After 10 years of job title changes we come back to being designers, albeit ‘user experience’ designers for users and for people. In 1999 it seemed to be so very new and we were on the same page, but now we see the different disciplines needing to embrace and unify before they fragment completely. It needs to change soon, to move on with an admission of guilt for the turf wars, the inflated egos and finally gain some appreciation for each other’s craft.

Two points of view can be represented by Jesse James Garrett and his closing plenary last year at the IA Summit (memorable by his ‘we are all just UX designers’ statement) to the recent competition of defining IA ran by The Information Architecture Institute and promoted by Peter Morville. Garrett wants a return to us all being generalists whilst Morville sees a definite case for specialization. Their two books (both essential reads) should have given us the clue on their stand points years ago, in reality they have stayed true to their own beliefs. 

Are we all just expert generalists?
I think the term information architect although clumsy and a little grandiose is still the most accurate when placed alongside those who create the concepts of digital products. I may be different as I have been designing and drawing all my life, I have 13 years experience as an interaction designer, 10 as a web designer, 5 as a design manager and now 3 as an information architect. I have become an expert generalist but I would never have arrived at the last job role if I hadn’t had the other elements in my work experience. So I view the title of IA as something I have had to earn, and that can only come with experience, lots of mistakes and learning the hard way.

Looking at the effort we still spend on defining what we should or should not call ourselves seems unusual unless it is for the benefit of those new to the field. Though it does help clarify in the mind of the individual what IA is, we should be aware that clients do not share this fascination with titles but only the standard of the work we produce.

Take responsibility

For me this is what defines IA – it’s a commitment to delivering the best appropriate solution, without compromises that may affect the users. Bad design work in a visual sense is easy to fix but bad information or technical architecture is irreversible in a client’s timeline.

Having collaborative multiple-disciplinary teams is a way that a project can be delivered effectively on time and budget. Talking to each other regularly and being totally honest keeps this on track. Transparency will avert any disasters here but the conversations must occur at the right time. Whatever the process you use, all projects have time as their master. That is why timely intervention needs to happen regularly to steer and correct a project path. Those who have good time management skills tend to enjoy greater project success and certainly have happier clients. Meeting deadlines has to be the main priority when in the business of delivering solutions.

Document more

Documenting your creative process is important and rewarding because writing makes us aware of our mistakes. Our mistakes are to be encouraged in design, failure is an option if it occurs at the right point in the process. So iterate, stop only to test, discuss and verify. Share, contribute, collaborate and communicate more but admit any failings. 

We know our process and we have our tools but do we employ our minds to think differently before we even start to reach for a pen or boot up the machine? When you think about good technology it is enabling human beings to become better at being human. We should aim to enable that to happen through our work but do it in a way that is shared and publicly available. Only then through transparent practices will we grow as a collective of professionals.

The next ten years?  

The iPad and other touch devices represent the changing face of digital design. Not only in how it is a different interactive paradigm (the phones have given us a good foundation course on what not to do) but in how it will change the way we work together. The  Internet changed how we communicated and has moved from the broadcast medium to an interactive social experience. However companies have been able to operate in much the same way. The web as an add-on to their normal business.

But when the medium is defined in the device, and the device is ubiquitous then those providing it’s content will organise themselves differently and will have to redefine their offering. UX people will be in increasing demand as will the development teams to put it all together. The iPad will change us culturally. It will reshape our workplace skillsets and our mindsets regarding digital and traditional media. It may even make using the Internet a physically social activity. If it does that then it really could be the saviour of published media and even help society.

The future is the designers shaping our interfaces, interactions and experiences. Those same designers will take the iPad and produce something that will justify Steve Job’s claims of it being a game changing device.  My hope is we produce interfaces that make our children understand the world better and quicker than we ever did. Finally create objects that use technology to help us live longer and happier and improve our world. Hopes aside, I believe it will be the start of a golden age for what we are now calling User Experience design.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Y. Go

My bank here in Denmark, though not Danish, is courteous and helpful in the physical world but digitally they are atrocious. Their online banking system is a world apart from HSBC and I can only think its because of an overtly paranoid view of security.

I cannot name the bank, as I would fear some sort of American Airlines sacking, but somebody has made a technical decision which just makes it such an arduous task accessing an account.

To gain access you need to download a Java application, install it within your browser and then download an access key which is unique to the machine. It makes your home pc become something like a bank terminal. Even the interface makes you feel like you are in the mainframe.

