Here is what they had to say about the conference:

Tommy Pyatt, Front-End Developer, Ampersand Commerce. Tweet him at @tommy_pyatt

“One of the things I enjoy the most about tech conferences is hearing from people who are intensely passionate about their work. The speakers at CSS Day are professionals at the very top of their game and it was a brilliant opportunity to gain insight from their talks and be inspired by their enthusiasm.

I ♥ Amsterdam pic.twitter.com/npU4FrBnGM

— Tommy Pyatt (@tommy_pyatt) June 16, 2013

“Being at conferences such as CSS Day means that we can keep our finger firmly on the pulse of the rapidly-changing world of front-end software engineering. There are exciting times ahead for the internet and for ecommerce in general as consumer hardware becomes more capable and the W3C introduces features into browsers that allow web developers to take full advantage of advances in computer hardware and software. CSS Day offered us an opportunity to learn about where the web is headed and what technologies we should be keeping an eye on.

“Personally, my favourite talk was Lea Verou’s on border-radius. She is an experienced and compelling speaker and the talk was an excellent demonstration of the amount of thought and effort that goes into every aspect of web standardisation. She managed to take the concept of a single CSS property and expand on it using fun illustrations and mathematical equations to such an extent that the audience was overwhelmed yet fully engaged.”

In a few minutes: the last talk of the day, @LeaVerou about the humble border-radius. #cssday pic.twitter.com/HldAcpmy5j

— CSS Day Conference (@cssdayconf) June 14, 2013

Yousef Cisco, Front-End Developer, Ampersand Commerce. Tweet him at @yousefcisco

“When support for flexbox takes off (or IE7,8 and 9 die) it will completely change the way ecommerce sites are styled by reducing the complexity of the HTML and using CSS for layout.

Next talk: @stephenhay about flexbox! #cssday pic.twitter.com/Lu9Ac7X5jy

— CSS Day Conference (@cssdayconf) June 14, 2013

“We can use CSS to change the font for certain characters. When support for this feature becomes more consistent we’ll be able to use an icon font simply by including the special character anywhere in the page.

“CSS and SVG filters are going to change the way we design many sites, allowing us to completely push the boundaries of what’s currently possible in terms of user interaction and web design.

“Not having a mobile (or responsive) site is dooming your site to fail before it’s gone out the door. The performance impact of loading multiple font weights is more apparent on mobile sites and should be avoided where possible.”

Andrew Smith, Front-End Developer, Ampersand Commerce.

“I liked learning about the future progression of CSS and interacting with the people who work hard to solve the age-old problem of standardisation. Even if it does take 10 years for something to be truly ‘cross-browser compatible’…

“Eric Meyers’ talk on FontFace was arguably the most important of the day with many interesting points regarding mobile, reducing bloat and support for local fonts. He really engaged with the audience and was the only speaker to come out with solutions to problems we face in a practical way.

Introducing #cssday: @ppk pic.twitter.com/IwUks6pRwo

— CSS Day Conference (@cssdayconf) June 14, 2013

“The demonstration of Flex Box by Stephen Hay was a real eye opener and could help to solve many of the issues that we face on a daily basis. Shame about the lack of support on legacy browsers though…

“One resounding point that endured throughout the conference was the lack of support for browsers other than Google Chrome. When on multiple occassions the subject of IE was brought up, the speakers seemed uninterested. We need to face the horrible truth IE is here to stay whether we like it or not!”

Do you agree with our developers? Anything to add? Comment below!

If you’re interested in having a go yourself, go ahead! We’re all out of prizes, but if you complete this challenge and submit it with your application for our Graduate Programme for Software Engineers, your efforts won’t go unnoticed!

What the Hackers had to say:

“The challenge was extremely well thought out with some complex and thought provoking challenges built into the problem as a whole. The company presented the challenge very well including an excellent explanation of the solution from Darryl Adie on the Sunday afternoon.”

Adam Jones

“The challenge has given me a much better understanding of how to approach such problems in the future, and has further influenced me study the algorithms that provide a solution to such challenges.”

