It can often seem like there's a straight line between simplicity and usability. Improving usability and user experience involves working to reduce confusion, and the simpler something is, the less confusion there can be. If an object (or website) is simple, it's immediately apparent how to use it. The more complexity you introduce, the more difficult that becomes, and so ‘keep it simple’ can seem like a solid usability rule of thumb.

With the huge range of different marketing channels available to marketers today, it’s more critical than ever to have a marketing strategy that covers a variety of different channels.

Remember Ello? The social network formerly known as the ‘anti-Facebook’ has developed into a compelling platform for visual social media, and now it’s adding ecommerce features to the mix.

Viral content is sort of the holy grail of internet marketing; everyone wants it, but almost no-one knows how to get it.

At eDelivery Expo 2016 in Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre, Samantha Hearn, Head of Social Media at Anicca Digital, gave a jam-packed presentation on how social shopping can add value to your business.

The social network Ello, launched in March 2014, has often been seen as a no-go area for brands and businesses due to its uncompromising stance on advertising.

Ello has used its time away from the limelight to better develop its direction and implement features that bring it up to par with other major social networks. It has also planted its flag firmly in the ‘visual social media’ space, showing just how wide of the mark all the comparisons to Facebook were.

Finding ways to monetise a free internet service is always a challenge, and for Yahoo, turning a profit with the microblogging website Tumblr has been no exception.

In the last part of this article, we looked at two out of four major visual social networks, their unique features and how you can gear your social strategy towards them: the dominant titan Instagram, and the dark horse Pinterest. To round things off, we’re going to look at why you shouldn’t ignore the creative teen hub that is Tumblr, how you can turn Snapchat’s disappearing media to your advantage, and some general tips that you can use when planning out your visual strategy on any social network.

The web is becoming more and more visual, and nowhere more so than on social media, where some of the most influential platforms revolve around pictures and video.

It can be tempting to jump on the bandwagon as soon as a new social network starts generating buzz online. However, here are a few things to consider before devoting your entire social strategy to the ‘next Facebook’. Every now and again, a new social network will start to take the internet by storm, with droves of influencers, brands and publishers piling onto the service in the hopes of getting in on the ‘next big thing in social’. After all, you never know when one of them could turn out t

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two years (in which case, welcome back), you probably know that YouTube can be pretty big money. Making YouTube videos has become at least a regular source of revenue for many people, and for a few, the basis of a huge fortune. In this new media landscape of vlogs and songs, tutorials and Let’s Plays, a few names have started cropping up like vague yet menacing government agencies. Gleam Futures. Big Frame. Maker Studios. But what are they real

Raven is a transgender woman who has been making videos on YouTube since 2011. Under the username Raven Ovah, she posts videos on LGBTQ issues, advice on dating and being yourself, makeup and hair tutorials, and more. Raven first started making videos to give other transgender women the benefit of her experience in sex and relationships. “When it comes down to girls like me, men use us as experiments,” she says frankly. “They don’t take it seriously; because we’re looking for relationships, and they’re just looking at us as a fetish. So they don’t think that we are serious when we want to have a relationship with them. They use us for sex, and they’ll do anything to get it. “So I started doing videos to get the girls more aware, so no-one had to go through what I went through.”

The number of young transgender people known to have taken their lives this year has already climbed into the double digits. Social media and online communities have been key to spreading the news of their identities and raising awareness of the issues that surround these tragedies; but can they be harming as much as they are helping?

If you’re someone who loves ideas, projects and discovery, you’ll be right at home in the new social network that’s currently creating buzz online. Capioca (Cap-ee-oh-kuh) is a website designed for people to collect things that fascinate them, and to find and discuss new ideas. It was envisioned by its founders, Rebecca Findley and Byron Wong, as an online version of a coffee house in Samuel Pepys’ London: a thriving hub of learning, discovery and discussion.

The Interhacktives pick out the best of a mixed batch of #AdviceForYoungJournalists. If you were on Twitter yesterday, you probably noticed the trending hashtag  #AdviceForYoungJournalists, which was sparked off by a bitingly cynical blog post from financial journalist Felix Salmon. His advice to young wannabe journalists contacting him for guidance is this: don’t become journalists. At least, not if you want to get paid, or have anything that resembles an actual career. Forty-eight hours on an