One click away from rage It is proof, if any were needed, that some banks have such a long way to go to actually deliver a service that their customers want and deserve. This is our money after all. Now the thing is I don’t think that it’s only this bank, I know its probably the majority of them. Do a search on Twitter for online banking and you will see some lively comments instantly about a variety of well known names. The unusual part of this is that vitriol is never far away when you are talking about people trying to access their  money. Passions flair up very quickly unlike many other online interactions. The apparent ease that a customer can interact with their bank and conduct their business through a web browser is actually a situation with many issues. The online bank is a complex place of interaction that is subject to frequent fails – that’s why people are easily annoyed when there is a lapse in customer service, when the basic usability of a system is inadequate and when it appears that the interface is some sort of back office admin panel. User experience and customer experience are entwined here. That causes real problems because the system needs real staff to support it – it is not stand alone (though it purports to be – by acting like a website).

What needs to happen is to bring trust at the interface, the screen where the bank’s customer interacts with the bank. it is no different from the teller window and yet rather than seeing the human face of a smiling cashier we are faced with rows of numbers, that are bland and confusing.

A different approach

The interface need not, and should not, reflect the banks own internal processes and culture. The place for that is in the headquarters and offices, not in front of the customer. Mint and Wesabe both have capitalized on this gap in the market. The gap in which banks have turned their backs on the customer’s experience and preferred to adopt an IT approach to delivering a system that a customer is expected to work within.

Meanwhile these sites have realized that people need to see their numbers differently to how their bank manager sees them. Not on a spreadsheet but a chart with meaning, a saving scheme with a human name and relevance to them. This is what makes me want to return and use a bank. Show me how my money can work harder, where I can save or invest and do it in a way that is educational and even fun.

My online banking experience at the moment is dull, because I don’t want to use the interface. All I can do is either find a better bank or use Wesabe or Mint to download my transactions and render them in a way that is understandable and useful to me.

Tenets for online banking

There are four areas we can take as tenets for what an online bank should deliver for the customers.

Clarity
Ensure that from the visual design down to the language used, to the terms and illustrations, every single entity on the page is as clear as possible. This is how it looks , how the user would interact and use the system to ensuring the user understands exactly what is going on in every page. Iconography, help text, customer service contacts, all need explanation and immediacy for the user. The online bank must provide a service and the customer needs to grasp this instantly. Any marketing or jargon that gets in the way is a huge problem to its usefulness.

Comprehensive
Whatever the customer wants to do in their accounts enable them to do it – if it is a product being offered. If they want something new make sure it is just a click away. Also show them the holistic view of their money and enable them to drill down into specifics whilst giving them a way to navigate around. Visualizing data that is easy to understand is so important to those people who are turned off by numbers, it allows a deeper comprehension and a better understanding of their financial situation.

Convenient
Never make a customer download a piece of software to unlock the gate to let them into the bank. A barrier to entry on a system that holds their money is maddening for a user. It must be accessed through a browser and by mobile devices, even the TV. Online banking should be easy and stress free. Downtime may be unavoidable but warnings to customers and active support needs to be employed during these times.

Control
Finally, allow the customers to take control by offering them the tools to manage and create accounts easily. Flexibility in the way they can manage their money will just give them a much more enjoyable banking experience. Akin to being listened to when they have a request and a feeling that something is being done. Showing their figures in real time and allowing the movement and creation of savings all go some way in giving them the feeling that this is their money, their accounts and importantly a bank they want to belong to.

Competitive threat will enforce change

I hope banking will be different soon. One bank will lead the way in defining an experience the others will follow. It hasn’t happened yet because of constraints, politics, the credit crunch, institutionalization and corporate lethargy. But it will change, and with products like Wesabe’s Springboard around, it will be sooner rather than later. 

Saul Bass, the legendary graphic designer and film maker, described design as ‘thinking made visual’. In many ways visual design should communicate the more complex considerations of a solution in an immediately accessible way.Aesthetic usability Think about a website that you like and there will probably be a good deal of visual design that helps you in understanding its content better, what it offers and how easy it is for you to use. Aesthetic usability is a quality that arguably Apple have made very much part of their product offering. Consider their most successful devices, (iMac,iPod and iPhone) and there is an immediate attraction to getting to know the product, even before you really know what it can do. As there is an emotive connection (one of delight or intrigue) it affords the product a level of forgiveness within the user when the product or system fails.

We can also see this in many websites today, the Whale fail of Twitter being a notable one. As the website about the image says:

This image brings a human touch to a moment of frustration…

An attractive design is initially perceived as being easier to use and tends to garner a loyalty and forgiveness in a user group that promotes positive relations between people.

