The Official Walmedia Blog
Forever in search of the simplification of all aspects of overly complicated web design, usability, and online marketing.

In the design world, every designer knows the absolute quickest way to completely ruin a great design. Receive feedback from your client. That’s it. Once a client begins tapping into their vast design expertise, everything the designer loved about a once-beautiful, well-thought-out design will quickly travel down the familiar path of “I don’t LOVE the color” or “just make the font bigger” or my personal favorite, “I would really like to have a picture of me, my son, and his prom date in the header.” Even after my numerous attempts to change my client’s mind, it ended up going into the design. Why? Because ultimately, the client has the final say.

Feedback like this can lead a design into the realm of awkward color schemes, improperly-sized or poor-quality images, incorrectly-sized logos, improperly placed navigation, not to mention many usability no-nos. While working as an e-commerce web designer for a shopping cart software provider, it was almost 90% guaranteed that the client would provide feedback that would completely change the feel of the design and in most cases, render it (what I call) “unportfolioable.” I know that’s not a word, but it should be.

How can a client sabotage a design project just by offering some “constructive” feedback? All the client wanted was the most “high-end design to attract the most high-end buyers.” At least, that’s what I heard quite regularly from my clients. So how can clients and designers work in harmony to achieve purposeful, consistent, and attractive design? I have compiled a few questions for clients hoping to avoid some of the design-direction pitfalls:

3 Things to ask your Designer during the Design Process

1. Would you put this in your personal portfolio?
   This question is typically answered after the first or second set of changes have been requested by a client. A designer typically can recall the exact point that a design moves from portfolio-worthy to “never tell anyone that you actually had a hand in this.” Don’t let your design be the latter.
   
2. Is there anything about this design that is screaming at you to be changed?
   As a designer, when I look at a website or logo, I typically can give you 5 things I would have done differently. When working with clients, sometimes a request is made to change something I may have spent two hours working on, such as a set of really cool icons or some wicked awesome background. That’s usually when the client requests a change and takes it a different direction.
3. What do the other designers in your office think about it?
   As designers, we love to vent to each other about frustrations with certain clients and 9 times out of 10, if you are driving your designer nuts with the types of changes you are requesting or the feedback you are providing, their co-workers have seen the design. It’s usually accompanied with the following email (or some variation):
   

If you’re anything like me, keeping your website content fresh, updated, and relevant is like mowing the backyard… it always comes last on the to do list. You see, I mow the front yard religiously because everyone sees it when they drive past my house. I just don’t pay much attention to my backyard. The reason? It’s completely hidden to everyone except me and my next-door neighbor and it’s just not used very often. You may be confused at this point, so let me explain my analogy. The front yard is your website’s design and the back yard is your website’s content. Let’s talk about the front yard first.

The Front Yard - Your Website Design

Your design doesn’t need to be flashy by any means, but it definitely needs to be tailored to your audience and easy to quickly understand. If the “front yard” isn’t pristine, users will move on. Ask the former readers of STLtoday.com. The recent redesign has driven long-time readers to search elsewhere for their local news. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes bad design can really hurt your website. Content may be considered king, but bad design can be the ugly queen.

Some tips on improving your existing design:

1. Perform a common sense check. Not everyone is a designer, but everyone knows enough about websites to see something is critically erroneous. Browse your own website for a while to see if there are any glaring design issues.
2. Get specific user feedback. Most users are happy to know that you are seeking their feedback. In fact, in some cases, it is expected. Especially for a new website.
3. Test multiple designs. If you’re having trouble deciding on how to present a specific page, try doing A/B testing, which is essentially testing 2 different designs and seeing which yields better results. Try using Google Website Optimizer.

The Back Yard - Your Website Content

The back yard is where the magic happens. Outdoor parties, Summer BBQs, and family gatherings all make the backyard the place where the most important interaction. Interaction is what brings users back to your website. Sure, the design gives a great first impression, but it is the content that engages users in your site. Going back to to STLtoday.com, there’s a lot of great content on the site. They have tons of local news including some of the best local sports coverage in St. Louis. If anything keeps readers from jumping ship, it will be the content. Even though the new design is a hindrance in finding the content, people still ultimately need that content because they know it is the only place they can find it.

Here are some tips for keeping content fresh and valuable:

1. Update content often. There’s nothing worse than visiting a site with the latest update being 2+ months old. That’s an instant turn-off for the user. You’ve got to dedicate yourself to providing content on a consistent basis or your users may forget about you.
2. Provide relevant content. To attract some attention, you’ve got to provide content that captivates your users. For example, if you sell digital cameras, set up a photoblog. If you sell scuba gear, provide in-depth reviews and ratings from scuba experts, along with pictures.
3. Ask experts to provide content. You may be surprised to know that sometimes all it takes for an industry expert to make a guest post on your website or blog is to simply… ask. It’s a great way for them to get exposure to your readership and for you to be exposed to theirs. Of course, if they have a competing product, it won’t be so easy.

