the commercial world. From a competitive standpoint, design and usability of sites will probably become even more paramount in helping Websites to standout and gain a competitive edge. As his post points out, "84 million .com websites alone drive $400 billion in annual economic activity" and "one in five Americans report that losing Internet access for 24 hours would effectively shut down their work...

Impact of Design On Trust

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 1 comment

We attended RSA 2010 this week where VeriSign was a Platinum Sponsor. Executive Chairman, Jim Bidzos, gave a Keynote Address on the 'Internet and Trust' explaining that without trust, people are less likely to freely share information or transact online.

This is very true in the creation of Websites. Good design is critical for good user experience which is essential to building trust. A Website is our face to the world and its design creates that first impression which people judge it by. Also, every interaction a user has on a site impacts the trustworthiness they associate with that site. So, poor design and rampant content errors, for instance, take away from the credibility and trustworthiness of sites. However, a well-designed site which is...

Five Tips To Ensure Your User Experience Is Not Affected By Phishing Sites

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 2 comments

Research indicates that the majority of users are unable to spot phishing Websites. In a study commissioned by VeriSign in the U.S., researchers asked users to identify fraudulent phishing sites from images of Websites placed side by side. A whopping 88 percent of users frequently missed the most obvious "tell tale" indicator which was the misspelling on the site which would have identified the phishing site.

How do you ensure that your online user experience is not affected by fraudulent sites? Here are VeriSign's top five tips to distinguish a real site from a phishing site:

1. https:// in the URL: The "s" in https:// means the site is encrypted,
so the information you enter is secured. While some phishing sites
do...

Over 180 Million Internet Domain Names Registered

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 0 comments

There are now 183 million domain names registered across all Top Level Domains (TLDs) which represents a three percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2008 and a twelve percent increase over the same quarter last year. This means that nearly 11.8 million new domain names were registered across all TLDs in the first quarter of 2009. While this reflects a 17 percent growth in new registrations over the fourth quarter of 2008, it is a 17 percent decline from the same quarter in the previous year. While domain names registered do not necessarily mean the equivalent number of Websites created, the numbers point to approximately 91 domain names registered per minute and if about 88 percent resolve to Websites, that would mean that roughly 80 new sites were created a minute or one a second.

Country Code Top Level Domain Names (ccTLDs) registered increased to 74.1 million, an 18 percent increase year over year and a four percent increase quarter over quarter. There were nearly...

Survey Finds 'Trust' Key To Consumers On The Web

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 2 comments

In a recent survey of 919 U.S. adults, 18 years and older who spend at least three non-work hours a week online, 85 percent of consumers state that trusting a site is most important to them when interacting with a Website and sharing confidential information. In contrast, nine percent deemed competitive pricing as most important and another five percent thought ease of use was most important. Additionally, a whopping 93 percent of respondents said they would stop transacting on a site that was not secure.

The survey findings also concluded that 76 percent of consumers claimed that identity theft is a "major" concern for them. When asked how they felt about brands that did not protect their online identity, 56...

Weaving The Web Paradigm At VeriSign

Reshma Kumar | 02 May 2013 | 0 comments

Welcome to the VeriSign User Experience Blog. This is the first-ever such blog for us and I am very excited to get it started. Through my posts, I look forward to sharing what we are doing and engaging with and hearing from you on how we are doing in our quest to better serve and meet your needs via our Websites. After all, we are building our sites for you, not us. I will also share insights, ramblings, musings, and the like on user experience that may be of interest.

If you have any feedback on the types of content you would like to see covered on this blog, I would love to hear from you. I look forward to meeting you all online. Thank you.