Seven87 Marketing

Sharing the Wheat: Trust, Guidelines, Analytics & Search Tips

Charlie — Tue, 12 May 2009 14:25:28 +0000

A few good links I’ve seen over the past few days:

10 Tips to Build Trust with Social Media
An excellent and super-simple list of tips to build trust and be authentic in corporate social media. We all know how to not be “that guy” that crosses the line at the company party (well most of us do), but we could all use the reminder of how to keep in touch online, especially when we are representatives of our companies in social media.

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Enterprise: List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines
A great list of links from large companies and a few interesting info graphics from the US Air Force on setting internal guidelines on social media participation. This is a great resource to bookmark or use as a research guide for setting up your own corporate guidelines.

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The Rise of the C-Tweet: Points to Consider for Twitter-Friendly CEOs and CMOs
The article helps us consider some good questions like

“And herein lies the greatest challenge of the C-Tweet: Where does the voice of the brand end and the voice of the individual begin?”

and gives a few good guidelines for leaders to consider before jumping off into a twitter account. But it doesn’t really go much into one of the best reasons for company leaders to engage with Twitter and social media: “To get better in touch with their customers and their needs.” It’s a mantra of so many business books and successful companies, maybe it’s just obvious. If you don’t have an AdAge account you can see the article here.

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Yahoo Search Marketing Blog has a good post (refresher) on choosing keywords. Good overview of choosing general/broad AND specific/narrow keywords. Example: “toyota” is general, “toyota camry” and “camry hatchback” are more specific. Make sure to have both.

There are lots of good posts on Yahoo’s Search Blog, make sure to read more.

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Social Media in Pharma and Medical fields
Here’s a great list of leaders in the pharma and medical device fields that blog and/or twitter. Some of my medical clients have been very cautious with social media because of the regulatory issues that could come up. Clearly you can engage with peers and customers as this great list shows. Good to see my pal Greg Rust on the list!

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Email and Analytics
Bronto Blog has a good post, although pretty technical, on setting up Google Analytics to measure your email campaigns. Google Analytics has a great tool called URL builder that you can compose to measure the source of the click, label different mediums and campaigns to give you full insight into where clicks are coming from. If you set up all your email links with these, you can A/B test different email or promotion versions, see trends in clicks/purchases over time or start to get insights into your customer segments and improve targeting.

Have a GREAT week!

Getting better insights from your analytics

Charlie — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:09:51 +0000

Via a quick post on the SuperWebAnalyist Blog from Ed Wu of the Web Analytics Association and Dell’s Consumer Online team come a great post on “numbers that lie” or at least don’t really offer any insights about online behavior.

In one of my new favorite blogs to read, analytics pro Avinash Kaushik shows how Averages, Percentages, Ratios and Compound Metrics (aka Calculated Metrics) don’t show much real insight, and can often be misleading.

As an example to combat the “fluff” of averages, you should identify your most important / interesting segments for your business and report those along with the overall averages. Distributions of tiers of activity also help wade through the numbers and get to real actionable insights.

See the rest of his very good recommendations here, including how to make use of the “Better Google Analytics” Firefox plugin that offers several advantages and updates Google Analytics.

Another great post is on his recommendations on establishing strong KPI’s or Key Performance Indicators for your website. (Not sure why there are 6 recommendations but 8 rules, but hey, who’s counting? 8-) What’s a KPI?

Measures that help you understand how you are doing against your objectives.

Although to some it’s obvious, unlike several of my past clients (sorry), you do need to set objectives for your web marketing efforts (some thing a little more specific and measurable than “have a cool website” and “make more money”) and then set measures to track your efforts in attaining them. How else do you prioritize your efforts?

Some of his recommendations are pretty standard, but his explanation of WHY they are good is worth a read. I’ve overviewed them here:

Conversion Rate, (pretty obvious) measures towards objectives
Average Order Value cross and up-sell measures (Yes, with segmentation and distributions!)
Days & Visits To “Purchase”, especially with relationship customers and products that are considered purchases
Visitor Loyalty & Visitor Recency, aiding in segmenting & targeting most valuable customers
Task Completion Rate, goes hand in making sites usable and fine tuning good content
Share of Search to better measure against competitors. Compete.com seems like an interesting tool to help

Follow Avinash on Twitter.

Are you actively managing your site’s analytics? What are you missing in your optimization of your sites efficacy and customer experience? Are you really capturing your share of market?

Door64 Tech Fair - Matt Genovese of Door64.com

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:38:37 +0000

I shot some short video interviews with some of the software and service folks that attended the Door64.com Tech Fair yesterday, you’ll see several of them before this post. It was a packed event with over 900 people set up by Matt Genovese, founder of Door64, a community of over 5,000 high tech professionals. Thanks Matt!

Here’s a great AAStatesman article covering the event.

Matt has grown Door64.com’s community so quickly from the ground up, it’s a great example of how social media, personal networks and executing well to fill a need.

I had a great time chatting with so many people doing great things. I hope you enjoy the videos too.

I didn’t get video time with Nik of Turn2Live.com, Bridget or Travis of Werkadoo.com, Cari of ExSquared.com, Cesar of Common Sense or Lisa of SmartBear.com. Guys, if you’d like to send me a link or have lunch and make a 30-second video to share, I’d love to share it. They all looked like they have a great things happening, check them out.

Larry Warnock, Phurnace.com - Door64 Tech Fair

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:35:54 +0000

One of the highlights of the Door64 Tech Fair me was chatting with Larry Warnock, President and CEO of Phurnace Software. They offer software to accelerate enterprise Java application deployment and they have a very cool name. 8-)

I’ve been a fan of Larry Warnock since his Vignette CMO days and hearing his excellent talk to the Acton MBA program via their podcasts.

Leah Chaney, OtherInbox.com - Door64 Tech Fair

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:32:52 +0000

Leah Chaney of OtherInbox.com shares an overview of the Other Inbox service. Basically it helps you manage both the email you want and the email you don’t want. I’ve been using it for a while and it’s really a time and inbox clutter saver, it helps keep me focused on what’s important. OIB founder Joshua Baer is a really smart entrepreneur that has a great track record of success, I’m sure this will be a great addition to it.

Brian Massey, MarketForMeBook.com - Door64 Tech Fair

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:29:54 +0000

Brian Massey has a great presentation and book about marketing yourself for a new job or business development in general through a cultivated “lifetime career” network. Check out MarketForMeBook.com for the overview and a free book deal in partnership with CardboardResume.com. They offer a CRM-type site for job searchers.

Brian also shares insights at The Conversion Scientist, very good info.

Jonas Lamis, TechRanchAustin.com - Door64 Tech Fair

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:25:50 +0000

Here’s Jonas Lamis of TechRanch Austin talking about their services for pre-seed and seed stage companies that can change the world. Jonas and Kevin Koym also presented an overview of their “Employee to Entrepreneur Program” at TechRanch. Really smart guys doing some great stuff for Austin startups!

