Before you decide to take the plunge and get a new website built, there are some things you should consider. So often, people are all too keen to move into the fun elements of designing a site without dedicating the required time to online strategy.
When I chat to people about getting a new site built, one of the first questions I ask is: who are your competitors and what are they doing online?
Analysing your competitors’ online presence is exceptionally beneficial, as it allows a business to determine what the competition is doing, providing a market benchmark. Not only do you consciously focus on what your competitors are doing in the online space, which is obviously a good thing, but it also allows a business to internally review the strengths and weaknesses of their own site. In taking the time to review your competitors, your own weaknesses and strengths become more apparent, as there is a clear, discernible reference point.
You might be wondering though, how do I undertake a competitor analysis? Where do I start?
This task should not be a laborious or daunting task. You should view it as an enjoyable exercise to stamp your competitive edge. When commencing an online competitor analysis, I split the exercise into three key tasks: Overall impression, notable functionality and ease of use.
Overall Impression
The overall impression is exactly that, your first reaction and thoughts of the site. Don’t worry about being too technical, jot-down your initial thoughts: what you like, what you perceive to be flaws and weaknesses.
Some questions to keep in mind:
-Are there any clear calls to action?
-Is the content engaging?
-Is the navigation clear?
-Is it obvious what to do?
These questions are simple and are a great way to kick-off brain storming.
Notable Functionality
What line of business you are in will dictate the site’s functionality. For instance, if you’re a sports retail store, do any of your competitors have e-commerce functionality? Things to consider when noting functionality:
-Is there a blog?
-Is there a member’s area?
-Can you view videos?
-Is there a forum?
Ease of Use
The ‘Ease of Use’ is a pretty straight forward concept, which focuses on how usable a site is. When documenting how usable a site is, I generally break-up the review into four areas: homepage, architecture, usability and search. Some things I like to consider when checking how usable a site is:
Homepage
-Is there a ‘good feeling’ about what the site is about?
-Is pertinent content from deeper within the site displayed on the homepage?
-Is there a clear delineation of content
Architecture
-Is there a logical approach to the main site structure?
-Are the labels intuitive?
-Is there a solid consistent approach to delivering the navigation?
-Is there an appropriate visual hierarchy for the navigation?
Usability
-Is there appropriate use of screen real estate?
-Is there a clear page structure?
-Is the page structure consistently delivered?
-Is the font easy to read?
-Is there enough white space?
Search
-Is the search available in a consistent place on all pages?
-Does it stand out?
-Are the results well laid out
These questions are merely intended to provide some ideas of the sorts of things you ought to be enquiring about. There is no shortage to the amount of questions you can ask.
Remember, it’s important to get to know your competitors, the assistance they provide in the development of your own site is critical. They could turn out to be your best friends!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Where Does Your Website Lead Users?
It’s a little understood fact but every website leads its users somewhere. Unfortunately because of this lack of understanding, many websites accidentally lead users to search for another website. Others execute the idea more proficiently, the most obvious examples being e-commerce websites that encourage users to select and purchase items from the comfort of their web browser.
It’s important to remember that other types of websites also take their users on a journey. Your website should have a clear goal for each type of user that it is trying to engage with and it should lead those users through the most logical and convenient journey to achieve that goal. No matter the goal, you can’t blame the user if you don’t signpost the way to achieve it.
So - are your users being led to the virtual promised land? Or are you leaving them to wander in the desert of poor web experience?
It’s important to remember that other types of websites also take their users on a journey. Your website should have a clear goal for each type of user that it is trying to engage with and it should lead those users through the most logical and convenient journey to achieve that goal. No matter the goal, you can’t blame the user if you don’t signpost the way to achieve it.
So - are your users being led to the virtual promised land? Or are you leaving them to wander in the desert of poor web experience?
Producing Effective Menus
When designing a website it is important to try to provide as much visual support and context as possible to help orient users and to minimize the disruptive effects of jumping from one place to another whilst trying to find something.
There are 3 key navigational bits of information things people need to know when they are on an internet page; Where they are, Where they have been and Where they can go.
The following principals should be considered when designing an effective web site navigation.
1) Make the current menu selection clear. Your current selection should act as a "You are here" sign, reminding users of their place in the system.
2) Make the user’s current navigational selection visually ‘non-clickable’.
3) Place the most commonly used, or important items at the top or left of the list.
