ChaosScenario

The Biggest Decision You'll Make this Year - Barack Obama

As we approach the Texas primary it only seems fitting to finish the last two parts of my four part series by reviewing Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee's websites.  Clinton (Part 1) and McCain (Part 2) were interesting but today I've reviewed Senator Obama's site and I welcome your thoughts in this conversation.
Design

Logo – some interesting things are going on here.  The color choices were familiar with the red, white and blue, but there's definitely more symbolism here than with others.  The blue resembles a bridge while the red and white stripes look like a road. The center of the ‘O’ looks like a sun coming up on the horizon.  This is a well designed logo that lends itself to multiple uses.

Color palette – red, white and blue tell the story here. While these two words might seem contradictory, the site looks presidential yet fresh. So it’s official, your site can be be serious and yet inspire at the same time.

Personal pic – On one hand, Obama looks poised and ready, with a glimmer of hope on his face.  On the other hand, he’s looking up into the sun which makes him squint and look a bit confused. It reminds me somewhat of the bewildered George W. image that we see so often.  I think the thing I like most about his picture is there’s just one of him, besides a tiny headshot in the “Meet Barack Obama” section in the middle.  Less is certainly more.

Navigation –  Another horizontal navigation bar at the top of the page, with sub-navigation on the right of the page.  They’ve gone with single words for each category which makes the navigation look very clean.  It seems that the campaign is taking a cue from Apple in that they’ve used a common adjective for the different sections of their site.  Much like Apple’s common use of the letter “i” in iLife, iTunes and iPod, Obama’s site has Obama Blog, Obama News, Obama Events, Obama Map, Obama Mobile, Obama Everywhere and then the oddball BarackTV.

Calls to action – The most apparent call to action is the giant red “Donate Now” button that is pervasive throughout most of the site.  This is a pleasing experience for a visitor in that they aren’t inundated with pleas for money but it’s always present in the same spot if they decide that they want to make a contribution.  The Make a Difference section of the sub-navigation is straightforward and rhetoric-free.

Order of importance – based on navigation

1. Home
2. Learn
3. Issues
4. Media
5. Action
6. People
7. States
8. Blog
9. Store
10. Donate Now

Order of importance – based on layout

1. One Million People
2. Donate Now
3. Make a Difference
4. Get Involved
5. Next Up
6. Obama Blog
7. Obama News
8. Know the Facts
9. Barack TV
10. Obama Events
11. My.BarackObama.com
12. Obama Map
13. National Voter Protection Center
14. Action Center
15. Obama Mobile
16. Obama Everywhere

What’s missing - I’m baffled as to why all candidates I’ve reviewed so far feel the need to make their Store look any different than their main site.  Obama is no different in that the top navigation is removed and moved all to the left.  The header content is weak and uninspiring.  When it comes to naming the sections of the site, I think it was a mistake to call it BarackTV.  If you’re going to call everything else Obama, stick with that theme.  In addition, Barack just doesn’t have the same ring to it as Obama. Overall, however, the design is clean, easy to navigate and inspirational.

Seal Rating:

   

Content

Learn - When I clicked on this link I was taken to the Meet the Candidate page, which is a secondary link under the “Learn” top nav.   This is a minor issue, but it isn’t a tactic that is followed throughout the site.  Obama’s personal history is rather short and there is only one video to supplement the copy.  Part of the problem is that once the copy ends there is an inordinate amount of white space because there are so many sub-navigational sections on the right, but detractors would probably say that there isn’t much in this section because Obama doesn’t have much experience to pull from.

Issues - This part of the site resembles other previously reviewed candidates with the issues listed and then a short blurb about where Obama stands and then a “Continue Reading” link for further information.  Each issue is clearly labeled like Civil Rights, Disabilities, Economy, Healthcare and Homeland Security.  This seems like a no-brainer to name the issue what the issue is called instead of trying to add your own spin to it.  This allows voters to quickly find the issue and not have to wade through the mire.  I like that even in some of the blurbs, we hear directly from Obama via speeches he’s delivered. The best differentiator for this section is that voters can download “The Blueprint for Change – Obama’s Plan for America” which is a 64 page PDF of how Obama wants to change things.  The PDF gives you an issue at a glance, the problem and Barack Obama’s Plan.  This is Obama’s answer  to critics that claim Obama is a talking head who speaks of change and hope with no real plan to achieve it.