Alignment
An ingredient of aesthetic usability, particularly in web pages or screen based interfaces, alignment is a design principle that is often either overlooked or considered a standard aspect of good design. However it does warrant special consideration especially as its importance is the reason why the grid is such a defacto standard in page design, for both the offline and online worlds. As alignment is the norm, where elements on a page break out it causes visual tension – the exception creates a focus on an element on the page.

This is a good example of a site that uses a grid but, with the use of graphics and juxtaposition, breaks it with visual trickery.Even using a small colour palette it effectively does its job of engaging the user and encourages interaction. The visual design gives dynamism. The content of the site is for the Digital Research Centre in Dublin but the site goes some way in getting you interested way before you start to read the content.

Colour
Despite so many people being colour blind it still has a key role in giving meaning to elements on a screen or in the physical world. Colour, and importantly hue and saturation, have effects on the way interfaces are used and perceived by users. Contrast gives users a guide – the more saturated the hue of a colour – the more important the priority. Similar contrast types are seen as part of the same group or importance. The use of contrast is one of the ingredients of visual design that is not immediately the most noticeable but is certainly one of the most notable to attract attention and produce focus in a user.

The designers of Barack Obama’s website agonized for days over the correct shade of blue that would come to be synonymous with the campaign and eventually the Obama brand.Throughout the site, the use of key colours, for calls to action, are used strategically to either prompt or persuade (the red here used sparingly) or to educate and inform (the muted blue grey in the right hand column). The actual colour palette is limited and correct colour usage should always be used in this way. Too much colour variation produces visual noise and confusion.

Consistency
The site mentioned above also exhibits consistency on a huge and intricate scale. The elements within the design are part of a larger code that communicates a meaning that is consistent across all touch-points. In this case the font was used throughout the campaign from signs to captions to all types of visual communication. It is a great way of maintaining a focus to the message, unmistakably it is from Obama. This way of maintaining the message is used throughout the physical world and is a subtle stamp of quality that underpins many good user experiences.

Golden ratio To enhance the aesthetic quality of an object or interface design the golden ratio is a good principle to explore largely because of its prevalence in nature, art and architecture.Areas where visual appeal have been long established and unquestioned can provide a good basis to explore in designs where other factors are not compromised. There is something simplistic, natural and appealing about design that exhibits the ratio of 0.618 within its form. It is only a little over half way but it is enough to give some balance to the eye, making the design inexplicably interesting.

Highlighting and Legibility
Effective use of typography,font size and style can guide a user when used well or lead to confusion when it doesn’t follow consistency. Presenting a message in a particular way can reinforce the impact of the message. Ensuring it is easy to read, uses the appropriate size and clarity and can only help in getting the message across. In many cases the artful use of typography often does this job brilliantly as it implicitly considers legibility and accessible text as part of its remit. That is obviously when it’s purpose is to convey a message and not make a statement.

Image courtesy of theBudman84

You may not agree with this statement from the Information Architects but you can not deny the power of typography to not only deliver the message with clarity but also with meaning.These are just words but the strength of type, colour, style and size give the statement more depth and authority. When a website or interface has legibility problems it is often reviled instantly. People deserve a basic level of accessibility  and this area is one to pay attention to first when thinking about visual design for improved user experiences.

Modularity The real strength of modular design is an ever-present in web pages and web applications. Smaller services or applications that form a larger, more complex system, have really found their niche in the iPhone and contribute to the success of the product.Highly bespoke and tailored user experiences are achievable by offering the platform that can be adjusted to individual user needs. Personalisation is achievable giving much more engaging experiences and the visual design should accommodate this need.

Occam’s razor
This principle states that the unnecessary abundance of features decrease the effectiveness of the designed solution. When considering feature creep in many mobile phones the lack of this principle can be seen very easily. If two solutions are placed side by side, and both are equal in terms of what they can deliver but one is simple and the other is complex, then the design that exhibits simplicity wins because it is practical.

The Flip video camera is one of the best sellers on Amazon and part of its success is its no frills point-and-shoot capability. All non-essential features have been removed and stripped down to the power button, record, play, delete, zoom, lens, microphone and speaker. The only other feature is a 2 inch screen and USB arm.It is an exercise in concentrating on the absolute necessity of the object to create a product that is relevant to the user and suitable for their context of use. Screen interfaces need to reveal the interface in a manner that is contextually relevant to the user. Intelligently giving the user what they need, when they need it. Tailor-made digital experiences will define future UX work.

Proximity and Similarity
Parts of the Gestalt principles of perception -  proximity is based on the premise that when elements are grouped or clustered together they are considered related to one another and those which are spaced apart are considered unrelated. When this is used well, it has the power to convey meaning in a way that is instant and may override other principles that are present on a page. For this reason the grouping of elements needs to be considered carefully and will often need to work alongside other principles. The Fritz Hansen website groups furniture by type and encourages an interaction with the elements.