Ash Maurya, GetCloudFire.com - Door64 Tech Fair

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:22:52 +0000

Ash Maurya of GetCloudFire.com shares an overview of his interesting photo and video sharing service. Basically it saves you from having to actively upload your photos and videos to online sharing sites. I may have to test this out!

Prahsant Kadam, MopacStudios.com - Door64 Tech Fair

Charlie — Fri, 01 May 2009 19:00:36 +0000

Prashant Kadam of Mopac Studios a design firm gave me a quick overview of his company. They do branding design, 3D, Flash, ecommerce and marketing presentations.

Non-profit Usability and Trust Online

Charlie — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 19:10:58 +0000

Philanthropy.com the “Newspaper of the Non-Profit World” has an article today on how confusing websites discourage donors from giving online. They point to both communication/marketing issues as well as usability issues with many non-profit sites. Many sites that were tested didn’t even clearly state their mission and where donations would go.

Jakob Nielson of the Nielsen Norman Group released highlights of a study of 23 non-profit websites that the article was based on. The report is $98 on NN/groups’ site, but here are some highlights.

Test subjects were observed performing two tasks: Choosing a recipient and making a donation. By far, the thing the users sought first was an understanding of the organizations’ goals and objectives. Only 43% of the websites studied put their mission on their homepage and only 4% stated on the homepage where the donor’s money would be applied. This information was often provided inside the website, but users had trouble finding it and this affected their donation decisions.

Nielsen Norman group estimates that donations could be DOUBLE current donations in many cases if best practices in usability, communication and trust were used. Shockingly, they say 17% of testers couldn’t even find WHERE to make a donation. Wow.

Unfortunately, many commercial sites have similar issues. I posted in January 2007 “10 Steps: Making it easy for your customers to trust you” based on some research Stanford University did. It’s probably my most-referenced post of all time, as I still forward it to companies that I work with. Keeping these 10 steps in mind and constantly evaluating your website, Twitter, Facebook and other social media properties against them are crucial to effective communications.

Related to this, NN/group also has an “Alertbox” summary and research report on “About Sections of Websites”. These are HIGHLY recommended reading, as the About section of any site, from services, e-commerce, government or non-profit sites all need to explain who they are to visitors. For anyone considering a relationship with an organization, knowing who a company IS, is a first step towards trust and a relationship.

Is your company’s mission, goals and About section clearly enunciated to visitors that don’t yet know you? How does your site stack up on trust metrics? Could your grandmother understand your mission and use your site?

Social Media understanding in 3 minutes, 44 seconds

Charlie — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:01:47 +0000

I’m a new fan of Common Craft, a small consultancy that says “Our Product is Explanation.” Nice stuff.

Here is a good video, “Social Media in Plain English”.

My short version is “making it easy for your customers to talk about your business.” How have you explained Social Media to co-workers and friends?

The Rare “Sword of Data”

Charlie — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 21:25:40 +0000

Just finished reading an interesting post from Douglas Bowman of StopDesign, he’s just left his role as Visual Design Lead of Google. He talks about his experiences of pure quantitative research overtaking visual design principles and creativity at Google. He confirms that:

“Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. “

He goes on to say that he understands why Google needs to approach decisions this way, but he also feels like they don’t balance the quantitative with other research or best practices in design. (There is an interesting related article on Marissa Mayer’s role in this on the New York Times site.)

I have three quick thoughts on this:
1. Although as a designer, Douglas has trouble with this extreme strategy, knowing who Google is and who their products target, i.e. everyone, I think it’s a pretty good idea to approach their user experience this way for them. BUT, testing 41 shades of a color doesn’t seem like the best use of anyone’s time. 8-)

2. Any idealistic, enthusiastic professional in their field has specialty backgrounds and expertise that make them good at their job… but it also can bring them further away from the perspective of their users. This is part of the ongoing conflict between “usability” professionals and “visual design” professionals. One wants “pure” usability with nothing extraneous to get in the way, the other wants style, panache, and a “wow” factor for the work. Who’s right? Both of them… that’s the fun part, the negotiation, part of the constraints and collaboration on teams that drive successful products.

3. More companies could learn from Google’s approach. Quantitative analysis doesn’t have to be 100% of the decision, but it should approach half of the input for many decisions. In my experience, most companies suffer from the opposite problem. Too few companies do any testing of designs for their website, their messaging or even their products. The only testing many have done is some vaporous “focus groups” recruited and paid for poorly thought out opinions. Too often the designs are based on what executives or the production team “think,” or “like” as the priority input over real users and actual data.

Any company with a significant part of their business on the web should have these efforts as core to their website or application marketing strategy and internal or external staffing: (No, this is not a complete list. 8-)

Web analytics that are set up correctly and constantly monitored
A/B testing or even multivariate testing, especially for ecommerce and applications
Social media monitoring, WOM, user comments, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs
Use of paid search or media buys to test messaging, (yes, marketing/branding messages can be tested effectively via PPC!), ads and landing pages
Frequent direct contact with customers and users (yes, this is qualitative too!)

What areas of input and research is your company missing in gathering for your marketing, website or application? What can you jump into *today* to move more in that direction?

Social Media Measurement

Charlie — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:10:49 +0000

I’ve been focusing a lot of my spare time on new social media conversations like Twitter, (CharlieNB) FriendFeed and the like. Sorry that the frequencey of my blog posts have suffered for it! But I think social media and “instant customer conversations” that happen are a VERY important trend that deserve to be investigated fully. I learn new things, meet new connections, repair relationships with companies, stay in touch with friends, and often get questions answered immediately. Good stuff! (but that’s not the point of this post… 8-)

As the various elements of “social media” emerge from person-to-person conversations to business conversations as well, measurement and return on investment become top priorities.

“Why should my business/employees be a part of Twitter, what’s in it for my business or customers? Why should we be looking at comments or blog posts?”

There is, of course the intuitive answer, of getting better in touch with customers and understanding their needs, but that’s pretty “soft” and may not fly with metrics-driven organization… and really who isn’t with this economy? 8-)

Recently there have been quite a few startups tackling this question. I’ve seen Radian6 and ScoutLabs, they seem to be strong startups with rich tracking, measurement and reporting. Mashable has a great overview of the Top 10 Monitoring tools, so I won’t reiterate the rest.

I guess I’m most excited about one of the heavyweights in the web analytics industry’s addition of Twitter measurement into their primary offering. Omniture has announced that Twitter measurement will be integrated into their SiteCatalyst product via an API. They’ve also mentioned a few new features/ideas on how some of this data can eventually be used to better inform search marketing campaigns. Clickz coverage is here, there doesn’t seem to be a press release from Omniture available yet though.