4) When secondary navigation is required, make it visually associated with and visually subordinate to the relevant parent section.
5) Always display the navigation and always display it consistently.
6) Always display links to a page’s children, siblings, parent and grandparents.
7) Provide redundant links on important sub-homepages.
8) Provide a clear link to the homepage from all pages.
9) Use intuitive labels for your navigational elements.
10) Where possible, stick to 5-9 navigational elements per hierarchy
There are 3 key navigational bits of information things people need to know when they are on an internet page; Where they are, Where they have been and Where they can go.
The following principals should be considered when designing an effective web site navigation.
1) Make the current menu selection clear. Your current selection should act as a "You are here" sign, reminding users of their place in the system.
2) Make the user’s current navigational selection visually ‘non-clickable’.
3) Place the most commonly used, or important items at the top or left of the list.
4) When secondary navigation is required, make it visually associated with and visually subordinate to the relevant parent section.
5) Always display the navigation and always display it consistently.
6) Always display links to a page’s children, siblings, parent and grandparents.
7) Provide redundant links on important sub-homepages.
8) Provide a clear link to the homepage from all pages.
9) Use intuitive labels for your navigational elements.
10) Where possible, stick to 5-9 navigational elements per hierarchy
The use of colour online
The importance of colour selection and coordination as it applies to Web design is often overlooked. Your colours are part of your message. And depending on which message you wish to convey, the colours you choose can support, emphasize, or contradict your message.
"Marketing psychologists state that a lasting impression is made within ninety seconds (offline) and that colour accounts for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of an object, person, place, or circumstance. Because colour impressions are both quick and long lasting, decisions about colour are a critical factor in success of any visual experience." (1)
So what's involved in effectively using colour in Website design? Factors include the influence of individual colour perception, colour mix, gender preferences, emotional responses to colour and how culture can affect those responses. Colours convey specific meanings, but the precise interpretation is influenced by the viewer's perception and identity.
Understanding some principles of colour theory simplifies design decisions. The primary colours (those that can't be produced by mixing) are red, yellow and blue. The secondary colours (a mix of the primaries) are orange, green and purple. Tertiary colours, a mix of primary and secondary colours, are yellow-orange, red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, and red-purple. Complimentary colours lie opposite on the colour wheel; colours clash when hues vary. The impact of a particular colour varies based the colours adjoining it. Overlooking this colour principle can mean unexpected, unattractive or illegible site results.
Understanding basic colour perception provides greater creative freedom. If you want to manipulate colour in predictable ways, then you need to know what factors affect colour discrimination and colour appearance, how various perceptual dimensions vary together, the effect of size and spatial layout on colour etc. Colour is a tool and, like any tool, the more you understand how it works, the better you will use it.
(1)Source http://www.colorcom.com/color.html
"Marketing psychologists state that a lasting impression is made within ninety seconds (offline) and that colour accounts for 60% of the acceptance or rejection of an object, person, place, or circumstance. Because colour impressions are both quick and long lasting, decisions about colour are a critical factor in success of any visual experience." (1)
So what's involved in effectively using colour in Website design? Factors include the influence of individual colour perception, colour mix, gender preferences, emotional responses to colour and how culture can affect those responses. Colours convey specific meanings, but the precise interpretation is influenced by the viewer's perception and identity.
Understanding some principles of colour theory simplifies design decisions. The primary colours (those that can't be produced by mixing) are red, yellow and blue. The secondary colours (a mix of the primaries) are orange, green and purple. Tertiary colours, a mix of primary and secondary colours, are yellow-orange, red-orange, yellow-green, blue-green, blue-purple, and red-purple. Complimentary colours lie opposite on the colour wheel; colours clash when hues vary. The impact of a particular colour varies based the colours adjoining it. Overlooking this colour principle can mean unexpected, unattractive or illegible site results.
Understanding basic colour perception provides greater creative freedom. If you want to manipulate colour in predictable ways, then you need to know what factors affect colour discrimination and colour appearance, how various perceptual dimensions vary together, the effect of size and spatial layout on colour etc. Colour is a tool and, like any tool, the more you understand how it works, the better you will use it.
(1)Source http://www.colorcom.com/color.html
Who Social Networking campaigns reach – and who they don’t
Facebook users generate over 65 billion page hits a month. Obviously, social networking has become more than a trend – it is now reckoned to be the critical backbone of Web 2.0 strategies.
Building social networking strategies is necessary for successful online marketing. However, as many companies are finding – one size doesn’t fit all.
