Bluewire Media Web Design Blog » Usability

What is the first priority of YOUR web strategy?

Toby Jenkins — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:58:24 +0000

My grandfather once criticised me for saying it was a REALLY hot day… “You’re really good at pointing out the blindingly obvious.”

Zap.

OK, so maybe on that occasion my comment wasn’t necessary, but I’m going to take a punt and risk the “blindingly obvious” again…

The first priority of your web strategy has to be people. Your website, Facebook page, email campaign, tweets, that’s all important but it’s still secondary. It’s all about your people.

Who?

At the beginning it’s about figuring who it is you need to be talking to. What are they like? What positions do they typically hold? How do they operate? David Meerman Scott suggests naming your “buyer personas” first to make them more human, more real, than just a “prospect”. Straight out of John Jantsch’s “Duct Tape Marketing” comes the idea of then vividly describing them.

For the sake of this post let’s call this persona Frank.

What?

Doesn’t sound so people oriented does it? But there are two parts to the “What”.

Firstly: What problems do you solve for Frank? What are Frank’s issues that you can address? What keeps Frank up at night? If you’re not solving his problems, then he probably won’t be interested…

Secondly: What actions would you like Frank to take? Would you like him to sign up to your email newsletter, enquire, buy, follow you on twitter or watch your videos? You need to understand this so you can being to assess the success of your marketing.

Why?

And why… Why will Frank take that action? Why will he want your product/service over someone else’s? Why should you be Frank’s first choice? So now it becomes a matter of convincing him. Frank will take that action if he believes that you’ll be able to solve his problem. Here’s a quick list of things that might help persuade Frank that you’re the one:

Authority - Qualifications, experience, presentations, industry commentary, articles, blog posts, whitepapers, books, forum contributions – in a word – content.
Guarantees - maybe you can offer a money back guarantee or a response time guarantee or an uptime guarantee.
Testimonials - written and video. Not doctored, not scripted, not faked. The real deal. Real people saying real things that will help Frank to be convinced.

If you can answer these questions with reasonable clarity then you have the core of your strategy. When it comes time to execute, that’s when you start looking at how best to use your website, your social media, your email marketing.

Workshop

We’re in the process of putting some tools together that will tie a whole lot of these concepts together into what (we hope!) will be a useful reference for you. Actually we’re going to be conducting web strategy workshop next Tuesday (27th of April). It’s called: “Your web strategy and topping Google”.

For more about prioritising people in your web strategy, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

Weekly round-up

Bluewire Media — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:11:15 +0000

The best UI you have ever used — UX Exchange
The worst UI you have ever used — UX Exchange
50 geeky gifts for Valentines’ Day — Hongkiat
Apple unveils iPad Tablet — Sydney Morning Herald
53 New York City Storefronts vs Their Websites — Blue Fountain Media
UX case study: Designing a user-focused web app — Brian Cray
Colour theory for designers — Smashing Magazine

Tips for Better Ideas

Rethink Scholarship at Langara 2010 Call for Entries from Rory O'Sullivan on Vimeo.

Via Kitsune Noir.

Meet Sarah Hyne – Usability & Web Design star!

Adam Franklin — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 07:38:25 +0000

Most people who have the pleasure of using one Sarah Hyne’s websites, wouldn’t be able to put a finger on what makes them so good.

Why is that you ask..? Well, they just WORK!

And that is the key to usability and web design according to Bluewire’s impressive web designer Sarah Hyne. I sat down with Sarah to find out more.

What is it you do?
Basically, it’s tough trying to describe what you do to people outside web design, because to them it’s a totally intangible product. Whilst they experience usability everyday, they don’t realise there’s someone behind the scenes making it work.

The easiest way to describe it is a bit like getting an architect in to design your houseplan. A lot of people think they know how to design their own website, but similar to designing a house, only an architect really understands how to put it all together and make it work. It’s all based on the person who has to live it in & the person who has to use it. For example, in a well designed house you might put the kitchen near the dining area.

What process do you go through?

There’s a whole lot of research that goes into it. I need to understand it from the business’s or the clients’ point of view - what are their goals and what are they trying to get out of their website.

Then I have to understand who the users are, and this is probably the hardest and trickiest thing to do because often the client doesn’t know their users all that well, so you need to come at it with a really fresh perspective. You must keep that fresh perspective all the way through the process, so that means constantly challenging yourself on the ideas you create.

So back to my process, I map out who the user is, stay abreast of all the latest usability conventions, because conventions are what everybody is used to, so the more you stick to conventions the easier the website is to use.