People - Here you’ll find specific pages devoted to different demographics like African Americans, Americans Abroad, Women, LGBT and Kids. That’s right, there is a Kids for Obama page.  Now you may be asking yourself; How can my kid get involved? Well, wait no longer, with 10 Ways Kids for Obama Can Get Involved.  My favorites are:

• Take an adult (voting age) to the polls on Election Day and encourage them to vote for you, by voting for Senator Obama.

Honestly, using kids to sway their parents is just plain funny.  I can hear it now, “Daddy, please vote for Barack Obama! His comprehensive healthcare plan will pave the way to a brighter future for America.”

• Host a Senator Barack Obama House Party or sleep-over.

Oh goodie!  We can stay up all night and talk about Senators that we have crushes on!

• Contribute to the Kids for Obama Blog

If you’re a kid and you’re blogging, you seriously need to go outside and get some sun.

States - each state has its own dedicated page with information on how to early vote, read news from your state, upcoming events, TV ads, pictures from the events in your state and groups in your state. 

Blog - videos, articles, pictures, this blog is updated multiple times each day.  For instance, Sunday the 24th has about 10 separate posts.  This campaign understands how to use the blog to their advantage.

Store - as previously mentioned, this part of the site looks and feels different than the rest of the site which is a disconnect.  The most interesting thing I found was the $3 Republicans for Obama bumper sticker, which is on back-order.

Results Center – much like McCain, Obama has a running tally up-front on his site to remind potential voters that he’s the frontrunner.  This page shows a visual map along with each state and the number of delegates going to Obama versus Clinton.  One nice design element here is that Obama’s states and delegate count is a dark bold blue while Clinton’s is a light weak blue.  I think this is a subliminal attempt to show Obama’s masculinity and strength in opposition to Hillary’s femininity and weakness.  I don’t think Obama is sexist, but I do think there is more to this than just two separate colors.

Know the Facts – This section is genius. The Obama camp has taken statements from Clinton or McCain and either used them against themselves or given a reality check as to why they’re wrong.  Each section is complete with links out to articles and newspapers to back up their claims.  This is so smart in that regardless if Obama is correct on the issue, they’ve taken the work out of the equation for the voter in that they don’t have to search for who said what.  In addition, they defend attacks made against Obama rather convincingly.  This section has its own RSS feed which makes this content very consumable.

BarackTV - Within this section, you can peruse videos by the issue, videos created by the campaign and those created by supporters.  They’ve also taken care of accessibility by providing closed captioning and certain videos in Spanish.

My.BarackObama.com - much like the other two candidates reviewed, you can create an account, add friends, find events, send/receive messages, create groups, fundraise and blog.  They've also called the homepage "My Dashboard" which Mac users will feel at home with.

Obama Mobile - Here you can download mobile wallpapers, ringtones and signup for periodic mobile updates.  You can even receive specific issue updates, by texting issues like HEALTH, IRAQ, and REFORM to OBAMA (62262).  Obama’s camp also has a twitter account, but it’s severely underutilized considering they have 6,661 followers and yet they’ve only posted 72 tweets. Since my original review of Senator Clinton's site, I also found her twitter account as well.  However, she only has 509 followers and 44 posts.  I still wasn't able to find one for John McCain.

Obama Everywhere - literally, he is.

What’s missing - I struggle to find what is missing from this site.  There is just so much content and sections that are different than the other candidates' sites that I can't give Senator Obama anything other than a perfect score here. 

Seal Rating:

Use of technology

MySpace - 295,556 friends, 46,073 comments

• Hillary Clinton - 182,641 friends, 18,691 comments
• John McCain - 44,931 friends, 5,814 comments. 

