We are excited to welcome our new designer Lauren Wallimann. She's actually been working here since the fall but never to late to welcome a new employee!

Lauren specializes in branding, web design and print design for B to B, B to C and non-profit clients. She is skilled in creating clean and compelling user interfaces for websites and well crafted logo illustrations. Lauren has extensive experience with the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash and Dreamweaver), content management systems (Drupal and Wordpress) and other online tools such as Campaign Monitor and Google Analytics.

Lauren won a scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Marist College, majoring in Digital Media as well as minoring in French and Global Studies. 

BI principal, Harry Bartlett is looking forward to working with Lauren. “Lauren strengthens our web design and branding capabilities. She has an intuitive knack for web design, creating exceptional user experiences that fit in well with our focus on delivering high end sites.” 

Learn more about Lauren and the Bartlett Interactive team.

Today, where life seemingly revolves around the web and social media, it appears as though content is the key to success.  After all, what would a blog be without posts, a twitter without tweets, and a Facebook without silly status updates? Content provides the user with something to connect and interact with; it starts a discussion, sells a product, answers a question. However, with all the emphasis on creating valuable content, where does web design fit into the mix? If you think about it, you'll find that content needs design more than you might think. 

Design is not meant to overtake content, rather it is meant to compliment it; it sets the mood and gives direction to the user. Within a subconscious instant (one twentieth of a second!), a user makes a judgement based on the aesthetics (color, layout, presentation, etc) of a site. This judgement determines how the user feels upon first viewing the site - simply put- either good, or bad. Getting that good feeling is important, as it will encourage the user to explore further, getting a better taste of that all important content. A good design will guide the user; bring him through a hierarchy of most important content to least, tell him to "READ THIS" or "BUY THIS"(e-commerce), and hopefully, he does. Nevertheless, don't underestimate the value of a great first impression! (And say no to comic sans!) 

Here are a few sites worth a quick look (especially if you like yachts... and wine) - 

  
  
 
   
What do YOU think? 

Concord Conserves, a non profit started by Bartlett Interactive, launched a website application that allows individuals to calculate their footprint, make reductions and compare themselves to others, both locally and globally. The website application was created as part of a 2011 Conservation Challenge for residents of Concord and Carlisle, MA.

Web Application Dashboard

The web app includes a ‘dashboard’ showing an individuals total carbon footprint, comparison to others around the world and how many earths needed if everyone lived like that person as well as the amount of reductions that person has made. There is also a ‘groups’ section which shows how individuals compare to other people in their town and how many reductions each person has made.

“People in Concord are very conservation oriented but many don’t realize how large their footprints are” says Concord Conserves and Bartlett Interactive founder Harry Bartlett. “The web app shows how people compare to others both in terms of consumption and reduction. This type of peer-to-peer information has proven to be a powerful driver for people to change their behavior.” 

Bartlett Interactive developed the web application as well as a promotional strategy that included creating a 40’ sign and sidewalk messages that ask the question “What’s Your Footprint?”. The signage was created by local high school students Wyatt Burns and David Yanofsky and created using re-claimed plywood and paint.

40’ “What’s Your Footprint” sign at Emerson Field in Concord MA

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The Challenge kick off event was held at the Harvey Wheeler Community Center in West Concord Sept. 27, 2011 and showcased companies and organizations that help reduce people’s footprint. The event included 14 exhibitors and music and art work by CCHS high school students. See a video and photos of the event on Facebook.

Harry Bartlett (Bartlett Interactive), Morwen Two Feathers (Concord Conserves) and Wyatt Burns (artist)

A poster campaign with large photos depicting the different aspects of sustainability such as oil production, local food, conservation land and drought were also put up around town.
To date about 140 people have made 300 reductions, reducing 106 tons or carbon. Many of the participants are high school students who used the web app as part of their Earth Science class.

See more at www.ConcordConserves.org/Challenge and the Facebook page.

Web design tools, content management systems and Internet marketing processes (SEO, email) continue to evolve, providing more extensive capabilities, easier to use software and reduced cost. BITS (Bartlett Interactive Tool Suite) is a collection of the best tools providing clients higher value websites and Internet marketing programs at a lower cost.

BITS is based on Bartlett’s 14 years of experience delivering web solutions for over 150 clients in a variety of industries.

The tool suite focuses on the 3 key areas of a healthy online presence:

1. Design: tools that enhance the branding and design of websites as well as user interactions such as innovative ways of displaying and interacting with content
2. Marketing:tools and best practices for easily managing online conversion, email programs, Search Engine Optimization and Social Media that generate leads and brand awareness
3. Technology: a feature rich and well tested open source content management system (CMS) for easy website editing, publishing and deployment of advanced capabilities such as e-commerce

See more details about BITS and web design, web development and Internet marketing at Bartlett Interactive

EXAMPLES

The following projects were recently completed using BITS system. 

