Boagworld

4 ways to bring new life to old Wordpress blog posts

Paul Boag — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:52:46 +0000

Who came up with the format for blogging? Whoever it was, they are an idiot! To be fair, they probably never envisioned blogs being used in the way they are today, but that is not the point :-)

The problem with blogs is that they are time based. You write a post, it appears on the homepage and then overtime it is replaced by more recent posts and is sentenced to the black hole of your archive.

Admittedly somebody might stumble across the post via a search engine. However, generally speaking it has vanished.

This is a shame for a couple of reasons. First, it maybe a great post. The world should know if it is. Second, it means users only ever see one or two pages of your blog and are gone. Not what you would call a sticky site!

If like me you run a blog, the chances are you have an unacceptably high bounce rate.

What then can be done? Well, I have implemented four strategies that appear to be working.

1. Theme Posts

The first approach I had some success with, are theme posts. It is an idea I pinched from ProBlogger. They describe theme posts as:

Posts or pages on your blog or site that revolve around a single theme.

Essentially, you pick a subject you have written about on a number of occasions. You then create a single article that highlights the various archived posts on the subject.

For example, not long ago I produced a theme post on web copy.

This essentially draws the users attention to archived content that would not otherwise be viewed.

2. Related Posts

The second approach I use to reduce my bounce rate, is showing related content at the end of each new post.

Again this highlights content in my archive, but also provides the user with a next step once they have finished reading. This is the moment when they are most likely to leave, so anything you can do to keep their interest is worth trying.

If you are a Wordpress blogger then related posts could not be easier to setup. There is an excellent plugin called Similar Posts that will have you up and running in minutes.

3. Embedded tags

The problem with related posts is that users do not always spot them. Research shows that if you want users to see a link it is best embedded within the content itself, not in a sidebar. One way of doing this is through inline tags.

Blogs have supported tagging for a long time now but they have traditionally been displayed either as a list or a cloud, separate to the main content of the post.

Inline tagging turns occurrences of a tag word into an active link that takes the user to a list of other posts tagged with that word. This is especially sticky, but also has SEO benefits.

Of course there are two problems with this approach. First, it requires you to have tagged all of your posts. Second, you need a way to turn these tags into links.

Once again a Wordpress plugin comes to the rescue. This time it is a plugin called Simple Tags. This incredibly powerful plugin allows you to do pretty much anything with tags. Among its many features it will turn a tag into a link. However, more impressively it will automatically suggest tags for every post in your entire blog.

However, one tip before you try this. Tag as many of your posts manually as possible in order to give the plugin some tags to work with.

Then in settings make sure the Tags Database checkbox is selected. This means the plugin will use your own tags as a starting point, and significantly improve the quality of the tags it creates.

Simple Tags offers a whole range of additional features including:

Tag management
Mass editing of tags
Better tag clouds
Tags for current post
and more!

4. Redesign your homepage

My final piece of advice for making your blog stickier is to redesign your homepage.

Traditionally blogs show an arbitrary number of the most recent posts on the homepage. However, this does little to expose content in your archive. Once a post falls off the homepage it is gone for good.

Your homepage should highlight a variety of posts. The Boagworld homepage displays teasers for the 4 latest posts as well as a number of my latest podcasts and 5 of my most popular posts.

The latter is achieved using another Wordpress plugin. This one is imaginatively titled Popular Posts.

As with Similar Posts it comes with a host of configuration options including how many posts to display and a number of filtering tools.

Any other suggestions?

Without a doubt these four suggestions have made a significant impact on my bounce rate and page views per user. However, there is always more that can be done. Add your suggestions to the comments below…

191. Ecommerce Lies

Paul Boag — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:58:58 +0000

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Housekeeping

If you are considering going to Future of Web Design New York on the 17th November then you will be pleased to hear that we have managed to get you a 15% discount.

I went last year and can honestly say it was the best conference I have ever intended (although the hype around the election might have helped!).

To claim your discount just enter the code ‘boag15′ at checkout.

News

Does aesthetics need to be compromised for the sake of usability?

As you will know if you have followed me for any length of time, I have great respect for usability expert Gerry McGovern. We work on similar projects and share a similar view of the web.

However, this week I parted company with Mr McGovern over his most recent post “Why web links are calls to action.”

In it he wrote:

It’s hard to read what Dustin writes on this black background; gave me a bit of a headache actually. But that’s okay. I had a great overall experience of the page because its black background communicated an important emotional, aesthetic thing to me.

Seriously, it’s a bit of a pity Dustin makes it so hard to read his stuff because what he has to say is quite interesting.

Later he went on to attack designers for their dislike of underlines.

Isn’t it amazing how many designers hate underline? They think it’s ugly, that it takes away from the look of the page.

Finally he reached the crux of his argument:

Have you read any grey books recently? I mean, have you read any books that use grey text or that have black backgrounds? Or, for that matter, have you read any print newspapers or magazines that use grey text? It’s well documented that it’s harder to read on a screen than in print. So why do designers deliberately create webpages that make reading even harder? Simple, really. Many web designers are more concerned with how the page looks than how it reads and functions.

In essence Gerry seems to be arguing that aesthetics should always take second place to usability. I disagree with this. It depends on the type of site. On some sites it is important to communicate more than information. Some websites are about conveying emotion and feeling too.

As for particularly targeting black backgrounds and underlined links, this is entirely unjustified.

Black backgrounds can (if done right) actually aid usability. Contrast is the issue here, not the colour of the background. As long as there is sufficient contrast a black background can actually reduce eye strain caused by white light, aiding on screen reading.

As for underlined links, I again disagree. Although I think it is important to underline links I tend to use border-bottom rather than text-decoration:underline. The problem with the latter is that the line intersects descenders making words hard to read, especially for those with cognitive disabilities. Not using underlines in their traditional sense actually aids readability.

The idea that most designers do not care about usability is incorrect. We care passionately. However, we do not always solve these problems in the way that usability consultants would prefer. Instead we try to balance aesthetic considerations with usability. We care both for how the page looks and how it functions.

So what do you think? Do you believe that designers care more about aesthetics than usability? Post your thoughts in the comments.

Explaining user experience design

Let’s face it, we all dress our jobs up in fancy terminology to justify our existence. That is fine until those paying us no longer understand what we are talking about.

Okay, so I am exaggerating to make a point. Sometimes we use our own terminology because we need short hand to explain complex ideas. However whatever the reason, it can get in the way when communicating with clients.

That is where the latest A List Apart post comes in. Entitled ‘Can you say that in english: Explaining UX research to clients‘ it does exactly what it says on the tin.

I want to recommend you read this article for three reasons:

If you are a somebody who needs to deal with UX people, this post proves an excellent introduction into what services they provide and the terminology they use.
If you are a UX person the post provides valuable advice on how to better communicate with clients.
If you have just started doing UX work this article may introduce you to more techniques. For example: have you previously heard of Contextual Inquires or Diary studies?

If you are looking for a great introduction to user experience design written in plain english, this is not a bad place to start.

The importance of typography

Typography is playing an increasingly important role on the web. Browser manufacturers now almost universally support font-face and there are a number of organisations such as Typekit and Fontdeck who have overcome the legal challenges surrounding the use of type online.

Unfortunately few fully understand the power of typography. Even web designers have become so used to working with a limited number of fonts that they have forgotten how evocative a great font can be.

There are loads of great resources about type on the web. Howeve, if you are looking for a post to get you started and demonstrate the power of type, I would recommend Jennifer Farley’s post on Sitepoint.

This isn’t a post that teaches you how font-face works. It isn’t even a post that explains how to create great typography. Instead it aims to excite you about the potential and power of great typography.

If you are a designer who rarely considers typography in any depth, then I highly recommend this post. If you are a website owner or developer who doesn’t ‘get’ all the fuss surrounding web typography, then I would also recommend you check this post out.

Website maintenance tips

Our final news story for today is an eclectic post from Smashing Magazine looking at website maintenance tips and tools.

It is a useful post because most of us are better at building websites than we are at maintaining them. After all, it is much more exciting to build a new feature than it is to carry out maintenance.

The article includes:

Advice on keeping content clean
Tools and advice on repairing your site
Information on browser compatibility testing
Help creating clean HTML, CSS, and Javascript
Guidance on ensuring accessibility
A look at HTML5 and CSS3
How to optimise your site for speed
Advice on commenting code
An introduction to SEO enhancements
Information on stats and analytics
How to incorporate user feedback

As I said – a somewhat eclectic mix. However, it is certainly worth a read if you are responsible for maintaining a large website over time.

Feature: The Biggest Ecommerce Lies and How to Avoid Theme

I am amazed at some of the advice I read about building successful ecommerce sites. I seriously wonder who writes this stuff! In this week’s feature I debunk 5 common myths.

Read the biggest ecommerce lies and how to avoid them

Listeners feedback: Does blogging/podcasting win you any work?

Got the following question from Dave Smith:

Basically I’m interested in whether your Podcast and Blog generate any enquiries that result in paid work/projects for Headscape?

Recently we created FindMeByIP.com and it generated what is – for us anyway – a considerable amount of traffic for the Blog on our website. However, despite the tens-of-thousands of hits generated, we’ve only received 1 enquiry regarding new work. ONE!

What I want to know is whether you’ve devised any strategies for converting Blog/Podcast traffic into paid work projects for Headscape.

If not then how can you justify the obviously considerable amount of time and effort you put into your Podcast and Blog? What provides return on investment?

I’d look forward to any ideas/thoughts/suggestions that you might have.

The simple answer as to whether the podcast and blog generate any enquiries that result in paid work is yes. Blogging and podcasting have become the principle method that we use to market Headscape. We wouldn’t do it to the level that we do if it wasn’t a successful method of winning work.

Patience

I happened to notice recently that the first ever podcast went out in 2005 with Paul creating written articles prior to that. It took at least a couple of years before we started to notice that the majority of new prospects were discovering us through the blog and podcast.

There’s a couple of important points to note here:

The majority of Headscape’s work comes from existing clients and referrals. It did then and still does now. I don’t think the blogging/podcast model alone would have been able to support us in the early days when our client list was a lot shorter.
We’re not ‘scientific’ about ROI. In other words, we don’t get hung up about effort spent on marketing versus the amount of revenue coming in from it. It’s either working (or improving) or it’s not. If it’s not then we’ll try something else. Personally, I don’t think it’s a numbers game. For example, what if that one enquiry that Dave mentioned was from a huge client?

Perception

Even though we have always been completely ‘up front’ about the benefits that the podcast brings to Headscape, Paul didn’t start it with commerciality in mind.
Paul is a born blogger. He is a person that needs no encouragement to experiment with stuff and then share his thoughts with all and sundry. The fact that it has benefited our business is great and led the rest of us to encourage him to do more and more.

I’m not suggesting for a minute that Dave (and his colleagues’) blog is in any way forced but, and here’s the clincher, it sits on the company website. There is an instant connection between the blog and the company that may – probably sub-consciously – deter readers because they feel they are being sold at.

We used to write articles for the Headscape site and we’d send out regular email newsletters alerting subscribers to new articles. This was not successful, I believe, for the reasons highlighted above.
Boagworld started as Paul’s personal blog. And, I’m guessing, for the vast majority of readers and listeners it still is very much Paul’s site. They put up with the odd reference to Headscape but basically they’re not interested and never will be.

Influence

Though we have had a few website owners follow the show and hire us directly, the majority of the work that we win via the podcast is through listeners influencing their bosses. It took us a while to realise this.