Facebook - 627,718 supporters, 83,325 wall posts

• Hillary Clinton - 110,460 supporters, 37,456 wall posts
• John McCain - 59,342 supporters, 5,804 wall posts

Eons - 216 friends, 1 badge 

• Hillary Clinton - 297 friends, 3 badges
• John McCain - 3 friends, 0 badges

YouTube - 30,595 subscribers, 12,180,341 views, 705 videos uploaded 

• Hillary Clinton - 9,829 subscribers, 1,304,419 channel views, 252 videos uploaded
• John McCain - 2,613 subscribers, 589,518 channel views, 166 videos uploaded
  

What’s missing - I think Obama is in every social network that is currently available.  It's pretty astounding that he has a presence in this many different venues and still dwarfs the other candidates when it comes to friends and interactions.  This campaign has fully utilized every bit of technology to make such a robust site, along with maintaining sixteen different profiles.  Bravo Obama!

Seal Rating:

 

Overall

While there are some minor shortfalls when it comes to Barack Obama's web presence, his site truly stands above the rest.  Regardless of where you stand on the issues, Obama has most effectively represented his brand in the interactive realm and for that, I give him four and a half seals.

Overall Seal Rating:

Part 4, Mike Huckabee will also be this week. So come back soon. - John Herrington

Obama Will Have to Wait

So, I was going to knock out my third part of my four part series The Biggest Decision You'll Make This Year (Part 1), (Part 2) by dissecting Barack Obama's site, but it's apparently getting so much traffic that parts of the site are down.  Hopefully they'll add some servers so I can dive in.  Stay tuned. - John Herrington

The Biggest Decision You'll Make this Year - John McCain

Today we embark upon Part 2 of a 4 part series covering all Presidential candidates left in the race (with a viable chance).  On Monday I reviewed Senator Clinton and next on the docket is Senator McCain.

Design

Logo – looks very familiar to an army of one. The single star, yellow and black all look rather similar.

Color palette – black, white, yellow, blue and a splash of red.  Overall this mix of the flag color palette laced with army colors just doesn't look good.  It seems that he has two primary colors of blue and black and then two complimentary colors in yellow and red. Interesting that the black, yellow and white along with the star resemble the Army.  You think he’s trying to tell us something?

Personal pic – McCain appears to be having a good laugh while giving a speech.  His famous POW picture from Vietnam is firmly fixed on the main hero section as well.

Navigation – the site has a typical top navigation bar which is mirrored at the bottom of the page.  Site map is also present. Secondary and tertiary pages have breadcrumbs which makes navigation very easy. A search feature is buried at the bottom of the homepage but it is also present in the secondary side navigation.

Calls to action – Donate (2), Join (2), Online Store (3) this seems on par with what any candidate should be trying to do, raise money and support.  The three links to the Online Store is funny because they’re selling stuff like this $200 fleece.  That's right, a fleece you could get monogramed for $30 is being sold for a "Suggested Contribution" of $200.  Now, I understand that they're trying to raise money, but nothing else in the store has this ridiculous kind of markup.  For example, a scarf will only cost you $20.

Order of importance – based on navigation

1. Home
2. Get Involved
3. About
4. News & Media
5. Issues
6. Events
7. Undecided?
8. McCainSpace
9. Blog
10. Contribute

Order of importance – based on layout

1. Ready to lead on day one
2. Governor Jeb Bush Endorses Joh McCain*
3. Why John McCain
4. On the Issues
5. Donate (2)
6. Join (2)
7. Chesapeake Primary February 12
8. John McCain at CPAC
9. McCain Online Store (3)
10. In the states
11. 2008 Delegate Counter
12. In the News
13. Supporter Spotlight
14. Poll
15. Straight Talk Express

What’s missing - when they picked the colors for the site it looks like they were conflicted with being a maverick or towing the typical presidential colors.  They tried to be a risk taker while being conservative and the result is just plain ugly.  The Clinton site isn't risky but it still looks nice.  They need to choose one or the other, but trying to be both is a disaster.  Furthermore, the contribute page takes you to a secure page but the only way to get back to the rest of the site is to click on the McCain logo as they didn't include the rest of the top level navigation. In addition, it seems that the campaign is trying to make everything on the homepage the hero, which as we all know, makes absolutely nothing the center of attention.  When you first look at the site it's extremely difficult to know what to look at first.  Simplifying the main hero section would do wonders for the site.