My dayjob is an Omniture customer, and we’ll likely be taking advantage of this, as I’m sure many customers will. It’s a great sign of a maturing trend that not only startups jump on with new products and services, but industry heavyweights do too.

I really enjoyed the story of how this new product feature came about, which Adam Greco (Omni_man) covers on the Omniture blog. It’s great to see an organization move so quickly and be so agile with their products.

Even more so, it’s great to see more measurement being brought to social media!

How is your organization measuring and particiapating in Twitter and other social media conversations? Are you talking to your customers and prospects?

Social Media and the US Auto Industry

Charlie — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:52:15 +0000

Kudos to the struggling US auto industry for putting a great social media face on their image issues.

Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford has a great post on how Ford has and is making changes. From leadership, vehicle mixes, green focus, manufacturing technology and new product offerings, he makes great points on exactly what Ford is doing to change. These more specific messages that leave me with a much better impression of Ford than I’ve had. (I own Toyota and Honda cars, but some of the fuel efficiency, green focus and Sync technology may swing me over to a Ford in the future… if they work on their design a bit more. 8-)

Follow Scott Monty, head of social media at Ford, here on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/scottmonty

I’m looking for any official Ford blogs, but haven’t found them yet. (Scott?)

GM has a corporate blog with posts by several VPs, and Bob Lutz the GM vice chairman. With so much ongoing controversy around their offerings and the recent financial issues, I think this more direct route to customers, media and pundits is a great way to get their messages out, without relying on the “spin” of press. They also have some VERY actively engaged readers, with over a hundred comments on several posts… Many of the comments are several paragraphs too.

There are several other GM blogs are here, with Saturn, Opel, Tuner enthusiasts, European focused and Cadillac blogs. Overall, it’s a pretty good effort from GM in the social media and customer conversation/PR space.

Follow GM Blogs Twitter with news and updates across their blogs:
http://twitter.com/GMblogs

Do you know of others in the auto industry with dedicated social media staff or efforts?

Micro, Mini and Maxi?

Charlie — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:57:41 +0000

Since I’ve had my iPhone, over 14 months or so, I’ve reveled in my ability to check email, do research, watch videos, get directions and product/service ratings and generally keep myself occupied where ever I am. In my car, at a restaurant or even when I don’t want to get up off the couch and walk to my desktop computer.

I also see it’s limitations, and still make use of my notebook computers and desktop computers most of each day, if not over the weekends. But as I travel, and my 2 year old daughter wants to watch movies/games when we are traveling, I’m interested in a “netbook” PC for more mobile use that I can’t always accomplish with my iPhone. This new generation of light, mobile PCs has come down significantly in price, from over $1,200 or $1,500 to $300-$500 in some cases. Dell has a Mini 9 Netbook with a 9 inch screen, and MSI has a Wind line with a 10 inch screen are some great examples.

This article from CNet on the “big bang” of conflict between computer manufacturers getting smaller products to market and phone handset builders going more full featured was very interesting. They focus on the handset and the small netbook pc at the ends of the spectrum of “mobile computing” but of course I think it’s smarter to look at the human side of “getting my computing/information needs met”. Broader and more holistic I think.

I see the trend of my needs/wishes from work computer, to desktop home computer to some type of notebook computer to phone handset. Depending on my tasks/intentions, I’ll choose the right tool for the job… much like my kitchen knife set, paring knives, steak knives or chopping knives on call all at the right time. It’s a simple analogy, but I think it works… as computing becomes another tool of our environment, our options multiply and conform to our work styles.

I’m considering a “netbook” (somehow I doubt this term will catch on with mainstream consumers) for traveling and light work when my MacBook Pro is too much, and my iPhone isn’t enough. I think it will also replace the need for a mini travel dvd player for long flights to Argentina with my daughter. It won’t replace my desktop (Mac Mini with 23 inch display), my work notebook or my iPhone, but I think it’ll find it’s niche in my life and computer use.

What about you, will you go with a netbook and a simple phone handset? Or a desktop and smartphone? Is there ONE perfect device for you or is “perfect” the option of micro, mini and maxi at the right time?

My Birthdate in Science History

Charlie — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 19:56:03 +0000

Just came across an interesting “science 2.0″ blog at www.ScientificBlogging.com. It has a fun feature/post series about “what happened in scientific history on specific days… of course my birthday (8 Sept) is of particular interest to me… This Day in Science History: September 8th.

Highlights include: the unveiling of Michaelangelo’s David, key steps in epidemiology and spatial analysis regarding cholera in the U.K., devastating hurricane in Galveston, Texas and even the introduction of Scotch Tape! Enjoy!

Charlie

I guess I’m soon to be on the downhill…

Charlie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 22:05:13 +0000

Some new research on the peak and deterioration of mental ability:

Most people reach their mental peak between the ages of 35 and 40, then begin a steady decline that speeds up in the years before death, he said. The Swedish team wanted to test when that acceleration starts, in order to better understand the loss of mental ability.

I guess as I approach 40, I’m on the downhill side of my brain power… and here I thought I was in the trough already! 8-)

Accessibility a low priorty? Not anymore.

Charlie — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 21:41:14 +0000

MSNBC reports that Target was just hit with a US$6 million settlement and damages for not making it’s site accessible to blind. They’ve agreed to a 3 year oversight relationship with constant testing by National Federation for the Blind and their screen reader testing software.

Wow. This is a bit of a wake up call for American businesses that have long ignored or under delivered on the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The key here is that Target contended that the ADA only covered physical spaces, not electronic ones. I’m no lawyer, but this is at least some type of precedent for other lawsuits agains US businesses for non-accessible and unusable sites.

It’s a good time to get into the accessibility consulting business! Anyone wanna work together on one? 8-)

Armano: Infinite Touchpoints

Charlie — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:06:24 +0000

David Armano has a great info graphic on the evolution of organization/individual touchpoints on Flicker. I commented, what do you think?

Windows and Microsoft.com Usability

Charlie — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:57:58 +0000

I really feel for the people who get put in the middle of a mess like this email from Bill Gates. It’s a somewhat amusing read coming from the world’s richest man and the leader of the largest software company in the world, criticizing his own products.

The email is an overview of his frustration while trying to download some movie making software from his own company’s website. Issues include unclear naming conventions, (which Microsoft is notorious for) grouping of programs non-intuitively, not being prepared for users to go to a “download” page to download additional software, unlabeled system software updates and even required restarts without explanation.

I think it’s great that a CEO actually uses his product and sees how his customers are treated when using it. The opposite happens day after day… confusing experiences based on an inattention to detail, poor product development and lack of usability as a priority.

When was the last time you approached your company and it’s products as a new user? Have you done some simple “listening labs” to watch and listen to people use your site or product? Can your grandmother use your site/product?