When Boagworld started we felt it was important to focus the show (and blog) on website owners and not designers and developers. And though this focus remains important and provides a differentiator to other ‘tech’ blogs and podcasts, we now understand that both audiences are important to us.

Entertainment?

Mentioning differentiators, I think the fact that we do a podcast (not just a blog) is significant as well. It gives our audience a chance to get to know us far more than through articles alone. I have mentioned before that I think one of the biggest questions a potential client has before hiring an agency is ‘can I work with these people?’ I think the same applies for an in-house designer or developer who wants to make a recommendation to a boss. They need to feel that they can completely trust the team they are recommending and I think that’s more likely if their connection with you is via a (long running) podcast.

Our ‘style’, though it has its detractors (!), has kept people listening for nearly 200 shows. I guess what I am saying is that though of course high quality, relevant and up to date content is paramount to a successful podcast or blog, making it entertaining is also imperative. There are those that would completely disagree with my previous sentence – they don’t listen to Boagworld…

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think that the most important element to a successful blog or podcast is that it’s not being done simply as a vehicle to try and win work (or sell products etc). It has to be something you would do anyway. Of course, seeing positive results from a blog (as we have) will encourage more time being dedicated to it, but it shouldn’t be the reason to start in the first place.

Paul has talked in the past about one of the keys to blogging being consistency and regular posting. If you see blogging as a chore then chances are you won’t produce consistent or regular work.
In Dave’s case, along with considering moving the blog away from the company site, I think patience is the key as it appears they haven’t been doing it long.

Image Credit: MarS

Do aesthetics need to be compromised for the sake of usability?

Paul Boag — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:36:41 +0000

As you will know if you have followed me for any length of time, I have great respect for usability expert Gerry McGovern. We work on similar projects and share a similar view of the web.

However, this week I parted company with Mr McGovern over his most recent post “Why web links are calls to action.”

In it he wrote:

It’s hard to read what Dustin writes on this black background; gave me a bit of a headache actually. But that’s okay. I had a great overall experience of the page because its black background communicated an important emotional, aesthetic thing to me.

Seriously, it’s a bit of a pity Dustin makes it so hard to read his stuff because what he has to say is quite interesting.

Later he went on to attack designers for their dislike of underlines.

Isn’t it amazing how many designers hate underline? They think it’s ugly, that it takes away from the look of the page.

Finally he reached the crux of his argument:

Have you read any grey books recently? I mean, have you read any books that use grey text or that have black backgrounds? Or, for that matter, have you read any print newspapers or magazines that use grey text? It’s well documented that it’s harder to read on a screen than in print. So why do designers deliberately create webpages that make reading even harder? Simple, really. Many web designers are more concerned with how the page looks than how it reads and functions.

As for particularly targeting black backgrounds and underlined links, this is entirely unjustified.

So what do you think? Do you believe that designers care more about aesthetics than usability? Post your thoughts in the comments.

The biggest ecommerce lies and how to avoid them

Paul Boag — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:35:11 +0000

Of all the sites I am involved in at Headscape it is the ecommerce sites that excite me the most.

How can you not get excited about working on a website where the fruits of your labour are so visible and direct? Do a good job and the website makes more money, screw up and profits decline. There is something wonderfully black and white about it.

With such a measurable and obvious success criteria, you would have thought best practice would be well established and generally accepted. Bad advice would be quickly exposed for what it is and successful techniques would rise to the top.

However, it would appear that is not the case. I am amazed at how bad some of the advice is and how much bad practice exists.

In this post I want to focus on five of the worst offenders, beginning with the belief that you can never give users too much information.

1. You can never give the user too much [Wrong!]

Only recently I was reading an article about ecommerce that actively argued for providing users with as much information as possible.

On the face of it, this sounds like a good idea. The more information you provide, the better informed their decision becomes. However, in reality too much information can be overwhelming and lead to choice paralysis.

Compare for example the experience of buying a computer. For you and me this is a purchasing decision we are very comfortable with. However, for the majority of consumers it can be an intimidating experience. It is a minefield because there are too many choices and options.

Recently I bought a Dell netbook. Even as an experienced computer users this was a harrowing decision. I knew I wanted a low end, cheap netbook, so immediately ignored the plethora of laptops and desktops that could have confused my purchasing decision. However, that didn’t make the purchasing process easier. I still had to choice between the Dell Mini 9, 10 and 10v. I had to wade through technical specs outlining the differences, most of which I found unintelligible.

Once I had made my choice, I was presented with even more details and options. I had to select colour, type of hard drive, size of hard drive, operating system and on and on and on. In fact it even made me approve options where I had no alternative choice!

When compared to the limited and clearly defined line up of Apple computers, the contrast could not be more apparent.

More is not always better. If you want to encourage users to buy, then you need to make their choice a simple one. Remove everything but the most important information and minimise the number of choices available. This is something that has been understood for some time in traditional retailing, but has not filtered through to the web.

One retail technique that has transferred to the web is up-selling. However, you should thing twice about how to implement this technique.

2. Never miss an opportunity to cross-sell [Wrong!]

We all know supermarkets do it. You are queuing at the checkout surrounded by chocolate, magazines and other extras. They hope we will be tempted to pick up something on the way out. You go in for a loaf of bread and come out with a basket full of chocolates and a magazine on interior design. Any marketeer will tell you how effective this technique is.

Many successful websites also use this approach very effectively. Amazon is always looking for opportunities to cross-sell, based on its extensive knowledge of your buying habits and those of other users. However, even though it is obvious we will buy items on the spur of the moment, Amazon does not always up-sell.

Amazon recognises that the web is not the same as the real world. Unlike supermarkets, Amazon will not up-sell once users reach the checkout. In fact they are careful to avoid any distractions.

When the competition is only a click away you do not have the luxury of asking users to stand in line at the checkout, while you present them with additional products. Unlike the supermarket checkout there is no person to guide you through the process. It is user driven and so has to be as easy, focused and fast as possible.

Yes, it is important to up-sell. However, do it before the checkout process begins. Once the user makes a decision to buy, you need to ensure nothing gets in the way of that transaction. Some opportunities to cross-sell are worth missing.

Of course, there is no reason you cannot encourage users to buy again after the transaction is complete. That is where we need to look beyond the website.

3. Its all about your site [Wrong!]

Web designers want to sell you web site design services. It is therefore unsurprising that they concentrate their attention and advice on the website. However, the website is only one small part of a successful ecommerce business. The heart of successful ecommerce lies in service, not the website.

Don’t become so fixated on tweaking and improving your website that you neglect other areas of the user experience. Good customer service extends well beyond the users interactions with the website. It also includes vital components such as:

Email notifications - Do you keep the customer informed about the progress of their order?
Telephone support – Do you allow customers to speak to you directly?
Returns policy – How easy is it for customers to return an item if they do not like it?
Fulfilment – Are you in a position where you can fulfil orders quickly and dispatch them immediately?
Complaints handling – How well do you handle customer complaints? Do you go the extra mile?
Ongoing communication – Do you regularly keep in touch with customers? Do you offer them special deals and discounts? Is it easy for customers to opt out of these communications?

Customers who receive superb service are considerably more likely to make a second purchase and even more likely to recommend you to friends and family.

Visit Bruce’s blog Now

It is even possible to substantially reduce your marketing spend if you make customer service a priority. Instead your reputation will spread through word of mouth.

Do not misunderstand, I still believe that getting your website right is extremely important. Small things can make a big difference in the eyes of your users. Take for example security.

4. Users care about security… badges [Wrong!]

There is no doubt that users care about online security. In fact there is still a large proportion of people who are unwilling to buy online for fear of credit card fraud. The media has done an excellent job at ensuring the public are suspicious of online transactions, even though they are willing to hand over their credit card in a restaurant.

Whether the users concerns are justified or not, we need to take them seriously if we want people to buy.

Many ecommerce businesses spend a lot of money ensuring their sites are secure. How then do they choose to communicate this massive investment to their users in order to reassure them? – They slap a badge on their website!

Adding a small Verisign or Mcafee badge to your checkout page is not enough to alleviate users fears. At best they are free advertising for the companies involved. At worst they are entirely ignored because they look like banners.

A better approach is to tackle the problem head on. Add copy to your website addressing this issue and the steps you have taken to ensure the customers security. Do not rely on a single graphic to say all that needs to be said.

5. Amazon is the template we should all follow [Wrong!]

This final lie is probably the most widely held of all. There is a belief that because Amazon is so successful, all ecommerce websites should follow their example.

There is however a number of flaws in this argument:

They don’t get everything right (nobody can).
They are partially successful because they were one of the first ecommerce websites to market.
Their reputation and brand recognition allows them to get away with a lot.
Users are familiar with their site and its eccentricities.

In short, what works for them will not necessarily work for you. Too many website owners blindly copy Amazon because they are seen as the leader in ecommerce. Not only is that flawed for the reasons I gave above, it also removes the possibility of you ever being better than Amazon or innovating in anyway.

Don’t get me wrong – I believe there is a lot that can be learnt from Amazon. However, I do not believe it is in anybodies interest to blindly follow their lead.

Bonus lie: Ecommerce is easy

Probably the biggest lie of all is that ecommerce is easy. Admittedly off the shelf solutions such as Shopify make it extremely easy to build ecommerce websites. However, building the site is only the beginning. The real challenge comes in:

focusing your site,
deciding on when to up-sell,
providing great customer service,
communicating clearly
and learning from others.

Creating a successful ecommerce business is a long term commitment and you will need to continually evolve both your website and strategy.

So, what about you? What ecommerce lies have you heard? What great advice would you like to pass on? Post in the comments below.

190. Become a branding Ninja

Paul Boag — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:40:46 +0000

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News

Offline inspiration

It has been a while since we have featured a Smashing Magazine post on the show so thought it was about time.

Shocking though this will be, it is not a top 10 list. Instead it is an excellent post on finding inspiration offline.

The post argues that using online sources such as CSS galleries for inspiration is not enough. As designers we need to be taking a walk, visiting a museum or spending time sketching. We need to consider these an essential part of our job description.

The post examines eight areas of inspiration:

Nature
Museums
Sketching
Hobbies
Music
Photography
Traditional art
Our own imaginations

It then discusses what can be found in these areas of inspiration. In particular the post looks at:

Texture
Color
Shapes
Changing our perspective
Discovering themes

The problem is that we don’t feel like visiting a museum is work and even if we do our bosses certainly do not! However, this is eloquently addressed to:

The trick is to consider alternative inspiration an an essential part of the job. While it feels more like play than work at first, finding true inspiration should mean more than browsing through the same material over and over. And we should know that in a creative industry, having fun is okay; it doesn’t mean we’re being unproductive.

Image source

Some of the best design work I ever did came from offline sources. I just wish I prioritised this kind of research more.

All you need to know about CSS3

Mr Stanton discovered a great new site this week – CSS3.info. With CSS 2.1. becoming increasingly supported and integrated into our work, it is time to look ahead at what CSS 3 has in store.

CSS3 has got some really interesting new features that are already supported in some browsers. From advanced selectors such as attribute selection through to multiple column layouts, there is a host of goodies we can start to play with.

What is more, by using graded browser support we don’t need to worry too much about IE’s lack of support.

CSS3.info is a great starting point if you want to begin using some of these advanced CSS features. It provides examples of each new feature and tells you what browsers support it. It also provides a selector check so you can see what advanced selectors work in different browsers. Finally, it also provides up-to-date information on how the new specification is progressing.

