Me - presenting at MadMenYourself.com

There is something very appealing about the show Mad Men, and I’m not referring to the drinking at work part. Fifty years ago, marketers put creativity in the forefront, spending long nights brainstorming creative campaigns. The choice of medium was somewhat limited – print, broadcast, billboards – but the innovative campaigns that came out of this era still stand firmly in the American psyche.

Then this thing The Web came around. And everything changed.

David Meerman Scott put it best: “Prior to the web, organizations had only two significant choices to attract attention: buy expensive advertising or get third-party ink from the media. But the web has changed the rules.” (more…)

Continued lack of Flash support on the iPhone OS means it's time for web creators to adjust.

The recent unveiling of the iPad brought one glaring truth to the attention to the web community: Apple does not like Adobe. That might be a bit simplistic, but the fact of the matter is that the iPhone OS has never supported Flash and in the public unveiling of their new “magical” uber internet device, still no Flash support. Of course, Apple is the leader in controlled computing experiences, so it makes sense they would avoid Adobe’s technology, especially since it compromises the security and stability of their devices.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/ / CC BY 2.0

Despite the old adage, it’s fair to say that most of us often choose a book by its cover. First impressions reign king in our busy world – where we are inundated with choices.

What’s interesting, though, is how very little thought goes into the first impression a Web site may make. Though it can vary, one of the primary introductions users have to a Web site is within the search results. It’s a common behavior. Users perform a search, quickly scan the result set and generally make a choice on what site to visit based off the limited information that is displayed.

Countless usability studies performed here in the Bridgeline Denver offices confirm this – time and time again we see users perform a search, quickly scan the titles of each page and generally gravitate toward a page that is toward the top of the results with the most relevant title.

Hence the title of this blog post – writing digestible, relevant titles is key to a public Web site’s success.

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We recently participated on a panel at an excellent MITX event focused on getting relevant website content to your audiences.  I think we could have spent the entire day on the topic and the speakers were very knowledgeable and passionate which always makes for a good seminar.

I hoped the audience would be able to take away a tangible list of action items and at least a starting point for thinking about content personalization.  So I thought I would jot those down here for everyone.  While some folks may be well beyond the basics, I still believe these principals work for everyone.

1) Define your audience segments (understand what their intent is and what message/interaction works best).

2) Create content, imagery, messaging, branding (i.e., overall user experience) per segment.  Don’t get too granular to begin with as your website is a marathon not a sprint.  If you start too granular, you have significant risk of missing the target completely.

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Usability Audience

Last week, I was an observer in six usability lab tests performed by Bridgeline Denver for one of our clients, who is redesigning their current Web site.  Observing real people interact with a Web site is very enlightening because when you observe real users, you learn first-hand if a Web site’s information architecture and design are easy to use.  Over the years, managing online channels and working at a company providing digital Web solutions, I have learned many things, but the two most important lessons I have learned are:

1. If users cannot use a Web site easily, they will abandon and never become customers. With so many options online today, nobody is willing to struggle in understanding how to perform a task or get the information they need.
2. The only opinion that matters about a Web site are the users.  They are the audience.  If they are unhappy or frustrated, that matters.  A Web site must be built to the audience, not the Vice President of Marketing, the CEO or even the Web Designer.  It is all about the user.

These lessons seem so simple, right?  But if they are, then why don’t more Managers of Web sites conduct usability tests when planning a new Web site or redesigning an existing Web site to find out what users think? (more…)

It’s been known for a while that Craigslist’s stakeholders have no interest in redesigning their site. They’re OK with:

• the long columns of links
• the lack of visual hierarchy
• the odd usage mix between Times New Roman and Arial typefaces

Saying Craigslist keeps things simple is an understatement. Their blog (yes, I didn’t know they had a blog either!) even uses the default WordPress Kubrick theme. But yet Craigslist’s users publish 50 million new classified ads each month. They receive 20 billion page views each month. Wow.

Part of Wired Magazine’s September 2009 issue tackles an overhaul of Craigslist’s user interface from industry leading designers. There’s some interesting iterations that make Craigslist more progressive and modern.

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