Optimize to be Remembered, Design for Effortless Ease of Use
If you could have had a crystal ball in 2004, would you have known that the power of online marketing is hiding within conversations? Did you consider that the content you put on your homepage holds little salt with readers unless it can be backed up with outside information? People still want the same thing today as they did five years ago: trusted people-tested results and recommendations. Were you aware back then that search engine technology has undergone several scientific studies to...
Read MoreQuick Second Credibility Usability Test
In a Lance Loveday’s article called Designing For The Subconscious Mind, he described his experiences when showing two different web site pages to an audience a half second apart. He then asked the participants which web site they’d prefer to do business with. The “professional” and “credible” page won over the “small time” and “cheap.” As Lance pointed out, nobody said, “I don’t have enough information to make that judgment.” I’m willing to bet in that particular...
Read MoreIgnore Usability Testing at Your Own Risk
While more web site development companies understand why human factors web design contributes to long term business and brand success, there are still those not investing and taking risks. In my latest column for Search Engine Land, I describe the risks of not performing site testing during the developmental stages of web site design. The testing I recommend is not just on functional or server performance. I would like to see every department, from search engine marketing, to software...
Read MoreTo Underline or Not Underline Links
As visually entertaining the latest trends in web design may be, there are a few usability walls we run into while reading. One is the appearance of a hyperlink. Should you underline a text link? These days it’s not the only way to signal a place to click. Other clues may be a different text color, font size or hover color. Your best choice is to pick one style and be consistent through out your web pages. Does underlining words that don’t link anywhere matter? On the Web, yes....
Read MoreHow Does Your Web Site Make Visitors Feel?
I’ve been exploring and researching the relationship between computers and people. More specifically, I’m fascinated by web sites and how, or if, they affect us emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually. As a web site designer, what special power do you hold in your artistic hands? As a blogger, what kind of reaction are you seeking from readers? As a well branded company, are there in-house human instabilities that can be sensed by your online consumers? A change in...
Read MoreAngelina’s Leg and User Friendly Web Design
In case you missed it, Angelina Jolie made quite the impression at the recent Oscars by showing off her right leg. One small act was a marketing sensation. Would it not be truly incredible if web designers were able to find and flaunt their web site’s sweet spot, I wondered? (Because of course, I see a woman’s leg and immediately think of usability, right?) I mean, come on. Another winner from a different category, a man, after seeing Angelina strike her pose on stage, proceeded...
Read MoreWhich Do You Prefer? Curl up with a Book or Computer Reading Device?
Have you ever considered how different the experience of online reading is compared to scanning words printed on a dead tree? To me, the experiences are worlds apart. My life as an avid reader began with cereal boxes in the 1960’s. In those days, there was typically a small toy inside the box. The back of the box might have a game, or something to cut out or tell a story. Once I got a 45 RPM record from a cereal box. I think it was a song by The Partridge Family. I learned early on that...
Read MoreCaptcha and Usability
Captcha is a necessary evil we put up with on the Internet. I did a little digging and found there is much to learn about it. I wrote about Capthca for my latest installment at SearchEngineLand – Recent Findings On Captcha & The User Experience The purpose of Captcha is to find a way to prove that you’re a human being and not a computer with abuse on its agenda. However humble and helpful the original goal, today there is software available to bypass Captcha’s, as well as humans...
Read MorePinky and the Brain, Search Marketing & User Experience Design
When Google went from being just another new search engine to the search engine, I couldn’t stop comparing the company to the cartoon series, Pinky and the Brain. In my mind, the conversation between Larry and Sergey was identical to the two lab mice: Larry: “Gee Sergey, what do you want to do tonight?” Sergey: “The same thing we do every night, Larry—try to take over the world.” For the cartoon, no matter what scheme Brain devised, the world was not his to take. Perhaps it was...
Read MoreHiring Web Site Information Architecture – Tips for Better Decisions
Web site information architecture is an additional skill web designers may not have that you may need to outsource for. Information architecture is tied to usability testing and how humans search, sort, classify and order things. This is not the same as site architecture that SEO’s use in their work. Shari Thurow describes what information architecture is for web design, why its so important to design and how it relates to user centered design. She offers logical examples and a warning...
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