Do you agree with the importance of these processes?
Here's a cool new infographic. I particularly like it since it's not the same-old, same-old format and it forces you to ask - do we get our design processes right?
Update: I've changed the description from "great" to "cool" based on your feedback in the comments on this post and Twitter. The main criticism was the lack of iteration. I have included two new visuals which better show this iteration. Check out "awesome" process suggestion from conversion rate optimization expert Craig Sullivan which shows how they tackle improvement of website designs at Belron - this is a real-world example to really learn from!
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As well as showing the main activities to plan into a redesign project, it's interesting since it shows circles by importance.
I'm…
Online Customer Experience and Branding - an example of integrating the website and social presence
Today, with so many prospects and customers interacting with you online, I believe your brand really is greatly influenced by the Online Customer Experience you develop. But I think many don't see how a website can support and especially enhance their brand. In this posts I'll share an approach I use with businesses and I hope you can adapt this model for your own business or your clients - it's classic brand marketing.
Brand value mapping
The first stage is to understand where a brand is right now. I was recently discussing this approach with my class for marketing students in Derby. As a starting point we did a brand mapping activity for different companies. The areas highlighted in red are the key review areas for your online brand.
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February 16, 2011
Examples of how to improve conversion rate through applying common findings of usability studies
Value: [rating=4]
Our commentary: Paul Rouke, our expert commentator on all-things usability, recently gave a UX 101 talk at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Although billed as a usability presentation, much of the guidance covered by Paul featured examples of how changes to marketing messages and navigation on home pages and landing pages can increase conversion rate.
Usability & User Experience 101 - #UX101View more presentations from Paul Rouke.
Marketing implications: If you review the slide deck you may pick up some ideas on "quick win" changes you can make to your site to increase conversion rate or changes to the design that can be…
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January 27, 2011
An introduction to user testing reviewing 3 options from Skoda to Porsche to Rolls-Royce?
No matter whether you work for your yourself, within a start-up business with 1 member of staff or you work at a multi-national blue-chip corporation, understanding your customers is one of the key ingredients to making your business and proposition work.
From lead generation and e-commerce websites to web applications and intranets, user testing is one of the most powerful, insightful and actionable techniques you can use. You move beyond thinking of your website/app/intranet from your own perspective to seeing how people who aren"€™t involved in your business browse, experience and interact with it.
From my experience user testing should very much be on the agenda for all businesses, for a number of reasons explained within this article. Critically, where user testing used to be considered an expensive, luxury service for only big businesses, new tools and techniques have…
What do you think are the worst mistakes in website design today?
I'm a firm believer that one of the best ways to learn effective digital marketing is to review examples of good practice in digital marketing from other companies - like this example of good practice in landing pages.
But we can also learn a lot from mistakes that are commonly made. I hope the Smart Insights blog can help marketers avoid the time,money and stress involved with these mistakes by getting digital marketing right first time or fixing problems which mean missed opportunities.
So what are the worst mistakes? Well, last week I gave a choice of 10 and you kindly gave me your view on the worst. This is what you thought:
Well we've got a clear winner which is the main customer journeys / next steps unclear.…
Key issues to consider for a website refresh
Many site owners are painfully aware that a site redesign or enhancement to the page templates and content for their site are long overdue. Websites provide customers with access to your company 24/7. Today a website is an intrinsic element of a company"€™s marketing mix so it"€™s essential to get it right.
SMEs don't have the big budgets, teams and agencies of corporates so the approach of continuous improvement isn't realistic here.
But what are the secrets to success for a redesign which need to go into the business case?
Here are what I think are the main issues which we find arise again and again in a site redesign. They're also useful to forward to CEOs and others that need convincing.
1. Decide your objectives
What do you want to get out of your website?
To generate leads
To…
This year, I've heard from quite a few companies and agencies recommending What Users Do for improving their sites and services. I was intrigued by the relatively low cost compared to traditional usability services, so thought it would be useful to share some background on the service.
Smart Insights are independent of companies providing tools to improve digital marketing, but are keen to share ideas of the options available and what people think of them - see for example our post reviewing website user feedback tool options. So, please share your experience on similar usability services. Thanks.
Over now to Lee Duddell of What Users Do. Here are my questions...
1 What is whatusersdo? Which types of sites/pages does it work best for?
whatusersdo makes it easy for website owners to improve User Experience by observing real people using their…
In this E-marketing Essentials interview, I ask web design and usability specialist Paul Rouke for the low-down on findability, which is increasingly applied as a discipline within usability projects, partly prompted by Peter Morville"€™s book "€œAmbient Findability"€.
We define Findability, look at Findability methodologies, some of the biggest mistakes to avoid and as include some practical tips.
Thanks to Paul Rouke for sharing his experience of findability applied to different types of commercial sites. Paul has over 8 years of experience in improving usability for transactional E-commerce sites based on over 6 years as lead user experience designer at Littlewoods Shop Direct (www.lwsdg.co.uk) and more recently with his web design and usability company PRWD (www.prwd.co.uk).
He also writes at www.paulrouke.co.uk on usability, user experience and information architecture.
What is findability?
Q1. What do you see as findability? Why is…
