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People’s perceptions of user interfaces are too different to be pre-cogitated by a single person. Yes, I designed this site. But no, I don’t know exactly how you experience it right now .

The Rhetoric

Salesy Emptiness: User Experience Design as a tautology: The design of a product—voluntarily or involuntarily—defines the interaction between human and artefact. Interaction leads to experience. From this point of view, all design is experience design. Used like this, the term “user experience design” doesn’t mean anything.

Amateurish Exaggeration: User Experience Design as hyperbole: User experience design somehow suggests that a designer has direct control over how each and every user experiences his product. A massive exaggeration. The more experience you have in our field the more you are aware of how much the perception of a product varies from person to person. Design defines experience, it doesn’t control it. Used like this, “experience design” is a big promise that cannot be kept.

Technical language: User Experience Design as a synecdoche: The user experience of a product doesn’t start with the first hands on contact and it doesn’t end there either. It includes all contact points: business, technology and design. Skilled designers use the term user experience design instead of web design to express that the visual design is a representative part of a much more complex construct. Used like this, user experience design is a valid term.

User Experience Design is not as easy as Dreamweaver: Everybody that publishes a website can call himself a web designer. Calling yourself a user experience designer suggests that you measure your designs with a substantial audience and deal with a wide scale of user opinions on a daily basis. If not, you are not a user experience designer.

User Experience Design proficiency makes you feel small, not big: Traditionally, design is a hierarchical notion where the designer is King and the consumer pays designer taxes to get a spark of his genius. In the field of user experience design, that notion of a glorified omniscient designer has been turned upside down. The experience designer tries to get in touch with as many different users as possible.

User Experience Design doesn’t win ADC prices, it wins percentages: User experience design is the part of a design that can be measured in clicks, time on site, return on investment, return visits and in verbal feedback. User experience design is design where every opinion counts. User experience design is engineering, it doesn’t try to find the perfect solution but the best compromise.

Everybody is a user, so is everybody a user experience designer?

Since everybody is a user, everybody has an opinion on how his experience should be. And many are very eager to utter their opinions really strongly. But that doesn’t mean that every user is a designer. Asking for salt doesn’t make you a cook. The user has his own opinion, the user experience designer deals with different opinions and tries to find the best compromise. Good compromises are not in the middle, they are higher than the initial options: good compromises are synthetic (If your options are cowardly or foolhardy, the synthesis is courageous).

You don’t need to be an engineer to find out that your car doesn’t start. But you need to be an engineer to fix it. As a user experience designer you need to know how things work. When it comes to use, all opinions are equal, but when it comes to engineering, they are not. The engineer collects the feedback and finds ways to deal with it. His opinions are not just based on personal experience. Like a scientist, he tests and validate his assumptions, he develops both theory and practice—not merely relying on his own perception, but by actually testing his products with his audience. And yes, designing interactive products for over ten years makes you more experienced about what works and what doesn’t. But it should never stop you from testing it in the field. By dealing with feedback you get proficient in “experience design.”

The more response you get the more you learn and the better you can do your job in the future. It is not so hard to find feedback. What’s hard is how you deal with it: Feedback always makes complicated things more complicated. And beware! If you do everything the user wants you end up with a mad carrousel.

Theory and Practice

You cannot claim to be an expert in interaction design without practical experience. Building things and dealing with user opinions is what makes a user experience designer.Being an active facebook or Twitter user, a talented speaker, a winning sales man or a collector of UXD articles doesn’t make you an expert on user experience design. What makes you an expert in designing interfaces is building interfaces and dealing with the (often very angry) feedback. Full blooded user experience designers find pleasure in weird things like:

• Studying user behavior on a daily basis just for fun (Analytics, SE-logs)
• Usability tests and interviews
• Prototype testing and optimization
• Fixing mistakes after the launch by closely watching and evaluating angry user reactions
• Learning about new business processes
• Studying new technology on a daily basis

The bigger the audience the more Stoicism is needed. Relaunching T-Online ten years ago, was a baptism of fire, the new design was ripped apart by the whole German tech community. Over time you get used to relaunch protest. Looking at the numbers, iA’s designs seem to improve (and for some reason the reactions are not all that angry anymore). But in every project, there are a lot of surprising feedback to digest and learn from.

