We are thrilled to announce that our latest non-profit web design project has picked up top honors at the Interactive Media Awards (IMA). The NewSchools Venture Fund website won the coveted IMA Best in Class Award with an overall score of 484 (out of a possible 500) in the ‘Nonprofit’ category. The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Awards. It represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism.

How The Judges Rated The Site

• Design: 96/100
• Content: 97/100
• Feature Functionality: 100/100
• Usability: 93/100
• Standards Compliance & Cross-Browser Compatibility: 98/100

Total: 484

Congratulations to Iron Design Director Alice Bybee for, well, the design! Additional kudos to Sam Evans for his Standards Compliant coding prowess. Respect!

Find out more about the NewSchools project.

Check it out!

Is the reading public finally ready for some cowboys killin’ Nazis? Yes, yes we are.

Introducing: Paris High Noon.

An explosive new site designed by our very own Art Director, Dave Caraker to promote Trent Tano’s manuscript. Boasting a bold graphic interface and a clever interactive character and timeline slider, this site is sure to bring Tano’s book some serious street cred. Check it out! 

(psst…Trent is seeking representation so if you know any literary agents and publishers, please pass it on!)

Poor fit is cited as the most common reason shoppers abandon or return clothing purchases online. In fact, according to retail consultant Kurt Salmon of the NPD Group, the return rate for apparel sites often exceeds 20%, and 75% of those returns are due to poor fit. And sites like Zappos, who practically beg you to return purchases by offering a no-hassle/free shipping policy, claim return rates as high as 35 percent.

The direct costs of return shipping and handling aren’t even the worst of it. The major concern for retailers is the loss of profits in the opportunity. Annette Kramer, principal at PricewaterhouseCoopers, explains that “just by taking the garment out of the sales cycle for a week or more, a retailer can lose 20% of the value of the garment, particularly if it is a high-fashion or seasonal item. Worse still, consumers who receive an ill-fitting garment are much less likely to buy again at the same store.”

For years, internet retailers have been trying to mitigate the risk of returns by offering shoppers better tools to make informed purchase decisions, such as size charts, front/back/side view shots, and 360-degree videos. Some of the more innovative e-tailers, such as Banana Flame have even gone as far as using augmented reality in an attempt to simulate the fitting room by projecting clothing on to the shopper standing in front of a standard webcam. However, this tool presents an image far from reality (note: my paper doll cut out below).

The fact is, no matter how appealing the product itself may be on screen, people still prefer to try on clothing before they buy it and will visit stores precisely for that reason. Unless, of course, we can create technology that can mimic the emotional experience of brick-and-mortar shopping, which is exactly what the high-tech firm, Fits.me claims to have done.

The new technology built by Fits.me  allows users to create a robotic mannequin replica of their body to try on different sizes of clothing. Users enter their body measurements, then are presented with a digital form that mimics their shape and size. Antony Comyns, e-commerce manager for Hawes & Curtis, Internet Retailer Magazine, says Fits.me, “…provides [customers] more assurance that ordering from an e-commerce retailer will result in a properly sized garment. As a result, the conversion rate has more than doubled among [international customers] who use the Virtual Fitting Room.”

No doubt, this will be an extremely valuable tool for internet retailers and shoppers alike, but what if you’re like me and you’re completely clueless about your body measurements?  And, really, who owns a paper measuring tape? Well, you’ll be happy to know that come this November another inventive company called UPcload plans to release a piece of software that can capture 20 exact body measurements of a user standing in front of a standard webcam within 40 seconds. Body measurements are then compared to the exact measurements of the clothing size and the user is given an accurate size suggestion, fitting suggestions (loose or tight), and presented images of models with similar body types wearing the clothing. Think about it. This means e-tailers can now simulate the fitting room salesperson, virtually up-selling and suggesting clothing ‘that would look great on you!!’ Imagine returning to the Levi’s store and being presented with images of your body type already wearing your favorite 501s. The possibilities for ecommerce personalization are endless, not to mention the overall improvement of customer satisfaction ratings.

If Fits.me and UPcload prove successful, they will have certainly revolutionized the way we shop online. I’ve signed up for UPcload’s Alpha testing set for next month. We’ll see if UPcload’s bold statement that you will ‘never return clothes again’ is in fact true. Stay tuned for my review!