This site also uses similarity – the visual look of objects resembling each other which produces a feeling of belonging to one another (even though the furniture has been designed by different designers). Strongest grouping effects are seen with elements that use similar colours and shapes. In this instance the same perspective and use of neutral colours give a feeling of cohesiveness.

Symmetry Simon Page’s illustration captures the attractive qualities of symmetrical forms that are often seen in nature. Symmetrical elements arranged to make a pattern of reflection, transition or rotation is an instantly recognizable way to achieve a great aesthetic quality, and often beauty.Simon Page is a visual designer who manages to have that innate ability to produce stunning visual designs. So much so, I wonder what his work would look like if he designed an interface for a client. Would it be usable? Would it be organized correctly, or communicate in the user’s language? Would it give a great experience? I have a feeling that it would, because of his ability as a visual designer. Visual design is so important because we are easily stimulated and manipulated by visual cues. An awareness of this important theme to a UX framework is essential and if we are calling ourselves UX designers we need to consider this as a part of our toolbox. Next up: behaviour

Bradley Horowitz at The Next Web 09 courtesy of DailyM

After Jeff Jarvis had his take on Google we had somebody from the inside – Bradley Horowitz.Horowitz was the man who advised Yahoo to buy Flickr and after redefining his role there he made them acquire Delicious. Previously he had formed Virage (video categorization engine) and sold it to Autonomy after dropping out of his degree at MIT Medialab where he worked on image categorisation technologies.

It was no wonder with his background that metadata, context and categorisation formed an underlying theme to this talk. It was good to see these foundational elements of online user experience given the focus they deserve.

Moore’s law and the aim of Google
He stated that Google’s main perspective on technology was thinking big as a means of innovation. With this philosophy they have changed the world as we know it and their impact is massive. As silicon valley realised Moore’s law to be true, Google imagined a world where bandwidth, size and storage was not a problem. In doing so they created  applications such as GMail.

Google’s aim is to provide excellent search to enable users to store and find everything. It is to solve one of the world’s biggest problems -that of information overload, its loss and its retrieval.

Ubicomp is here
He told of everyday devices that have achieved ubiquity – that can now record your entire life digitally. Ubiquity is here.  The mobile phone is everywhere.

The problem as he saw it was that you can record everything but you don’t get another life to review it all. The challenge is harvesting metadata and defining context to give meaning to what we do.

So how do you use the information to a useful end? Horowitz (and Google) knows that the big problem is that we are dying from the start. Moments evaporate from the start. This fact drives Google to be fast. Latency is a key focus because time is of the essence. By being fast they give back the time to the world by speed of its services.

Be aware of our human condition
He told of, meditation, sleep, walking the dog that gives him perspective. A very pertinent point was that technology needs to adapt and enhance the human life. He asked how do we solve attention management? The moments of life that need revisiting amongst the morass of spam and junk we all wade through.

A key observation was that metadata is as important as the data itself. Even from biosignals. He stated that Wetware (using people’s minds and bodies as systems) will be as important as software or hardware.

Audience at The Next Web 09 courtesy of DailyM

Image understanding is an amazingly complex process if you expect to use machines to do this. Using humans enables it to be easy to create understanding around cognition of imagery. People can do this easily to give meaning to images and Flickr shows that by a simple means to ensure that the people can tag easily.

Though I appreciate his statement I feel we have along way to go before the wisdom of crowds can be used effectively here.

He stressed that a few dedicated curators can create value for the majority. Indeed, the collective intelligence and interestingness creates a relevance metric that goes beyond just page rank algorythmns.  We see this in blogs, twitter streams and facebook communities but the curators still control the quality. That is  an important point I feel, and one that Google obviously realises.

Then he briefly showed a mental model that reflected the Google approach to data, starting at signal and working upwards.

• enlightenment
• wisdom
• knowledge
• information
• data
• signal

From a signal you may reach the pathway to enlightenment I guess, but it certainly has a clarity to it that is admirable.

The web is broken
What we did get from this talk was a refreshing personal perspective on the world of technology and how it affects us. He iterated that the conference had talked a lot about the current web, Twitter and real time search but he urged us to think about the real future.

In closing Horowitz stated how the browser is a bad model. It is not the optimal system to deliver the next web, the model is terribly broken, latency, code storage and caching are all frailties that have consumed countless lifetimes of development time.

He asked us to think about the ‘what if’ scenarios, take the long view and where the world is trending. Solving the problems that we expect to have tomorrow.

