Famous fashion influencer and social media personality, Xenia Tchoumi gave an inspirational speech today at the United Nations in Geneva. A few hours before the International Women’s Day, the well-known blogger made light on how social media and technology can empower women and businesses accross the world. She gave a few tips about social media content publishing, and answered questions received live on the International Trade Center Facebook page, where the event was broadcasted live.

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Capitaine Commerce has recently published their French e-commerce conversion barometer for 2016. More than 400 e-merchants answered to their survey about conversion metrics. Among other interesting conclusions, the report highlights the average conversion rates by sector (ratio between the number of transactions and the number of unique visitors.) The average conversion rate for all domains is 3%, with great differences between industries.

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Last Friday I was lucky to attend the 2017 SIHH (Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie), famous luxury watchmaking salon held in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a first for me, and I had a great day! On this occasion, prestigious brands like Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin and 24 more maisons gather in the Palexpo hall to demonstrate their unique savoir-faire and present their new pieces. Along with Baselworld, the twin event held in year in Basel in March, the salons generates between 70% and 90% of the year revenue for the Swiss watchmakers. It is one of the highlights of the year, setting the trend: no wonder the stands are so elaborate, as 28 samples of grandiose.

There were 2 reasons why I was present at the SIHH this year. First, I find watchmaking fascinating. During my visit, I encountered several watchmakers (at A. Lange & Söhne and Audemars Piguet), who demonstrated their savoir-faire. I was even lucky to hold a few extremely tiny pieces with a tweezer. Something that looked a lot like a broken silver string turned out to be a chain, just like a bike one, only very very small! To see the different components, you need a magnifier. Some watches require up to 1 man-year to assemble.

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The 8th edition of the Crea Digital Day took place yesterday at Unimail Geneva. From 8:30 to 17pm, 13 conferences focused on digital trends, with, this year, a special focus on media and how new technologies change the shape of information. This topic is of particular interest to me, as 10 years ago I completed studies in both journalism and multimedia, convinced that the new technologies would change the shape of information. Geoffrey Moret, CEO of Kapaw, had a very interesting view on this matter, and Alastair Cotterill, from Pinterest, explained how information should be presened on mobile. My preference goes to Lukas Ryf’s intervention on how the website adobe.com was improved along the years.

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With Internet users surfing more and more from their smartphone, the question of screen resolutions has become a major challenge for webdesign. Thinking a website interface for 1024 or 1280 pixels-width is not what matters any longer. No, the challenge has grown and become bigger… which in this case actualy means smaller. A website is now expected to adapt to the screen each visitor sees it within. There are several techniques and methodologies around this new challenge for UX mobile, including adaptive design, responsive design and mobile-first strategy. Each of them presents new opportunities, challenges and risks for the conception of user experience.

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Wishing you, families and friends a very Happy Christmas and holidays time. May Father Christmas be generous to you and those you love, and may your professional stockings (what do you mean, you dont have any?) be filled with successes, great projects and challenges, talented and nice co-workers, great open-space and/or home office atmospheres. Merry Christmas!

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