Archive for April 2009

Classic. He’s use jQuery to do it all.

For more humor, view the HTML source.

Your company’s written words “speak” for your business. Does your writing present a professional image, or are your materials filled with typos, misspellings, grammatical mistakes or other errors? No matter how good you are at what you do, documents containing obvious errors will erode your credibility…whether the errors are in your “formal” marketing materials or your “informal” emails and letters.

Here are some tips for effective proofreading:

1. Check Your Spelling. At a minimum, be sure to use your word processor’s spell check function! Although this won’t catch all errors, it will catch many (for example, spell check won’t notice the mistake if your typo is an actual word, such as “mop” instead of “map”).
2. Read It Out Loud. This is probably the most important step for successful proofreading. Hearing your document being read out loud makes it easier to notice awkward sentences, repetitive phrases, grammatical errors, typos that weren’t caught by your word processing program and other mistakes.
3. Take a Break. If time permits, set your writing aside and revisit it later. You’ll come back to the piece with fresh eyes and a new point of view.
4. Print It Out. Next, print out a hard copy of your writing and read it again. Sometimes you’ll notice errors “in print” that you didn’t see on screen.
5. Ask for Help. Once you are happy with your editing, ask someone who has a good understanding of spelling, grammar and punctuation to review the document for you. Even after checking and double checking, it’s easy to miss an error in your own work that may be obvious to someone who is reading it for the first time.

Whenever you write something that’s not just “for your eyes only,” be sure that thorough proofreading and editing are integral parts of your writing process.

How to measure social media can be a tricky thing. Chris Lake at eConsultancy has a good article about measuring it with this step by step guide.

Take a snapshot

Before you start the clock it is a good idea to benchmark where you’re at…

1. Make a note of the obvious numbers (number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers, Digg links, Delicious bookmarks, and referrals from social media sites, plus existing website traffic).
2. Make a note of the less obvious benchmarks (such as SEO rankings and referrals, customer satisfaction scores and other business data).
3. Make a note of ROI benchmarks. How much are you paying to acquire customers via other marketing channels? How vast is that advertising budget, and how is it being split up? And what proportion is being directed into channels that you cannot accurately measure?

Enjoy.

As presented by Internet Explorer 8.

In real estate they say the three most important things are “location, location, location.” In marketing you could say its “benefits, benefits, benefits.” Why? Because all your potential customer really wants to know is “what’s in it for me?” You need to give a reason to buy that will make someone want to do business with you and not the competition. How will your product or service solve their problems, meet their needs or improve their life? Nothing else really matters.

Features vs. benefits

Many business people make the mistake of focusing on their product’s features instead of its benefits. What’s the difference? A feature is a fact about the product, while a benefit explains or demonstrates how the product will benefit the customer. For example, “made of heavy-duty plastic” is a feature; “guaranteed unbreakable” is a benefit.

Put your benefits front and center

Every time I visit a website or pick up a flier whose headline reads “Welcome to XYZ Company” I cringe (well, actually, being a marketing copywriter, I see a sales opportunity). Why? Because “Welcome to XYZ Company” doesn’t tell me anything about the company, what they’re offering or why I might want to buy. Your company’s benefits (or implied benefits) should be blaring from the headlines and subheads of all your marketing materials.

So take a good look at your marketing materials. If you’re focusing on features instead of benefits, it might be time for an overhaul!

You just can’t make this stuff up.

I have to admit. For awhile now, I secretly thought that Twitter was just a tool for a lot of self-indulgent people. I’m not the type to follow Ashton Kutcher’s daily rants. I wouldn’t even follow my BFF’s twitters for that matter. It seems as if we spend every second of our day pushing buttons on devices and adding to the noise of virtual reality rather  than living in the physical here-and-now. To what extent do we build and use technology for technology sake rather than enhance the quality of our lives?

Then, along came Kogi, the twittering food truck that has revolutionized fast food. Apparently, the hottest place to eat in L.A. right now is on the sidewalk, next to a food truck that serves Korean BBQ tacos. People follow Kogi on Twitter to track the truck’s location and to find out the specials for the day. All of a sudden, people are hanging out on the street, eating and socializing. Don’t get me started on the whole Korean Taco thing. It’s so multicultural, so “Melting Pot,” so ”We are the World,” so “United Colors of Benneton.”

Technology that actually gets people to go outside and interact with one another rather than hide behind their online personas? Who would’ve thunk?

Welcome a to podcast with Michael Vincent, a software and process consultant based out of Orange County, California. His site is MVA Software. Today, we talk about the how the agile culture and Scrum methodology can fit within the User Experience process, and some real life Scrum experiences. Additionally, he will be presenting at a Microsoft Event April 30 in Irvine, California; one of the topics will be Agile and how it fits with Team Foundation Server.

Download the MP3.

[podcast]/_podcast/usabilitycounts.com-007.mp3[/podcast]

If you were to interview a UX specialist, what questions would you ask? What skills would you look for?

This was originally published in the IA-55 Meetup list by Ha Phan, an author here at Usability Counts. This seemed good to share:

I would ask questions that probe the person’s ability to think strategically about design. Also important is understanding their process and their role in specific projects.

Here are some sample questions I’d ask a senior UX candidate:

• What is your process for gathering requirements?
• How do you determine or prioritize features and requirements that are to incorporated in the design?
• If there are no user analysis data or personae available, what methods, (if any) do you use to get a better understanding of your end user and to assure that your design meets strategic goals?
• How do you measure the success and failure of your design?
• Please show us a project where you’ve executed the User Centered Process
• In the past, how have you worked with visual designers? Where does UX end and skin design begin?
• How do you address scope creep?

What questions do you think should be added?