*If you take a look at the screenshot you'll see that the promo for Jeb Bush's endorsement says "Governor Jeb Bush Endorses Joh McCain." When I first saw this I thought that it might be some sort of acronym for McCain like GOP (Grand Ole Party), but 2 hours later, they updated the typo.   Sorry for the pun, but this is bush-league.

Seal Rating:

Content

Get involved - if you chose to signup you can create a McCainSpace personal website, customize the appearance of the website (coming soon) and receive additional information about exclusive events and appearances.  It's interesting that McCain is encouraging people to set up their own social network (which other candidates are doing as well) while not paying any attention to the social networks that already exist with millions of users.  Well, he has a presence on MySpace, Facebook and Eons, but he doesn't mention it on his site.  This seems like a major oversight to connect people that are visiting the site with these networks.

About - I realize that this is the section that should have pictures of Senator McCain, but c'mon, is it really necessary to have 13?  We're not talking about a long page either.  There isn't that much copy and yet they've managed 13 pictures of McCain in the copy and in the promo areas.  Conversely to what his campaign manager will tell you, you can have too much of McCain.

News & Media - this section is up-to-date and has news, press releases, op-eds, endorsements and speeches.  Each section only shows the top three results with the option to read more.  I like the fact that I'm not inundated with thousands of stories and I get to see the most recent posts in bite-sized nuggets. All of the information is housed on the site which is a nice plus in that I don't have to go out to other sites to read.

Issues – specifically calls attention to War in Iraq, Taxes & Economy and Health Care Plan.  This seems like a good tactic since these seem to be the hot-button topics for this election.  People can look at these issues and quickly decide if McCain is their choice.

Events - this, like all of the other navigation items, is rather self-explanatory.   They provide What, When, Where, Start and End time along with providing a way for you to find your voting election.  You can email, print, digg and add to deli.cio.us each event.

Undecided? - this section is basically the Readers Digest version of the site.  There is a video, Why John McCain and then About John McCain which links back to the About page.  I like this tactic as it allows you to quickly see what McCain has staked his candidacy on. 

McCainSpace - on McCainSpace you can set up your own website. This seems like a good idea if you want to network with other supporters, but it doesn't do much for reaching those that are uninterested in his campaign. I don't understand the fascination with trying to create a new social network when you could be effectively reaching millions on MySpace, Facebook and Eons.  Users like to join networks that their friends are already a part of, not a network that they have to ask their friends to join unless the new network has something far superior to offer them. Maybe I'm wrong, but something tells me that McCainSpace isn't offering them anything special.

Blog - this blog is updated roughly every four days on average.  With the amount of things that are going on in the campaign, every four days is really weak when it comes to a blog. There are many posts that have thousands of comments on them and kudos to the campaign for not snuffing out negative feedback.

Delegate Counter - this is a nice item to have on the homepage, as I can tell where McCain stands in the race.  McCain, Romney and Huckabee are listed along with the number of delegates that McCain needs to win.  Of course, Senator McCain has nearly 3 times as many delegates as the next closest competitor, so one might argue that having a delegate counter is always great to have listed so prominently on your site whenever you're #1.  I say, however, that if you're #1 you need to display that with pride.

In the News - this is fed in from the news section as it take the three most recent items from news, press releases and speeches.   I like seeing this on the homepage instead of having to go to the news to peruse.

Supporter Spotlight - a simple flash element that cycles through high-profile endorsements.  I don't claim to be the fastest reader around, but the timing of the flash is too quick to be able to read the entire quote.

What’s missing - I wish the Issues section actually gave more insight into where McCain stands without having to click on Read More.  Unfortunately, the teaser copy doesn't really provide any information at all, but instead loads up the reader with boring political rhetoric.   