Cullen Rhodes

“It is great that companies like Ampersand still care about algorithm complexity and code efficiency.”

Sina Sh

“The challenge was very interesting and fun to work on. We are all fairly new developers and had none of us had ever worked with JSON before, which made the challenge interesting and taught us some new skills. We worked well as a team to try and solve the challenge and had a lot of fun doing it. We had a great time at the StudentHack event and can’t wait to attend again next time!”

Wesley Kilgour

Here are some photos from the event:

A form. A big, long form. If you have a willing customer determined to complete this purchase quickly, repetitive error alerts and unclear error messaging is bound to frustrate them and potentially lose you that sale.

I’ve gathered some great articles with advice about improving form function through helpful validation and messaging that will encourage your customers to keep going, even if there is an error.

Some of these articles are more focused on the technology and implementation, rather than the business case, but it’s helpful to be well versed in the development techniques in order to make an informed decision for your business.

10 Tips for Improving Ecommerce Checkouts

eConsultancy

Practical advice about improving checkout forms, in business-terms.
 
 

Inline Validation In Web Forms

A list Apart

A very interesting article including video from user testing about forms.
 
 

Form-Field Validation: The Errors-Only Approach

Smashing Magazine

A short article about how to keep form validation simple when inline validation isn’t possible.
 
 

An Extensive Guide To Web Form Usability

Smashing Magazine

A longer, step-by-step advice article about building usable forms based on research and user testing.
 
 

Stop Misusing Select Menus

UX Movement

A very specific article highlighting the correct way to choose your input types and select menus.

Who are Ampersand Commerce? We are an open source ecommerce agency who have extensive experience designing, delivering and supporting complex ecommerce solutions for international multichannel retailers.

Are you an enterprise retailer considering Magento Enterprise? Contact us.

Grads! Don’t forget to apply to our Front-end Web Development Grad programme or Software Engineering Grad programme!

If you are interested in the quiz and want to play along, here it is! (Answers in the back)
 

And here are live tweets from the night. Until next time!
 
Tweets about “#thequizmcr”

Today, most retailers have their channels and data joined up, and if they don’t yet, they are trying desperately to do so.

Yes, Mary Portas, we heard you: “The high street is dying”, “God save the high street”.

But is it really dying? Or is the retail industry just at a turning point now? It seems to me that smart brands are evolving with the changing consumer demands and behaviour. For example, 5-7 years ago I wouldn’t think of saying that opening a physical store was innovative, but in 2013 for pure play retailers, it is.

Is Primark Mad to Ignore Ecommerce?

(THE REBEL)

It’s an age when nearly every bricks and mortar business is operating via multiple channels. But what if the offering doesn’t suit ecommerce? (WHAT?! Is that even possible?) eConsultancy investigates why Primark isn’t using the online channel and yet are still growing. Some people are of the opinion that the time is now for Primark to go online — don’t do it as a strategy for growth once sales start to fall! Others think that with no real direct competition and the “I’ll go in for socks and come out with £50 worth of stuff” mentality of their customers, their business model isn’t on the road to failure anytime soon. What do you think?

Update: 4 June 2013

Primark is now selling a selection of 20 garments on ASOS. Interesting. Thoughts?

Pure-play retailer, Moo, opens a shop in London

(THE INNOVATOR)

Wait, a pure-play retailer is actually opening up on the high street, and paying London rent as well? They must think it’s worth it. This is a perfect example of a retailer using show-rooming to their advantage. It works well for Moo because ordering their product is inherently stressful. What does that card feel like? Is it really worth going Luxe? If you sell a product that has the potential for misunderstanding or mistakes, give your customers a way to sample or test. Moo has taken this to another level — maybe all of those sample packs shipped for free began to add up? Also, Moo is now able to offer a rapid Click & Collect service to customers in the London area who can pop in and pick up.