I look at the information architecture (what you’d call the site map) and do activities like card sorting, or even just bouncing ideas off other people around the office or friends or anyone you can get your hands on. I then do wireframes, which is like doing the blueprint for a house, except for a website. Again – show that to as many people as possible & get their feedback because it really is a collaborative approach to design.

How (or from whom) do you learn?
There’s a tonne of resources online. Yahoo has a set of patterns that they publish so you can stay abreast of conventions. There’s lots of user experience blogs out there. I read the following blogs via a daily RSS feed:

– A List Apart
- UX Booth
- UX Digest
- Elavision:Insights

On twitter, I follow gurus like Jared Spool and his company UIE. In terms of books, I’ve recently read Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think which is considered the bible of usability. And I’m currently reading Information Architecture for the World Wide Web which outlines the process in really fine detail.

I’ve learned a lot from Joel Flom by collaborating with him on several projects & also by going along to IxDA and a workshop run by Peak Usability.

What is your advice to someone beginning usability or who can’t afford your services?
Approach it with an open mind and don’t assume you know what is best for your website because what you are going to do is very different from your users. Test & test often, especially from the early stages and then always get feedback.

And the biggest mistakes you see?
Probably when people try to make something look really fancy. They place too much emphasis on the actual graphic design, the ‘look & feel’ and trying to ‘engage’ the user

In fact the most common request I get is, “make it look really incredible & reflect the brand”. Yet a lot of the best websites that we keep coming back to, don’t necessarily look great, but they work very well.

For example, Amazon.com doesn’t look great, in fact its one of the ugliest sites out there, and I hate the colour yellow, but it really, really works. And the reason for this is because they constantly test and improve their user experience.

You see, the thing is that design is such a subjective thing. I don’t like yellow, but you’re wearing a yellow shirt, so you can’t go into it as a designer saying, ‘this is what I like and I’m going to put my stamp on this‘, because everybody comes at it from a different angle.

It’s more important that it works!

Any final comments?
Since most people don’t really understand that usability is part of the web design process, it’s often overlooked, which makes it tough to explain because most people don’t know that this industry exists.

In Brisbane especially I think usability is still in its infancy. However, the more that people understand there’s a science behind designing websites, they’ll appreciate that there’s a lot of thought and strategy and it’s not all about making it look pretty!

Thanks Sarah.

Usability Brisbane: To get Sarah to work her magic on your website, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

Why you should test your website

Sarah Hyne — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:35:25 +0000

I’ve just finished reading Steve Krug’s excellent book on web usability called Don’t Make Me Think. It’s often the case that people (clients and web designers alike) know their websites too well. So well they can’t see them from an objective viewpoint anymore. That’s why I really like Steve’s reasoning for doing user testing:

“Testing reminds you that not everyone thinks the way you do, knows what you know, uses the Web the way you do.

“I used to say that the best way to think about testing was that it was like travel: a broadening experiene. It reminds you how different – and the same – people are, and gives you a fresh perspective on things.

“But I finally realised that testing is really more like having friends visiting from out of town. Inevitably, as you make the tourist rounds with them, you see things about your home town that you usually don’t notice because you’re so used to them. And at the same time, you realise that a lot of things that you take for granted aren’t obvious to everybody.”

User testing, no matter how little you do, quickly confirms what you thought you were doing right, and also flags some serious flaws in your design. The insights you can gain from watching someone use your site is invaluable and will help inform your decisions on how to improve your website: its overall performance and the impression it leaves on people.

Creating websites that don’t make users think is at the core of what we do here at Bluewire. Usability Brisbane: if user testing is something you’d like to explore, call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

Weekly Round-Up

Sarah Hyne — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 23:37:58 +0000

Top 10 Internet moments of the decade — Sydney Morning Herald
The Googlephone: Google gears up for attack on mobile-phone market — The Times

Showcase of beautiful typography in web design — Noupe

User reviews: Increased sales, traffic and transparency — The UX Booth
How to evaluate what CMS to use — Six Revisions

Be sure to check out National Geographic’s International Photography Contest for 2009:

Weekly Round-Up

Sarah Hyne — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 23:20:10 +0000

App to find nearest toilet? Data flood unleashed — Sydney Morning Herald
The Font Kingdom: Search, explore, create and download fonts for free — Tech Crunch
Getting started with content management systems — Smashing Magazine
The process toolbox: Prototyping — Erskine Labs
5 simple but useful CSS properties — Web Designer Wall
Long tail user experience: how to cultivate (or dissolve) a community — UX Booth
Top 20 essential Firefox add-ons for web designers — Six Revisions

For that special geek in your life… FashionablyGeek.com should have some stocking fillers that will take their fancy this Christmas!