Conclusion

Yes, a lot of agencies will abuse technical language to upsell, some more bluntly, some in a more entertaining way. But you can’t slam the bullshit hammer on an entire industry that employs some of the smartest and honest men and women in tech without looking like an amateur.

Amateurs don’t want to talk to and understand clients, they don’t want to discuss things with stupid users, they want to go right in and do it live, change it and improve it in the way they deem necessary. Their strategy is: “Let’s work until it works.” Amateurs are cheap at first but they often fail to complete the job. Because, simply put: without proper preparation and user research and user opinion you can’t make things work—for the user.

• User experience design is not a magic method that allows you to foresee how people will feel about your design, but a design approach that is based on user feedback in different phases of the project.
• The more experience you have with user testing, the better you know how to deal with the usually hard to handle feedback (feedback alone won’t make a good design), and only few are born Stoics.
• The more experience you have handling user feedback, the more likely it is that you are going to find a higher synthetic (and not a foul) compromise in your design development.

“ If you need further advice or would like to discuss your social media strategy, give us a call 718-775-4838”

Information architecture. IA. Industry buzzwords? Fancy degrees? Web firms can’t hire information architects fast enough, but, while the field has been around and growing for years in software, engineering, and library science, very few people understand exactly what information architects do and why we need them in Web design. And we do need them.

With today’s complex, superfly, dynamically driven database Web sites and networks, information architects have become critical to–if not the cornerstone of–most large Web design projects. Blending the technical and the visual with a keen sense for organizational structures and usability, IA is a multidimensional field that puts place in space. Knowing the demand, CNET Builder.com answers your top 10 questions about IA and information architects: who they are, how they get there, what they do, and why in the Web world.

1. What is information architecture?

At its most basic, information architecture is the construction of a structure or the organization of information. In a library, for example, information architecture is a combination of the catalog system and the physical design of the building that holds the books. On the Web, information architecture is a combination of organizing a site’s content into categories and creating an interface to support those categories. It stems from traditional architecture, which is made up of architectural programming and architectural planning.

Traditional architectural programming

The traditional discipline of architecture, which is the design of buildings and physical space, involves problem-making and problem-solving. It requires a thoughtful analysis (programming) to manifest a thoughtful synthesis (design).

Architectural programming is an objective approach to understanding the nature of the task so that a specific problem can be identified as something for space planners and designers to solve. The programmer establishes goals, collects and analyzes facts, uncovers and tests concepts, determines needs, and states the problem. The programmer’s responsibilities include: client interviews, research and understanding of emerging technologies, reviews of case studies, budget planning, scheduling long-term deadlines, anticipating the future, and formulating functional requirements. The research results in a program document that specifically outlines the limits of the project and any unique problems.

Traditional architectural planning

Between the analysis and synthesis stages exists what William Pena, author of Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer, calls the synthesis gap. In large projects, a space planner manages this gap by taking the program document and defining the space to be designed, aligning the rooms, and assigning priorities to the interior structural elements. The space planner works with both the programmer and the designer to develop a structure that accommodates the function as well as the form. (Although sometimes, depending on the firm, the space planner is also the programmer or designer.)

In Web design, a person who helps develop programs and also plans is an information architect. The information architect maps the entire structure of the site and organizes the positioning of pages within sections, developing a functional and intuitive plan to get the user from point A to point B on the path of least resistance.

2. How do information architects fit into a Web team?

Some Web design firms have highly compartmentalized departments that separate problem finders from problem planners and problem synthesizers, but flexibility is the key to success. Information architects should meet with clients to help define a project’s scope, as well as plot the path to meet the objective and work with the designers and technologists to develop engaging and intuitive visual interfaces. It is important for them to be present during all three phases and to get a client’s objectives firsthand. Poor secondhand interpretations can be a project’s death. It isn’t that managers are inept at translating clients desires, but architects have special architectural questions that a business manager or producer might not be able to intuit.

