Make your Website Device Friendly using RWD (Responsive Web Design)

After reading the title for this post you must be thinking of what is RWD i.e. Responsive Web Design. It is not a technology but just a thought given by Ethan Marcotte, in his book “A Book A Part”.  The idea is that our website should response to the device on which it is to be shown by adapting the resolution, layout and design of that particular device so that our website fits on that particular device.

Now the coming era is of smart phones and hand held devices like tablets, iPad etc. and the main question to keep in mind is that are our web designs ready to be viewed on different types of screen resolutions? The usability of web browsers has changed from desktop based browser to mobile based browser and so does the change in expectation of the users. Now they want to use the websites in the same manner as they are using on their desktops and laptops. It is easy for them to expect but it is not as easy for the designer or the developer to develop. But after the invent of RWD it became easier for the designer to code the things for the unknown device. In the next few posts I am going to explain the complete fundamental of Responsive web design in a simpler manner.

ENTERPRISE 2.0 – SOCIALIZING YOUR BUSINESS

Enterprise 2.0 helps the organizations by involving the employees, customers, suppliers to share, collaborate and organize information for the benefit of the organization using web 2.0 technologies. Harvard Business School professor describes Enterprise 2.0 as “the use of emergent social software platforms within companies, or between companies and their partners or customers”. Some people think that it is bringing something of the kind Facebook into the internal atmosphere of the organization but it is much more than sharing comments and photographs. Social business platforms are now providing features like link to emails, IM tools, keywords and hashtags to find people, discussion forums, corporate blogging and many other features so as to dig out the employee’s brain.

CMSWire, de Gier in an interview quoted the term “creating this type of corporate social business connectivity solutions will help in expanding corporate brains”.

 

 

CEMEX’s Social Business Platform: Shift

CEMEX, a $13.5 billion company, world’s largest building material supplier and the third largest cement producer has taken an initiative in 2009 to blend social networking concepts and the idea of Enterprise 2.0 and develop an internal social network for the employees which became fruitful in 2010 and its results were beyond the imagination. The Shift is being used by more than 95% of the company’s employees. The results were so paying off that they cannot imagine. More than 500 communities were made by the employees and where they come together and collaborate on certain specific task related to a particular subject of the task and the CEMEX has admitted that the working culture and productivity has increased after doing so.

Richard Foo, the Collaboration Director of Nike Inc., has admitted that in just 60 days he has experienced a drastic change in the live production by adopting the social business platform from CISCO based social business network that creates enterprise-wide discussion and information threads. Nike is also trying to make it a Mobile Enterprise Business Solution that is integrating the social business platform onto mobiles and many vendors in the market are trying to provide certain trying to provide certain functionality.

If the organizations truly wants to maximize their benefits then they have to adopt social business platforms and not just that they have to make them mobile friendly as much as possible because this is the era of smart phones and internet.

E-MONEY AND SECURITY

With the advancement in technology and the increasing internet culture has made online shopping an attractive option for many internet users. But the fear of being cheated and fraud is on their minds, are the online transactions safe, will the product delivered will be the same they have seen, and many other questions.

The answer to all these questions is yes. If the site is genuine and the payment gateway tied up with that site is genuine then definitely your transactions are safe. All the transactions are safe because of encryption i.e. your username, password, merchant details, payment to be provided, pin numbers etc. all are in the highly encrypted manner and no intruder can have access to that information.

MasterCard has started MasterCard Online Authentication Service (OAS) that meets the needs of all e-commerce participants by offering flexible and robust solutions for online payment authentication. MasterCard provides high level of authentication to the user. There are choices of different types of authentication at different levels of security like:

Static password: In this most basic approach the cardholder is typically allowed to create his/her own personal password on the hosted, issuer-branded web site, after answering several enrollment questions. Cardholders may also “Activate-during-shopping” at participating merchants.

Dynamic password Via SMS Text message: Cardholder portfolios with high levels of mobile phone penetration are also candidates for this solution which delivers a dynamic password to the purchasing cardholder on a just-in-time basis. The MasterCard service can generate the one-time-password and route the SMS text message to the cardholder on behalf of the issuer, or send the message to the bank to handle with their SMS carrier.

Chip Authentication program (CAP) & AA4C

HOW IT WORKS

 

1. A cardholder submits an order at a participating online merchant.

2. The merchant sends a request to the MasterCard directory server to determine if the cardholder participates in the SecureCode program. The MasterCard directory subsequently forwards this request to the Hosted Service Access Control Server (ACS) to determine cardholder status. The enrollment response is returned to the merchant.

3. If the cardholder is participating in SecureCode, the merchant sends a request to the Hosted Service ACS to perform the actual cardholder authentication. Upon receipt of this request, the ACS will populate an issuer-branded authentication page, which is displayed to the cardholder within the merchant window. This page prompts the cardholder to submit their private SecureCode, which is then validated by the ACS.

4. The Hosted Service ACS sends a digitally signed response which contains the Accountholder Authentication Value (AAV)—back to the merchant indicating a successful cardholder verification session.

5. The merchant sends an authorization request that includes an AAV to the acquirer.

6. The acquirer sends the authorization request through the MasterCard authorization network. This authorization request will contain distinctive information about the SecureCode status of the transaction. A fully authenticated transaction will contain an AAV in the Universal Cardholder Authentication Field (UCAFTM).

7. The authorization request is sent by the MasterCard authorization network to the issuer for processing.

8. The authorization response is returned to the merchant and the purchase process is complete.

INDIA AND E-MONEY / E-COMMERCE

India after being a huge success in social market is all set for the next big revolution that is e-commerce. Indians are always positive when it comes to job perspective and personal financial matters. Moreover exposure and awareness to brand culture, wider market options, changing lifestyles, western influence and many other things are influencing Indians to adopt the e-commerce culture. Recent trends and figures shows the upcoming revolution which has already started, in Australia online purchasing has reached to $10 billion with a 9% growth in online spending. Now is the turn of India to get the colors of e-commerce.

Certain facts that shows the market is booming in India:

·         More that 6 out of ten Indian online consumers plan to do shopping.

·         10% of the users commit that they spend more than 11% of their monthly expenditure on online shopping.

·         71% of Indians got trust from their families while making an online purchase.

·         About 55% of the users take help of social sites to make a decision in order to buy something online.

·         More than 10% of the Indian users post negative comments or posts if they got a bad experience from certain product.

·         In the last six months Indians have purchased books (41%), Airline, Train tickets, Movie Tickets (40%), Electronic Equipments like TV, Camera etc.

Based upon these facts certain prediction can be made for the next six months w.r.t Indian market:

Products and Services People intend to purchase in next 6 months
Books	47%
Music	20%
Videos/ DVDs/Games (not downloaded)	21%
Clothing/Accessories/Shoes	30%
Cosmetics /nutrition supplies	13%
Electronic equipment (TV/Camera etc.)	37%
Computer Hardware / Accessories	25%
Computer Software (not downloaded)	20%
Airline ticket/ reservations	45%
Tours /Hotel Reservations	30%
Sporting Goods	12%
Groceries	21%

 

 

% of spending on online shopping of their total monthly expenditure
% of people	% spend
40	<5
33	6-10
19	11-25
6	26-50
2	51-75%
0	>75%

Age group wise comparison of spending money online
Age Group	% spend
15-20	6%
21-29	48%
31-39	28%
40-49	11%
>50	7%