Tips and tools: A chat-based tool to convert visitors; designing for voice; A/B testing videos; and more

Here are some great resources we have recently shared with one another

(We don’t profit from recommending things. We just love sharing things we think you’ll appreciate. You can see our other Tips and Tools articles here.)

A conversion-focused chatbot

Screenshot of Continually’s chatbot builder.
Continually allows you to build logic-tree based chatbots for your website.

Continual.ly provides automated live chat, using a logic-tree style system—a bit like a text version of an automated IVR phone system. It has templates for different types of businesses.

An easy way to A/B test your videos

We host CRE’s videos with Wistia, and we love it. Wistia has just announced a new feature, “Find out which videos work best for your business (and which don’t) with our brand new A/B testing feature.”

Screenshot of Wistia’s video guide to A/B testing.
Wistia now has an A/B testing feature.

A way to make a long page more skim-readable

In this article, the BBC uses an interesting technique for progressive disclosure. Readers can choose to read the short version, a long version, or a video version. The page works particularly well on mobile.

Note that the short version isn’t just a truncated version of the long version.

The BBC website offers three ways to read
The BBC website offers three ways to read.

Figma, a design tool with some great, unique features

Figma describes itself as “The first collaborative interface design tool.” Its new features, Smart Selection and Tidy Up, are so useful, it’s surprising that all design tools don’t have them.

Animation showing how Figma works
Animation showing how Figma works.

“Ok Google, could you ask Siri how I’m supposed to design for Alexa?”

Now, you can design for voice interfaces without having to involve a developer. Adobe’s software for designing interfaces, Adobe XD, now supports “voice prototyping.”It uses your computer’s microphone so you can trigger actions using your voice. The program talks back to you, so you can experience what the flow will be like before you get developers involved. The details are described on Adobe XD’s homepage—and in this article from Fast Company.

Screenshot of Adobe XD
Adobe XD allows you to prototype interfaces for voice interaction.

An extremely short guide to taking better photos

These tweets by Ben Gilbert contain the “vital few” best tips for improving your photos.

One of Ben’s photos, showing how the activity should be heading from the one-third to the remaining two-thirds.
Some great photography tips from Ben Gilbert.

A flowchart describing what to do if your Mac won’t start

If your Mac ever fails to boot, this flowchart might save the day.

A flowchart showing how to troubleshoot a Mac that won’t boot.
Let’s hope you never need this.

The world’s best soda-pop store

We love hearing from people who devote an unreasonable amount of time to making something great. Their enthusiasm is infectious. This 13-minute video, which we discovered via Basecamp’s Jason Fried, profiles the eccentric owner of a store that sells only soda pop. We find it surprisingly inspirational.

The “Obsessives: Soda Pop” video.
When someone is in love with a subject, their passion is infectious.

News from inside Conversion Rate Experts

We are still hiring for a front-end developer (and other roles)

We have updated our “Careers” page to describe the latest roles for which we are hiring.

Our team at our recent company get-together.
We are currently hiring for a front-end developer.

We’ve published another great video testimonial

We have just published a new video testimonial that describes how we’ve generated several hundred thousand dollars of additional income for travel company HotelGuides.

We helped to increase the overall conversion rate by between 20% and 25%.

In case you’d rather read, here’s a transcript of the video. We now have 86 testimonials from delighted clients.

And finally…

“That’s not a lion!”

An outrageous case of false advertising: This zoo in China apparently lost its lion—so it tried to trick visitors by replacing it…

…with a slightly lion-ey looking dog.

A lion.
In case you had forgotten, a reminder of what a lion looks like. (Photo by Wade Lambert on Unsplash.)

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