Create space in life
In many ways when somebody talks from Google you know they will not divulge what they do exactly, or certainly not their next step. They, like other successful companies, keep their products shrouded in mystery (ironic in this culture of open source and collaborative working don’t you think?).

With a slight nod to those who were wanting to know the next move he stated  it will be Google Voice. A way of leveraging voicemail into the digital life and Gmail.

Closing the circle completely, he asked ‘how much do you want to invite tech into your life?’. He reminded us to create space in our lives.

That coming from Google was a surprise – or was it really? Their aim after all, is to make our lives easier to manage in the information age. Surely that can only be a good thing.

Photo by Nicholas Nova

The second of a seven part post about optimising a site to create a more engaged audience. Here we look at user behaviour and how methods used help ensure you address user needs. Previously: Success metrics

I have written before about personas to design experiences around user wants and needs. The problem with personas is that to be truly valuable they require a fair amount  of data. For evidence based design decisions they have a real use and they fall into two types…

Simple Personas

These include decision making styles, content preferences and some segmentation.

Robust Personas

Includes Myers-Briggs-type indicator (seen below), psychographic profiles, market research, competitive analysis and detailed segmentation. Making the simple personas robust involves overlaying extra research in the form of market information, and business intelligence. Acknowledging the types of use behaviour here really helps when analysing the types of user behaviour online.

Applying the concept on a homepage

What would our four types of user behaviour want from Amazon?

• Spontaneous seek top sellers & new releases, making the purchasse on a whim. Images lead choice here.

• Humanistics care more about reviews or specific items for personal relations (birthdays, gifts to loved ones)

• Methodicals find by genre & categorization, they will be likely to find their product through a specific personal criteria. Navigating and browsing through the list of items.

• Competitives search by what they want or the best deal. Price is a key influence as well as perceived quality.

Relevance creates conversion

Not planning different content for different user types will inevitably leave some people out in the cold. This naturally results in abandonment and high bounce rates.

Of course it is difficult to cater for all types, all of the time, but be aware of trends. Be that in news needs, fashion, public opinion or group feeling. The nature of human behaviour is diverse, if you serve one experience you can not expect to be successful in converting all users. Be aware of the context of their use and their profile.

Photo by psd

Revisit the profiles

It’s important to get a good understanding of the advantages that can be gained by identifying personas, then also going back and analysing the segments of these personas and find new ways to appeal to them.

The best way, as described in the previous post, is to keep the ear to the ground, listening to ‘noise’ around blogs, forums, social networks and bookmarking sites. Using search engines as your listening device is a key trick here, as is the ability to sniff out the genuine revelation about your product.

Frequency

Look at how frequently your visitors visit. Try to persuade them to visit more frequently.  Frequent visitors are more engaged with the site – they are more likely to help you generate content

Look at how long it has been since visitors last visited – there will become a point where they become passive and won’t be persuaded to come back easily.

Brand search term strength

Users who are engaged with your brand will search for it to find you.
Measure how many visits you get from your brand terms that can include marketing slogans, misspellings, even advertisements.

Gauge their emotional responses. Conduct surveys to find out what people think of the site, be that online exit surveys, email surveys, or user interviews. Try and ask real people who know and have an opinion about you site, product or brand.

Ask people who don’t have anything to do with the brand normally – they may be users in the future, and will certainly give you so unbiased feedback.

Photo by boltron

Getting behaviours defined

People’s behaviour is impossible to predict, we are only really  able to take educated guesses. Even best practice will not always give you the best result and so it is again a case of making iterative changes to your site to accommodate (and get in tune with) your users. Open up as many modes of communication that you can deal with and adjust what you deliver accordingly.

When you have cracked it, make a note of it somewhere and then be prepared to rip up the script as your audience moves on once again. As long as you can keep up and strive to stay ahead, then your audience should be retained. But be aware the job is never finished. Keep iterating, keep testing and keep the site alive.

How do you engage your website users? What exactly constitutes the different parts of a website’s content that will attract people and make the website an enjoyable experience for them and a profitable one for your business?

In the first of seven parts, I’ll take a look at what goes into creating an engaged website audience and an optimised site.

I have prioritised the list below in order of how an existing website owner my look at their site and assess how to get their audience more engaged.

1. Success metrics
2. Defining behaviours
3. Architecture for Optimisation
4. Developing a compelling message
5. Motivational calls to action
6. Enhancing interactive flow
7. Iterative testing and relevant reporting

Success metrics

First up its defining your success metrics but what has this to do with engagement?