Seal Rating:

Use of technology

MySpace - 44,931 friends, 5,814 comments.  (Hillary 182,641 friends, 18,691 comments)

Facebook - 59,342 supporters, 5,804 wall posts (Hillary 110,460 supporters, 37,456 wall posts)

Eons - 3 friends, 0 badges (Hillary 297 friends, 3 badges)

YouTube - 2,613 subscribers, 589,518 channel views, 166 videos uploaded (Hillary 9,829 subscribers, 1,304,419 channel views, 252 videos uploaded)

What’s missing - I find it interesting that McCain is on these four networks (and most likely others) but he only links to his YouTube and Veoh channels with a logo on his multimedia page which is listed under News & Media.  While McCain has profiles on MySpace, Facebook and Eons it seems like someone told them they had to be on the social networks but they didn't really have any strategy or maintenance plan in place.  Once again, not being on Twitter is another missed opportunity.

Seal rating:

Overall

In conclusion, Senator McCain's site has some nice features but overall feels archaic mostly because of the design.  For the homepage they've taken the Microsoft approach and thrown as much as possible at the visitor.  It's basically sensory overload but thankfully the secondary pages aren't as busy.  The main takeaway that I get from the site is that John McCain is established, courageous and a former POW.  While they've done a great job with naming links, using breadcrumbs and not making users go out to additional third party sites, the design just feels so old-fashioned that it brings down the whole site.

Overall Seal Rating:

Amazon's Kindle: Not quite enough

Amazon just launched a new device that they hope will change the way you read books. I give them some points for ambition and some for the features they built into the device, but for now, a perfunctory  glance at the device's features convinces me that it is not enough to gain significant traction in the marketplace yet.

What is Great About Kindle

1. Electronic paper is easier to read. I've not seen the Kindle, but I've seen this technology. It so effective that one can easily forget he is not reading a piece of paper. Smart move.
2. Easy to purchase books, wherever you are. Free wireless access gives users the ability to buy books from anywhere that has access to Sprint's data network.
3. Instant word lookup and Wikipedia reference. Unless you have the vocabulary of Christopher Hitchens or Wes Pruden, you've probably read some things that you've had to look up, but without the benefit of immediate access to a dictionary. It's easiest to muddle through and move on to the next sentence, but Kindle gives users instant access to a built-in dictionary without forcing the user to lose his place.
4. Ease of access to all your books at once. The downside to this is that all the other books you've purchased are made somewhat superfluous.
5. Search. Have you ever had trouble finding a specific quote you wanted to reference? If you're like me, if after 10-45 minutes of looking, you decide to paraphrase instead, but because of the difficulty in finding the quote, you can't be sure where you originally read it. With traditional books, searching for these sorts of cues and quotes can be difficult. An integrated search feature allows Kindle users to search across all books loaded on the device.
6. Notes and bookmarks. Users can take notes and bookmark important parts of any book they read, making it easier to come back and reference an especially poignant section.
7. Crosses media sources. Users can read books, blogs or other news feeds as well as download newspapers and magazines.

What Sucks About Kindle

1. High cost of entry. Just to get started reading, you have to shell out $400 - plus the cost of books. Seth says that he argued that books should be given away for free until adoption rates increase, and I can't argue with him ("You won't find me on Amazon's new book reader").
2. Books cannot be shared. If you lend a book to someone, you at least get to read another book yourself. However, with the Kindle, if you want a friend to read a book, you have to encourage them to either buy it for themselves or you must lend them your own Kindle.
3. Not significantly more portable. One of Kindle's chief selling points is that you can carry around a bunch of books ("literally" hundreds of pounds of books) with you inside of this little device. However, outside of the areas of study and research, there aren't many profitable applications for this feature. Most people only need one or two books at a time, which they can carry along nicely without forking over $400 for the device. At most, they'll save themselves a few pounds, not hundreds.
4. High cost of replacement. If you lose or damage a book, you're out anywhere between $1 and $60 (depending on the book). If you lose or damage the Kindle, unless it's insured, you're out $400 (plus your entire library).

How Kindle Could be Better

1. Enable audio and ability to listen in car. This would kill my need to buy a traditional book again, and would be well worth the cost. In fact, I'd pay three times as much for each book if the audio version were included, in spite of the difficulties above. Then I could listen to books on my commute and read and reference books elsewhere. I'd even repurchase the books I'd already bought just so I could listen and/or read on my own terms, in my own time.
2. Find a niche and feed it. One of the things I hated about college was lugging around what seemed like a ton of books across a large campus. The Kindle could eliminate the need for students to strain their backs. Partner with colleges to provide textbooks on the Kindle, offer a student discount for the device, and let this audience be the early adopters. Once they become accustomed to using the device because of the comparative advantage it really does offer them, I wonder if they would ever buy another traditional book in their lives. The great thing about this strategy is that there are always more students coming in, so the audience can grow organically.
3. Sell insurance. The high replacement cost for the device and for the media is a huge barrier. Unless they can lower the cost of the device to under $100, they will have difficulties getting people to adopt a behavior to solve a problem most people don't even believe they have.

One important thing to remember is that a book reader is not analogous to an iPod, so no one should make the mistake of drawing too close a comparison between the two devices. Music requires a listening device, while reading a book has traditionally required just a book - the only "reader" one needed was the education required to read and understand it.

What's more, listening to music is an enjoyable, passive activity. Reading a book, while often enjoyable and stimulating, is an attention hog.

Partially because of these differences, people are more inclined to want access to hundreds, if not thousands of songs at any time. The average person is much less likely to want access to hundreds or thousands of books at one time. Therefore, the advantage gained by upgrading from a portable CD player to an iPod is much more significant than "upgrading" from a book to a book reader.

To create penetration, Amazon must provide more value than people are already receiving. The benefits that are offered by the Kindle are too few for average people. While I applaud them for making huge strides, they've got a ways to go before most people will eagerly throw their money at Amazon for the privilege of using their device. - Cam Beck

Does This Design Make Me Look Fat?

If you're a regular visitor, you'll probably notice we made a few changes around here. The old design is gone. We're now using a different color pallet, a new header, and different content for our sidebar(s). Speaking of which, we added a new column to keep important information near the top.

What do you think?

• Is the information you want to see easily to find and read?
• Is the new design easy to use?
• How do you like the new search feature we've added? Is it where you would want it?
• Is anything missing that you would like to see?
• Do you get ANY VALUE out of the calendar on this or any other blog?

If you would like anything changed, please leave a comment on this post. We would appreciate any feedback you are willing to give us. - Cam Beck

When Does a Generality Become a Lie?

A few weeks ago I picked up a bottle of Dole apple juice, and I was intrigued by the packaging. There wasn't anything particularly innovative about it. In fact, it was pretty standard fare. What was interesting about it, however, was the fact that the package claimed to contain "100% Apple Juice" in two different places. At the top of the label, the claim stood by itself. In much smaller, less legible type near the bottom, the text read, "100% Apple Juice from Concentrate with Other Ingredients."

Maybe my math and chemistry are a bit off, but I thought if you added a foreign substance to something 100% pure, the result is somewhat less than 100% pure of either substance.

I get it. They're rounding up. But how much? That information isn't made clear on the package.

Those other ingredients include (in order), natural flavors, malic acid, and ascorbic acid (vitamin c). On the face of it, I don't think there's anything in there that is necessarily bad (such as sulfur or cyanide), but I still don't know how much of their product is juice, and how much is "other ingredients." Is it 95% juice? 99.9%?

I called the phone number on the label, and I was invited to leave a message in the general voicemail box or identify a particular person through the directory. I don't know anybody who works there, and I didn't want to leave a message; I just wanted to quickly talk to somebody and get the question answered.

It was the first time in my life I've ever called the number on a food or beverage package, and my experience left me a little wanting.

For the record, the juice was tasty enough. I don't remember a single Dole product, in fact, that I didn't enjoy. My question isn't about the quality, it's the claim on the packaging.

I could rightly claim that the fuel to my vehicle is "100% ethanol with other ingredients," which is both 100% true and 100% misleading, since Ethanol makes up only 10% of my fuel. The "other ingredients" just happen to make up 90% of what I put into my tank, but that doesn't make the statement false. At what point does clever wordplay become a lie? - Cam Beck

P.S. If you know anybody from Dole who can answer the outstanding question about the makeup of their product, please feel free to invite them to answer it here. I would like to give them the chance to explain their rationale for making that claim.

