General Mills History Blog

General Mills came to Spyder Trap with an idea that they wanted to share with the world some fun and hilarious moments of their historic past. This project needed the content to be on a platform where it could be easily added by the client and shared by the consumer and user. Tumblr became the platform best suited to handle the publishing, management and engagement of their content.

With today’s Internet accessible from every device and screen possible, we utilized Responsive Web Design to allow the user experience and content to shine on smartphones, tablets and the desktop.

Vintage Design

Most of the products that’ll be featured on this site are long from the past, so the look needed to have a very vintage feel to it. General Mills had some great illustration work of their company from very early on (late 1800′s) that I had to bring into the site in some shape or form. Use of old logos and a worn polaroid helped complete the vintage look and feel for the theme.

Tumblr Features

Here’s a condensed list of features designed and developed into this site:

• Responsive Web Design
• Content Management
• Photo & Video Uploading
• Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest Sharing
• Integrated DISQUS Commenting and Notes
• CSS Mobile Menu

View the General Mills History Blog.

I want to look at three areas that I see as big contributors to your next website and it’s success. I know it took time, convincing and budget to get this redesign green lighted. Now, how can you ensure it’s the change you need?

Looking past the basics of a new design and content management system, I believe the following three areas are additional and important considerations in your website redesign. Failing to include these you might make your redesign efforts ineffective.

1.  Better Data

While the web is buzzing with big data, what I see many organizations falling short with is better data. Companies have had a hard time progressing past just installing Google Analytics and looking at basic (and often meaningless) metrics like pages viewed and referral sources.

Put a focus on tracking outcomes over beginnings. Over-hyping referral sources and keywords only gives you entrance points and intent.  Those help but the ability to understand what types of traffic are accomplishing an outcome your website is more valuable.

Establishing and tracking goals and setting up event tracking and other outcomes on your website is truly “better data.” Goal tracking in Google Analytics is one way to put the focus on the outcome and start understanding what is the right kind of traffic to attract.

Below are a few goals that just about any website can track and measure:

• Completion of a contact form or RFQ form
• Email address acquisition
• Download of a whitepaper
• Access or registration for a webinar, event or video

2. Mobile

You knew it would be one of the three, but yet it’s still maybe not part of your redesign? The biggest factor for most organizations to become mobile friendly with their website is the technical configuration or development.

Every stat across mobile is in a growth or explosion mode. Email is consumed on mobile more than desktop or webmail, “mobile first” internet users are rising. In fact, mobile search is set to eclipse desktop searches in under two years, and the list goes on.

Responsive web design has caught on as the right mobile solution for many, giving you one website that adapts to the device you access it on.  Google and Bing have given RWD their blessing for mobile search structure of a website adding to its benefits.

That said, sometimes your website and user are better off with a parallel mobile site or a dynamic mobile site. Responsive is not the only solution for mobile, but for most the benefits can be the answer they’re looking for.

I’d recommend you force the issue of mobile now.  Especially if your company’s trend has been to redesign every three to five years, waiting that long to have a mobile friendly website might put you light years behind your competition.

3. Content That Matters

While a new web design is shiny and a new CMS can alleviate headaches, not putting quality content as your top priority in your redesign can be costly.

What’s content that matters you ask? Imagine that a bookshelf is the website redesign and the content are books. If you don’t know the size, shape and weight of the books, you can’t build the shelf that will hold them. In the same way, a website redesign should consider content first.

Remember, it’s content that is valuable for your user. Content that answers their questions, builds trust in your offering and guides them to an outcome they desire and understand. In the past, we’ve talked about content built on marketing fluff and how you need to address your website users needs, not the company ego.

A great example of content that matters for me is what REI does with Snowshoeing (and many other products).  Many e-commerce enabled sites focus only on product display and sales.  REI has used content focused on education to help you make a smarter and more trusted purchase.  Their site offers content that helps you get the “why” of the product, the product types, expert advice, techniques and more.

They also use various forms of content to educate as text, graphics, photos and video all contribute to the users education.  If your website was a customer service rep, REI’s is poised to answer valuable questions and educate. Many of their competitors would only answer “Add to Cart” or “View Price in Cart”.