The bottom line is this: poor site design can scare away users while content keeps them connected and involved. STLtoday.com is a perfect example of that. The design is turning a lot of users off and they claim they won’t be coming back. However, there is a ton of content you just can’t get anywhere else. I think they’ll still visit, but not nearly as frequently as they did before.

As a business owner, I’m constantly looking for new ways to build awareness of my brand in a positive way. As a result, I have explored many of the different types of online marketing and am always on the lookout for a new spin on online marketing. With the wild success of Twitter as a communications platform, I started to ask some questions about how it can be used as a conversation between a brand and its customers:

• What does Twitter really mean to me, as a business owner?
• How can I utilize Twitter as an advertising medium without hurting my brand?
• Who is using Twitter, and how do I know they are the right audience?

These are all valid questions. The good thing about Twitter is that EVERYTHING is opt-in. If you don’t like the “tweets” from a certain person, then unsubscribe. Getting really annoyed with them? Hello Mr. Block Button. This is what makes Twitter a great system for an advertiser. Everything you are posting goes to direct subscribers of your Twitter feed. With that being said, let’s answer the first question.

What does Twitter mean to me, as a business owner?

With the ever-increasing expense and unreliability of CPM and CPC campaigns through Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft, they can use (mostly) unstable algorithms and bidding systems. This in turn causes you to never really know how many clicks or impressions you are receiving that are truly relevant. Also, you have no clue what response is generated unless users 1. click the ad and 2. buy the product. However, with Twitter, there are a variety of ways to test marketing campaigns in order to determine what is most effective for your potential customers. And the best part is, it’s free.

For example, by using Twitter to test campaigns, it’s a no-cost way to generate buzz about a recently released product or a too-good-to-pass-up sale. Take a look at this ad:

This is a perfect example of taking a specific promotion, pushing it to Twitter, and testing the waters with a 20% OFF value proposition combined with a 48-hour time limit on the offer. Is this the best way to generate interest in the product? I’m not sure. But the best part about it is the advertisement was A. absolutely free and B. targeted to people that have opted-in to receive these product notifications. In addition, the advertiser is using affiliate-tracking software in order to know where the traffic came from so he can continue to improve the quality of his ad copy and promotion value with each tweet.

How can I utilize Twitter as an advertising medium without hurting my brand?

This is key to marketing your business online. Online advertising, when performed incorrectly, can sometimes hurt your brand, rather than help it. As for advertising within Twitter, people use Twitter to keep in touch with the world around them, whether that involves keeping in touch with friends, co-workers, news, events, jobs and so much more. They’re not using Twitter to have merciless spammers descend upon them with a flurry of hooks, lines, and sinkers. That’s what we have televisions for. By opting-in or “following” companies with Twitter accounts, they are looking for the latest industry news, good deals on great products, and to receive “insider” benefits, such as invites to your private beta for the cool web app you are testing.

Who is using Twitter, and how do I know they are the right audience?

This is where the beauty of Twitter really comes into play: it’s essentially a sandbox for testing viral online marketing campaigns. If one person sees value in your proposition, within hours it can be “tweeted” across the net. It’s a great way to test new product releases, product discounts, and even links to press releases or news about your business. It’s a great place to get feedback about your business, just search TweetScan for your business name and see what people are saying about it or your products. If your product sucks, they’ll make sure to tell you and their 20,000 followers. Just ask Michael Arrington, whose Comcast internet went down and he turned to Twitter to air his grievances with the cable company. Fortunately for Comcast, they monitor Twitter in an effort to keep their brand from suffering from the “Twitter Effect (not the good kind either).”

To recap, Twitter is a great tool for keeping in touch with your customers, testing out campaigns and messages, and in the process gaining a lot of followers, if you’re good at it. But beware, your brand can suffer from the “Twitter Effect” in two very different ways, so be careful with your approach to online marketing with Twitter.

Facebook. Myspace. Digg. Angie’s List. If you are a small business owner and have never heard of these four Web sites before, I am afraid I have some bad news. You are missing out on potential, free exposure.

Social Media is changing the way businesses are understanding their customers. If your business limits its online presence to advertising banners or organic search, it’s missing out. Social Networking sites such as Myspace or Del.icio.us are helping your customers connect with similar users of your products and services, and sharing their experiences. Popular social networks have become more than just playgrounds for millenials. Did you know over 30% of Facebook’s users are over the age of 35?

Twitter, a kind of micro-blogging platform, has changed the way online users communicate and share their lives - and wants and needs. Prominent businesses such as Zappos.com and even CNN use Twitter to advertise sales to it’s key demographic, or share top news stories that click through to full-featured articles (filled with those ad’s you spent last years budget on).

Then there is the new generation of reviews and ratings given by your actual customers. If you are a restaurant owner, or perhaps own a service business such as landscaping or auto repair, there is a whole new set of online venues you need to listen to. Yelp.com, a popular user-review site, allows customers to rate and score restaurants and businesses in their home towns. What is happening here is potential customers are going to the Web first to see what others are saying about your business before they pick the place to take mom on Mother’s Day. According to Yelp, the site had an average of 9 million unique visitors in March 2008.

What you need to know here is that when exploring what changes you need to make to draw more traffic or business, it is important to harness the power of social media instead of sinking all your time into AdWords or banner ads on your local newspapers’ site. By setting up a Twitter or MySpace account and advertising sales, offering discounts to loyal fans via quick text messages or posts, or listening to what customers are saying or ‘tagging’ on sites like Digg.com, you are actually interacting with your customers. Instead of simply advertising and watching imaginary click-throughs, you are actually participating.

And the best part about social media is creating accounts and interacting with your customers usually costs you no money at all and you can take their input directly back to your business.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch released a redesigned STLtoday.com today and editor Kurt Greenbaum was greeted by a flurry of comments blasting the new design and pointing out numerous bugs, some causing big usability issues, such as ads floating over the drop-down navigation and a Site Map page that was completely blank (except for a 300×250 ad).

Some of the user comments:

“This is one of the major newspapers in the country and the website now appears to be established by a kindergartner. The design is very poor and does not lead to enhanced navigation. Good thing all I really care about is the sports.” - Matt

“Does there have to be so much crap “above the fold”: a big banner ad, a weather box, a huge stltoday logo, a Yahoo search bar, and all that white space? You have to scroll down to even see the lede. The color scheme is also pretty vomitous - how is teal better than navy blue? The old site certainly needed better navigation and bigger photos, but it looks like stltoday missed the mark yet again.” - southsidered

“It’s official! St. Louis web design has died in a pastel-gradient-overuseofjavascript-can’t escape from freddy krueger nightmare.” - Jookie

Feel free to comment on the recent redesign here.

Well, folks, it’s official. TomCruise.com launched today just prior to Tom’s appearance on Oprah. It’s been 25 years since “Risky Business” debuted in theaters and 27 years since the start of Tom’s acting career. Oddly enough, a few years ago I found out I have a connection to Tom Cruise, albeit, a distant one. My mother-in-law actually babysat Tom Cruise when he was a youngster. Now, he wasn’t a Scientologist and certainly was not famous at that point in his young “career.”

With that being said, TomCruise.com is a pretty nice website. It opens with a nice montage of his films and contains a biography, along with a ton of photos from various movies. All-in-all, it’s a well-designed site. It’s definitely a “toot-your-own-horn” kind of deal, but hey, that’s Tommy.

Recently, TechCrunch’s Mark Hendrickson posted on Insoshi, a RubyOnRails open-source social network developed by Michael Hartl, author of RailsSpace. After tinkering around with it for a little while, I thought I would help contribute to this project, as I have been interested in starting my own social networking site for quite a while. My first contribution (and whether the community uses this or not, I’m not sure) will be some Insoshi icons that you can place on your Insoshi website.

These are transparent .PNG files and should work for just about any background color. If you’d like to have the original .PSD, please let me know and I can certainly send it to you. To download, just right-click on the image and save-as.

ClickTale, an Israel-based analytics company is completely changing the face of website analytics. Unlike (mostly) metrics-based Google Analytics or Coremetrics, their tracking code allows you to watch a movie of your user’s mouse movements, clicks, and even shows a heat map with parts of the page users view most and other important data.

Metrics-based analytics tools are great for analyzing funnels, tracking conversions, but when you have the opportunity to see how visitors actually USE your website, this software really helps answer some of the questions that Google Analytics just can’t. ClickTale won the RedHerring 100 Europe for developing this software and for good reason. They’re projected to become the industry-leading web analytics solution.

How do you Implement ClickTale?

ClickTale works very much like Google Analytics, or any other analytics tool, with tracking code. Once you sign up for an account, you will be presented with the option to generate the tracking code and install it on your site.

Digsby has hit the scene like Britney Spears at a mental institution. At last, I can finally toss out AlertThingy and Twhirl and and all that other garbage that causes me to waste time reading spam all day mixed in between 5-10 messages from people I know in real life. The release of Digsby surprised many who thought that Facebook was much more interested in keeping chat all to itself.

Here are the services that are supported so far:

• Gmail/Google Talk
• Facebook/Facebook Chat
• AOL Instant Messenger
• Yahoo! Messenger
• MSN Messenger
• Twitter
• Jabber

All it needs is integration with FriendFeed and Digg, and you can get rid of pretty much every other feeder and reader. Personally, I’m getting sick of staring at AlertThingy, so this is my way of downsizing in order to increase my daily productivity. Download Digsby Beta here