Visual Design Trends

Charlie — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 18:44:10 +0000

I’m working on updating my Wordpress install on this blog, and refreshing the design/template too. I love how easy it is (most of the time). It really does give non-technical people access to personal publishing with a pretty amazing level of personalization and customization.

While I was looking around for inspiration, I found this interesting post here on visual design trends in 2008.

I look forward to your comments as I refresh the site… of course, let me know if anything breaks! 8-)

ProductCamp Austin: A great success!

Charlie — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:38:38 +0000

The second ever ProductCamp started in Austin at 8am this morning. I had never been to any BarCamp-style “un-conference” before, but I must say I really enjoyed it. It was active, informative and agile, in the sense that we the participants, voted on the sessions at the beginning of the day, we were expected to actively discuss, interupt and add our own value to the proceedings. Open sessions were guided and moderated, some a bit more successfully than others, but all that I attended had value to me as a marketer and professional. They had a Twitter account open and many of us Twittered about it, and posted photos to Flickr in this group. My Twitter here at CharlieNB.

I enjoyed a session on general Agile/Scrum and roles, another on Agile best practices and horror stories with Ross Hobbie. I was interested in others managing content and/or marketing via Scrum processes, but no others were. After the session though, I spoke with several people that had great product marketing teams and development teams, but no user-centered design or UX resources. They were interested in how UX could help with their prototyping and products, several good discussions!

The Global Product Mgmt session was a little too open and unfocused, but to be fair, it’s a REALLY broad and complex topic, it could have been broken into 3-4 different sessions.

I jumped into UX 101 with Ben Phenix late, but it was well recieved by all, clear, simple concepts that were easy to apply. I’ve been through and given a lot of UX presos, and this one was good.

Pat Scherer gave more of a presentation rather than a discussion, but her detailed points on Priorities and Roadmaps was very complete and clearly well proven in the real world.

Next up was a Product Management Tools roundtable… very well moderated by (I think) Cindy Phillips. We covered a lot, from requirements gathering, to basic excel templates, into productivity tools. Here are the ones I captured: Blackblot, xcelsius, devonthink, xmind, “montecarlo analysis” excel plug-ins, Mindmap, MindMeister, Google Trends, search volume, surveys with Survey Monkey and QuestionPro, customer wiki’s and communities, Salesforce QA (? not sure of the name), Markettools, Passenger, PHPBB communities, BasecampHQ, fogbugs (tracks accuracy of estimates), Jira, JOTT, Rally, Webex, Breeze, Camtasia, Snagit, Yugma, Netmeeting, Lifehacker. Whew!!!

My last session was with Charlie Ray on navigating political minefields. Charlie was very entertaining, and also shared many good insights… management styles aside, there was a lot of good info to bring to daily life. My favorite quote is “Nip the G.M.O.O.T” meaning stop CEO’s from saying “Get Me One Of Those” when seeing features and adding them willy-nilly to products. Charlie also won the award for best session at the end of the day. Good job Charlie!!!

Throughout several of the sessions, the differences between startups with scarce time, personnel and financial resources versus larger, mature companies with sometimes too many resources and plenty of budget were apparent. Some of us discussed the idea of a StartupCamp, either a seperate BarCamp, or as a track at the next Product or BarCamp. We’ll be gathering thoughts and discuss further, so contact me if you are interested.

I really want to thank the organizers of the event, Paul Young and John Milburn, they did a great job.

Sponsors took care of the space, coffee/snacks, lunch, tshirts and mugs, thanks!

I certainly recommend the BarCamp concept and certainly will participate in the next Product or any other Camp. (Full world wide list here.)

Hope to see you at the next BarCamp event!

[tag]ProductCamp, BarCamp, UX, product management, product marketing, Austin, agile, global products, StartupCamp[/tag]

OpenID, my new favorite thing!

Charlie — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:59:08 +0000

I’ve had an OpenID for nearly 2 months now, and I have to say I’m really enjoying the ease and simplicity it offers.
From the OpenID Wikipedia page:

OpenID is a shared identity service, which allows Internet users to log on to many different web sites using a single digital identity, eliminating the need for a different user name and password for each site.

I’ve been using it for as many online sites/services as I can, including my Basecamp projects with 37Signals’ Openbar which ads simple project switching and even product (to Highrise) switching!, online mind mapping at MindMeister, and will soon get some plugins for Wordpress to use it on my blogs.

As a site or product owner, I’m not sure how easy it is to enable it’s use yet, but I do know it does a lot to lower the bar for signups and participation. How many times have you stopped reading an article, downloading something, commented, or even join a new service because you didn’t want to go through a long painful signup process? It certainly has stopped me.

But OpenID makes it easy to join any online community activity, as you can control how long your authentication lasts, how much data/info is shared, etc.

There are several providers, but you can also use the url of many common services you may already be on, from Blogger, flickr, Technorati and AOL. I went with VerisignLabs Personal Identity Protection, part of the website security/trust company Verisign.

I’m certainly going to be recommending an optional OpenID implementations to all my clients with sites. If you own a website with logins, what’s keeping you from implementing OpenID as a login/password option and making it easier for new signups/users?

[tag]openid, open id, data portability, usability, product management [/tag]

…and another skill becomes a cheap commodity. Ouch.

Charlie — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:36:06 +0000

My designer friends are gonna hate me for that comment. 8-) Sorry guys.

Check out Crowdspring, a marketplace for simple logos and other design work. Most of them going for well under $500 bucks. Some designs are certainly crap, but some aren’t so bad. Yes, you may get what you pay for, but a very small business/startup may also get something pretty reasonable to tide them over until they need more complete/custom design work.

First product production outsourcing to other countries hits America… not long after, simple open markets in customer service and technology/coding transform businesses, (not always in a good way) now its visual design. Many differences in levels of quality exist… (especially in customer service) but it’s certainly a trend that’s hitting many industries and disciplines.

I think my career value is in “communication” with other humans… it evolves in format, medium and technology, but it also stays the same. Marketing, branding, UX, product management, social media… yes they depend on technology, but they are really about communication. That isn’t changing. (yet I hope! 8-)

How is/will your company (and you) planning for this type of open market? Is it a serious threat or something that won’t ever hit you?

[tag]visual design, branding, logo design, offshoring [/tag]

One Startup. 60 Seconds.

Charlie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 23:23:47 +0000

Just found one of Techcrunch’s new projects: http://pitches.techcrunch.com. It’s a site with 60 second videos of CEOs/founders of startups/companies giving their “elevator pitches” to the public. You can rate/comment on each.

I’ve heard of about 3 of the companies that have video pitches up, but I’ve found a few things worth checking out. I have no idea why they “style” the videos with that annoying cartoon filter… some startup called BeFunky provided it. May be fun for personal videos, but annoying in this context.

I’ve encouraged several clients to create similar videos for their websites to quickly and personally show customers the value of their site/service/product. I think it’s a great way to get personal with customers and quickly get your primary message out.

Would a quick video overview of your company help your customers understand your value better?

Thanks to StartupDistrict on twitter for the link!

See you at ProductCamp Austin?

Charlie — Wed, 21 May 2008 15:04:37 +0000

I’m looking forward to attending/participating in the upcoming ProductCamp Austin on 14 June, organized by Paul Young.

ProductCamp is a collaborative unconference about Product Marketing and Management

In the spirit of BarCamp, ProductCamp is a collaborative, user organized unconference, focused on Product Marketing and Management topics. At ProductCamp there are no “attendees,” since everyone participates in some manner: presenting, leading a roundtable discussion, helping with logistics, securing sponsorship, setting up wifi, or volunteering. ProductCamp is a great opportunity for you to learn from, teach to, and network with professionals involved in the Product Management, Marketing, and Development process from the Austin area!

In my new (contract) role, I’m responsible for both general marketing and our product as well… a social and video sharing community website. It’s very early stage, built on top of a purchased platform with basic/generic functionality. The big task we are facing is how to develop the product, the design and the content… preparing to attract the community.

I’ve had less than a year experience with Agile - Scrum processes, but I’m pretty excited about it’s potential, especially with user experience/ UX and site development/ management. I’ll go into an overview of how we are managing this site/product/community via our own version of Agile/ Scrum on this blog soon. But for now, I hope to learn a lot and fine tune our process/ priorities at ProductCamp Austin.

By the way, Paul also has a great blog I’ve just discovered, Product Beautiful. It’s focused on (what else?) product management and marketing. 8-)

I’ll be there, hope to see you!

[tag]ProductCampAustin, product management, agile, scrum UX, Barcamp [/tag]

Armano: Web 2.0 is Velcro and Micro

Charlie — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:39:05 +0000

Good article by David Armano here with a new metaphor on the how the web is working nowadays.

Pick your favorite term for this stuff we are doing: web 2.0, community, conversation marketing, viral, viral loops, guerilla marketing, word of mouth, social media, etc. Now we have “velcro marketing”! Heh… I’m sure my mom will really understand what I do now. 8-)

While I find that adding another descriptive term to the pile slightly troubling, it’s an interesting metaphor and a good explanation.

Marketers, designers and developers alike are scrambling to figure how two things:

1. What are the viral “hooks” that capture people’s attention?
2. What are the viral “loops,” which create infinite engagement that spreads like wildfire?

David is one of my favorite bloggers (his Logic + Emotion Blog) for his great synthesis of trends down to simpler concepts.

For example, here is a deck he’s sharing on “Micro interactions composing the brand experience.” It’s not a ground-breaking discovery, it’s really just a reminder that “small things matter,” but he reminds marketers/business how much more true it is online in this “conversation economy” we have now. Here’s his summation quote:

“We live in a world where the little things really do matter. Each encounter no matter how brief is a micro interaction which makes a deposit or withdrawal from our rational and emotional subconscious. The sum of these interactions and encounters adds up to how we feel about a particular product, brand or service. Little things. Feelings. They influence our everyday behaviors more than we realize.”

Are you looking at the details of all your company’s interactions? The emails, the “thank you” pages, the phone system directory on your main line? What happens to customer comments? Try this fun little exercise: Get your granny/significant other to make a suggestion to your company… see how long, or IF it ever is brought up in your meetings or roadmaps.

It’s a Conversation, NOT a Campaign

Charlie — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:30:32 +0000

Social media demands interaction… because its a conversation, not a campaign.

Nice quick report from B2B’s NetMarketing Breakfast in NY this week.

Paul Dunay, global director of integrated marketing at BearingPoint, said he actively reuses and retargets existing content in ways that make sense to provide value to customers.

Dunay said there is no “campaign” in social media: “It’s a state of being your company has to take on, and marketing has to lead the charge for that. You can’t be social this week and decide to be antisocial next week. It’s an ongoing process.”

Good stuff Paul, let’s get that message out there to the marketers and management that still think they can start a social network presence, forum or blog and not dedicate people to work/participate on it.

Loved this bit from an IBM social media manager Pauline Ores too. There is a LOT to be gained by keeping an eye on what your users are searching for and talking about online.

Ores said search and social media go hand in hand, and that by interacting with its community of customers, social media informs IBM’s search strategy. By “listening to social media” to learn what people are talking about, IBM is able to buy relevant keywords against those conversations.

Is your organization conversing and listening to what your customers are talking about online?

The REAL Shock and Awe

Charlie — Sat, 03 May 2008 22:40:36 +0000

This is the REAL shock and awe.
As marketers are called upon for more accountability in their programs, the compensation packages for executives are flying into the stratosphere. In Forbes’ “Paying for Failure” article, these stories here are just shocking… I think these companies should get all the PR they deserve for these outrageous wastes of shareholder and company funds.

Forbes.com has a full section devoted to CEO Compensation, it’s a very interesting read.

Are you a shareholder or customer of any of these companies?
Sprint, Marriot, Black and Decker, Eli Lilly, Home Depot, Citigroup, Ford Motor, General Motors, Countrywide Financial, Toll Brothers, Washington Mutual, Merrill Lynch, Bank of America, Caremark/CVS, Chevron, Deere & Co., Alcoa and ExxonMobil.

Pricing and Negotiations

Charlie — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:00:28 +0000

Scientific American has a great article “Why things cost $19.95″, focused on pricing of products and more specifically, our brain’s negotiations mechanisms.

University of Florida marketing professors Chris Janiszewski and Dan Uy suspected that something fundamental might be going on, that some characteristic of the opening bid itself might influence the way the brain thinks about value and shapes bidding behavior. In particular, they wanted to see if the degree of precision of the opening bid might be important to how the brain acts at an auction. Or, to put it in more familiar terms: Are we really fooled when storekeepers price something at $19.95 instead of a round 20 bucks?

They present some interesting data from home sales, initial pricing points vs. actual negotiated sale prices… and found that rounded initial prices such as $500,000 flexed more to sell, while more specific prices such as $494,500, had sales closer to that number.

What I got out of the article is “the more specific the price is the less flexible it seems to a buyer.” By “specific” I mean not rounded, but precise… I think it looks more “computed” and calculated, vs. someone “ballparking” it and making up a price. To me, it says they’ve spent time reasoning through the price, and there may be less flexibility in it.

The other side of “$19.95″ though is the experienced and critical consumer… ask someone how much something costs, and they’ll never say $19.95, they’ll always round to $20. Maybe we’ve just seen that “trick” to make it seem like a lower price too often. 8-)

Do you consciously make an effort to have your pricing be “precise” versus rounded? Why or why not?

Interactive marketing spending up despite slowing economy

Charlie — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:54:36 +0000

According to a new Forrester survey:

“In a recession, marketers typically cut interactive spending. But our survey of 333 interactive marketers revealed strong support for maintaining or increasing budgets in categories including social networking, email, blogging, and search optimization. Among 12 major categories only online displays ads looked soft. Professional services, financial services, and media marketers are most likely to plan increases in interactive marketing. In a recession like this, marketers should focus on the measurability of their online and social applications and think in terms of building long-term assets, not one-off campaigns to boost quarterly sales.”

Forrester’s Groundswell Blog shows a nice graphic of the results too.

I certainly have seen an increase in activity and interest around social media/online conversations, such as clients asking about blogging, site comments/reviews and either participating in online communities or even starting their own. I think the sometimes immediate results and very measurable nature of online campaigns give these a permanent place in marketer’s toolboxes.

I was a little surprised about online video and mobile marketing showing only 20-30% growth optimism. But I suppose the survey was at large to medium sized companies/agencies, and not all of their client’s business may have mobile or video content needs. I do think that many companies could give much more personal impressions if they used video more… for example, why not have the CEO introduce the company via video on the main “About” page of your site? Why not have the VP of HR tell you why you should come work for that company in a quick video? These are quick, contextual and very rich interactions that would benefit greatly from online video.

Email, the old standby is still working quite well and marketers are optimistic about in in the future. Although most of the emails and landing pages I’ve seen lately could certainly use some work, email is still producing results.

I was not super surprised about the only online marketing area not producing much growth (10ish%) is display ads. I know many websites depend on those types of ads, but between crap creative, poor targeting and obnoxious execution, as well as general “banner blindness” fewer customers are finding them interesting and relevant.

Are these results reflective of your plans for the next year?

Good news for this blog…

Charlie — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 21:27:04 +0000

I just realized this blog, Seven87.com has been ranked on the Ad Age Power 150 for Marketing Blogs! Of course the Power 150 isn’t limited to 150 for some reason, as I’m currently in the 500’s, but it’s nice to see that I’m even on the list! Thanks to Ad Age and Todd Andrlik.

See the full list here.

Of course, to me the list is a great way to find new blogs and people that are putting out some effort and great ideas.

Good interview: Cisco User Experience Lead

Charlie — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:39:52 +0000

Just read a pretty good interview with Cordell Ratzlaff, ex-Apple and ex-frogdesign and the new head of product design at Cisco.

Having just built a UX team at my former job, and now looking for new opportunities, I’ve seen first hand the specialization and fragmentation of roles in UX groups. I certainly understand specialization and a very focused approach to a career, but I agree with Cordell’s point about too narrow a focus by many people in the field. I have a heck of a time describing what some of these folks do… to some extent my own skills are a bit hard to define to someone not experienced in this field. That, I’ll have to work on. 8-)

One of my pet peeves is with the specialized labels that have evolved within our profession. We have user interface designers, usability engineers, user experience specialists, visual designers, interaction designers, etc. The distinction between these many roles is fuzzy and confusing to those both inside and outside the design profession. Personally, I blame the information architects for this — they think they need to classify everything.

Funny! Blame the IA’s, nice…. 8-)

He also talks about the competitive advantage many companies gain from focusing not just on technology (what’s technically possible) but design as well (what’s desirable, efficient and productive). As I’ve been in sales/biz dev conversations with customers over the last few years, this topic is coming up again and again… technology is cheap, the experience and context will be the way a product gets sold and successful.

More and more companies appreciate the strategic value of design and see design as a way to solve business problems. This is a great direction for designers, but it means we all have to get more business savvy. There are a few things driving this trend. First, technology is a commodity. The cost of technology and the time to bring it to market are both decreasing. Technology leads are fleeting. Google launches a new feature. A few weeks later, you’ll see it on Yahoo. When technology and time-to-market are no longer competitive advantages, design — and the experience it provides to customers — can be a strong differentiator.

All emphasis is mine.

He makes a few other good points… on how to drive UX awareness in a large company that has a technology background. It’s worth a read, enjoy!

Corporate Social Media: LinkedIn.com

Charlie — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:06:49 +0000

My favorite business networking tool LinkedIn.com, anounced recently that they’ll have pages/profiles for companies launching this week. Here’s a blog post that demos the pages and components, with video.

Here are some sample companies that have already launched: Google, Oracle, LinkedIn, Yahoo, eBay, even the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

I think it’s a great evolution of the featureset that LinkedIn has, including some basic corporate info (like Hoover’s) as well as links to research, “previous” and “after” careers of employees, your connections at the company, recent promotions and hires.

It’s yet to be determined if the company has direct access to edit the page, or how frequently they could update it. I could see daily updates pushing the “status update” of the company high on individual’s “dashboard” pages and getting out of hand quickly. Overall, it can make a very positive impact on:

PR for the company
Recruiting efforts
Moral/Recognition of the employees
Natural Search/SEO

I’m sure there is a downside in making it even easier to poach employees from targeted companies, but that’s really a fair price don’t you think? 8-)

Will your company post/make available and keep your Company LinkedIn Profile up to date?

SEO-Design-Code Rap

Charlie — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 18:48:47 +0000

A little levity on Monday… a pal sent me this (thanks Jay) the SEO Rapper. He riffs on CSS, SEO and other “best practices”… he’s pretty good, if not exactly expressive. 8-)

Usability (and organizational) Problems with the 2010 US Census

Charlie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 14:08:33 +0000

The US Census Bureau is getting ready to conduct the 2010 Census, the population count that will be used to calculate congressional districts and funding. The trouble is, they have usability problems with the handheld computers they were planning to use, in addition to the organizational communication issues you may expect from a government agency that does the bulk of it´s work once every 10 years. Here´s the story.

Evidently, they built and are doing at least some testing of the systems, but it sounds like they fell into the classic “waterfall” development trap: build it out, then test it.

Big worries for the nation’s first high-tech census should have been obvious when tests showed some of the door-to-door headcounters couldn’t figure out their fancy new handheld computers.

Agile User Experience Design (Agile UX) would likely have prevented this problem by introducing low-detail (paper-prototype) testing earlier in the development process. By testing with paper prototypes and even more functional prototypes on computers much earlier in the development process, the problems with the interface and system logic could have been found, and new solutions created that worked better BEFORE the systems were written and constructed. As it is, the budget may QUADRUPLE for this project… not anything I´d like on my resume!

Of course the CEO of the company that built the devices offers this excuse:

“After you spend about 30 minutes to an hour familiarizing yourself with it, it’s as easy to use as a modern cell phone,” Raimondi said.

As “easy as a modern cell phone”? You´ve got to be kidding me… modern cell phones, with some notable exceptions, (iPhone and a few others) are a total confusing mess of features and functions. Most tech-savvy people take days of focused use to master some of the interactions and complexity. They can probably make a phone call, but I´d hardly call modern cell phones “easy to use” in general. You can take the massive migration to the iPhone as some small proof of that.

Besides the obvious error in logic above, the CEO also ignores the demographic and usage scenarios of the users… Census takers are likely not to be super-tech saavy computer enthusiasts, and they may not have days to train or get familiar with the systems.

I´m not belittling how tough the problem of designing this system is, but their process and understanding of how to design systems could use some modernization… I think they should try going back to pencil and paper themselves… 8-)

Professional Development via Online Video and Podcasts

Charlie — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 19:41:53 +0000

I’ve spent a little time recently on iTunesU (iTunes link), Apple’s area for free audio and video casts from universities around the US. I’m very impressed by the content and subject matter of these… I’ve downloaded a few and it’s great to keep in touch with some strategic thinking while traveling. Here are some of my favorites, add any you find in the comments.

Yale Business and Management
From problem-solving to experimental design and innovation.
iTunes link.

Stanford University’s Human-Computer Interaction Seminar
From usability testing and designing for simplicity to human cognition and sketching experience design.
iTunes link.

Stanford University’s Technology Ventures Program
From startups and social networking to successful negotiations, branding and leadership.
iTunes link.

MIT Business and Leadership
Guanxi, the Art of Relatinships: Microsoft and China
iTunes link.

AmEx OPEN Forum Videos
With Seth Godin the marketing visionary, Sean Parker of Facebook and Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia.
Web link.

What are your favorites?

Focus, Focus, Focus

Charlie — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 21:25:47 +0000

Here is a well written article on “focus”… well, that’s the point of it, but it’s about Microsoft’s lack of it.

In many ways I agree with the point of the article, Microsoft is a bit fragmented. While I also think that some of the efforts he describes as tangental, actually work out quite well. I’ve just jumped into the whole XBOX world of games, media center functionality and movie downloads, and I’m finding it is a very compelling experience.

If I bring this back around to me and my experiences, “focus” is definitely something that I’d like more of. 8-) Every few days/weeks I stop myself and evaluate the my activities and how they support my high-level life goals… surprisingly (or not surprisingly) I often find I’m spending too much time on low-value or tangental efforts. It’s a good “reset” of my efforts, focusing me in on what I really want to accomplish.

I also have to do that with my team’s project list… a recent count of non-client-related, internal efforts came up with over 20 projects!!! Wow, talk about lack of focus… I’m going to try to trim them down some so each person has no more that 2-3 efforts outside of client work. I think it’ll make us much more productive and help us focus.

What can you or or project team cut to enhance your focus?

Security vs. Lock-in

Charlie — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 20:06:07 +0000

I love how Bruce Schneier can make complex security issues so clear and understandable to non-technical folks that don’t have a security background. Security, access to your personal data and privacy of it are VERY important topics currently, but they are very complex to understand.

Here he has a great article on the concept of platform security vs. the age-old business concept of “lock-in” - raising the bar of cost/pain to switch to a competitive product. He talks about Apple iPhone/iTunes a lot, but the Microsoft examples (NGSCB or Next-Generation Secure Computing Base) are more telling to me. When you think of his examples, lock-in is pretty pervasive in tech and non-tech areas.

Lock-in applied to Software Services
It makes me think of the “lock-in” concept as it pertains to software services… In many methodologies, including “waterfall” and traditional marketing/advertising processes, the delivery process is the lock-in mechanism. That is, the client doesn’t get work until the end of the project, until then, clients only see documentation, comps and so forth. Very little that can be useful to another team, so the incumbent is locked-in to finishing the project. Clearly that’s good for the service provider, but sometimes it can be a real risk/problem for a client engaging them.

One of the interesting benefits of Agile methodologies and the concept of Agile User Experience, (Agile UX) is that at each “sprint” or short term milestone (usually 3-4 weeks) clients get a set of formed deliverables. Not perfect deliverables, but something that is technically able to be brought in-house or to another development team without losing the entire value.

Now some would say that the lock-in concept here is a very good thing… so would the companies that Bruce references in his article. But for the end client, whether it’s us as consumers, or software services clients, the ability to “switch horses” to keep their project on track is a very good thing. It decreases the risk associated with selecting a software vendor.

Services without the Lock-in
For firms using Agile or Agile UX, (and us at Neudesic) this “non-lock-in” approach lowers the bar for selection and lowers the risk for clients. The strategy is to “lock-in” clients by keeping them happy, and by more frequent interaction and small course corrections. It’s a “soft lock-in” based on client satisfaction… in my opinion, that’s the way to go. 8-)

What do you think?

MS Demos New Advertising “Labs” work

Charlie — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:01:19 +0000

Some news about MS that doesn’t just focus on it’s proposed Yahoo acquisition… 8-)

An overview of some of the new advertising technologies coming out of adCenter labs, many are focused on search, but here are a few others.

Another used speech recognition to make a transcript of a video, then served up ads — in the demonstration, they were text links — alongside the video. As the topics discussed on screen changed, so did the ads.

and

The third program scanned a video for surfaces where ads or product images could be inserted later. The demo showed how the same frames could display a Coke ad one moment and a Pepsi ad the next, without having to reshoot the video.

In searching for the main adCenter Labs page, I also found this interesting labs tool to “predict” the demographics of either a search term or a website url. According to this tool, Seven87.com is male oriented with a .57 confidence. 8-) It also has age orientation too. Interesting stuff. MS adCenter Labs: Demographics Prediction Page.

Some other neat stuff too, including the “Video Hyperlink,” and “Detecting Sensitive Webpages.” They don’t quantify what they mean by “sensitive” but Microsoft.com is only rated “not sensitive” by a confidence factor or 60.4%… so who knows what they are measuring. This is also hilarious… I put in “YouP*rn.com” and it’ is “not sensitive” by a 79.3% confidence! 8-) I guess they have a long way to go with that project…

Neudesic User Experience Team at Microsoft Phizzpop Design Challenge

Charlie — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:49:45 +0000

36 teams enter. 1 team leaves.

The PhizzPop Design Challenge pits top interactive, Web, and design agencies against one another to push the limits of technology and creativity in a battle royale. Think Mad Max for design.

The regional teams have been selected and will duke it out in New York, Boston, Chicago, Austin, and Los Angeles, with the regional winners competing against one another, and San Francisco winner AKQA, at the South by Southwest Interactive Conference in Austin, TX.

http://phizzpop.visitmix.com

Here are several third party video podcasts covering the Chicago Design Challenge:
http://www.creativepro.com/story/news/26197.html

—
As many of you know, I manage the User Experience Practice at Neudesic… we are competing this week against the likes of FrogDesign, Telligent and others for the regional win, and the chance to compete again at SXSW in March ‘08!