Better Homes and Gardens
www.bhglivebetter.com

Better Homes and Gardens needed a web presence and Internet marketing platform for introducing their Kitchen Collection line sold through Walmart. The site included many features such as a blog, recipe swap, extensive product photography, blogger contest, video and social media integration. Post launch services include SEO, email marketing and social media integration. 

The site has over 400 pages and uses Drupal core functionality plus about 30 add-on modules for managing content, blog, social media and community functionality. BITS allowed for easy development of the site and online community as well as post launch Internet marketing activities, saving time, increasing effectiveness and providing a healthy ROI.

EBSCO Publishing (EP)
www.bizsum.com

EP needed a web application that could be easily replicated and customized for multiple product offerings. Some of these offerings include subscription based e-commerce for the general public, private corporate communities, free trials, forums, user authentication, on-site search, blogs, RSS and socal media feeds.Each product website utilizes extensive Drupal core functional and numerous off the shelf and customized modules.The benefits of the BITS system included: reduced time required to develop the web application, easy management of websites and the ability to launch complex product offerings easily in the future.

UTEC
www.utec-lowell.org

 
The site we built for the United Teen Equality Center (UTEC) included extensive website design and development, an online community and advocacy tools for a nationally renowned non-profit serving the youth community in Lowell, MA. Website features include an online store, social action petition micro-site, forums, job resources, videos, Flickr fed photo galleries, online donations, audio gallery, SalesForce.com integration, on-site search and private user area.

The BITS system saved development time allowing for more time to be spent on design, messaging, social action (online petitions and advocacy), user interactions and site features such as the photo, video and audio galleries.

GET STARTED
Getting started is easy, just contact us at (978) 369-2472 or online (links to form). We’ll analyze your needs and recommend the easiest, most cost-effective way to obtain value from your website and online marketing programs.

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New addition to the Bartlett Interactive team expands company’s web development capabilities

 

Concord, MA February 14, 2011 – Bartlett Interactive, an interactive design agency, is excited to welcome newcomer Ben Davis to a versatile team of developers and creatives. Ben Davis, a native of New Hampshire, has recently joined the Bartlett Interactive Team as the in-house web developer and PHP guru.

A graduate of Lyndon College, with a BA in Digital Media and an AS in Computer Science, Ben has a focus on web development. He brings his knowledge of XHTML, CSS PHP, MySQL, jQuery and multiple CMS applications including Drupal and Wordpress to enhance BI’s current projects.

Founder Harry Bartlett is looking forward to working with Ben. “Ben’s addition to our team expands our web development capabilities. We will be able to provide a much more in depth experience for our clients while continuing to provide Drupal as a platform. Ben is a perfect fit for our focus on building websites that increase brand awareness, lead generation, and online advocacy for non-profits.” 

Bartlett's eValuator continues to prove that the majority of websites are not well optimized. Visually, anyone can see whether a website is well designed or not but many people are unaware of just how many other key elements make a website successful.

Based on the eValuator results dating back to October 2008, over 37% of the websites entered received a grade below 50%. See the pie chart below for a complete overview:

The grade is based on behind the scenes factors such as Google PageRank, indexed pages, meta tags, PR, and more.

To see what grade your website receives, try out the eValuator now.

Check out this short video about Bartlett Interactive including what we focus on and a few examples of work we have done.

Learn about 3 tools that can make your website more visually interesting, simply and inexpensively. Our screencast "How to Make Websites More Visual" discusses ThickBox, SlideShow Pro, and Flash video with numerous examples and pricing info.

It has been 4 months since the launch of Bartlett's website eValuator tool.
 
For those who have not seen it, it is a tool used to assess the health of a website based on different indicators, such as search engine rankings, technical issues, marketing components and analytics.
 
The results have proven the inevitable: most websites are not well optimized.
 
Since the launch, 72% of all websites entered into the eValuator received a score below 80 (out of 100) and 83% in the month of February. Some of the common problems for small websites are the lack of an xml sitemap, favicon, and rss feed.

• An xml sitemap is a map of your site that helps search engines better index the pages of your site.
• A favicon is a small icon in the corner of the URL bar and can increase branding recognition by have one. 
• An RSS feed is helpful for sharing news about your company, new additions to your website, and more. The more you share information, the more visible you will be online.

 
Check back for new posts on more eValuator statistics.
To try the eValuator out for yourself and see how your website measures up, click here.

An image makes a big difference for someone trying to absorb your message. It’s instant communication – no words required. Now that we all have huge screens, why not web sites with huge photos?

I recently came across a photoblog by the Denver Post which does an incredible job of using big images to tell a story. The size of the photo [ 900 x 600px] makes such a difference – the images just wouldn’t hold up at some formerly adequate size like 300 x 200. 

How does this apply to selling a product? Check out Apple’s Macbook pro page – there’s no doubt about the quality of the product with this kind of detail [980 x 524 px].