Though it may not strike us immediately, any enterprise that has a successful business will have an audience that is engaged in some way with their product. There is no difference online, only that we have the means to define what success looks like as it appears in real time.

Success metrics feels a more emotive and emphatic term than key performance indicators. Semantics perhaps, but metrics (or KPIs) reflect the details of how you are succeeding or failing against a benchmark set by your business.

Every site has different success criteria. These metrics fall into four groups reflecting different purposes of a site. There are obviously other sites that may show characteristics of several types, but these four are clearly defined in their purpose and are unique enough to provide a good illustration.

E commerce

Site objective:
Persuade visitors to purchase products or services online. Web analytics allows you to ascribe a value per visitor, crucial in measuring the persuasive qualities of your site against actual revenue.

Metrics:
• Revenue
• Orders
• Profit
• Conversion Rate
• Revenue-per-visit
• Profit-per-visit
• Average Order Value

Content and display advertising

Site objective:
Attract repeat visitors who explore the site in depth. The more pages consumed the better here. This type of site relies on returning visitors as much as e-commerce sites.

Metrics:
•Page Views
•Visits and Unique Visitors (Reach)
•Average Page Views per Visit
•Conversion Rate (Actions/Visit)
•Subscriptions
•Registrations
•Logins
•Cancellations

Lead generation

Site objective:
Capture information about a visitor to use in future communications. Although shown here as a site, it is just as likely to be a landing page, specifically built to gather leads.

Metrics:
•Leads
•Cost-per-lead
•Conversion Rate
•Registrations
•Newsletter Sign-Ups
•Partner Referrals
•Price Quotes
•Demo Quotes
•Collateral Downloads

Customer support

Site objective:
Quickly and successfully answer customer questions and address customer problems online. Keeping the customer satisfied is a prerequisite for any business and effective online help is a major cost-saving for businesses.

Metrics:
•Visits, Unique Visitors
•Web Inquires
•Percentage of Successful Support Inquires
•Call Center Volume
(Unique Web number)
•Customer Satisfaction Index
(Offline)
•File downloads

Taking metrics to the next level

Aside from the metrics stated above there are also some others that are becoming more important as different audiences mature. The domain of digital marketing needs to have these metrics in mind as people become more vocal online within new communication arenas.

Customer reach (click through and open rates)
How far your message goes and being able to measure the reach is another useful aspect to analytics. Do people actually open what you send them? Do people click on to the next page?

Cost driven (cost per click, cost per keyword)
Analyse exactly how much investment you make in acquiring your visitors and then contrast with how much they are worth to your site. An engaged audience will return, and that cost of acquisition will go down in direct relation to their frequency of returning visits.

Consumer attitudes (brand awareness, frequency)
The amount of visitors coming to the site through search using the brand as a search term is an indication of how much your brand is known. Even a company strap line entered as a search term gives an idea of brand strength in the market place.

Cross-channel (customer lifetime value, return on marketing objectives)
How your audience arrives will often be a mixture of many different online and offline methods. Being aware of these paths into your site, and adjusting the user experience to suit, is an important factor to successfully converting users.

Ensure calls to action are relevant and clear. Synchronise off line activities (such as call centres) to be in tune with activity online.

Linking the overall experience, the essence of the service, will help build the message and the various mediums into a cohesive, and measurable marketing exercise.

Perceptions (sentiment online, levels of interaction, attitudes)
Monitor known channels of communication around your site’s subject area (blogs, forums, trade sites, news wires). Twitter is currently the  marketing darling, and well read blogs can be genuine authorities that are listened to.

If your site is perceived negatively the ‘noise’ will certainly be louder than positive comments and obviously more disruptive. Your reputation hinges on your user’s perceptions. Their perceptions colour how they view you, and if they are likely to recommend you to others.

Peer referral is a major force when the way of consuming your content is also a communication channel through which they can inform or broadcast their own views.

Defining success

So this post has been about success, and all sites crave a bit of that. Each site will have different criteria when it comes to what constitutes the winning formula but some common rules apply;

		Decide on business objectives and work out the actual metrics that will define success for your site and your business in achieving its goals.
		Always choose metrics that reflect the objectives directly – their values will have an impact on what constitutes success.
		Once understood, the site owners need to be aware of the key metrics and see reports regularly.

There are two parts to engagement; one is the building of a site that is optimised and doesn’t hinder a user’s discovery or use of the page. The other is ensuring the content is sufficiently attractive and desirable to rely on consistent repeat visits.

The two parts are very different and require different specialists to ensure the tasks are executed in the optimal way. Having these people in place will help define real success, not just the numeric kind.

Next, defining behaviours….