Wish us luck!

Logo evolutions

Charlie — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:16:22 +0000

Came across a few old/new logo comparisons, here and here. Not sure why, but I always enjoy reading through those type of evaluation/comparisons. I agree with many of the conclusions posted… Sometimes you have to wonder about the meetings where some of the changes were discussed and approved.

A logo/identity change is a HUGE thing for a company, at least it should be considered with some gravity and broad input. Some of these seem to be changed for the sake of change, just to show that the team did something this quarter. Some really kill parts of their brand that were VERY successful and a core part of their differientiation.

I love the discussion/speculation about what Microsoft’s Silverlight logo is here, scan for what people thing the blue “Blobby Ball of Nebulousness™” thing looks like… it’s hilarious.

Have you been a part of a less-than-considered logo/identity change? What happened?

Wow, Austin IS wired…

Charlie — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:41:10 +0000

Interesting that Austin is very much into the blogosphere.

A report released Wednesday by Scarborough Research reveals that Austin, Texas has the highest percentage of residents who read or write blogs. In Austin, 15% of adults had read or contributed to a blog in the past 30 days, while #2 Portland followed with 14% and tied for third was San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose (an odd clumping, we must say) and Seattle/Tacoma, both with 13%. Other top cities: Honolulu, San Diego, Dallas, Columbus, Nashville, Colorado Springs, and Washington D.C.

Where is the creation of consumption of blogs the lowest? Only 2% of the population in Buffalo, NY and Pittsburgh has anything to do with the blogosphere. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Pennsylvania and Roanoke/Lynchburg, Virginia fare hardly better with 4%.

Neudesic’s NuCon Coming Up

Charlie — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 15:28:10 +0000

Neudesic is sponsoring NuCon 2007!
NuCon will feature what’s Nu and upcoming in Microsoft’s Businss Technology offerings!

Topics Include overviews of Visual Studio 2008, Server SQL 2008, and Microsoft Business Platform Value.

WHEN:
Thursday, November 8th 2007 - 8:30am - 5pm

WHERE:
Hyatt Regency Irvine
17900 Jamboree Blvd., Irvine, CA 92614

–
Should be an interesting overview of what’s happening in Microsoft’s tech offerings. I’m especially interested in the Silverlight/WPF stuff.

FYI Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows. More here.

QWERTY vs Dvorak: Settled?

Charlie — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 14:05:50 +0000

Turns out that the oft-quoted “market choosing an inferior technology” and “training trumping usability” story of the QWERTY keyboard versus the Dvorak keyboard layouts may not be as clear cut as some (including me) have thought.

This article points out some of the background research and it’s flaws… I guess it still isn’t clear which one is more efficient or even if that matters, given enough training.

Have you ever tried Dvorak?

A few new things to share…

Charlie — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 16:44:32 +0000

Todd Wilkens from Adaptive Path starts out with a very interesting “idealist” perspective post, and generates an amusing (and very interesting/informative) discussion/flame war in the comments about “usability being a path to failure”.

Here’s a nice/simple overview video of Greg Verdino on BusinessWeek talking about social media becoming a great equalizer between large and small businesses. How small businesses can use social media, community, blogging, etc. (web 2.0) to touch their customers…

Maureen Kelly has a “how-to” post on Boxes and Arrows about quick functional/interactive prototypes in powerpoint. I like the idea… simple, pervasive and quick to build.

100 Valuable Websites

Charlie — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 15:43:58 +0000

TED blog points out 100 websites that you should know/use. They have several categories of sites:

Curiosity and Knowledge
Graphics, Music and Arts
Ecommerce Experience
Search and Finding
Online Resources
and their version of the Top Interactive Experience Creators…

Of course I’d add Neudesic to that last category… 8-)

What would you add to this list?

Google News brings national clicks to local news

Charlie — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:15:33 +0000

Google News is one of my favorite ways to get a quick overview of what’s going on with the world. However, once in a while, I click on a news article that’s interesting, but goes to a local news site… I think mostly local tv station websites. Since these sites were created to serve the local market, they generally don’t feel the need to note prominently where the station is located… i.e. what state they are in.

Here’s an example for “Fayetteville’s FayObserver.com”… I have no idea what state Fayetteville is in. I’m sure if I clicked around a bit, I’d see the state, but I think it should be listed clearly. Here’s an example of a newspaper site (my local) that sometimes breaks national news… the Austin-American Statesman. However, if you didn’t know it was in Texas, this page wouldn’t tell you.

It’s really an interesting evolution… local can now draw national attention and clicks. I’d suggest that managers that run local-oriented news sites take a look at who their users just might be… classic issue to be solved by user-centered design methods (and maybe a little web traffic analytics).

Does your site quickly give context to new visitors? Or do they have to be local or in your industry to understand anything?

Only 12 Kinds of Ads

Charlie — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 01:27:51 +0000

A really interesting Slate article on Donald Gunn’s categorization of (mostly tv) ads. Click the popup on that page, for a run through of all of them and video examples.

In 1978, Donald Gunn was a creative director for the advertising agency Leo Burnett. Though his position implied expertise, Gunn felt he was often just throwing darts—relying on inspiration and luck (instead of proven formulas) to make great ads. So, he decided to inject some analytical rigor into the process: He took a yearlong sabbatical, studied the best TV ads he could find, and looked for elemental patterns.

After much research, Gunn determined that nearly all good ads fall into one of 12 categories—or “master formats,” in his words.

To me, the 12 formats serve equally well as a weapon of defense for the consumer under assault from endless advertising messages. It’s like learning how a magic trick works: Once the secret’s revealed, the trick loses all its power.

The creative side of me hates this “over simplification” of the delicacy of the creative process and delivery. The information designer side loves it, providing another example of excellent categorization and analysis. Hehe… I’m such a mess. 8-)

Packaging

Charlie — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:56:50 +0000

I just found Shoutlet.com, a company that looks like they have packaged “web 2.o” and sell it as a package. Now, many of my friends chuckle at that concept, (I did too) but it is an interesting way to manage perception.

Senior company management see the buzz around web 2.o and say “we should be doing that” regardless of it’s real value to the company. Nevermnding that fact, if you want to sell your services, giving executives an easy way to check that off their list is a good idea. You could say the same thing about “branding” really… most non-specialists can’t define in past “the logo” but know they need someone that can talk about it for an hour. 8-)

What is Shoutlet?
Shoutlet is the world’s first Web 2.0 marketing tool built for companies to use the latest social media technology to communicate to their core audience.

What is a shout?
A “shout” is a Podcast, Email (HTML or Text), RSS Feed, or Mobile Phone Text Message (SMS). Shouts can be created, distributed, and tracked using Shoutlet’s online interface.

I look forward to seeing how well this company does…