Shopify Expert Insights

"We don't regret failing..."

Ethercycle was born in a cafe in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood in early 2009. Over a week of energetic meetings, Dave and I developed an idea to disrupt the retail world of cycling by building an ecommerce web app to serve independent cycling fitness shops. We were officially a tech start-up, and life was exciting.

A little over a year later, we came to accept that our business model had a fatal flaw: we were entirely dependent on distributors and manufacturers to supply product information, and they were reluctant at best. At the same time, demand for our consulting services had exceeded demand for our web app.

After some tough talks over whiskey, we mothballed our ecommerce project, and officially pivoted Ethercycle in to a full-time digital agency. It made sense, we were good at building websites, and we had experienced first-hand what goes in to a start-up. We kept the name, and cycling advocacy has remained a part of our culture.

We don't regret failing at building that first web app, and we're more confident than ever in the decisions we made. Not just because our business is thriving, but because we love what we do.

Today when people ask me "What is Ethercycle?" I can proudly tell them we are a team of in-house web experts plus a network of trusted on-call digital experts for niche needs. We are small, focused, and great at what we do.

Here are our most popular posts from this year

Ranked in descending order:

1. iPhone Grid System Template [Free PSD]
2. Photoshop CS6 Workspace for Web Design
3. Shopify vs Magento [Infographic]
4. Pixel Density / Viewing Distance Calculator Webapp
5. Best Mac Tools for Web Developers

A 10 column grid system with gutters for the iPhone5 display.

Grids are useful for tools that designers have employed in the creation of websites for years. Based on the popular 960.gs pattern, we developed an iPhone grid system and template to aid in mobile web design.

Download the PSD from Dribbble.

InMobi interviewed me as part of their series on mobile trends...

What surprised you about the mobile advertising industry in the past year?
My biggest surprise was seeing the CW promotion in Entertainment Weekly that involved putting an actual 3G cell phone in a print ad to show real-time tweets from the network.

What do you think will be the biggest mobile trend for 2013?
The proliferation of cheap Android devices will continue. While a minority will continue to use the latest and greatest, inexpensive smartphones will entirely replace feature phones. Our devices will increasingly talk to each other. Right now I can control my Xbox, Apple TV, and satellite box from different iPads. This trend will continue and will see more smart, connected devices throughout our lives enabling interactive advertising everywhere.

What is another 2013 mobile trend that you feel is being overlooked and not given enough attention?
Actionable analytics. We have more data than we know what to do with, we'll see more applications focusing on putting that data to work to generate relevant insights and actionable decisions.

Source: InMobi

We help donate 900 toys to needy kids.

The Amlings Cycle Holiday Toy Ride is an annual charity bike ride event that raises toys for the U.S. Marine Corps Toys for Tots Foundation. The ride was started in 2003 by local bike shop owner Joe Reichert.

For the tenth anniversary of the Holiday Toy Ride, we updated toyridechicago.com to work with smart phones, combined with a guerrilla print campaign, and QR codes, we achieved record registrations. In fact, 24 percent of registrations occurred on mobile devices, an increase of 44.7 percent over the previous year.

The ride joined 116 riders together who collectively donated over 900 toys to Toys for Toys.

Operating System

1. iOS 78.33%
2. Android 19.62%
3. BlackBerry 1.27%
4. Windows Phone 0.67%
5. SymbianOS 0.04%

Mobile Device

1. Apple iPhone 59.55%
2. Apple iPad 15.84%
3. Apple iPod 2.93%
4. Motorola Droid Razr 0.97%
5. Samsung Galaxy Nexus 0.25%
6. Samsung Galaxy SII 0.19%
7. Samsung Galaxy SIII 0.18%
8. Google Nexus 7 0.16%

Screen Resolution

1. 320x480 55.54%
2. 768x1024 15.57%
3. 320x568 6.66%
4. 720x1280 3.13%
5. 480x800 2.39%
6. Other 16.71%

Based on 778,516 impressions on CalmingManatee.com. Percentages are based on unique visitors. Compared with the overall internet population, the site's users tend to be under the age of 35, and they are disproportionately childless women browsing from school and work who have incomes between $30,000 and $60,000.

Photos taken from Instagram around our office, at client meetings, and sometimes in between.

Status board PC prototype

Christmas lights up around our building

Experimenting with Intel's Next Unit of Computing

Seeing what's new in the Chicago startup community at Rockit

Client swag

From a 2011 issue of Fortune:

At Apple there's never confusion as to who is responsible for what. In Apple's parlance, a DRI's name (directly responsible individual) always appear on the agenda for a meeting, so that everyone knows who's the right contact for a project.

We need one of those from every client. In our kick-off meetings, we establish a key point of contact who is designated to handle all communication. Not only does this streamline discussions, it also reduces confusion or conflicts in design decisions.

It's a simple thing that goes a long way toward a smooth web design process.

Source: How Apple works: Inside the world's biggest startup

In the last 30 days, I have received an average of 56 emails per day.How do I keep up? I use three simple but powerful features in Gmail.

Stop distracting automated emails

I do this by filtering emails containing the word "unsubscribe," and emails from "from:donotreply." A real live person would never have "donotreply" as their email address, and the majority of automated emails will contain an unsubscribe link. By marking them as read, I can see at a glance that they're not important, and they won't increment my unread counter.

Scheduled Email Reminders

Boomerang lets you temporarily remove emails from your inbox. This serves two important functions for me. First, since I use my inbox as a to-do list, I can get non-priority emails out of my inbox temporarily. The second is as a reminder. The "only if nobody responds" is a great feature to remind me to follow-up with people.

Auto Responders

If you need a break from your email, set an auto-responder informing people of how often you check your email and when they can expect a reply. This sets their expectations, and creates a schedule for you to follow. Tim Ferris' blog has some sample emails to get you started.

Email can be a productivity-killer. It's tough to get away from it because it feels work, but if you can manage your Pavlovian response to the "Ding!" of your inbox, you'll be happier and more productive.

Photos taken from Instagram around our office, at client meetings, and sometimes in between.