I really would encourage you to take a look at CSS3. Its got some really exciting features that you can start using now.

Preparing and planning for a redesign

Although I am generally against the principle of redesigning sites from the ground up, there is no doubt that every site needs a refresh once in a while.

Knowing when and how to go about redesigning your website can be a tricky process. Fortunately Web Designers Depot has a post that might help. Entitled “Preparing and planning for a redesign” it provides some valuable advice for any website owners thinking of redesigning.

The post starts by looking at how you know it is time to redesign. Contributing factors include:

Out of date technologies and techniques
The age of a design
The lack of a CMS
Search engine ranking problems
Under performance
Your competition

It then goes on to look at what needs to be done in preparation for a redesign. This includes:

Identifying what works
Being clear on what doesn’t
Looking at what can be removed, combined or added
Knowing what motivates your users
Whether a complete redesign is even necessary

Finally, the article concludes by looking at some potential dangers in redesigning. These include dealing with repeat users and avoiding broken links.

Although I don’t agree with everything in this post, it is a useful article if you are considering a redesign. Check it out.

Confusing menus and links: the web’s biggest challenge

I want to conclude with a post that might make you rethink your sites navigation. It is by Gerry McGovern and is entitled “Confusing menus and links: the web’s biggest challenge.”

Gerry applies his task focused approach to information architecture. He argues that too many organisations are more concerned with organising their content into an IA, than meeting the needs of users.

He suggests that to make a truly effective information architecture we need to start thinking like our users, who are focused on the task at hand.

To demonstrate his point he refers to the BBC sports site as a good example:

If you visit the BBC homepage and choose “Sport” you are brought to a page about sport. Just sport. The critical first screen is all about sport. No links to news or weather or business. Just sport. If you click on Football you arrive at a page that’s just about Football. Just Football. Not cricket. Not rugby. Not golf. Just football. If you click on “Premier League” you get to a page dedicated to the Premier League.

This is not web design. It’s web management. It’s about eliminating all choices that are not connected with the customer’s current task, which in the above example might be: Find out the latest news about the Premier League.

Too often as website owners we clutter our navigation with other content that users “might want” or which we want them to look at. Although there are times when we want to cross link or promote other content, we need to be careful not to distract users from achieving their primary aim. If they become overwhelmed by links and fail to complete their task easily, they will leave.

He ends with a radical suggestion:

Menus and links need to be designed in the context of the task the customer is trying to complete. That means stripping away higher-level options and creating links that point forward based on the task at hand.

Stripping away top level navigation is not always a good idea, but this post should make us sit up and think.

Interview: Alex Hunter discusses developing an online brand

Ryan: OK, joining us today is Alex Hunter and we’ve just listened to you do a talk on… what was the talk title, I’ve forgotten?

Stanton: It was kind of “Managing Your Brand”.

Ryan: “Managing Your … Marketing Your Web App and Future Brands Online” – it was really good talk; really fascinating.

Alex: Thank you.

Ryan: So, would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself Alex?

Alex: Yeah. Sure. I’m an independent, kind of, brand ninja if you will. I’ve worked with some of the biggest brands in the world – on both sides of the pond. I live here in the UK but am originally from California.

Ryan: OK. And your talk was focused around making yourself your brand; putting your reputation on the line, in a way. It was really interesting – do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

Alex: Absolutely, yeah. Brand is one of those things that falls by the wayside, especially when it’s a developer-centred organisation. Developers are creating amazing technologies, incredible platforms but while they’ve been doing that they’ve actually been completely changing the game; they’ve been fundamentally changing the way marketing and branding works. It’s amazing, because they’ve create apps and platforms (i.e. social networking) that allow consumers to connect with brands for the very first time. Before, it was just send a letter out, watch a billboard, very mono-directional. But now we have these tools to connect with brands, and the irony is that the people that created that conversation aren’t responding to the fact that they need to have their brands intact.

Ryan: Right, OK.

Stanton: You gave a couple of examples of companies that you respect and that do this kind of thing really well. Can you give us a run through those?

Alex: Sure. I think Digg has put a lot of time and effort into their brand over their, what is, five-year or six-year existence. They’ve done a lot of little things really, really well and it was nice to hear Kevin Rose allude to them yesterday. Things like their blog – I think they’ve got the best corporate blog in the world because it’s not just the Vice-President of PR doing the blogging. It’s not even just Kevin or Jay (the founder and CEO respectively). It’s the developers, the designers, the DB admins, the receptionists, the community managers i.e. the faces and the names of the people that created and curate the community that we as the “Digg Community” have invested so much time and energy into. We can connect with those people now because it’s a name and a face of a real person. And so what they do whenever they roll out a new piece of technology or a new development, they say “Hey, I’m the guy that did this. Here’s why and here’s how (in excrutiating detail). What do you think?”. And that’s kind of revolutionary.

Stanton: So you would encourage people – especially working in small teams – not to be scared of just talking about what they’re doing and just waiting for “Let’s just wrap it up in a press release” or something and just talk about it naturally and be precious and passionate.

Alex: The being “precious” about it, I think, is a very, very big risk. That transparency is really beautiful because it brings people into the journey – especially when you’re creating something brand new – when it’s just an idea. You’re creating a new product and you’re updating people on it. It’s why reality TV is such a painful hit, I mean. It’s because people are looking into this thing and, Lord knows, the dev cycle is dramatic and painful and “4 o’clock in the morning” caffeine-induced frenzies. But also, it’s like when things go wrong, hold your hands up – be transparent, human. Don’t hide behind a brand name or a product name. And people will engage with that.

Ryan: So, how should people be doing this really? How should people be developing their brand and associating themselves towards the brand and then putting it out there. What techniques should they be using?

Alex: It’s a great question. I think that there’s – especially with Twitter, interestingly – there’s this real blurring of the line between personal brand and corporate brand. A lot of the big names that we know in technology embody their brand; Kevin Rose is Digg, Gary Veynerchuk is Wine Library TV, Tony Hsieh is Zappos – they’re all completely interconnected; there’s no separating them. They’ve invested themselves emotionally in what they do and that shows in the brand. And I think they’re defined by what they want to be. Gary has always been very clear about what his values are, Digg is very clear about what their values are. Apple are very clear about what their values are, and I think, trite as it may sound, going through and identifying your values – and it was really refreshing because as I came off the stage some dude came up to me and say “Hey, thank you. We’ve been labouring over this for years and we finally sat down – or I stopped sitting down with myself and brought the whole team in – and we defined our values” and it’s just gone up exponentially through that. And so I think it’s just define the values, creating an identity out of that and then saying “What are we now and what are we going to be, well, indefinitely really”.

Ryan: So do you think that’s got to be one of the first stages when you release it – you’ve got to be thinking about where you’re going to take it and how you’re going to present it to the world.

Alex: Absolutely

Ryan: That’s vitally important.

Stanton: So you talked about brand consistency and not to be scared of it or precious of it again. You should be willing to put it out there and how other people in your company – just use it and get it out there.

Alex: It’s… consistency is a funny one. People always say “The more people you give the message to the more watered down it becomes and the less consistent the message is”. Big brands are really scared of losing the refinement of their message. Realistically, they’ve been doing it for the last 30 years because the person who answers the phone in the call centre is the first point of contact that a user has with your brand. They are representing your brand. The receptionist is representing your brand. So giving someone an account on Twitter to do the same is no different, it’s just a little bit more of a public stage. But, on the flip side, that’s a good thing because people can see you responding to positive comments and negative comments and reacting and helping people in a very public forum. That’s why things like Get Satisfaction and applications like that – and actually in South Africa there’s a really popular one called Hello Peter which businesses are all into trying to respond and react to. So I think it’s a good thing and people shouldn’t be scared of consistency.

Ryan: Some brands, and we’re talking here quite a bit about people being associated to the brand and being kind of interchangeable. You say Steve Jobs, you say Apple, you always think of the two. For brands like, you mentioned, Diet Coke – being that you were invested into that brand – there’s no person that you can think of associated to that but you see that brand and you’re committed to it. McDonalds, things like that. What differences are there between the two? How do you promote? It’s kind of a logo you’re promoting in a way, isn’t it.

Alex: It’s a really good question. Diet Coke – the Coke/Pepsi thing is a fascinating brand battle and one of the few where it’s really only a two-horse race, especially in the consumer arena. I mean you’ve got Boeing and Airbus but they don’t really have to advertise because, well, I don’t have $100 billion lying around. Coke and Pepsi, I think, play off the fact that they are rivals and you are either one or the other. I think the more you consume of it the more passionate you become about it. So, if you are a regular Diet Coke drinker – like my wife won’t go to restaurants that serve Pepsi, she’ll leave because she can’t stand the taste of it. I’m sure it’s psychological because as Dave Chapelle said in that video, “It’s all the same”. It’s sugared water in a tin can! But they’ve managed to kind of feed off each other to an extent that has developed this rivalry and therefore developed this passion within its user base.

Ryan: I suppose then there’s so many different avenues that you can take to compete and get your brand out there. Is there any more that particularly stand out; having a direct competitor is one way of developing your brand or having a figurehead or any other ways you can go about it?

Alex: Absolutely, absolutely – especially for small – or reasonably small – brands. I think there’s a couple of things that are really important. In kind of extending the reach of the brand and the application with content like blogs – like the Digg example is a great one – but also engagement, both in the physical world and in the digital world. There are a lot of web companies that are getting really good at hosting real world events where users meet up and are rewarded both on a macro-like Digg or a Yelp on a micro level like some companies here in Europe like Qype that I mentioned during my talk that are introducing users to each other and to the people that either administrator or are the, kind of, power users within the community. Kevin Rose mentioned that again yesterday as a really good way; launch parties, regular user meetups, get people talking, get people connected. That really breeds loyalty. It’s astounding what that can do in terms of the competitive.

Ryan: I think Digg is an excellent example because they have so many methods of getting their message out there, don’t they. They’ve got the blog and the meetups and everything else.

Stanton: It’s like that with the bigger companies that come out. They can release different products that might not be wildly different but there’s the kind of umbrella brand that’s so strong that you can pick up that product and you know it’s new and you know the quality of it.

Alex: It’s really interesting. The web has actually fundamentally changed the way brand is perceived because we have these, like, loyalty mechanisms built in. Let’s look at, like, re-branding an acquisition. If my local supermarket gets bought by another supermarket, I don’t care. As long as it’s still there and has food in it – whatever! When Yahoo! bought Flickr they kind of didn’t know what to do with the brand. Do you keep it Flickr or do you make it Yahoo! Photos? And they’ve been kind of to-ing and fro-ing. But you can’t because that loyalty that’s in the Flickr community, that has built it up to where it is, would be PISSED OFF. So now, the compromise that just did recently was “Flickr by Yahoo!”.

Ryan: And people don’t seem to like it!

Alex: Exactly! Can you imagine what would happen if they rebranded it to just Yahoo! Photos? I mean, of course you’d get over it eventually but it’d take a lot longer and you’d lose a lot of customers.

Stanton: That kind of touches on one of the key things I took away from your talk. You said “Look after your users best interests, not yours”.

Alex: Absolutely. It’s hard because you gotta pay the bills. But that reputation will put you head and shoulders above anybody else. The Amazing Tunes example that I used. There are other unsigned artists sites out there, but not that give 70% of the profits back to the user and not that have a DAB radio station that you can get featured on. That’s looking after users. That’s the definition of an ethical web company.

Stanton: So for anyone starting out or building a company or a start-up or something, are there any common mistakes or pitfalls that you see all the time, or that you’d encourage people to watch out for or avoid.

Alex: Absolutely. There’s the ever-present “If you build it, they will come” mentality. If a build a solid app, no matter how ugly it is, people will come. They will not because they’ll never hear about it. And there are competitive apps to almost everything, and if there isn’t one today, there will be one tomorrow, and they will have looked at what you’ve done and they will have started an outreach, they will have started a Twitter account, they will have started a blog, they will have networked it physically and they will have networked it digitally, they will have thought about the presence, the UI. And I think that siloing and kind of compartmentalising and just saying “I’m going to iterate my app” is not going to work. There are exceptions to that rule. TweetDeck – he developed it to solve a personal problem, it just happened to be really well solved, and so it’s kind of growing on its own. But that is the exception to the rule. I think that hiding under a bushel, expecting it to develop on its own, it’s just not going to happen.

Ryan: With regards to cost of developing your brand, it can be the chicken and the egg sometimes. You need to develop an app and get it out there to make some return to put some investment into marketing it. What initial steps can be used to build yourself up before you can plough some money into it and doing it properly.

Alex: It’s kind of interesting. I think, yeah – you’ve got to have a concept obviously and some basic stuff done but I think one of the things that I’ve always found that worked, and it was really interesting to hear someone talk about it yesterday – I’m not sure who it was – but this kind of closed beta invite only concept seems to work really well at generating buzz. And if you just get one or two people saying “What the heck is this?”. You get these precious invites – which really aren’t that precious – Spotify’s a great example; actually Spotify’s a great example on two levels: 1) it was invite only for the longest time and 2) our pals in America couldn’t have it and they wanted it so badly that they were spoofing IP addresses and whatever they had to do to actually be able to use it. That kind of sense of exclusivity is a free way of generating that kind of buzz, if you can just get enough people to talk about it and it’s just an occasional whisper in the air, a Moo Card dropped somewhere with an invite code on it – that will just start to get people excited about it. But you have to make sure the product doesn’t suck on the back of it, because that will also spread pretty quickly as well.

Stanton: A lot of the talks I’ve sat in on today are starting to tie in. Yesterday it was “If you’re going to release something, release it early”. Do one or two things but do them really well, don’t try and do everything at once because you won’t be able to. And then see how things get – see how your users react to it and then build. I guess that’s reacting with the branding people that engage with the brand and then you’re building it and they feel invested.

Alex: That focus is really important as well, and I think that’s why APIs are so important in the early stage because you can get people developing iPhone apps and other integrations without taking your eye off the ball and doing those one or two things really well and going “Oh crap we’ve got to go home and develop the iPhone app”. It’s really interesting the way that it’s evolved – product development.

Ryan: Do you have any predictions of how things are going to change in the future. At the minute we’ve got these big companies that are doing it really well, everyone’s kind of imitating and doing similiar things to try and push their brands as well, and inevitably, things will change again. Any predictions about where things might be going?

Alex: I think it will become even more democratic. I think that the users will become even more powerful because the time to reaction is so fast.

Ryan: Yeah

Alex: But I also think loyalty will get even stronger and if you’re going to develop a competing app to an incumbant you’re going to have to work 10 times harder to get people off of what they’re using. As people start to use even more social currency, more points systems, giving more “value” to a user, it’ll be harder and harder to bring them over. I also think it’s going to be harder for people to acquire web brands, especially the big companies – the Yahoo!s the AOLs of the world to acquire small web brands without alienating those kind of fervently loyal people that are already their user base.

Ryan: You did mention people coming up with all this sort of cutesy names and stuff, mispellings and things like that. The market just seems to be saturated with it. How should people be thinking about deciding on a good brand and what fundamental things should they be thinking about when they’re making those decisions

Alex: I think that’s a great question. It’s less about the name – like you said it’s really easy just to misspell something or drop a consonant; that’s really lazy – you’ve got to look at it much more as a value-driven. What are our values? What is our product like? What is our team made of? Where are we in the world? And then use that to feed in the name to something obviously catchy, obviously when you can get the domain for a reasonable price – those are practical things that you need to take into consideration. But it’s got to be catchy; it’s got to be engaging, it’s got to mean something. And I think people have started to catch onto the whole “if you can make it a verb”. Digg and Google have become verbs (by the fact that they’re just ubiquitous), but I think people are now starting to say (at least, I’ve heard people around London say) “I’m going to Qype that” and it means “I’m going to check what this place is like” in terms of reviewing a restaurant before I go into it or whip out their Qype Radar iPhone app and check it out before they walk into it. So I think that that’s a really interesting revolution.

Stanton: You’ve got to work hard to get to that place, don’t you?

Alex: You really do.

Stanton: Then it appears in the dictionary!

Alex: That’s when you know it’s all over. You’ve won!

Ryan: OK, well, thank you very much for your time. I really enjoyed your talk and I think listeners will find that really useful. Thank you so much.

Thanks goes to Sam Kirkpatrick for transcribing this interview

Listeners feedback: Give yourself a speed boost!

Normally the listener section of the show focuses on me answering listener questions. However, this week on twitter and the forum it has been the other way around.

You may have noticed that boagworld has been running slow for sometime. Well, I finally decided it was time to fix the problem. However, my knowledge on the subject was fairly limited. That was why I turned to the Boagworld community and boy did they help!

I thought it was only fair that I share the top 5 things I learn from them.

Read 5 Ways To Give Your Site A Speed Boost In Less Than 30 Minutes.

Don’t reduce your designers and developers to stereotypes

Rob Borley — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 13:08:53 +0000

At Headscape I have the privilege of working with a group of very talented people. Both our development team and our design team are on top of their game and it makes my job of Project Managing a little more straight forward because of it. A big part of my job is getting the most out of both of these teams by facilitating them working together in the most effective way. I’m often asked questions like, “Who do you prefer to work with; designers or developers?” and “how does working with developers differ from working with designers?” So here is my inside track on this age old tussle. Designers or Developers?

Your stereotypical developer is a rather pale individual (as they are afraid of the outdoors) with no social skills. They come in two sizes; 9 stone weakling or 30 stone monster. They spent their childhood playing Dungeons and Dragons and have now matured to a level 70 paladin in World of Warcraft (usually playing as a member of the opposite sex). They were always picked last for any kind of sport and have spent every waking hour since they were twelve in front of a screen, in a room with no natural light, talking to their ‘friends’; online. 99% of all developers die a virgin. 1% are scared of the question, curl up into a ball, and cry.

Image credit: JawboneRadio

Your stereotypical designer on the other hand is a charismatic, in your face, individual. Both confident and creative; a dangerous combination. They have lots of real world friends but are secretly hated by most of them. Constantly seeking inspiration they bore easily and become irritable as result. All designers, without exception suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

A recipe for disaster

Putting these two groups together is not a good cocktail. Fortunately, these caricatures, in my experience, are not entirely accurate.

I’m actually loathe to put either designers or developers into boxes. From what I can tell they don’t seem to follow any discernible pattern in character traits. Some developers are quite introverted while others are quite the opposite. Some designers are sporty while others couldn’t catch a cold. Some developers enjoy the great outdoors while some designers find their inspiration in Second Life. In trying to manage the team I need to gather an understanding of them as individuals.

It’s important to understand how your team works. One individual will work most effectively when set a whole stream of tasks with a distant deadline and left to get on with it. While another will be more efficient given bite sized chunks and offered more consistent interaction and faster feedback.One member of your team will thrive on pressure and enjoy short timescales while another will need shielding from the realities of your deadlines and coaxing gentling into delivering on time. You may have an individual that needs to go for a walk regularly to be at peak productivity while another works most effectively if they get their head down and charge for 6 hours straight.

As a PM your goals are always the same. You need to deliver your project on time. However your route to your goal is dependant on the resources that you have available. Your number one resource is your team. Trying to force team members to all work the same way is counter productive and, while you may enjoy some success, is not sustainable.

The best route to goal

Get to know your team. Discover their quirks and eccentricities and use these to get the most out of them. I enjoy my role as a PM because, more than anything else, it’s a job about people. I guess this means that the answer to the question is that I really have no preference over designers or developers. I enjoy getting to know my team and discovering the best way to work with them as individuals.

I believe that this is the most effective way of getting the job done. And hopefully it makes for a better experience for all involved.

What about you?

So what about you? How do you work with designers and developers? What has experience taught you?

Maybe you are a designer or a developer? How have you been treated by clients and project managers? Have you been reduced to a stereotype that you resent?

10 problems your content management system will not solve and how to overcome them

Paul Boag — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:53:02 +0000

So many website owners hate their content management system. This is often because it has failed to live up to their unrealistic expectations.

Many organisations purchased their CMS hoping to solve a wide range of issues surrounding content production and delivery. In reality, a CMS is only capable of overcoming relatively few. In fact often a content management system will solve one set of problems only to create more. It is these new problems that I wish to address here.

What follows is a list of 10 issues that are either directly created by content management systems or that a CMS will fail to solve.

1. A lack of editorial control

One of the primary reasons organisations purchase a content management system is to de-centralise control of content and therefore remove the bottlenecks that surround posting content to the web.

The consequence of this approach is a lack of central control to ensure the quality and accuracy of copy produced. This can lead to contradictions and varying styles of writing across the site.

Although many content management systems provide the tools for central editorial control, they are not always used and require somebody with the editorial experience.

The Solution: Get an editor

Unfortunately this is one problem that technology cannot solve. What is required is a content editor. Somebody who checks what is being produced and ensures it communicates a consistent message in a consistent tone.

Ideally this should be somebody who has experience in writing and editing online copy. However, the most important thing is that this person feels confident in editing copy, and has the authority to remove inappropriate material.

This person will also require a vision for the site and in particular what personality it should be projecting.

2. A lack of personality

Many websites lack real personality. They either ooze marketing BS or come across as singularly bland. This is largely due to the fact that they have been written by people more interested in communicating facts or selling stuff, than wishing to engage with users.

Websites with great copy that is full of personality, stand out from the crowd. They do more than convey information. They actively seek to make a connection with users in much the same way people do face to face.

Unfortunately the distributed nature of content production through the use of a CMS undermines that.

The solution: Decide on your sites personality

The first step towards overcoming this problem is to define who you are. If your website was a person what type of person would it be? What words best describe your sites character? Is it playful, serious, enthusiastic, or friendly?

Next put together a content style guide. This will include examples of writing styles that should be used on your website. It will also include guidelines in terms of tone and wording. This document should then be distributed to your content providers.

Producing an effective content style guide is not an easy task. You might wish to consider employing a freelance web copy writer if you do not have somebody in house. However once it has been produced, it should provide everything your content providers need to add some
personality into your copy.

Of course that does still require your content providers to be committed to the cause.

3. Uncommitted contributors

One of the great selling points of having a content management system is that they allow anybody to post to your website. Unfortunately, just because your staff can edit the site, does not mean they will.

It is not unusual to find that content management systems go unused except for by a few individuals. The belief that content management can be easily decentralised is false. There are two primary reasons for this.

Firstly, some people do not see it as their responsibility to provide web content. They see the website as a marketing or sales tool and so should be managed by marketeers.

The second reason is that most people do not have the time. Writing web content is often seen as a low priority and constantly gets pushed out by “real work.”

The solution: Recognise the importance of the web

The solution to this problem has to come from senior management.