Expert Interview – Sam Sargent – Why use a Content Management System (CMS)?, ModX vs Joomla, common problems, how to stay on top of CMS development, more info.

Toby Jenkins — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:53:28 +0000

I sat down with Sam Sargent, one of our web site programmers and Help desk manager to talk shop about Content Management Systems.

1. What is the purpose of a Content Management System (CMS)?

To allow a non-technical person to update their website.

2. Therefore, what is the most important aspect of programming a CMS?

The most important aspect is ease of use for the person who is updating. This has to be kept in mind for all the functionality that is developed.

3. What are some of the common terms used in CMS development?

- Snippet: This is a front end function written in PHP (Hypertext Pre Processor – a type of programming language and clearly not a correct acronym! More information is available here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP). EG: a snippet can be used to sort news items in a list by date or alphabetical order.

- Chunk: This is a piece of HTML code (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Html) that can be re-used across a website. EG: Headers and footers that are used across multiple pages of a website.

- Module: This is a back end function written in PHP. EG: Sam wrote ModXport which records all of the details from forms that have been submitted on a website and can then be downloaded by a client in case there is an issue with emails from the forms being lost.

- Templating system: This is essentially the page layout which can then have Chunks and Snippets added for functionality and design. You can have unlimited templates in the system.

4. What are the strengths of ModX as a CMS?

- Flexible for a developer

- to extend the functionality

- to customise

- to work with the snippets and modules

- Useability: Easy for the user to understand and learn the system and can be simplified by removing functionality that isn’t necessary

5. What are the strengths of Joomla as a CMS?

- Much bigger piece of software

- It has a bigger community of developers because it is a more established, older system

- An enormous amount of functionality has already been pre-built

- It has a great community building structure

Which CMS do you prefer?

ModX

How long would it take someone with a coding background to become proficient in Joomla or ModX?

Probably 1 – 2 months

What are 2 common problems when building a website in a CMS?

1. Adding completely custom functionality is always a challenge

2. Insufficient planning of functionality (whether it is completely customised or a tweak on existing)

How would you get around these to issues?

Plan! Working out exactly each of the steps that a user takes to go through the process is really important. Given time and resources, a paper prototype would be one of the best ways of ensuring you have planned the functionality appropriately.

How do you stay on top of these technologies?

There are a few options:

1. Community forums for development with both ModX and Joomla allows you to ask questions as well as contribute solutions and search through other people’s questions and issues.

2. Keep an eye on the functionality that has been developed by others, so then you’re not re-inventing the wheel!

3. ModX also has a developers’ wiki

Where would you go if you wanted to find out more about ModX or Joomla?

Easy – http://www.modxcms.com or http://www.joomla.org.

ModX or Joomla Content Management System Development Brisbane : If you would like a helping hand with your CMS development, please call Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.

Weekly round-up

Sarah Hyne — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:16:15 +0000

Popular logos with hidden symbolisms — Six Revisions
10 things to remember before launching a website — The Design O’Blog
Why your next website should be designed with wireframes — Build Internet
Internal site search analysis: simple, effective, life altering! — A List Apart
Technology + Design = Apple? — The Huffington Post
What’s golden — Jason Santa Maria
Search results design: best practices and design patterns — Smashing Magazine

This is amazing and very exciting…

Thanks to Jaymis for the heads up

PatchMatch: Structural Image Editing from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

Weekly round-up

Sarah Hyne — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:39:53 +0000

15 great free online file sharing alternatives — Hongkiat
The case for content strategy: Motown style — A List Apart
Free and commercial stock photography sites — Smashing Magazine
12 reputation management tools to track your name — The BINC Blog
Panasonic gets savvy to social media — Digital Media
Microsoft takes more steps towards cloud-based future — The Guardian
Lance’s Twitter invite stops traffic — The Sydney Morning Herald

Lo-fi escalator animation. Great imagination!

Website Usability – Expert Interview with Joel Flom

Adam Franklin — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:39:28 +0000

Joel Flom is a world reknowned expert in usability and user centred design, and we were fortunate enough to interview him to find out more. Joel partners with Bluewire Media through his Brisbane usability consultancy - Elavision.

In this interview Joel Flom shares:

what usability is & what’s involved
how customers benefit
how businesses benefit
his #1 usability secret
what you can do yourself to improve usability
case study of a large super company

Website usability is arguably the most important aspect of designing a website.

Ensuring that people can easily find what they are looking for and understanding why people visit your website are two of the keys to effective web usability.

Usability Brisbane: If you think your business could benefit from better usability, please conatct Bluewire Media on 1300 258 394.