For the generation that has grown up online, social networking is a big part of their lifestyle. This younger, technology-savvy group is almost constantly plugged in and demand instantaneous communication in the form of texting, online paging, and instant messaging.They buy as much as half their durable goods online and are drawn to websites that provide a kind of open connectivity and personalization that Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace offer – and they are open to marketing from those sites.
On the other hand, there is a large population that is less plugged in. This customer demographic tends to be over-30. A Social Networking campaign may never reach them because these are the people who still prefer email, phone calls, and even in-store visits. When they do use social networking, they may tend to a service like LinkedIn. Yet, online campaigns may still be quite successful at building this traffic. Tools like SEO, email newsletters, and online coupons and promotions on the website itself may help you capture this additional audience.
Building social networking strategies is necessary for successful online marketing. However, as many companies are finding – one size doesn’t fit all.
For the generation that has grown up online, social networking is a big part of their lifestyle. This younger, technology-savvy group is almost constantly plugged in and demand instantaneous communication in the form of texting, online paging, and instant messaging.They buy as much as half their durable goods online and are drawn to websites that provide a kind of open connectivity and personalization that Social Networking sites like Facebook and MySpace offer – and they are open to marketing from those sites.
On the other hand, there is a large population that is less plugged in. This customer demographic tends to be over-30. A Social Networking campaign may never reach them because these are the people who still prefer email, phone calls, and even in-store visits. When they do use social networking, they may tend to a service like LinkedIn. Yet, online campaigns may still be quite successful at building this traffic. Tools like SEO, email newsletters, and online coupons and promotions on the website itself may help you capture this additional audience.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Web Mashup - A new breed of web application
A web mashup is a web page or web application that uses or combines information from one or more sources and presents it in a completely new way as a service.
As the internet is continually growing more open and social, many websites have opened their API that allows developers to grab the content, which has led to a variety of interesting mashups. Then the developers can combine them together, and mashup the content to create a new web service that meets different needs.
The Google maps API is a very popular interface to use in mashups. It can be combined with another stream of data to create some new application. For example, The ChicagoCrime.org Web site is a great intuitive example. The Web site mashes crime data from the Chicago Police Department's online database with cartography from Google Maps. Users can interact with the mashup site, such as instructing it to graphically display a map containing pushpins that reveal the details of all recent burglary crimes in South Chicago. The concept and the presentation are simple, and the composition of crime and map data is visually powerful.
Flickr API that exposes photos sharing offers us another interface for mashup application. Because these content providers have metadata associated with the images they host (such as who took the picture, what it is a picture of, where and when it was taken, and more), mashup designers can mash photos with other information that can be associated with the metadata.
Nowadays, there are many tools available that enable us to develop the mashup application even without coding. Yahoo Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web. Microsoft Popfly(now discontinued) is another service does mashups.
Mashups provide us a new and exciting idea for web application and can also reduce the massive amount of duplicate information on the internet. However, there are still social issues that need to be taken into consideration such as intellectual property, fair use of information and date integration between organizations.
As the internet is continually growing more open and social, many websites have opened their API that allows developers to grab the content, which has led to a variety of interesting mashups. Then the developers can combine them together, and mashup the content to create a new web service that meets different needs.
The Google maps API is a very popular interface to use in mashups. It can be combined with another stream of data to create some new application. For example, The ChicagoCrime.org Web site is a great intuitive example. The Web site mashes crime data from the Chicago Police Department's online database with cartography from Google Maps. Users can interact with the mashup site, such as instructing it to graphically display a map containing pushpins that reveal the details of all recent burglary crimes in South Chicago. The concept and the presentation are simple, and the composition of crime and map data is visually powerful.
Flickr API that exposes photos sharing offers us another interface for mashup application. Because these content providers have metadata associated with the images they host (such as who took the picture, what it is a picture of, where and when it was taken, and more), mashup designers can mash photos with other information that can be associated with the metadata.
Nowadays, there are many tools available that enable us to develop the mashup application even without coding. Yahoo Pipes is a powerful composition tool to aggregate, manipulate, and mashup content from around the web. Microsoft Popfly(now discontinued) is another service does mashups.
Mashups provide us a new and exciting idea for web application and can also reduce the massive amount of duplicate information on the internet. However, there are still social issues that need to be taken into consideration such as intellectual property, fair use of information and date integration between organizations.
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