I read a post recently that illustrated how concept models are rarely used in the right way and are often  misunderstood. Are they really worth doing at all?   Now seems a good  time to expand on the tool that Dan Brown has popularised through his book Communicating Design. Not as simply a stand alone tool but one that can provide a blueprint for giving solid ROI on design, analytics and testing.

This sketch shows the tools we use at Hello in our UX team. Not every project warrants it but the one item that binds so many tools together is the Concept Model (CM), sitting between Analysis and the Information Structure phases. It describes the big picture, the unique proposition of the site that separates it from its competitors.

Add the users into this and you have a solid core of basics mirrored in the principles of IA. Essentially it places the user at its centre (user needs), the business interfacing with the user and its own objectives (the context) and the actual content that will be produced often in the form of a product (content).

Add reality
You should also blend in real world statistics to give credence to your thinking. Many business owners like to be shown a few figures and it will back up your argument and it also makes for a more in-depth read.

By giving a layered concept model it becomes a document born through the emergence of factors evidenced through research.

 

A site map’s foundation
By using the model as a basis for site structure, the site map can be spun out fairly rapidly and its presence ensures the user needs, the business goals and content types are never missed in the design process. (A quick comment about site maps:- some people no longer use them but the client requires it in my experience, and helps them gain understanding.)

I find that the CM is the most important of the deliverables set, as it crystallizes the thought processes of a team and defines how a project will be tackled and what the likely outcomes will be. All with the user at the centre of the design process, based from good qualitative and quantitative research data.

Does the content fit the concept?
Once the initial concept has been built by aligning research findings with the business goals and the context of what the product will provide the user with, we can move on to more detailed aspects of the model.

As we define strategy quite clearly from the model the next thing to do is define where there are gaps in the proposition. Is what you are intending to supply or offer as a service meeting the requirements of the customer/user? Does the experience that they wish to have from using you, satisfied by your offering?

Drill down to each area or node and see what is missing, by using  multiple layers or pages you can place different elements on the same map to give a visual overlay that allows the viewer to see the gaps or the areas of strength. It becomes a visual gap analysis/SWOT snapshot.

Some things may be intangible or not even content types but are emotions you wish the user to have, or interactions that they need to engage in.

Prove it works
This iterative way of revisiting the original concept from a content angle can enforce changes to the initial vision. But this is a good thing as it is making the model work harder and enables it to prove that it is a winning concept.

It’s a good idea to show and communicate this diagram with as many stakeholders as possible. Their views will be a test for the model; it will either change or stand up by itself. Testing rigorously at this stage ensures that when the physical build occurs, certain assumptions or hypotheses have already been checked.

Engagement overlay and emergent structure

The next stage is to employ methods that could be termed as action research. It is seen as;

‘…beyond reflective knowledge, created by outside experts sampling variables to an active moment-to-moment theorizing, data collecting, and inquiring occurring in the midst of emergent structure.’ (Wikipedia)

We can do this most effectively using web traffic stats and a skilled web analyst. With informed analysis (using personas) and clear measurements of user engagement we can build a true picture of visitor behaviour. Omniture and Future Now (Bryan Eisenberg)  have a great white paper on this technique here

On an e-commerce site an analysis of the funnel is clear. However on sites where content is consumed but no transactions occur we must use a different set of metrics to gather if our visitors are consuming pages or interacting with our content.

The context of these statistics must always be carefully gauged as it needs to appear as a balanced view of the user population. By determining bounce rates, page views per person, returning visitors and those who subscribe to services or purchase items we can build a picture of different user behaviours.

We will always see a different behaviour from SERPs than from RSS visitors for instance. There are different qualities too if they have stumbled upon an article to those who have a need to be informed. It is important to conduct the test in a live environment that the information gathered has the ability to change the concept. The model needs to be fluid and adaptable, and not be bounded by prejudged stereotypes.

Personas can help here to give us an idea of what the background of the users are but an extra facet is that the metrics inform of how those actual users behave. This is an ‘emergent structure’ mentioned above, the unknowns of the audience become clear from this phase of analysis. We do not know what the users will do next, only what they have done and what is emerging.

Testing the model in an iterative process
Once the diagram has been interrogated by stakeholders and live statistics are also placed alongside the content propositions we know what we have is a concrete strategy. From here we roll out the production of the wireframes, based on the sitemap and taxonomies and other deliverables.

Here the model can clarify interactions. By looking at the purpose of the functional elements of the design alongside the strategic goals of what the product will offer the user, the CM defines how a user wishes to interact with the product.