Summary: Maximize Your Website Redesign

Good luck with your website redesign and nailing these three important elements that will make your website even more valuable to your organization. Look past the refresh of your design and pay attention to the more valuable decisions you can make with your redesign project. Of course, we’d love to be part of making it happen, just tell us about your needs.

Let’s take a look at a few things you can measure your website against to ensure that you’ve got the right foundation to start on.

1. Clear and Concise Content

First things first, always start with the content evaluation. A flaw in many businesses is worrying too much about the art and visual framework and written content gets push to the side or is focused on last. You may have heard content is king, but if you’re not working off a content strategy then you’re living in a fantasy.

Problem: Too much marketing fluff, not enough real answers

A lot of websites are publishing too much or most often too little content without evaluating the effect of the user experience. If you publish too much content, your site begins to be cluttered and you begin to ask more time of your users to invest in sifting through it all to find the right answer.

On the other hand, not enough content leaves the user feeling like their questions haven’t been answered and they tend to look elsewhere for the right answer. This can send the user off your site into a world where you don’t control the conversation. They are then subject to customer reviews, rants and raves, and competitive analysis.

Solution: Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

Find the balance between providing the right information and too much information, also, keep in mind the context of the user when they are hitting your site. How do you do this? Know your audience. Use analytics, customer interviews, UX strategies and SEO tactics to ensure that quality content is in the right place. Invest in your content!

Remember, it’s representing you and the voice of your company in your absence.

2. Overall Design

It’s important when looking at the design of your site or app that you keep things simple, accessible and usable.

Problem: Visual Clutter

Whenever the designer introduces another border, background, alignment of content, text, imagery, or any other content into the interface the visual cognitive load is increased. This is not to say you can’t bring in visual branding elements that enhance the product, experience and emotions of your visitors, but the important thing to keep in mind is the simplest conversation is usually the most effective. The visual expectations will vary depending on project and client, think cnn.com versus mashable.com.

Solution: Simplify the Conversation

Only communicate the most important content by grouping thoughts, actions and ideas together. When necessary, add visual elements that will facilitate the information architecture.

3. Easy-to-find calls to action

Should we stay above the fold? Do users scroll? What color should the add-to-cart button be? How many form fields is too many? All too often these and other questions like them can hold up projects and keep marketing directors up all night.

Problem: Making decisions based on industry myths

Many times decisions are made about the content and design based upon what you may have heard or assumed the web to be. Think for a minute about some of the “web rules” you may have encountered over time.

Solution: Usability testing

Put your customer’s journey into context. Remember, your customers have a different need and question when they reach your site than say when they visit apple.com or cnn.com. Are there best practices? Of course there are, but to really be successful in increasing your conversion rate usability testing can be a very effective way of ensuring the content and calls-to-action are in the right place.

Other methods such as A/B testing can be an effective way of serving up different content to try out what works best.

4. The homepage is not as important as you think

Search engines, social media, email marketing, video, web ads and blogging have changed the way we enter a website. The search engines have done a great job of indexing our content in way that we no longer land on the homepage the way we used to.

Problem: Wrong directions

I’ve seen it many times over, a company invests in an ad campaign either offline or online and they direct all traffic to their homepage thinking that these users will figure it out once they get there. Only to find that their bounce rate increases greatly because the expectation of that click was not met.

Solution: Map your customer’s journey

Ask yourself a simple question when creating a campaign, “Does the page I am pointing to directly relate to the context of the ad I am creating?” Sometimes your customer doesn’t care about you as a company, they just want the product and to be on their way.

Don’t disrupt the journey of your customer by adding a roadblock of content that is out of context of the action they are anticipating. If your potential customers want to find more, they will do so by their own initiative.

Put these conversion tips to work

Briefly we’ve touched upon a few tips to help you increase your conversion rate. We didn’t have time to get into great detail, but it’s a good start for you to begin asking some of these questions, whether it be for your existing site, your next campaign or website redesign.

Remember, your website should never be considered complete, it’s a living, breathing tool that you should always iterate.

Our predictions for 2012 had some gems, like one of developers nailing a gaming and tablet integration. (I’m stealing your Crystal ball Joe Barhorst!) Many outlined predictions in mobile and apps last year and 2013 are no different.