Iceland Foods returns to ecommerce

(THE BETA TESTER)

Iceland are an example of a brand who were actually one of the first adopters of ecommerce in the grocery space. They were also not afraid to pull back out when it wasn’t working for them. Now, they are trialling the ecommerce channel again, citing a minimum order value. Will it work this time?

Who are Ampersand Commerce? We are an open source ecommerce agency who have extensive experience designing, delivering and supporting complex ecommerce solutions for international multichannel retailers.

Are you an enterprise retailer considering Magento Enterprise? Contact us.

Today our MD Darryl Adie, Development Manager Iain Hubbard and Senior Developer Joseph McDermott went to play professor at the University of Manchester. They were asked to speak about Agile & Test Driven Development in a commercial environment.

Here is their presentation. Leave any comments below!

If you are a Computer Science student graduating this year, take a look at our Graduate Programme for Software Engineers >

Last week the cream of the luxury retail crop all came to an event celebrating luxury retail: SheerB2B. The event, organised by SheerLuxe was a 2-day roundtable event which featured speakers from brands like Belstaff, The Hut Group, Sweaty Betty, ASOS, and more… and our own Darryl Adie! We were very proud to sponsor such an informative and intimate event with retailers (many selling on Magento Enterprise!) sharing their struggles, solutions and outlook on the future retail landscape.

We live tweeted from the event, below is the stream of what we thought were the most interesting points:

Tweets about “#sheerb2b @AmpersandHQ”

On the first day of the conference Darryl spoke about what it takes for a retailer to be truly innovative. If all retailers were limited only to the roadmap of their ecommerce platform, then everyone would be doing the same thing, letting their platform lead their technology decisions.

Those who have innovative ideas, embrace new technology, and implement those ideas into reality quickly… those retailers are innovating. The bottom line, if you don’t have a good partnership in place, either in-house or agency, then you’ll never be at the forefront of innovation.

If you’re thinking about applying to one of our Graduate Programmes, here are 5 useful tips about what we look for when we review CVs:

1. Write a covering note

If you’ve found a generic cover note on the internet to copy and paste from, we’ll know – it’s obvious!  Be original. Tell us what you like about Ampersand Commerce and what special skills or qualities you can offer to the position.

IMPORTANT! If you are applying to our Front-end Web Development programme, but you come from a strong computer science background, we may wonder why you didn’t apply to our Software Engineering programme (and visa versa!). Make sure that you include your reasons for applying and relevant skills in your covering note so we understand your intentions.

2. Research us & Magento

We like to see what you already know about us and what we do and tell us how you can add value to our team.

3. Don’t write a VERY long CV

We want to know about the most relevant stuff. For example, if you’re applying for the Front –End Web Developer programme but have Back-End experience, make sure your Front-End skills and knowledge stand out, you’ll only confuse us otherwise. Don’t apply for both programmes – we’ll think you’re not focused.

4. Stand out!

We see so many CVs so it’s very refreshing when the applicants’ personality comes through in the covering note and the CV.

5. Demonstrate your skills and knowledge

We are geeks at heart and very passionate about technology, beautiful code and making stuff work. Show us that you are too! Highlight what relevant coding groups or networks you’re involved in. If you have a Github, tell us! Include links to your most recent project, etc.

If you’re ready to apply, please follow the links on the careers page on our website.

We’re very proud to announce that 7dayshop has gone live!

7dayshop has been the go-to site for discount photography equipment, gadgets and office supplies in the UK since 1998. Early to the ecommerce bandwagon in 2001, 7dayshop have been leading the online trade of affordable products to the UK and Ireland for over a decade.

7dayshop approached us in late 2011 to re-platform to Magento Enterprise and re-design and restructure their online store. Many of their requirements were around improving the customer experience including intelligent search, genuine recommendations and live chat customer service. 7dayshop also wanted their customers to be able to find them anywhere online, so multichannel integration with marketplaces was essential.

Having had the same ecommerce solution and general design for over 10 years, this was a project to be handled with care. 7dayshop needed to improve their ecommerce offering to attract new customers without compromising the comfort and loyalty of their existing users.

Read the full case study here.

Before:

After: