An Upsetting User Experience Due to Poor Web Site Usability
My approach to web site usability goes far beyond what you see on a web page. The lines between the Internet experience and off-line experience are blurred more and more as we adapt our lives to the technology we have available to us. The user experience, both on and off-line, sometimes blend together. This is usually overlooked by web site designers who haven’t had the experiences or training to understand the ramifications of every element they put on a page. Every step, every...
Read MoreAre We Designing For The Human Experience?
This year hasn’t been one of my favorites. It’s been “The Year of Pondering My Navel”. Or, perhaps, the “Year of Unraveling”. If you earn your living connected to the Internet, this year went by in 1.3 minutes flat. I’m finding that what worked before may be losing out to the current fad. One area of constant change is how we interact with the Internet and each other. A few months back I had asked if traditional online forums were going to...
Read MoreLet’s Imagine I’m Doing Something on Your Web Site
Yesterday I wanted to use my car but couldn’t find my car key. The last I’d seen it, I was handing it to my daughter, two days ago. We have 3 cars, plus the boyfriend’s mini-van (with the broken muffler), and since he practically lives here, that makes 4 vehicles jammed into the driveway. But I wanted mine. I did the usual. First, I “texted” her in school, so she wouldn’t get into trouble for having a cell phone on her. She had no idea where the key was. Then, I called my...
Read MoreUser Experience and Search Marketing in Las Vegas First Week in December
It appears as though the pickings for those interested in both usability/user experience design and search engine optimization/marketing have one more conference to choose from in the same week. Jakob Nielson’s User Experience 2007 conference is set for December 2-7, 2007, in Las Vegas. So are: Pubcon – December 4-7, Search Engine Strategies Chicago – December 3 – 7. One wonders how this happened? Interestingly, from the search engine marketing side, more traditional...
Read MoreOn Page Communication With Your Web Site Visitors Pays Off
Yesterday I added a little something to my blog post that likely went unnoticed. It’s a habit I’ve gotten into and is something I’ve begun to share with clients when I review their web sites. I decided to point it out and tell you more about it. I had referred readers to a link labeled “The Art and Science of User Experience at Google” and prefaced the link with a sentence that explained the link was about a video presentation. One common usability issue that...
Read MoreExpectations We Have for the Internet and Each Other
I’ve been thinking about expectations we have and the responsibility that comes with having them. What happens when our expectations aren’t met? Does this mean we didn’t have the appropriate one? I’m feeling hurt by something someone has done and as I wrestle with this tiger of disappointment, I keep returning to the fact that it is my expectation that isn’t being met, not theirs. I don’t think the person who has saddened me has any idea I believed in...
Read MorePersuasive Search Engine Marketing
Mike Grehan let her rip at Clickz with SEO Is Dead. Long Live, er, the Other SEO by praising Google’s Universal Search. He tops it off by offering reasons for no longer needing the services of “SEO geeks”. His point is that it no longer is enough to fluff up pages organically and hope they’ll grow big and tall in search engine gardens. Universal search offers up images, books, links to maps, business directories and videos mixed into certain search results, rather than...
Read MoreThe Discipline Behind User Experience Design
Bryan Eisenberg, of FutureNow, has written an article called Web Marketing and Analytics: Process, Talent & Tools that raises several points about the practical, necessary work to be done in persuasive, user centered web site design. Firstly, he talks about the need for someone who can take audit or test data and actually do something with it. One of the failures of usability reports is the follow through afterwards. Many reports simply send site owners jumping over cliffs in frustration...
Read MoreI’ve Come to Your Web Site To Do Nothing
When does a web site just sit on the shelf hoping someone will come along and pick it up, and when does a web site beg to be noticed and better yet, interacted with? I was asked by a family member to “make a website” for their business. So, I asked a few questions. “What do you want it to do?” “Tell people about us”, came the reply. “What do you want them to do once they read about you?” I tried not to sound cynical here. “Nothing”,...
Read MoreEven Your Target Market Has Off Days
My husband, Eric, has been looking at me funny. He gazes at me all the time and I hate being stared at. Being mean as usual, I make him stop. Last weekend, I realized he’s been looking at me with a strange look in his eyes that I couldn’t intrepret. I’m mean, so last weekend I asked him why he keeps giving me weird looks. He replied, “Because I’m not sure which Kim is present, so I’m looking harder to see who’s there.” I laughed, because I...
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