It’s also important for information architects to work closely with visual designers, helping to maintain the balance between form and function. Design effects architecture as much as architecture effects design. Working in a vacuum of compartmentalized skills isn’t good for anyone, and it’s definitely not good for the end result. Information architects also bridge architecture with development and work with technologists, database engineers, and HTML coders.

3. What do information architects create for clients?

If there were a template or system for what information architects need to prepare, no one would need them. While there are certain key deliverables that most projects require, the work is most often determined on a case-by-case basis dependent on scope and function. Presentation is as much about showing information as it is about showing information in a way that is understandable to each client’s specific Web knowledge and thought process. Some people prefer paper, while others need to see things clicking and moving in order to make sense of it.

Some of the basic deliverables include:

Site Maps: Maps reflect navigation and main content buckets. They are usually constructed to look like flowcharts and show how users navigate from one section to another.

Content Maps: Detailed maps that show what exists on each page and how content on some pages interacts with content on other pages.

Wireframes: Black and white line drawings or block diagrams to hand off to a visual designer. These may, or may not, reflect layout and are used mostly to inform the designer and the client exactly what information, links, content, promotional space, and navigation will be on every page of the site. Schematics also help illustrate priority.

Text-Based Outlines: Sometimes information architects want to show architecture as indented text outlines and lists.

Interactive, Semi-Functional Prototyping: In some cases, information architects are responsible for outlining or storyboarding functional prototypes, and in others they actually build prototypes with HTML, Flash, Director, or PowerPoint.

Anyone who has seen the effects of unplanned projects–Web or otherwise–knows why it is important to have a plan before starting to build. Some clients don’t understand the expense–and professional information architects are expensive. Also, due to the complex nature of information architects’ work–representing sites with thousands of pages on 11-by-17 pieces of paper and presentation boards, director prototypes, and HTML schematics, for example–clients are sometimes confused and unable to see the value. It’s important for any company that builds information architecture into its structure to support that structure by educating clients on its value. It’s the responsibility of everyone on the team to help the client understand why every member is there.

4. How do architects evaluate or design a site?

First, even before evaluating an existing site for architectural improvements, it’s extremely important to find out who’s using it, who’s building it, and what its goals are. Maybe the hardest part of information architecture is to help identify a focus–a necessary component of intuitive form and function. But after focusing, evaluation is all about anticipated user paths, logical process flows, and determining how to balance efficiency with ease of use. Good, consistent information architecture will help users build relationships and trust with the technology and product. So, a good place to start is to look for the ways sites are, and are not, consistent.

When designing a new site, it’s always best to start with all the pieces, though this is seldom the case. You’ll probably be hard-pressed to find a client who didn’t change their minds half a dozen times over three phases of project architecture. And architects can change their minds because it is often difficult to predict all the pieces beforehand. It is the responsibility of the design firm and architect to ask the right questions, and it’s client’s responsibility to understand what they are trying to build.

Architecture can and should be an extremely collaborative and iterative process, which evolves somewhat organically in as much structure that can be defined up-front as possible. Anything an IA can do to ask as many questions and get as many answers up-front will ultimately help the process. Architects also need to focus on who will be using the site, strategic and business goals, key usability principals, technical constraints, and future needs.

5. What kinds of IA problems are difficult to solve?

The latest Web site trends all point to scaleable, personalized, and customizable portals with dynamic content, which usually involves a mix of onsite content creation and third-party vendors. Integrating the complexity of these requirements into a single user-friendly interface is difficult at best.

•Scaleable is a polite way to say no one knows exactly what content will be included, so the site needs to be flexible to expand to house unknown amounts and types of information.

•Personalization requires an intelligent back-end to filter demographic information and track user preferences in order to provide content that is relevant to an individual user.

•Customization, on the other hand, is what users do to set their own preferences for a site experience. Building interfaces that are modular enough for a user to customize is extremely difficult, and setting a structure so that a user can select what he or she wants is even more difficult.

•Dynamic Content is another tricky one because it mandates that content will be produced on the fly, based on any number of parameters, including copy length. Since the proliferation of the portal, sites have begun to aggregate content (collect it from other sites), which presents further design and architecture issues: Whose server holds the content? Who is responsible for third-party design and interface? And how are the partner sites effected when third-party providers change their service offerings?

In addition to these difficulties, there are standard issues, such as understanding–and defining–the target audience, determining how much and what type of information should be on a page, knowing when it’s important to lean more toward visual cues (MSNBC) or more toward text (Yahoo), and choosing a content-based or contextual navigation system.

6. What software does an information architects use and need?

Unfortunately, the perfect tool hasn’t been invented yet. There seems to be an abundance of tools for software architecture that are suitable, but they aren’t necessarily great for presentation. And there are a few Web-specific tools that don’t come close to fully demonstrating the complexity of a dynamic, contextualized navigation system.

However, the word on the street is that Adobe has heard the information architects’ cries and is working fast and furious to produce a tool that gives them the best of precision layout and quick drag and drop objects. Until then, other options include Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Visio, but ultimately it depends on what type of document you are trying to make. A versatile suite of tools is the best way to go for now.

7. Are there evolving standards for IA?

Like any discipline, industry standards set the pace, for good or bad, for most mainstream development. Some of the more common standards for information architecture revolve around navigation, transaction processes, and link use.

Structural Navigation

Most Web surfers have experienced what designers call the inverse L, which is essentially a navigation system that runs top-level categories–or buckets–horizontally across the top of the screen with secondary and tertiary links listed down the left side. Another standard is a horizontal tabbed metaphor, which has two–sometimes three–layers of links that are stacked. Clicking one of the horizontal links reveals a second row of horizontal links that relate to the clicked item. While it’s important to break from these standards, it’s also important to note that this is what people have gotten used to, and deviations are sometimes extremely confusing–even if they offer better solutions.

Financial Transactions

Transactions that involve the exchange or transference of funds tend to involve at least three steps: submit, verify, and confirmation of order received. The middle step, verify, is usually a page that shows the user what s/he has just submitted. It is a good idea to not allow users to make changes on the verify page but to send them to an edit screen instead. After the edit screen, they will see a new verify screen. Allowing users to make changes on a verify screen increases the margin for error. Removing or mistyping even a single number in a financial transaction is easy to do and potentially disastrous.

Redundant Links

It has been proven that people like to click, and when users are confused, they start scanning pages for whatever clickable links they can find. This is why sites such as Amazon.com have so much redundancy. In some cases, there are as many as three different links on one page to a single book or article somewhere else on the site. Some of these links are graphic, some are text, some are mixed into content areas, and others are highlighted on the side. No matter how perfect a site architecture may seem, because we all interpret information in different ways, it is important to be as inclusive as possible and provide as many points of entry into content that will fit on a screen without cluttering it.

8. How does usability relate to IA?

Usability testing ranges from observing how users react to color palettes to timing how long it takes someone to find a log out button. Sometimes testing is one-on-one, with a moderator asking an individual tester to go through the process of using a Web site–asking questions along the way about what they like and don’t like, what is easy and difficult, and how it could be improved. Other times it consists of 10 to 20 person focus groups that also work with a moderator to determine preferences of target audiences and look at big picture issues, such as color treatment and content needs.

Some firms employ entirely separate departments for usability, while others look to information architects for this skill. It’s a logical connection because IAs are responsible for making it easy it to find information and create most products with a focus on user-centered design (thinking of the user first). But even if they aren’t usability experts, IAs usually think about usability testing as they are planning the site structure. They keep notes about what might be confusing and design prototypes specifically for user testing in order to isolate issues in navigation, process, and understandability.

Basic Rules for Usability Test Scripts

While there are entire books on usability test script writing, the best rule is to keep it simple and straightforward. We try to keep questions as objective as possible. For example, instead of asking, “Was it easy to use this site?” we would ask, “How would you rate using this site?” with check boxes for Very Easy, Easy, Not Easy or Difficult, Difficult, and Very Difficult. Five is a good number for choices, leaving room for a neutral response. It’s good to ask questions with one word answers as well as request that testers write out some comments in their own words, as they often suggest ideas and feelings that site creators and project managers never imagined related to their product. A good book to help understand usability testing is Handbook of Usability Testing by Jeffrey Rubin, and some good web sites include:

IBM Ease of Use Web site–User Centered Design

An outstanding look at the process and concept of user-centered design. While it won’t go very deep, it will give a good overview of the process of design as it applies to human-web interaction.