The website needs to be seen as a critical business tool and job descriptions must reflect this by making site maintenance a key component of people’s job. This should include website duties being apart of employee assessment.

There is however another reason people do not using the CMS – they don’t know how to use it.

4. Poorly trained authors

When an organisation rolls out a new content management system they almost always offer some form of training. However, in many cases it is not enough.

Normally training consists of an intimidating manual and one off training session. For the few people who are updating the website regularly this is probably enough. However for more infrequent content providers, this is inadequate.

The trouble with one off initial training sessions is that by the time the content provider comes to update the website, they have forgotten what they learnt. Admittedly the information they need may well be contained in the manual, but who reads those?

This can easily lead to only a few people capable of making updates to the site, thereby undermining the very reason for having a CMS in the first place.

The solution: Provide video training material

The combination of occasional users and new employees, means that most organisations need a long term strategy for training people in the use of their content management systems.

We have found that a series of short video tutorials covering key functionality works much better than training sessions or intimidating manuals.

We still run training sessions for frequent users. However, the video tutorials allow users to work through the material at their own pace. Also, unlike a training course they can learn only the parts of the system they actually need.

However, training in the technology is only half the battle. Content contributors also need to know how to write compelling copy.

5. Bad copywriting

The harsh truth is that not everybody can write good web copy. Even somebody who writes brilliantly in print, does not necessarily write well for the web.

There is an art and science to writing good web copy that many people are unaware of. Copy written by content providers is often verbose, un-engaging and hard to scan.

The solution: Provide a structure for content production

The solution is three fold:

First, the introduction of an editor means that content providers do not have to worry about writing perfect copy. It should be the job of the editor to take the raw copy they provide and re-write it for the web.
Second, the training provided with a content management system should extend beyond the functionality and also include advice on writing good web copy.
Finally, by producing a basic template for content providers you can help them focus their writing. A content template should ask questions such as who is the audience, what is the key message for this page and what is the call to action?

However, the problem is not just limited to the quality of content but also the quantity.

6. Bloated websites

Much like this post, most websites end up far too bloated. This is a problem that content management systems only serve to exaggerate.

By removing the barriers to putting content online, you encourage people to add more. However, more is not always better.

Content providers often approach the website with entirely the wrong mentality. They look at the content they have or can easily produce, and decide to put it online because “somebody will find it useful.” They are driven by what content is available, rather than user’s need.

The problem is that the more they put online, the harder it is for users to find the content they want. It is like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

The solution: Focus on users and remove

The best solution is to prevent this from occurring in the first place. This is done by fixating on user needs. Before putting anything online ask two questions:

Is the content aimed at your primary audience?
Is the content essential for helping those users complete their objectives?

If you cannot answer yes to both questions, then seriously consider whether putting the content on your website will cause more harm than good.

Of course, you may already have a bloated website. If this is the case then you need to review each page of your site and apply the principles above. If a page fails to cater for a specific use case of your primary audience, then it maybe time for it to be removed.

The problem is that most organisations have people responsible for adding content to their websites. However, few have somebody charged with removing it. This is an important role and one your web editor should have the power and time to do.

However, user needs is not the only criteria for judging the worth of content. There are also calls to action.

7. No clear calls to action

As I have already said, most content providers are focusing on conveying information rather than meeting users needs. However, they are also neglecting the business needs too.

With the exception of marketeers and sales people, few content providers are thinking about calls to action. What is it that you want users to do next? How do you wish them to respond?

Even when content providers are thinking about calls to action, they are focusing on the big actions such as “contact us.” Until the user is ready to take those major steps they are left to wander around the website.

The solution: Always guide the user to the next action

It is important to consider the main calls to action for the entire site. Typically they consist of one or two major actions such as buying a product or completing a contact form.

However, there is also a need to think about the calls to action of each page. Avoid leaving your user with no obvious next step.

Take for example this page. Directly below this article you can take three actions:

Leave a comment
Provide feedback – That leads to videos offering a number of next steps
Read a related post

At no stage is the user left without a next action.

A big source of next actions is your information architecture. Unfortunately most navigation is not focused on users needs, let alone business objectives.

8. An organisational focused IA

An unfortunate side effect of running a content management system is that it encourages information architecture built around organisational structure rather than users needs.

If you look at most organisations CMS driven websites, their information architecture closely mirrors their internal structures. This is because it is easier to divide up responsibility for updating various parts of the site if it is structured along departmental lines.

The problem with this approach is that users do not think in terms of organisational structure. They are task focused and so often an organisational IA is entirely inappropriate. It leads to confusion and frustration among users.

The solution: Focus on user tasks

The only solution to this problem is to stop structuring sites around organisations and start focusing them on users.

Although it is easier in most content management systems to allocate permissions based on a per section basis, there is not normally a specific need to do so. It is just as feasible to give access on a per page basis making it unnecessary to organise around internal structure.

Ultimately your site should be about your users and that includes your IA. However, it does not stop there. The community you build around your site is important too.

9. No sense of community

Increasingly content management systems come with some great community tools. They have forums, comments and integrate with everything from Facebook to Twitter. However, great technology does not build great communities.

Many organisations implement these community features on their site and are disappointed when they are not used.

Worst still some organisations launch these features but moderate so heavily that users respond negatively. Eventually the functionality is removed entirely.

The solution: Build relationship not functionality

It is important to realise that online communities are about relationships and not technology. If you want to build a successful community around your website, you need to actively and regularly engage with users.

This involves having people within your organisation who are constantly talk to users, asking and answering questions, and getting to know people through open and honest relationship.

Of course, the problem here is the same as content production. This is not seen as an official role. Instead it often falls to enthusiastic individuals. If you want your community to succeed you are going to require passionate people who have the time and resources to sink into that community.

And it is a lack of resources that leads us to our final problem that content management systems cannot solve – single language content.

10. Single language content

The majority of invitations to tender Headscape receive for content management builds, request multi-lingual support.

In the end few of the sites we build actually make use of that functionality. In effect they are paying money for something they will never actually implement.

There are two many reasons for this.

The first is aspirational. Many organisations request multi-lingual support because they have dreams of expanding in the future and unfortunately those dreams do not come true. I can at least respect this viewpoint. There is nothing wrong with planning for functionality you might need at some point in the future.

However, the second reason is not so admirable. A lot of sites fail to implement their multi-lingual support because they have not fully thought through what that involves.

Implementing a CMS with multi-lingual support is easy. Creating a multi-lingual website is hard. You have to decide what content is going to be translated. You need to find a translator and then you also need to maintain that content over the long term.

The solution: Think twice before requesting multi-lingual support

There has to be a good business case for implementing a multi-lingual website. Unless you are sure that you are going to make money from a foreign market, it is probably not worth investing in language support.

If you aren’t serious about supporting other languages do not add it to your ITT, at least not as a primary requirement. There is no reason to rule out a CMS for not supporting multiple languages unless you are sure you are going to use that functionality.

Conclusions

You could interpret this post as a criticism of content management systems. That is not the case. I believe content management systems are a valuable addition to most websites. However, as I said at the beginning they are not the silver bullet may perceive them to be.

The success of your CMS is largely reliant on you being aware of its limitations and being prepared to deal with these restrictions. If you do then a CMS could be the best investment you ever make.

189. How to keep up with web innovations

Paul Boag — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:28:31 +0000

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Web design match making

Finding a web designer can be tough. Equally, if you are a web designer (especially if you are just starting out) finding clients can be hard. Much like in love, finding the perfect partnership is difficult.

37 Signals feel they have the answer. To accompany their already successful jobs board, they have now launched Haystack.

Haystack, allows web designers to upload a brief description of their agency for free or a more detailed portfolio for $99 per month.

Clients can then browse this directory in attempt to find the perfect agency.

And there in lies the problem. Although Haystack is beautifully designed it is actually incredibly limited from a clients perspective. They are only given three choices.

Search through hundreds of listings manually
Filter by city
Filter by budget

These filters are both extremely limited and are not enough for narrowing down such a large number of designers.

Filter by city allows you to select from a handful of US cities, while dumping all other locations into a catch all of ‘other cities.’ This might possibly be acceptable if there was an option to search by country, region or city. Unfortunately there is not.

Filter by budget is equally flawed. As a web designer you have to select a price range that you normally work within. This effectively excludes you from smaller or larger projects. In reality things are rarely that black and white.

Finally I would argue that there are many other characteristics clients look for in an agency. There are no options to filter by technology, skill set or sector experience. The tools available are simply too blunt for making an effective decision.

My guess is that 37 Signals have been caught off guard by the instant popularity of the app. The current application has been built with a small number of agencies in mind. In such circumstances it would be perfectly adequate.

I am sure that they are already working on upgrades to the app which will handle the large number of agencies much more elegantly. These guys do good work and there is no doubt that an app like this is much needed.

Client relations

There seems to be a lot of posts around this week looking at the working relationship between clients and web designers.

There is a sitepoint post that focuses on fine tuning your persuasive techniques, a smashing magazine post on dealing with difficult characters and A List Apart post on when to walk away. There is even an article teaching us how to deal with things like scope creep and unhelpful design feedback.

Although it is good to see posts tackling client management, I do fear they all have a negative tone.

Last friday I ran a workshop on client relationships and although we discussed dealing with problematic relationships, I tried to make the overall theme a positive one.

Too many web designers go into new projects seeing the client as either the enemy or as a hinderance to the projects success. Articles like those I have mentioned are in danger of reinforcing this viewpoint.

It is important to remember that our clients are extremely knowledgeable in their own fields and that both designer and client wants the same thing – a successful website.

I also worry that too many web designers are perceived as negative. Instead we need to be positive and stop saying no to our clients.

Myths of usability testing

Two posts have been published recently that challenge some of our preconceptions about usability testing.

The first is a post by A List Apart entitled “The Myth of Usability Testing” and is a response to some fairly shocking research.

The research monitored a number of usability tests run by different agencies on the same site. The result was that although all of the agencies found many problems, only 30% of those problems were common to more than one agency. In other words the agencies could not agree on where the problems lay.

The article goes on to examine the discrepancy focusing in particular on the questions asked and the people tested. It also explains that context is vital to the interpretation of results.

The second post is one that challenges the role of eye tracking. The post looks at the pros and cons of the approach and in my opinion is a balanced assessment.

The post ends with the following conclusions:

Some have concluded that the benefits of eyetracking are not worth the high cost, effort, and complexity it adds to usability testing. On the other hand, some eyetracking vendors and consultants have promoted the idea that you cannot conduct usability testing effectively without eyetracking.

The truth lies somewhere between these extremes. If you know how to use eyetracking effectively, it can provide additional insights to usability testing that can help you find problems and answer questions about user behavior. Eyetracking is not essential to usability testing, but if you can afford it and have the time to learn how to use it effectively, it is definitely worth it.

Personally, we have never recommended eye tracking to our clients and this post has done nothing to persuade me to start. For the type of clients we work for the expenditure is hard to justify.

jQuery for designers

I am a huge fan of jQuery. I have said this more than once in the past. The thing I love most about jQuery is that it is aimed squarely at designers. If you can understand HTML and CSS, then you can wrap your head around jQuery. What is more, it lets you do some really cool things very easily.

Imagine my delight when this week I discovered jQuery For Designers. Apparently the site has been around for a while but I seem to have missed it entirely. In case you have missed it too I thought I would give it a quick mention.

The site contains dozens of screencasts and examples of various cool functionality that can be built with jQuery. Just some of the tutorials include:

Tabs
Slider galleries
Carousels
iPhone sliding headings
Fixing floating elements

Best of all, you can subscribe to these screencasts on itunes enabling you to view them as a podcast.