2013 Predictions

Development – We will continue to see more and more schema-free (nosql) data stores, new and innovative ways of mining said data sources and even more of a focus on an API-driven development in which RESTful web services continue to play a huge role. Front-end technologies (namely JavaScript libraries) are continuing to advance at a rapid rate so expect far more client-side interaction in 2013 as well.
Nicholas Kreidberg, Developer

Analytics – Everyone has data, but few know how to interpret it into actionable ideas that push them and their client in a new direction. We’ll see more agencies tout their data and analytics skills or partners; more data-specific shops will appear overnight and be acquired just as quickly.
Nate Knox, Search Marketer

Social Media -  Photo-sharing becomes hotly contested with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Flickr, and Google all making huge strides late in 2012. This will lead to a lot of new features and changes in 2013 as each service looks to gain more users and traffic.
Steve Retka, Social Media Coordinator

Social Media - Advertising on Facebook, Twitter, etc. finally got a proper name in 2012 with Native Advertising. I expect that advancements in targeting advertising and sponsored messages through these channels will become significant this year and ad spending will grow.
Jeff Gerst, Account Supervisor

Search Marketing -  Marketing departments start seeing the advantage to content marketing and having all forms of content to be the “front door” to their business. Blogging and whitepapers will still have value, but image and video creation, layered with optimization, is what will rank and gain attention in the crowd of search results.
My Prediction – Aaron Weiche, VP

Business – As the US comes out of a recession, I predict a large number of start-ups fueled by the increase in entrepreneurs. With large acquisitions and IPO’s, there has been a bubble of geeks with good ideas who have gained the liquidity to chase their dreams. The technology sector is also swelling with new tech that came out recently and hasn’t yet been turned in to marketable products.
Perry Govier, Innovation Lead

Design – I’m predicting more experimental layouts and interfaces now that we are getting past the desktop standard (1024 x 768). You’re going to be seeing a lot more experimental design standards that are focused around touch interaction.
Shaymein Ewer, Creative Designer

Technology - Cloud convergence and integration will see strong growth. With the adoption and adaptation of cloud services, devices (mobile and otherwise) will begin moving away from local storage and start relying on the cloud for regular storage, back-ups and document sharing. This capability leads to a new breed of lightweight devices that relies less on internal storage and is packed with a ridiculous amount of processing power pushing the limits of what can be done on the web.
Travis Smith, Project Manager

Technology – I think we will see a longer hardware lifespan as costs increase and companies have more invested in a single product.
Travis Manick, Developer

Technology - App and hardware integration will continue to evolve past current devices. 2013 will be the year we’ll see a big push in devices that will monitor our activities, sleep, weight, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. These devices will talk with our cell phones and will allow us to better monitor our successes, failures, health, etc. API’s will allow devices to open data to multiple apps.
Cory Vandenberghe, Social Media Manager

Technology - The connected living room (smart TV, media center, integrated mobile devices) will become more mainstream, but it won’t work as well as it should.  Incomplete licensing deals between content creators, content distributors and device manufacturers will continue to plague us throughout the year; people will continue to be frustrated when they can’t use the HBOGo app on their Samsung Smart TV if they are an Xfinity subscriber, for example.
Demian Brink, VP of Client Service

Mobile – With the growing popularity of local/mobile search and social activity, I expect to see businesses use geo-location services more predominantly in 2013.
Daniel Hollerung, Search Marketing Manager

Mobile – Mobile wallet like Google Wallet and mobile banking will see significant growth with mainstream acceptance.
Barb Vanags, VP of Finance

Mobile – Mobile will begin to be the first thought when a business owners wants a new website – followed by the desktop version.  This will continue the push for developers and designers to become experts as HTML5, CSS3 and Responsive.
Travis Neiderhiser, Development Team Manager

Mobile – More companies will look at mobile technology as a necessary utility to do business, across all departments, not just marketing. Custom mobile applications will serve as a foundation for supporting job functions in sales, project management customer service and operations.
Jeff Nolan, Account Executive

Mobile – Mobile commerce takes hold. Using mobile devices, it will be even easier to satisfy the desire to shop. Made popular by cutting edge grocery stores in Asia, these interactive virtual shops will start to show up everywhere and you can snap a QR/bar code and instantly purchase items through an e-commerce mobile site. And to make it even more exciting, there will be “pop-up” shops with exclusive limited-time products.
Rebecca Toth, Director of Account Services

Apps - A shift from Native apps to Web apps is here. I predict that within the next year mobile phones will pass up PC’s for use of the Internet. With this, I think we’re going to see a major shift in companies creating Native Apps and will expect to do more with their Web Apps or mobile websites. With more advances in HTML 5 & other technologies we’ll be able to design for more complex & creative interfaces.
Jeff Wagner, Creative Director

Apps – More people than ever before will become technology-motivated as mobile and tablet apps and devices continue to appify even the smallest of every day tasks. Don’t be alarmed when you find your grandma cooking a meal with step-by-step tablet instructions or that notoriously computer-illiterate family member shopping for groceries by influence of an app awarding them ‘points’ because they shopped a specific food category.
Joe Barhorst, Developer

Apps – App numbers and popularity will undoubtedly increase this year, but I think “companion apps” (apps created by manufacturers to accompany/support their products) will start to become more of the norm and a larger point of differentiation for tech saavy consumers when they’re deciding which brand to buy.
Nick Bryant, Director of Client Strategy

What’s Your Digital Future?

Do you have a prediction to add to ours for 2013 in marketing and technology? Share yours in our comments!

The problem is most companies jump into making large changes to elements of their website, this can be risky along with a hefty price tag. They also have the mentality that their customers are still linear in the purchasing process.

In other words, most campaigns have the goal of driving a person from point A to B. In turn, they still develop campaigns that try to drive people through a carefully scripted process.

However, with the advent of social media and interactive content, the landscape has changed and as digital marketers and designers we need to look beyond the linear selling process and look to the customer buying experience.

No Longer A Golden Path

Below is an example of one of the many routes a customer can take in the e-commerce process and even this example could be altered in dozens of ways.

The point is that through out the online buying process there are many influencers, starts and stops that will affect the customer’s behavior. Of course all sales reach the same goal, but no two paths are the same. The same can be said when it comes to any engagement conversion, e.g. joining a mailing list, a follow on Twitter, etc.

We have to begin to be observers of how customers are now interacting with the content and how all the touch points can affect the sale. Is your core brand message consistent across all touch points? Is there a clear and concise call to action at each touch point? Or are your users finding dead ends in the experience?

To take a completely holistic view, the e-commerce process can even involve content outside of your own website as our example graphic shows.  A user might add an item to your shopping cart and then pop open a new browser tab to read reviews on other websites about your product or search for a promo code.

User Experience Design To Guide The Journey

For your next e-commerce project, define the business problem at hand then develop the user personas that you’re targeting. Understand at what touch point your users will be entering the conversation and map out their journey. Find the right methodology that will work for you and continue to iterate that process.

Test, Test, Test

We’ve touched upon this before, the importance of testing. With the change of technology comes the change in human behavior. What may have worked yesterday, may not work today. Even the best designers generally don’t get it right the first time, you have to learn behaviors early and quickly and make the needed adjustments so that you can continue to optimize your conversion rate.

Wikipedia is a great example of a site that utilizes this. When you click on an item in the table of contents, you are instantly brought to that topic, without having to scroll down and search for it.

Developing Page Transitions

This is accomplished by creating an anchor tag that targets an ID instead of a new file or directory. For example:

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<a href="#chapter2">Go to Chapter 2</a>

And then creating an element further down the page with an identical ID:

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<h2 id="chapter2">Chapter 2</h2>

This can be jarring to your user experience, however. With the one click, they are snapped to a different section of the page.

While they can always go back to the top of the page (you did put a ‘Back To Top’ anchor nearby, right?), it can still be a confusing experience.

Instead of sending them directly to the anchor, let’s use some jQuery to send them down the page with a smooth transition.

With this, the transition to the anchor is easier to follow, and the user won’t lose their focus with a jolt.