Check it out! Visual Media Alliance’s recent quarterly newsletter included a write-up about the Outstanding Achievement Award we received this summer from the Interactive Media Council. The award was for excellence in design and usability of the Dockers Macy’s microsite. We were honored to be recognized, as well as included in VMA’s publication!

What does it take to keep your copywriting fresh and engaging? Recently, ABC television asked the same question. As the network prepared to launch their fall line up, their promotional messaging wasn’t connecting as well as they wanted it to.

So they called on Iron to deliver lead-in copy for four programs, including Modern Family, Body of Proof, Suburgatory and Man Up! With shows ranging from half hour comedy to one hour drama, they were four very different assignments. And often times, with a compressed timeline (ABC had only a week), an agency’s copy department will begin to lump a group of products or services together, with common messaging elements increasing efficiencies. But in many cases, those products or services have very different things to offer very different targets – and while it makes for harder work, it’s important to keep that in mind at every stage of the process.

Case in point, from the outset, we defined a specific messaging positioning for each of the four shows we were assigned, and tethered our thinking to that positioning – assuring we were able to present unique, ownable concepts for all of them.

The toolworks.org website launch completes our rebrand for Toolworks, a self-supporting nonprofit that is devoted to helping people with disabilities connect with the opportunities in their community. After redesigning their identity and stationery system, we created templates for their day to day operational needs, brand guidelines and began work on bringing their brand to life through their website.

With a stream-lined site structure and media-rich content, the new website enables Toolworks to spotlight their client success stories. Our strong attention to accessibility ensures past, present and future clients and supporters will also be able to navigate the site with ease. We built the site on top of WordPress, an easy to use content management system, to allow Toolworks the flexibility to maintain the website themselves, with support from Iron when needed.

The new website allows Toolworks to focus on running and promoting the social ventures that allow them to provide social services to over 500 individuals with disabilities every year. Their latest endeavor, Bakeworks, was featured on Huffington Post San Francisco.

Patelco, one of the country’s largest credit unions and a long time client of ours, celebrated their SF branch grand re-opening last Wednesday and an early morning line of 100+ people eagerly waited to get a look at the brand new interior. Or maybe they were there to collect the $75 being awarded to the first 75 people through the doors. This was just one of the offers we cooked up this summer to promote the branch and its move.

At the end of July, Patelco closed their current SF main branch doors and moved on up the street to 124 Second. With this new branch location opening just 75 yards away from the old, the goal was to make existing members aware of the move, so daily banking routines weren’t disrupted, as well as bring in potential members.

In July, we targeted existing members with a direct mail flyer notifying them of the branch move and promoting the “First 75 in, take $75 out” offer with a QR code. Upon scanning the code, members were taken to the sitelet we developed earlier in the year for the Patelco Pays Your Way campaign. And a pop up prompted visitors to enter their information to receive a voucher and chance to win the $75. Additionally, visitors had the opportunity to take a look around and learn how Patelco celebrated their anniversary by giving back to the community.

We also created a series of bold, eye-catching posters for the new branch windows directing anyone passing by to visit the site. All patelcopays.org visitors during the promotional period, not just current members, were eligible to redeem the voucher.

Last week, we were honored by the Interactive Media Council with an Outstanding Achievement Award for excellence in design and usability of the Dockers Macy’s micro site.

This robust online shop-in-shop experience is one of our finest achievements in ecommerce design and usability. Utilizing elements from the new Dockers brand launched by DraftFCB, we were able to design a micro site that spoke to the khaki retailer’s target of 35+ males, and enticed them with entertaining interactive features, including a “Fit Guide” and “Style Finder Survey.”

From the day of its launch, the micro site captured attention and interest in a way that transcended the standard online retail experience – encouraging Dockers shoppers to explore the full range of Dockers products, and bettering the likelihood of a sale.

It’s an honor to have our work recognized by the IMA, and even more so to have been given the opportunity to work with two terrifically talented and savvy teams at Dockers and Macy’s.  We’d like to personally thank Dockers for bringing us aboard, as well as Macy’s for their development prowess!