This is just one of the many excellent tutorials on jQuery for Designers.

Feature: 10 secrets to staying informed about web design

Keeping up in the world of web design is tough. Things move fast and its hard to stay informed. In this post I share 10 ways that RSS can come to the rescue.

Read 10 secrets to staying informed about web design

Ad: Win a Macbook Pro or iPod Touch

Webvanta are running a superb contest that I wanted to quickly mention.

There is an opportunity to win a Macbook Pro or one of three iPod Touch.

To be in with a chance of winning, you need to build a great looking, effective website on the Webvanta CMS.

Don’t worry if you are not an existing Webvanta user. They are going to give you a Webvanta premium account for the duration of the contest.

The panel of judges (that includes our own Ryan Taylor) will pick a winner on the 1st February so get designing.

For more details on how to enter visit Webvanta.com/Contest.

Listeners feedback:

Recording the podcast

I had the following tweet from @david_o_connell:

@marcus67 could you guys do a spot on the tech setup for recording the podcast please (didn’t ask Paul as he muffs the audio :) )

Thinking about this I realised that I have never covered this riveting subject so after nearly 200 shows it was probably about time!

It’s worth noting that we are set up to record and edit things as quickly as possible. We have recorded a weekly show for years so we have to get it down and get it out the door. I’m sure there are other ways of doing things and I expect my history of working in expensive recording studios potentially means that I overcomplicate things… but, this is how I do it.

Hardware

Ok, this is a list of all the stuff we use:

AKG C 2000B microphone (x3) – these are ‘mid’ quality mics that need phantom powering. ‘Decent’ quality mics are a must otherwise you will end up with a thin and probably noisy result. Built-in laptop mics are a total no-no!
Angled mic stand (x2) – these are recent addition that mean we can comfortably use our laptops while recording the show.
Straight mic stand – we use this for any guests we have on the show.
Pop shield (x3) – again, a recent addition to the setup. Vital in avoiding pops and bangs on words that begin with ‘p’ or ‘b’.
XLR to XLR (balanced) mic leads (x3)
Behringer mixing desk – our mixing desk has 4 ‘proper’ mic channels and 4 stereo channels, 2 sub groups and phantom powering to power the mics. On a standard show, I take a feed from sub the group outputs to the input on the Mac. When we’re recording a live show things are little more complex as we need to get the audio to two places at the same time (my Mac recording the show and Paul’s that is broadcasting live). I also need to hear the audio from the intro videos so we’re taking an out from Paul’s Mac for the videos and a feed from the desk master outs to his line input… you need to see it really!
Technics closed-ear headphones – these are my ‘old faithfuls’ that I have used for years. It is imperative that one person monitors voice levels throughout the recording. I plug them into the headphone input on my Mac. Closed ear are best because they do not ‘spill’ into the mic.

I don’t use any external compressors or limiters. That gets taken care of in the software.

Software

In my current setup I use Logic Pro to record all of the audio. This is a bit over the top for podcast recording but I also use it to record music and it does both jobs beautifully.
For the voice tracks I use the setting Voice > Speech > Male Radio that adds a compressor, de-esser (to stop sibilance) and EQ.

However, if you’ve got a Mac then Garageband will do the job admirably. It even has ‘podcast’ settings that you can assign prior to recording.

Back in my PC days I used to use Sony Soundforge to record the audio tracks which I would then edit together using Propaganda. I still use Soundforge to bounce down to MP3 (Logic is unreliable at this).

Recording tips

Here’s a bunch of tips to :

As I’ve already mentioned, use headphones while recording the show to avoid anyone going ‘off mic’. Usually, pointing at them, then their mic gets the message home!
When recording 2 people pan the input channels hard left and hard right. This means that if you have to boost any part of a recording it’s easy to locate the specific part. The absolute ideal here would be to have some sort of multi-input box into the computer thereby allowing multitrack recording i.e. I am recorded onto one track while Paul is recorded on to another simultaneously. Thinking about it, I could probably do this right now (for max 2 channels) by separating the inputs and recording 2 mono channels instead of one stereo. But, to be honest, it’s really not worth doing as, mentioned earlier, time is of the essence.
Record a quick levels test prior to any recording (because you really don’t want to have to go back in and fiddle with the levels afterwards unless you absolutely have to).
Record each section of the podcast on a separate track. Don’t do one long recording as this is much harder to edit later and add in music and audio dividers. If you record each section separately then you should only have to top and tail it which takes no time at all.
Once all the voice recording is done, I will add in the intro and outro music, the section dividers and any interviews or questions that are part of the show.
Once I’m happy with result, I bounce to Wav format which I then open in Soundforge and save out as 64Kbps 44.1 kHz mono MP3 format which is tagged and FTP’d to our hosts.

Here’s a screenshot of a final ‘mix’ in Logic before the bounce down (v zoomed out).

Building Findable Websites

My name is Nora Brown; I’m a freelance web designer in Boston.

I’d like to give you and Boagworld listeners a recommendation for a book I recently read, called “Building Findable Websites”, by Aarron Walter. Though I finished reading it a month or so ago, I find I’ve been referring back to it constantly ever since.

In this book, Aarron Walter views SEO as just one aspect of, and in some ways almost a side effect of, improving a website’s “findability” — which is defined on page 2 as:

“The quality of being located or navigated, the degree to which an object or piece of data can be located, and the degree to which a system supports navigation and retrieval.”

The goals of findability are listed as:

Help people find your website.
Help people find what they are looking for once they arrive at your site.
Bring your audience back to your website.

Notice there is no mention of Google or any other search engine, because obviously the ultimate goal is to help *people* find and use your website, not search bots.

To that end, Walter provides straightforward advice for improving findability at all levels of site development:

Front-end markup strategies
Server-side strategies
Content generation

Though not every technique will be right for every site, as someone who builds small business and portfolio websites, I found the majority of the recommendations to be practical and implementable. Furthermore, nothing in the book represents SEO for SEO’s sake — all the techniques have other benefits, primarily improving the user experience.

Aarron Walter manages to fit an amazing amount of useful, actionable information into this slim volume, but if it’s not enough, there are even five bonus chapters which you can download for free at buildingfindablewebsites.com.

I hope you and your listeners take a look at this excellent book.

I also think the author Aarron Wlater would make a great candidate for a Boagworld interview.

Thanks and keep up the wonderful podcast.

Make your website go viral

Paul Boag — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:04:45 +0000

Recently I keep hearing about this Firefox Plugin. Not because it is an amazing plugin. The reason everybody is talking about it is because the website for the plugin uses some gorgeous CSS and Javascript.

This demonstrates perfectly the point I was making in ‘3 Ways To Make Your Site Stand Out From The Crowd.’

View the Firefox Plugin

Read 3 Ways To Make Your Site Stand Out From The Crowd

How moodboards can save time, money and your sanity!

Paul Boag — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:15:27 +0000

Headscape has been using mood boards as part of our design methodology for some time. We believe they are an invaluable tool that helps both the client and the designer.

However, before you can understand the benefits of mood boards, it is important to acknowledge where the traditional design process falls down.

Where the traditional web design process fails

Obviously everybody approaches the design process slightly differently so it is unfair to refer to a traditional approach. However it would appear that many agencies and freelancers follow roughly this process:

Ask the client a bit about what they want from the design
Ask the client to identify some websites they like.
Produce 3 design comps in Fireworks or Photoshop.
Ask the client to choose a design from the comps presented.
Iterate until the client is happy.

This was certainly the approach we used until we realised it was not working.

We identified the following problems:

When asked what they wanted from their design, most clients focused on personal preference rather than business or user needs.
Clients often referred to sites that were either inappropriate for their audience or were selected based on content rather than design.
Producing multiple design concepts was time consuming for the designer and expensive for the client.
Multiple concepts led to frankenstein design, where the client would try to combine the ‘best bits’ from each comp.
The designs went through a lot of iterations because the designer did not have a full understanding of the clients requirements.

We utilised several approaches to overcome these problems. However, the most successful component was mood boards.

What is a mood board?

A mood board is basically a collection of graphical elements that set the tone for your design. Typically these include examples of:

Typography
Imagery
Colour
Layout
Style

Often these elements are lifted from other sites or even from sources such as magazines.

They are not meant to represent the final design, but rather provide an indication of how the site may feel.

When you first start producing mood boards it is difficult. You may have a strong sense of how the site should look, and so it can be hard producing alternative approaches.

Increasingly we produce four mood boards:

One that is our initial gut reaction.
One that is a more conservative version of the initial board.
One that is more extreme.
One completely ‘out there’ approach that is probably inappropriate.

Admittedly you could get away with the first three, but the fourth enables the designer to be more creative and potentially discover a completely different approach.

How mood boards can help

The reason mood boards made such a difference to our process was three fold:

They put us in control - Previously it was the client who was making design suggestions and selecting inspirational sites. By using mood boards we were the ones setting the tone and suggesting the direction. After all that is what the client is paying us for!
They are quick and easy to create – Developing design comps is time consuming and expensive, especially for something that may ultimately be discarded. Mood boards can be produced relatively easily, which means they are viewed as disposable. As a result the designer is not overly committed to a particular path and the client can see multiple revisions.
The client focuses on design, not content – We found that when clients looked at a design comp they were more concerned with the content than the design. Because mood boards do not contain real content, this problem is avoided and the client can focus on typography, imagery and colour.

The introduction of mood boards made an enormous difference to the running of our design projects. However, over time we have made some mistakes that have reduced the effectiveness of mood boards.

Mistakes when designing with mood boards

If used correctly mood boards are an extremely powerful tool. However, it is also easy to fallback into old habits. If you are going to use mood boards, be careful to avoid the following mistakes:

Designing a website and not a mood board

One problem we encountered was that we were so conditioned to build websites that it was hard not to. Every time we produced a mood board it ended up looking like an actual site.

The solution

The way we are resolving this issue is by changing the format. Instead of designing on a 1024 by 768 canvas, we have switched to creating A4 mood boards. In fact we also try to minimise web elements such as navigation or search boxes.

Making them too finished

An associated problem was that clients were getting confused. The mood boards were looking so polished that they were no longer sure what they were looking at. Was this a mood board or a design comp? What were they supposed to be providing feedback on?

The solution

We are still battling this problem. However, one approach I have adopted is setting constraints on the designer. Typically this involves limiting what Photoshop tools they can use.

When all the designer can do is copy and paste elements they have found elsewhere, the mood boards cannot become overly designed. The emphasis shifts from designing detail to looking for inspiration and setting the mood.

Spending too long on a mood board

Of course, the final problem relating to overworked mood boards is time. As our mood boards started to become more and more like design comps, they took longer to produce.

This had two consequences. Firstly it cut into our profit margins. Secondly, the designer became increasingly attached to the mood boards and find it hard when the client don’t like them.

The solution

The solution to this one is simple. We are beginning to set time limits on mood board production. We are now asking designers to spend no more than one hour on a single mood board. Most of that time is spent sourcing elements rather than doing design work.

By taking this approach we can afford to produce multiple iterations of mood boards and experiment with many different directions.

Conclusions

I am aware that we are in a minority by using mood boards. However, I would suggest that every designer should consider them as a tool.

If you design multiple comps then this could be a real cost saver.

If you pursue a single approach, this will enable you to explore other avenues with minimal effort.