As soon as we have our prototype we can then test the designs in the live environment using A/B or multivariate tests. Measuring how the users engage with the site at this stage allows for optimal designs that can be designed and refined iteratively as each test result is analysed.

Modelling real agility

This way of developing pages fits well within the agile method of development. By using an iterative testing model aligned with the sprint cycle of development, changes can be made to designs quickly. Testing incrementally and doing it often is a great way to measure how engaging the pages are.

At this stage, look at the prototype and see if anything has drifted away from the concept model in terms of what the site delivers. You should be able to look at the site and the model and see parity there. Key elements of the concept should have been translated on screen and the interaction, stated on the model, flows from wire frame to the html prototype.

Maintaining the vision
This way of sense checking is an easy task with a model that is circulated and pinned up on the walls of the project team. At all levels this deliverable is relevant. The nearer the project gets to release the more important it is that the CM is referred to. It is a keystone and a point of reference. Too many times the build of a site overtakes the overall vision, here it should help to ground the team and provide a common focus to the overall goal.

Concept models as a conversational tool
CMs detail the big idea that needs to be followed, beyond intricately detailed site maps or the interactions of a wireframe. They are beyond taxonomy and personas and yet they encompass all these things in their make up.

At their core is the reason, the business case, for their existence. It is this fact that enables all stakeholders, CEO’s to web developers, to understand why they are so important and communicate the ideas that they portray.

The real strength of these diagrams is their ability to cope with the emergence of user characteristics during analysis, and that they have the flexibility to show this.

So before you design or re-design perhaps the best thing to do is draw up a concept model, grab as much existing research as possible and get friendly with a web analyst. It will be the most powerful deliverable you will have in your toolbox and provides real ROI for your client.

Concept Models -  the underpinnings of design ROI…

1. State the vision – They allow teams to have a shared vision of a project that is easy to understand and communicate with each other conversationally
2. Defines structure – They help dictate the structure and organisation of a site by detailing the components of a design
3. Defines content – They allow content to be tied into explicit user requirements and business goals that are reflected in the model
4. Defines interactivity – They help define interactions that a design will need to display to satisfy the user and enable it to fulfil its objectives
5. Enables rigorous interrogation – Measuring the engagement of the user base in the live environment enables a rigorous checking of the model, and the prospect of the site succeeding can be tested before real development work begins. From the results, it effectively gives context to the project
6. Plants an anchor – The model can also be used to ensure that the development work does not drift away from the original aims of the project, that the completed design fulfils the business goals and the user needs, serving up the content in the best way possible.
7. Offers project flexibility – The concept model is adaptable and can be readily changed and has minimal cost implications if a change becomes necessary.

A big surprise when attending the EPIC 2008 conference was the lack of talk around the next stages beyond ethnographic research. The academic stance was accompanied by representatives of large corporations, though it felt mainly a concentration on the methods and findings of ethnographic praxis.

Something is missing – Invisible?
The problem for me is that this is not enough, especially for a conference that touts itself as being about ethnographic practice in industry.

The big disconnect was, that there were no examples of how to take findings on to the next level. That of synthesising the information gained, into taking ideas through to the design stage.

That crucial ingredient was missing and symbolises the problems that we have within the design community. Its fine showing ethnography in industry but how is it used and taken forward to warrant its use and expense?

Data visualisation and messy magic
This formulation period is so valuable and its typically the one stage that receives the least publicity. There is a good reason for this; it is abstract and difficult to conceptualise.  Visualisation of the findings is  a key part to the success of transferal from research to design.

We work in linear, sequential patterns through minutes and hours but in design practice this line is never straight. It is iterative, and messy. You can not draw a process other than an ambiguous spiral. This ambiguity often makes design firms impenetrable and their methods weird science.

Potential points of failure
Every time work is passed on there is a potential point of failure. Getting through to the other side – carrying forward findings without losing the point of the project has to be the focus of the research team. Organisations that enable this passage of data minimising points of failure (typically the hand over) are the ones who enjoy most success.

How do companies achieve success?
By encouraging collaborative working with professionals from multi-disciplinary backgrounds there is common understanding in each other’s working methods. This enables professionals to drift between roles in the organisation and allows them to be bridges between camps. There is a massive need for these types of professionals who have a background in a different area to the one they currently operate in. Allowing a more perceptive and empathetic work group.

The best tool in the research box?
I personally believe from a UX perspective that ethnography is the best tool to gain deep insights that other tools cannot cover.

Though it was an enjoyable conference one feeling remains – all tools need to be used with others to get a job done well. The belief that you are the only tool in the box, is insular and potentially damaging to the profession. Surely its time to be aware of and explore the work of others in the field of design?