The jQuery Code

We’re going to use jQuery’s animate function to scroll down automatically until the targeted ID is reached:

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function goToByScroll(id){
$('html,body').animate({scrollTop: $(id).offset().top},'slow');
}

With this, we can bind a click function to our <a> tags, so we don’t have to edit the HTML at all. Let’s assume we have a list of navigation items that send a user down the page:

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<ul class="nav">
<li><a href="#chapter1">Chapter 1</a></li>
<li><a href="#chapter2">Chapter 2</a></li>
<li><a href="#chapter3">Chapter 3</a></li>
</ul>

Whenever an anchor tag is clicked within the nav, we want our function to fire and prevent the anchor link’s default functionality from happening. Here is our click function:

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$(document).ready(function(){
$('.nav a').click(function(){
goToByScroll($(this).attr('href'));
return false;
});
});

And that’s it! We grab the value of the anchor’s href, use it in our function, and then prevent the anchor link’s default functionality from completing with ‘return false’.

You can even try it out by clicking this text to send you up the page!

Using this in place of the anchor link’s default functionality gives you a much cleaner user experience on your website with a simple and lightweight amount of code.

This Great Cause Needed A Great Website

Last year, Spyder Trap was fortunate to get involved with DTBL and meet founder First Sergeant Shane Hudella.  We quickly saw that donating our web design and development skills were a perfect way to support the mission of ensuring that children of military members are afforded every opportunity to participate in the game of hockey.

In January, Spyder Trap redesigned the website for Defending the Blue Line and gave the organization a better online platform to generate awareness, involvement, and donations.   The website was put together with “first line” quality and gave DTBL a content management system, blog, e-commerce store, photo galleries and more.

If you’re at Ridder Arena on Wednesday night, be on the lookout for a few of the Spyder Trap staff as we’ll be there supporting Defending the Blue Line and this fantastic event.

2011 brought a huge leap in mobile devices, mobile searches, mobile apps, and mobile websites, so much so that the predictions in mobile all center around when it will eclipse desktop Internet use.

At Spyder Trap, we’ve been deep into mobile solutions for a while and have been able to build apps and mobile websites that help you find the right wine, book a hotel room, locate a commercial property, follow a X Games gold medalist, attend a conference, find healthcare for your child and more.

Business Mobile Website & App Favorites

Our staff weighed in by sharing their favorite mobile apps and websites they use from other businesses.  This list won’t include Twitter, Instagram, Angry Birds and other mobile solutions that are services, games or content networks.

We wanted to give you a list of brick and mortar businesses that are succeeding at mobile.  Not surprising, you’ll see mobile websites and apps that make our lives easier for finances, health, dining and shopping.

Here’s Our 15 Mobile Picks:

Jimmy John’s – App
The app is almost like the delivery people … freaky fast. It saves addresses you’ve previously ordered from, the navigation to order is simple, and the checkout is quick because it saves past payment methods.

lululemon – Mobile Web
Easy and intuitive navigation of all their products.  Large product photos, detailed but simple product pages make it easy to research your next in-store purchase.  Mobile e-commerce enabled, the site offers a simple 3 step purchase process.

Walgreen’s – App
It’s awesome because you can scan the prescription bottle and it automatically sends your request to refill. It also allows you to upload images, which you can pick up as prints at your local Walgreen’s store.

Nike Golf – Mobile Web
Clean mobile website with features to browse all their golf clubs, locate a dealer and watch videos of their state-of-the-art product development facility called The Oven.

CorePower Yoga – App
CorePower Yoga Studios have a great app that is fully updated with their schedules.  I can choose locations and see what classes are when. Only downside is I can’t check my account status.

Whole Foods – App
Great filters for all types of recipes. The app allows me to add ingredients to a shopping list for my next trip.

Papa John’s – App
I like how it allows you to build your own pizza. Olives on half, pepperoni on the other half .  It also ties in promotion codes and specials to take advantage of. Lastly, it geolocates to ID closest store.

Home Depot – App
The app is great because you can search for certain SKUs within specific locations, and it even tells you what aisle to find it in.

UW Credit Union -Mobile Web
It has a great mobile website that prompts you to bookmark the site to your home screen. Great UI, cross platform, quick access to most commonly used features.

US Bank – App
Easy access to account information for mobile banking and a good branch locator as well.

Jo-Ann Fabrics – App
It is simple and does exactly what I need it to do. The app gives me coupons when I am on the go and tells me the location of the nearest Jo-Ann Fabrics. I like this because I never plan my trips!

Starbucks – App
You can do mobile payments through a gift card, easily find stores and their amenities (drive-through, mobile payment, food, wireless, etc), save your favorite drink and track rewards.

Target – App & Mobile Web
Both the mobile web and app experience are very similar.  You get the weekly ad, store listings and hours, ability to shop and create shopping lists.

FlyDelta – App
The app has the ability to view upcoming trips/purchased tickets, email itineraries, check in for a flight and use your phone as your boarding pass.

Subway – Mobile Web
The site has a really clean interface and I can easily locate the nearest location for fresh sandwiches.  Great example of a big chain mobile done right.

Have A Mobile Favorite?

Do you have a mobile website or app that you engage with that belongs to a brick and mortar business?  We’d love your comments on your favorite.

Cancer Legal Line Redesigned

Part of the event’s drama is that you only learn of the non-profit you will be working with right at the start of the event.  RunPHP was extremely fortunate to be paired with Cancer Legal Line (CALL), a non-profit with a mission to alleviate the non-medical stressors faced by cancer patients and their loved ones by educating and providing them with cancer related legal information, resources and referrals.

CALL Website Redesign (Shiny & New)

The Old CALL Web Design

A Web Design To Build On

When we jumped into the discovery phase with CALL founder Lindy Yokanovich, we learned the incredible service the she and Lindsay Flint provide to cancer patients, survivors and families.  We sought to make the website easier to navigate, more accesible and easier to manage.

The design was an easy upgrade and we built the website on a flexible and easy to use CMS called Concrete5.

CALL is also supported by volunteer attorney’s who give their time to help the cause.  We build a private back-end of the site to make collaboration, referrals and communication even better.  Each attorney working with CALL has a profile to manage, a resource center, calendar and more.

Social Media, Mobile Web Design & More

Our team wasn’t satisfied with just a redesign of the website and we dug deeper to help change CALL’s online landscape.

23,000 Minnesotans are diagnosed with cancer every year. Help us reach someone looking for help. facebook.com/CancerLegalLine

— Aaron Weiche (@AaronWeiche) March 25, 2012

We created a social media strategy, new social branding elements and worked our own social networks to add more than 100 Likes to their Facebook profile. You might want to add your Like to the list.

Our team didn’t stop with social media.  We provided search marketing research, analytics and designed a mobile website to increase the reach of CALL.  Our team’s endless use of Twitter during the event even motivated Lindy and Lindsay to start an account for CALL (@cancerlegalline).

Humbled, Inspired & A Bit Tired

When all the dust settled after 24 hours, it was once again an incredible experience. Spyder Trap web developer Joe Barhorst even used the event to launch his modeling career by appearing on the front page of the Pioneer Press Monday paper.

It’s amazing to apply our talents for such a great organization in a rapid, but meaningful, way.  Thank you Lindy and Lindsay for putting up with us, sharing your passion to give with us and letting us move your efforts forward.

To all of the Spyder Trap staff, friends and social connections that cheered, tweeted and even visited us, your support was appreciated!  Here are a few additional photos from the Overnight Web Challenge.

CALL's Lindy Y. and Lindsay F. with Jeff Wagner

Travis Neiderhiser mapping out the master plan

The Spyder Trap / RunPHP Overnight Web Challenge Team

You’ll find predictions covering web design, mobile, music, search, social and more below in our marketing and technology predictions for 2012.

While our crystal ball severely over heated from all of the predictions, there is no doubt this year will be another one full of cool technology and marketing integration.

2012 Staff Predictions

TABLET: I think we’ll see the integration of tablet PCs with more mediums.  For example in the same way Nintendo’s Wii is introducing a controller that resembles a Tablet PC, I wouldn’t be surprised to see things like cable companies adopt this theme to improve their TV / Video On Demand user experiences.
Joe Barhorst – Developer

INTEGRATION: Social, Digital & Mainstream Marketing collaboration.  Example being a Coke ad synced across platforms like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others.
Erin Moore – Project Manager

GOOGLE +: Since Google just introduced Search plus Your World, I see either a strong exodus from Facebook and Twitter to Google+ profiles, or many people being turned off by the new search and using Bing.
Alicia Neubauer – Social Media Intern

SEARCH & SOCIAL: Search engines will be pushing information from social networks towards the top of the search results.  This continues to emphasize a huge need for tools and apps to help combine and organize multiple social network platforms.
Travis Neiderhiser – Developer

WEB DESIGN: Responsive web design is going to be the major trend when designing/developing websites to suit multiple different devices.  I feel that companies will find this a huge advantage of having one website conform to any device without having to load content multiple different ways or for that matter having multiple budgets to support the design & build of different websites for their company.
Jeff Wagner – Creative Director

MUSIC: Technology focused on music sharing will engage music fanatics and freaks even more than the Spotifys of today. I’d love to see a solution connect the creators to the listeners on a tighter level.
Becca Tollefson – Project Manager

TV: I foresee interactive TV’s being the center of our media universe and this will gain even more traction in 2012. No longer will be the days of a central media server rather all media content will be streamed from a central source such as a TV to a more local device such as a computer, iPad or mobile.
Mike Rynchek – President

SOCIAL: The never-ending online social network and media coverage realms have continued to boom as we move forward in the age of technology. More companies begin to realize that connecting with the client and customer on a deeper level is more important than knowing “what’s hot” for the moment.
Lisa Ostrander – Executive Assistant

APPS: The app-centric approach to technology will increase and even spill over to the wider technology sphere.  This means increasingly specific apps that interact with other apps.  It also means a cohesive experience between devices.  As marketers and developers, it’s our job to sell an experience, not just any one app or site, and now more than ever it’ll be our job to make sure that is simple, cohesive, and engaging in an environment in the midst of dramatic transition.
Perry Govier – Developer

VOICE RECOGNITION: The integration of voice recognition technology, like Siri, into our daily routine. This technology will be used in everything from apps to make our lives easier, to selecting entertainment choices, to finding information faster and easier.
Jennie Eukel – Project Manager

MOBILE: 70% of Americans will own a smartphone (44% now).
Barb Vanags – VP of Finance & HR

VOICE RECOGNITION: More hands free technology on all devices. Apple always starts a trend, so I know we’ll see more devices with voice recognition like Siri.   I want my phone to know what I want to read and read it to me so I can drive and hear the stories I want.
Liz Tunheim – Social Media Manager

SOCIAL: Pinterest and its booming growth is going to find a beautiful way to deliver extremely relevant ads to you. Ads you, as a user, are happy to see because they will be integrated with the boards and pins of those you follow. These new “AdPins” will match the look and category of those items/products/yards/homes/quotes you would normally see on the boards you follow.
Jamie Lee Jacobsen – Lead Project Manager

FACIAL & VOICE RECOGNITION: Facial recognition software will allow for customized public display advertising based on age, gender, and other visible demographic metrics.  Also, this will become reality.
Tracy Henry – Search Marketing Associate

GAMIFICATION: There will be a bigger push towards “active interaction” through devices such as Wii and Kinect, which could influence everything from how we interact with games and movies to how we control our computers, or a presentation.
Travis Manick – Developer

MOBILE: Mobile devices will become as powerful as high end laptops. A user will have the ability to plug their phone into a screen and use it as a computer.
Ben Olsem – Designer

MOBILE: Consumers more and more are looking to utilize their smart phones (check-ins, deals, payments, etc.) and brands still know this. Last year was another large year in mobile adoption, but this year I think will be defined by consumers maximizing their mobile to better navigate all aspects of their lives (health, finance, social, etc.).
Nick Bryant – Senior Account Executive

SEARCH: Changes to search engine results and rankings continue to become more frequent at Google. Local, mobile, social and personalized results are all morphing at a rapid rate as Google mashes it’s technology and data across a massive audience.  Will it all be for the good of search or just the good of Google?
My prediction – Aaron Weiche

What will actually take hold in 2012? We might see all of these or just a few, but it’s easy to see that our industry is busting with innovation, growth and opportunity. No doubt this year will be another exciting one.

Do you have a prediction or comment to share on technology and marketing for this year?  Drop your comments below.