Alert Box

Current Issues in Web Usability, a biweekly column by Dr. Jakob Nielsen, principal, Nielsen Norman Group, covers everything from bandwidth issues to micropayments.

9. How do I become an information architect?

The best way to find a job in information architecture is to look at the Web sites of companies that produce work you admire. If the company doesn’t have an IA department, it may be developing one, so you could get in early if you contact them.

If the company already knows that information architects are important to the design process, chances are they are probably on the hunt for qualified people because there are more positions available than people applying. Most large Web design and software design companies hire architects, as do consulting firms, banks, insurance companies, and public relation agencies. Basically, anyone who runs a large Web site, designs large Web sites, or hires people to design large Web sites has the need for an information architect.

The Skills You Need

Attention to detail and a strong sense of organization are the most obvious skill requirements for a position in IA. It isn’t so important how one organizes information so much as that the organization is consistent. Information architects require strong logic and analytic skills, as well as the ability to ask appropriate questions and communicate effectively to a broad range of people: designers, executives, artists, marketers, producers, and technical staff. Information architects also need to be able to conceptualize the abstract and manufacture the concrete to explain it.

The Schools

Carnegie Mellon University has some excellent programs: Communication Planning and Design (CPD) and Information Design (ID) offer master of design degrees, and there’s also a master of arts degree with emphasis on writing. Both programs lead to information architecture depending on the way a student structures coursework.

Similarly, Rennessler Polytechnic Institute offers a master in communications, a master in interactive arts, and a graduate certificate in human computer interaction with emphases in writing, design, or technology. New York University offers an Interactive Telecommunications Program and has sent dozens of people into information and interface design careers in the last few years. The program has traditional information technology offerings (Introduction to Computational Media and Elements of Visual Language) as well as flexible build-your-own theoretical studies (New Media and Interpersonal Behavior and Information Contours).

That said, any school that offers strong computer science, design, and writing programs will be able to build a liberal arts program in information architecture. The University of California at Berkeley, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Illinois, and Stanford University are all great places to start.

If you want to read more about information architecture, you can try these books:

•Envisioning Information, Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Visual Explanations by Edward R. Tufte

•Information Graphics by Robert L. Harris

•Information Architects by Richard Wurman

•Handbook of Usability Testing by Jeffrey Rubin

•The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design edited by Brenda Laurel

•About Face by Alan Cooper

10. What is the future of IA in Web design?

In the immediate future, information architecture will have more room for creativity because more Web sites may stray from a standardized navigation system and a consistent toolbar on every page.

Looking further into the future and watching the portal trend, information architecture might not only be about architecting individual Web sites, it also will be about architecting massive networks, and even cities. In any case: think big. Information architecture is soon going to be about architecting customizable and personalized views of the entire Internet, along with entirely new business and social models to go with it.

The world will need a lot more information architects over the next few years.

Raymond A. Monaco is an Senior Information Architect for armadadigital, Inc., New York, a strategic digital communications company. He has been online for a very long time and holds a PhD. in HCI Human computer interaction with emphasis on taxonomy and planning.

“ If you need further advice or would like to discuss your social media strategy, give us a call 718-775-4838”

Organizations’ social media must deliver a clear benefit to the audience. Other usability considerations include having: a strong audience-focus, appropriate timing and custom copywriting. Social media is more than just connecting people, ideas and content. It can hold degrees of separation between you company and your clients and customers.

Introduction – social media’s usability challenge

The first rule of social media is: social media is generally used to engage with friends and family, not organizations. The second rule of social media is: this makes social media a very challenging environment for most organizations.

Of course, there are exceptions – it’s relatively easy, for example, to use social media to promote something sexy (such as upcoming film releases, sporting news or celebrity gossip). With topics that people are already interested in, social media is an easy-sell and. It’s altogether more difficult, however, to use social media to keep one’s audience engaged with more prosaic products/services.

There are, however, some powerful usability guidelines which can help support organizations in developing a social media offering that engages their audience. No usability guidelines can ever guarantee success – but within the crowded social media landscape, every competitive advantage counts!

