Silverlight Platform for Applications (Part I): Compelling Experiences
INCREASE REPEAT VISITS AND BRAND LOYALTY WHILE DRAMATICALLY REDUCING CUSTOMER SUPPORT COSTS THROUGH COMPELLING, INTUITIVE, HIGH PERFORMANCE WEB EXPERIENCES.
For many businesses the Web has become a key means of communicating with existing customers and attracting new business, overtaking more traditional, costly channels such as call centres and retail outlets. The cost savings and scale achievable on the Web are very attractive but the experience on the Web has to be given as much attention as any Retail experience or interaction with a telephone operator. A poor online experience that doesn’t reinforce a company’s brand or customer service ethic will likely cost more in lost revenue than the savings made.
Silverlight allows businesses to create compelling experiences that stay faithful to an organisation’s brand. In figure 6, the New York Times was able to vastly increase online readership using Silverlight’s advanced text, graphics and layout features while keeping its distinctive brand.
The New York Times was looking for a better way to engage readers who wanted to access the news electronically. The newspaper already had a well-developed Web site, but its surveys indicated that visitors only spent between 6 and to 10 minutes on the site—whereas its print readers devoted as much as 45 minutes per day to the paper. Using Silverlight, The Times built the Times Reader that gives the look and feel of a newspaper with the flexibility and low information latency of the Web. Surveys indicate that readers spend an average of 30 minutes per day using the Times Reader, suggesting that the paper has succeeded in meeting its readers’ needs and up to 400% increase in reader "stickiness" over the Web site.
INCREASE USER PRODUCTIVITY AND ACCURACY BY PROVIDING AN ATTRACTIVE, EASY TO USE APPLICATION USER INTERFACE THAT MIMICS THE BEHAVIOUR OF DESKTOP SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS.
Silverlight incorporates both a rich presentation interface and robust, industry standard programming platform that enable organisations to deliver productivity applications through a Web browser that appear to have the richness of interaction normally only found in desktop applications. There are good security reasons why users should maintain a distinction between unknown applications delivered in the browser and trusted applications installed on the desktop and this means that browser applications will never equal the desktop experience but this is no reason to not expect richness from browser applications and Silverlight delivers this capability.
Richness in browser applications is not purely gratuitous; studies show that well designed user interfaces increase user productivity:
- Users feel compelled to use attractive interfaces
- Intuitive metaphors help users get things done without training
- When users achieve things easily they feel good, want to do more now and in the future
CREATE DIFFERENTIATED AND BRANDED EXPERIENCES USING SILVERLIGHT’S HIGH QUALITY GRAPHICS, HIGH DEFINITION VIDEO, DEEP ZOOM, AND ENGAGING ANIMATIONS.
Many application experiences on the Web are restricted through the common use of similar technology and techniques, losing much of the individual brand and relationship built up with customers. Silverlight allows developers and designers to take existing sites and rapidly incorporate new, appealing features and interactivity into them, differentiating your site from those of competitors or others on the Web.
Deep Zoom is a great example of a Silverlight feature that immediately differentiates your application through a new navigation metaphor and back end technology that allows visitors to intuitively
navigate massive libraries of image content. Figure 7 shows the branded web experience built by Renault to show their Laguna Coupe.
The Laguna Coupé microsite (www.laguna-coupe.com) used second-generation Silverlight technology with Deep Zoom to allow the user to see many aspects of the car on a single screen. Stephen Norman, Renault Group global marketing director explains “Renault Laguna Coupé is an exceptional car with a time-proof design that holds immense appeal to motor connoisseurs. Consistent with the connoisseur’s appreciation for superlative automotive design, Renault decided to use a web technology that would enable site visitors to admire the car in great detail”