Social information architecture

In cased you missed it, findability.org had a great post on how to evaluate 'social sites'. These Social Software Building blocks are not only a great way to evaluate all the different Web 2.0 sites that are out there, but I believe they also focus thinking while designing websites. From Gene Smith, here's what each honeycomb means:

Identity - a way of uniquely identifying people in the system

Presence - a way of knowing who is online, available or otherwise nearby

• Relationships - a way of describing how two users in the system are related (e.g. in Flickr, people can be contacts, friends of family)
• Conversations - a way of talking to other people through the system

Groups - a way of forming communities of interest

Reputation - a way of knowing the status of other people in the system (who's a good citizen? who can be trusted?)

Sharing - a way of sharing things that are meaningful to participants (like photos or videos)

You gotta love the way they've categorized sites like Flickr and Digg. Of course not every site can or should score high on every of the area. In addition, each of these areas can be implemented in different ways, and the way they are implemented makes a big difference.

One weakness of this model is that it doesn't really describe the relationship of the site itself or brand with the audience that uses it. It only evaluates the interaction with between participants. In my work, you have to build some type of affinity to the brand, if not actual sales on the sites we design. One might argue that if you are doing all these right, you'll get there. However, I believe it's an area that still should be evaluated. (original discover via the Digital Hive) - Paul Herring

Usability Testing Is The Way™

I have to hand it to Steve Krug. Not only did he write a book that can be both scanned and read in a short amount of time, but he put together a workshop that has enough information to equip attendees with the skills to quickly start performing usability tests. The most important thing I took from the workshop is that small-scale, inexpensive usability testing is not only possible, but desirable when larger, expensive testing is out of the question.

The testing methods Steve taught in the workshop are structured so that even an inexperienced facilitator can conduct useful tests right away, and I suspect those tests will get more useful as the organization learns how to better conduct them as time goes on.

Significantly, usability testing also informs the intuition. As entire organizations become accustomed to acquiring user perspectives of site progress throughout the process, designers and builders should become more attuned to customer needs. Web teams will never become complacent about what they know about the requirements of the marketplace, because they will be trained to test their assumptions on people far enough away from the project to offer the required objectivity.

It is in all of our best interests to build sites that are easy to use, but sometimes people subscribe to a false dichotomy between what is creative and what is useable. We should not allow this to hold us up. Usability and creativity are not mutually exclusive. I would argue, in fact, that usability is what certain projects need to bridge the gap between what is truly innovative and what is merely eye candy or merely technology.

I found Steve Krug’s workshop both informative and easy to follow. I recommend it to anyone involved in building Web sites. What I didn’t find there, however, were many representatives from interactive agencies. Instead, most of the participants hailed from corporations and educational institutions—large and small alike. This leads me to believe that our customers are beginning to realize the value of usability, and we need to be prepared to meet their expectations by instituting usability testing throughout our processes now. We should do this not for monetary gain (although I wouldn’t discount the importance of that), but simply because providing innovative solutions is the right thing to do for our clients and their customers. - Cam Beck

A Mother's Advice is as Relevant in The New World as it Was in The Old

This is Dick. Dick Mitchell to be exact. Dick is the Managing Principal at Click Here. He caught me in the hall today and shared an article he had written about brands and their identities. We, here at ChaosScenario had invited him to write something for our blog. He was a little concerned that it might not be relevant to our audience. I assured him he couldn't be more wrong. Dick's article offers advice that is as relevant to new media as it is to old. What he's written is just good marketing advice (and we're all about that). So check it out. - Pete Lerma

What’s a mother to do? -- By Dick Mitchell

I’ve been hanging around this business as a creative guy for nearly 30 years. And this isn’t the first time I’ve had my doubts about more than a few clients and agencies recognizing the value of a unique identity. My mother recognized that when she named me, uh, Dick.

Seven or eight years ago, a lot of companies weren’t interested in having a unique corporate identity that could withstand 30 years of design trends. They wanted a logo that could be good for, oh, say, 36 months. By then they’d take the business public, get rich and be out of there before shareholders and new management found out that they owned a mutt.