So, what do you think? Do you use mood boards already, or do you think it is an outdated tool that has no place on the web? Whatever your thoughts I would love to hear them in the comments below.

188. Clearscape or Headleft?

Paul Boag — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:30:53 +0000

Download this show.

Launch our podcast player

Every once in a while it is good to do something different. This show is one of those occasions.

This week Andy, Richard and Jeremy from Clearleft came to the Barn to hang out with Headscape. While they were there we decided to record a podcast.

The show is largely unscripted and it seemed unfair to ask our team of volunteers to transcribe an hour long 5 way conversation! As a result, I am afraid we are lacking our normal show notes. I hope you understand.

That said, I can tell you we covered the following topics:

The differences between the working practices of Clearleft and Headscape
The beginnings of the two companies
The pros and cons of being a total service company like Headscape or specialising like Clearleft
The importance of passion in what we do
Deciding when to adopt new innovations
Whether locations affects success
Our plans for the future

We really hope you enjoy the show and we would love to hear your thoughts on the subjects discussed. Please make use of the comments below.

5 ways to give your site a speed boost in less than 30 minutes.

Paul Boag — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:30:07 +0000

In this age of broadband, users are unlikely to leave your site for being too slow. However, if you want to create a feeling of satisfaction and a pleasant user experience you need to keep download times to a minimum.

In a recent interview usability expert Jacob Nielsen wrote:

One of the main guidelines is to show the next state (e.g., the next page) with one second of the user’s action (e.g., click) in order for users to experience the feeling of a freely-flowing interaction, as opposed to a sensation of delays.

The problem is that speed optimisation can often sound intimidating. Very clever people with very large beards throw around phrases like gzip, compression and caching. However, it doesn’t need to be complicated.

I have just tweaked Boagworld to make it slightly more responsive (yes I know it is not perfect) and I needed little technical knowledge and it took less than 30 minutes. Here is how:

1. Install YSlow for Firebug

Firebug is a Firefox plugin that is essential for any web designer. YSlow is a plugin to this plugin (confusing I know!) that allows you to carry out all kinds of speed tests on your site.

YSlow will grade the performance of your site, provide advice on how to improve things and even suggest some tools which might help.

2. If you are using Wordpress install Super Cache

If like me you use Wordpress as your content management system then be sure to install the Super Cache plugin.

This plugin generates static html files from your dynamic WordPress blog. After the first visitor views a page on your blog, an HTML copy is created and served to all future visitors. This means that the server does not have to continually recreate pages. This will significantly speed up your site especially when you are receiving a lot of simultaneous users.

3. Compress your images

Images are a significant proportion of most webpages download. However, Photoshop does not always do a very good job at compressing images. Sure, there are other tools out there but most of us do not have the time or inclination to use them.

In addition, if we are trying to speed up an existing site we are unlikely to download and recompress an entire website worth of images.

Fortunately, Smushit comes to the rescue with an online image compressor. Best of all it integrates with YSlow to find all the images on a particular webpage and provide a report of the savings it could make.

Once it has run, all you have to do is download the recompressed images and upload them to your webserver. It even saves the directory structure!

4. Compress your Javascript

Increasingly websites are using more and more Javascript. These files can become very large, especially when using Javascript libraries and plugins. Fortunately it is possible to significantly reduce javascript files by removing formatting and comments.

There are a number of tools that will do this for you:

YSlow, which has this functionality built in.
Minifyme, which is an AIR application that runs locally.
Online minimizers, which allow you to copy and paste Javascript.
A number of coding applications that also have this functionality built in.

Whatever approach you take, make sure you keep an uncompressed version of the file because it is very hard to read and edit minimized Javascript.

5. Compress your CSS

Finally, as well as compressing your Javascript you can also do the same with CSS. Minifyme not only compresses Javascript, but also does then same for CSS. However, I tend to use CSS Compressor because it provides me with more control over the level of compression.

These CSS compressors remove spaces, line breaks and comments in order to make the file as small as possible.

As with Javascript remember to keep an uncompressed version. That, or reduced the level to which you compress the files.

What else?

What I like about the approaches above is that they require no server side configuration or technical knowledge. They are fast, powerful and easy. There is no reason not to follow this advice.

However, there is a lot more that can be done. Perhaps you would be willing to share some of your speed optimisation tricks in the comments below.

Introducing compelling content

Paul Boag — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:59:16 +0000

As part of my role at AK Designs I am responsible for all the copy on the “home sites” as well as the copy on many client websites. In this role with clients I often face issues (and from some staff who think the same way) … On of the biggest issues that occurs on a regular basis is simply that the website owners or the company investors seem to turn around with ideas of what the copy should be, and I have always found (so far) that all they want to do is convince the end user.

Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes this fits the site and the audience you are trying to get to understand something, but most the time it isn’t.

The battle generally means I turn around and compromise, I mention AB testing of the copy to see what will produce the best results. They agree to the testing and 95% of the tests end to come back in my favour. So to help everyone get to grips with this idea I’ve created 5 directives of writing compelling copy.

5 Directives to Write Compelling Copy

Know Your Audience

Think of each page or email newsletter as being read by a single person, a person from your target audience. Give him or her a name, an age, a relationship status & maybe a background story. Now write you copy for this person alone, you are not wanting to convince her of anything but rather to feel compelled to visit again, tell a friend or even better to follow your call to action… if your audience feel preached too or spoken down too then they will switch off… where as if you can engage on a one-2-one basis then you will get some real business.

Use a present tense and Positive subject line

Imagine reading “10 websites were developed” … sounds boring and doesn’t attract your attention really, you don’t feel compelled to click and read it… now think about the line “We developed 10 New websites” notice it draws your attention it was us (we) the company and they are “new” so this implies a sense of importance, improvement and excitement. Other good words include “exciting”, “exclusive” and “introducing”.

Avoid sitting on the fence – it gets you no where

If your wanting to sell something, wanting to compel them to take an a particular action, be definitive. you are the “expert” otherwise they wouldn’t be visiting your site! So don’t use words such as “should”, “could”, “maybe” or “possibly” they have negative implications on most audiences, they make them question you and your product or site.

Be Concise

Don’t ramble on endlessly, get to your point quickly and clearly. Cut the rubbish and the jargon, no one wants to hear it or see it … it confuses the average person which is why there are so many sites claiming to be jargon busters or having jargon busters built in… save you and your customer sometime.

Connect

Connecting with your audience will never be easy, it will never be 100% successful even if you’ve got everything right on your site. What you need to think is that your customers will have something else on their mind, maybe someone is in hospital, maybe someone just knocked on the door or maybe they are hungry… a tiny little thing can distract and you will loose a sale (or however you call to action is built). So connect, make the user think positive thoughts, so even if they are distracted they will feel compelled to return.
I know these tips will help many of the website owners I know, and I know it will help your site be a success.

Image provided by The Trial

About the Author

Andy is director & chief designer @ AK Designs. Addicted to SEO, Designing, Twitter, His Googie (G1) and all things tech in general. AK Designs (andy kinsey designs) has worked with clients of all sizes from small local charities to larger national fiscal companies and a number of large multi-national organisations. Andy’s motto in life is simple, ”To under-promise and Over-Deliver” something continued into the AK Designs mission. The AK Designs website is also the home of Andy’s SEO articles.

10 secrets to staying informed about web design

Paul Boag — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:16:46 +0000

Whether you are a designer, developer or website owner there is an immense pressure to keep up with the latest web innovations. With the web moving so fast what is best practice one day is out of date the next.

Worse still, we are so busy building and running websites, that we rarely have the time to keep informed. However, it is not impossible and the answer lies in the clever use of RSS.

Below are 10 secrets I have discovered that allow me to get a broad overview of the industry without wasting hours of my time everyday.

1. Get a great RSS reader

It goes without saying, but the first thing you need is a great RSS reader.

The key thing you are looking for, is a reader that allows you to identify which content is most likely to be of interest to you. There are two ways this can be achieved.

One approach is to use folders. This is the approach I take. I use Google reader and organise the different feeds into folders that help me prioritise. I talk more about how I organise things below.

The second approach is to use an RSS reader that does this prioritisation for you. One example of this kind of reader is Fever. Fever reads your feeds and picks out the most frequently talked about links. What is great about this approach is the more feeds you add, the better fever gets at identifying important content.

Whatever approach you use, you must be able to quickly identify important stories and avoid feeling swamped by posts.

2. Organise your feeds

If you choose a more traditional feed reader such as Google Reader it is important to organise your feeds well. If you don’t then great content can get lost among high frequency feeds such as Techcrunch.

Everybody will organise their feeds in a slightly different way and I myself have tried several approaches. However, the one that seems to be working best for me is to have the following folders:

Must Read – This is where I place feeds that consistently produce great content and I cannot afford to miss a post.
Quantity Feeds – These are feeds from sites that post regularly. Sites like the BBC may produce great content, but there is so much of it that it can overwhelm other feeds. By isolating them I can ensure I don’t miss anything important.
Links – I subscribe to several feeds that are just collections of links from people I respect (I will talk about this more later). Because these contain no actual content in themselves, I keep them separate for a time when I can hunt through the list for any gems.
The rest – These are less valuable, low volume feeds that I read when additional time is available.

Of course just because this approach works for me does not mean it will for you. You need to find the best folder structure that suits the content you subscribe to.

3. Be mobile

I do most of my RSS reading away from my computer. It is amazing how much content I can get through by utilising the spare moments I have waiting for the wife or sitting on a train.

Therefore I need a great mobile RSS reader. The mobile reader I have is called News Stand and it syncs seamlessly with Google Reader. This is the primary reason I use Google Reader rather than Fever.

What is more News Stand has some useful features worth noting. From News Stand I can…

Tweet a story
Add it to Delicious
Send it to Instapaper for reading later
Email it

I regularly email myself posts if they contain some new tool that I might want to look at in more depth later. I can even add these posts directly to my task list using Omnifocus.

4. Scan, file and read

How you read your feeds is as important as the tools you use.

With so much great content out there you will inevitably end up with a lot of feeds. There is just not enough time in the day to read them all. The emphasis has to be on finding the really good content fast and then reading it later when you have time.

Normally when I launch my feed reader I am pushed for time. I don’t have the opportunity to trawl through each post and read it in detail. The main objective is to scan headlines and see if anything jumps out.

If I spot something I like the look of I add it to instapaper. This will reformat it in a more readable way and save it offline on my phone for later consumption.

An alternative approach would be to simply star it in Google Reader. However, personally I prefer the accessibility and formatting of instapaper.

Then once I have my list of preferred reading, I use longer blocks of time to read through this list. Train journeys and sitting in bed are ideal opportunities.

However, I have also discovered that even driving in the car or working out at the gym (not that I have personal experience of the latter) are ideal times to work through my reading list. The way I achieve this is using a service on the mac that converts text into an MP3 file. The voice isn’t great but it is a very useful way of getting through a big reading list.

So you have a process in place. The next question is what feeds to follow.

5. Follow the big players

As a web designer you need a broad overview of not just the web design world but also the tech world. It is therefore important to follow a number of big players who post regularly and will provide the majority of posts in your feed reader.

My personal suggestions are:

Smashing Magazine provides easily digestible content that either inspires or provides practical advice.
The Web Designers Depot is similar to Smashing Magazine but seems to focus more heavily on inspiration.
Sitepoint provides both blog posts and detailed articles on every aspect of web design. A great all round publication.
Techcrunch will provide a broader perspective on the tech world. However, it can be a little focused on ‘the Valley’ for my tastes.
Mashable provides some great articles social media and is definitely worth subscribing to.

The problem with the sites above is that they post frequently. Be sure to isolate them so they do not dominate your feed reader.

6. Track the specialist sites

In addition to the big players there are also a large number of specialist web design sites that are worth your attention. These include, but are not limited to:

A List Apart was originally the homepage of web standards but is now broadening its articles to tackle a variety of user experience related issues.
Adaptive Path is a company who produce some excellent posts on the latest thinking in the world of UX design.
Boxes and Arrows is a blog dedicated to information architecture.
Ideas on Ideas is a collection of essays regarding design, brand and experience.
Customer experience matters tackles as you might expect from the title, customer experience issues both online and off.
Konigi is a research community for user experience designers.

Obviously this is a list of my favourites, and so is biased towards my personal areas of interest. However, if you are starting from scratch these are as good a place to begin as any.

7. Remember the individuals

So far we have focused exclusively on web design / tech publications and ignored the blogs of individuals. There are literally thousands of these, but it is important that a good selection can be found in your RSS reader.

The individual bloggers tend to post less regularly but this is where a lot of cutting edge thinking happens. An idea bounced around in somebodies personal blog can quickly turn into best practice promoted by sites like A List Apart.

My personal favourites are…

Jeremy Keith, who writes a lot about HTML5, Javascript and Microformats.
Roger Johansson, who covers a variety of topics from accessibility to web standards.
Bruce Lawson, who focuses mainly on HTML5 and accessibility.
Richard Rutter, who will tell you all you need to know about web typography.
Sam Barnes, who shares his personal perspective on web project management.

Over time you will build up your own list of personal bloggers. However, always try and keep an open mind to new people. You should always be adding and removing feeds to keep your list current and relevant.

8. Use bookmarking feeds

The same people who have good web design blogs are often extremely well read themselves. Many of them share the content they find on social bookmarking websites such as delicious. It is well worth subscribing to their feeds on these sites.

A few of the many such feeds I subscribe to include:

Subscribing to other people’s feed is an easy way of exposing yourself to content that you might not otherwise have found.

9. Leverage twitter

Of course, increasingly people are not saving links to services like delicious. Instead they are posting them to Twitter.

There are a couple of ways of leveraging twitter for great web design content. One way is to use Twitter search. By searching for web design keywords such as “usability,” “web design” or “accessibility” combined with “http://” you will return all links that match those keywords. You can then subscribe to an RSS feed of that result.

Although this is a good way of discovering new content there is no guarantee as to the quality of those links. They could have been posted by anybody including spambots.

A better approach would be to search for links submitted only by the people you follow. Unfortunately Twitter search does not provide that ability. Fortunately a service called Microplaza does.

The service allows you to see all of the links tweeted by those you follow either organised by date or popularity. You can also see exactly who tweeted the link. However, best of all you call subscribe to an RSS feed so it appears in your feed reader of choice.

10. Signup to aggregators

With a good system, reading your RSS feeds does not need to take long. However you may conclude that this is not something you have time to setup.

If that is the case you could get somebody else to do the hard work for you. There are a number of news aggregators out there, which collect the best of web design news and feed it to your news reader. For example Boagworld runs its own news aggregation service that you can either follow on Twitter or subscribe to via RSS.

Conclusions

As I said at the start, we work in an extremely fast moving industry. There are new innovations on a daily basis and what is best practice today might be replaced tomorrow. It is important to stay up-to-date. However, finding the time can be difficult.

This post demonstrates how I have solved the problem. However, that is just my personal experience.

What about you? How do you stay on top of web design news? How do you remain current and do you think RSS is the answer or has it be surpassed by Twitter? Post your thoughts in the comments.

187. Jedi Mind Tricks

Paul Boag — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:28:59 +0000

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Housekeeping

Although we promised you ClearLeft on this week’s show we have had to postpone it until next week. However, that gives you a whole extra week to submit questions via the comments on our blog.

News

A web designers time is precious

We are all too busy, period. However, life can be particularly intense if you work as a web designer or developer. The pace of change is so fast it can be hard to find the time to keep up.

Fortunately there are some great articles around that provide time savings tips. Take for example Sitepont’s post this week “How to take control of your time.” It provides some excellent advice including the importance of prioritising, the need to leave adequate time and learning to say no.

Smashing Magazine has a post of their own entitled “20 time saving tips to improve designers workflow.” This includes ways to customise your work environment and better work with tools like Photoshop.

Speaking of Photoshop there is a great cheatsheet that contains all of the keyboard shortcuts you need to speed up your workflow in Photoshop. When combined with the IE6 cheatsheet for solving common IE6 bugs you will find yourself saving considerable time.

The answer to overload is not to work longer hours. It is to work smarter and that is what these posts enable you to do.

15 common ecommerce mistakes

I love working on ecommerce sites. They are by far my favourite. The reason – you get to see an obvious return on your work, because they have an obvious call to action. Conversion either increases or decreases. Profits either rise or fall. You are in no doubt as to whether you have made a difference or not.

However, the other reason I love working on ecommerce sites is because so many of them are terrible. Often when you start working on an ecommerce site there are loads of quick wins that make an instant difference to revenue.

People make the same mistakes again and again. In fact these mistakes are often so predictable that you could write a top 10 list of them… and guess what… that is exactly what Smashing Magazine has done: “15 common mistakes in ecommerce design and how to avoid them“.

Some of my personal favourite mistakes include:

Hiding contact information
Long winded checkout
Poor customer service
Not highlighting related products or otherwise upselling
Hiding the cost of delivery

If you are designing or running an ecommerce site then you really should check this post out. You will be surprised just how many of these mistakes you make.

The benefits of inline form validation

I have said it before and I will say it again: “forms are the most important feature on most websites.” Most often a sites call to action requires the completion of a form. Get the form wrong and you frustrate users potentially driving them away.

Nobody likes filling in forms. Whether it is a contact form, site registration or just a simple login form. It is therefore vital that we make the process as painless as possible.

There is a post on a List Apart which I have only just gotten around to reading. “Inline Validation in Web Forms” does not sound like the most exciting read but it does provide some invaluable best practice for dealing with forms. However, it doesn’t just provide somebodies opinion on best practice, instead it backs those views up with valuable testing.

The post takes a typical signup form and trials different forms of inline validation with real users. They didn’t just monitor success/failure rates. They also looked at errors made, satisfaction rates and completion time. They even did some eye tracking.

Although the results are not surprising, it is nice to have some numbers to put against what we have known to be true. For example, it was obvious that inline validation makes an enormous difference to both actual success and perceived success. Just validating a form on the client side increased success rates by 22% and satisfaction by 31%. Those numbers went even higher when the user is given feedback as they completed each field.

A valuable post, worth reading.

Innocent smoothies: A case study into corporate communication

When you speak at as many conferences as I do, you often find yourself referring to the same examples of good or bad practice. Whether it is comparing Google and Yahoo or fawning over Apple’s great UX design, the same names keep coming up.

One of the names I often reference is Innocent Smoothies. I love them. They just ‘get the web’. Actually, that is a lie. They get people. They know how to communicate and they know themselves. They have a distinctive voice that makes people warm to them and that is carried through to their website.

This week Anna Debenham has written an excellent case study on Innocent Smoothies looking in detail at what makes them successful online. In particular she looks at their blog and mailing list.

As Anna says at the start of her post:

A lot of the clients I work with who have just set up a web presence for their company think it’s a good idea to start a mailing list and a blog. Everyone else is doing it, so why shouldn’t they? The problem is, so few companies get it right and very few people will bother to read them.

So what makes Innocent different? Anna gives 6 reasons:

They show you the real people behind the business
They make their copy fun
They don’t just talk about their products
They are generous
They provide useful information
They make good use of imagery

Anna’s post is packed full of examples, so be sure to check it out. There is a lot most corporate bloggers could learn from Innocent.

Feature: How to persuade your users, boss or client

Whether you are trying to get signoff for a site’s design or persuade a user to complete a call to action. We all need to know how to be convincing. This week, we look at how to present our message

Read Jedi Mind Tricks: How To Persuade Your Users, Boss, Or Clients

Listeners feedback:

Email masking

One of the more popular suggestions for topics was how to mask your email address so it doesn’t get harvested by spammers.

This is something that everybody worries about from designers to website owners. However, unfortunately there is no good solution. In my opinion you need to just put your email out there and deal with the spam.

Sure there are a number of possible solutions but none of them are acceptable. They either require the user to be running Javascript (which creates accessibility problems) or they place extra burden on the user. Giving users the ability to contact you is a fundamental part of almost all websites and, so you do not want to make it hard.

There are however two ways of minimising the impact.

First, you could choose not to publish your email address, but instead offer a contact form. Although spammers can spam these too, it is harder and there are ways of minimising spam without putting an added burden on users. However if you do use a contact form, send a copy to the user so they have a record.

Second, you can fall back on good spam filters. Use a site specific email address and make sure it is guarded by a good quality filter. I personally find Google Mails spam filter particularly good, so you might want to consider routing enquiries via that.

However, at the end of the day if a spammer is determined to spam you there is very little you can do to stop them. Unfortunately, this the price of being online.

Boagworld

4 ways to bring new life to old Wordpress blog posts

1. Theme Posts

2. Related Posts

3. Embedded tags

4. Redesign your homepage

Any other suggestions?

Similar Posts:

191. Ecommerce Lies

Housekeeping

News

Does aesthetics need to be compromised for the sake of usability?

Explaining user experience design

The importance of typography

Website maintenance tips

Feature: The Biggest Ecommerce Lies and How to Avoid Theme

Listeners feedback: Does blogging/podcasting win you any work?

Patience

Perception

Influence

Entertainment?

Conclusion

Similar Posts:

Do aesthetics need to be compromised for the sake of usability?

Similar Posts:

The biggest ecommerce lies and how to avoid them

1. You can never give the user too much [Wrong!]

2. Never miss an opportunity to cross-sell [Wrong!]

3. Its all about your site [Wrong!]

4. Users care about security… badges [Wrong!]

5. Amazon is the template we should all follow [Wrong!]

Bonus lie: Ecommerce is easy

Similar Posts:

190. Become a branding Ninja

News

Offline inspiration

All you need to know about CSS3

Preparing and planning for a redesign

Confusing menus and links: the web’s biggest challenge

Interview: Alex Hunter discusses developing an online brand

Listeners feedback: Give yourself a speed boost!

Similar Posts:

Don’t reduce your designers and developers to stereotypes

A recipe for disaster

The best route to goal

What about you?

Similar Posts:

10 problems your content management system will not solve and how to overcome them

1. A lack of editorial control

The Solution: Get an editor

2. A lack of personality

The solution: Decide on your sites personality

3. Uncommitted contributors

The solution: Recognise the importance of the web

4. Poorly trained authors

The solution: Provide video training material

5. Bad copywriting

The solution: Provide a structure for content production

6. Bloated websites

The solution: Focus on users and remove

7. No clear calls to action

The solution: Always guide the user to the next action

8. An organisational focused IA

The solution: Focus on user tasks

9. No sense of community

The solution: Build relationship not functionality

10. Single language content

The solution: Think twice before requesting multi-lingual support

Conclusions

Similar Posts:

189. How to keep up with web innovations

News

Web design match making

Client relations

Myths of usability testing

jQuery for designers

Feature: 10 secrets to staying informed about web design

Ad: Win a Macbook Pro or iPod Touch

Listeners feedback:

Recording the podcast