Deliver benefit – social media’s business challenge

Perhaps the most important factor in the usability of an organization’s social media activity is that it should deliver something the audience wants. An organization must put aside any hubris or ego and honestly evaluate whether or not it is able to generate social media content/activity which will prove attractive to its target audience.

This is a good reason why not every organization should necessarily engage in social media activity. Social media is a very specific channel which should be used in a very specific way. If an organization uses it poorly or inappropriately, it runs the risk of looking hopelessly out of touch – rather like an embarrassing relative dancing at a wedding.

Some types of message have, however, proven consistently popular and effective within the social media channel. As such, considering these types of content can help identify potential ways an organization could exploit social media:

•Special offers – Exclusive special offers can be a great way to incentivize people to stay engaged with your organization’s social media presence. It also guarantees that your social media channel will have unique content.

•News & updates – Coverage of any relevant – and interesting – breaking news can be a great use of your social media channel. The delivery of time-critical information can be a real usability strength in social media.

•Entertainment – Enjoyment is an intrinsic motivator, so it’s always good to try and find ways of providing entertaining social media content. Note: we would recommend focusing on simple ideas rather than large, complicated projects.

•Useful tools – Providing something that’s useful to your audience can be a great way of staying engaged with them. Note: the content/functionality doesn’t need to be unique – it simply needs to be more usable, better promoted and/or lower cost than existing alternatives.

We would also recommend that you consider offering a variety of social media content and activities. Many organizations find that this helps to stop social media messages becoming too predictable and keeps audiences engaged.

It can also be useful to split different types of content between different social media platforms, rather than duplicating everything across all platforms. This is not only because certain content may suit a particular platform better (for example: Twitter may be appropriate for time-critical content), but also because it encourages the audience to engage cross different platforms.

Audience focus – importance to social media usability

It’s critical that an organizations’ social media activity/content delivers value to its audience. To help achieve this, it’s often a good idea to consider whether social media can target different audiences separately. It may not always be feasible (or even desirable) to provide different audiences with their own dedicated social media channel, but it is certainly worth considering.

The main ways in which social media activity/content might be made more targeted are by considering the following issues:

•Country & language – It’s good usability practice to consider the requirements of different audiences, including specific countries or regions. This also applies to the usability of social media content & activities. It’s always a good usability idea to consider whether different counties and/or languages require their own social media content/activity.

•Product/Service – organization’s with a wide range of products/services may find that they have very distinct sub-audiences. Indeed, some audiences relate far more strongly to a specific (normally branded) product/service than to the overall organization. In such cases, it may be advisable to consider providing some products/services with a dedicated social media channel.

•Stakeholder – Many corporate websites support good usability by serving their different stakeholders’ varying information needs through specific sub-sections (for example: Customers, Suppliers, Investors and Press). A similar demarcation could be considered within an organization’s social media channels, so that each audience only receives content that’s relevant to them.

The above suggestions are not exhaustive, but they provide some ideas on how to improve the usability of social media by ensuring its targeting at specific audiences. We would recommend that any organization seriously consider this issue, as targeted social media content/activity is more likely to deliver value.

Timing – social media usability factor

As previously discussed, most people use social media to keep in touch with friends and family. This means that their tolerance of an organization’s social media activity is likely to be low. In this usability context, it’s important that an organization’s social media messaging is sensitive to the degree of engagement its audience consider appropriate. Some of the relevant usability issues to consider include:

•Frequency – Posting social media content too regularly has been found to annoy most audiences. In general, we would recommend posting no more than once a week (if you can deliver content that often which your audience will find valuable).

•Regularity – Setting and meeting user expectations is a fundamental principle of usability. Unsurprisingly, most people like to know when to expect social media content, so we would recommend that organizations plan a regular posting timetable.

•Scheduling – Our experience suggests that most people access social media before or after work (during weekdays). This would indicate that social media messaging should be posted around these times (in order to avoid the usability issue of its being pushed out of view by other messages). Note: some organization’s have also experienced good results posting social media content at weekends.

•Responding – It is important to consider how your audience’s reactions to your social media content will be monitored and responded to. For example: are there guidelines for when – and how – audience feedback will be responded to? In general, we would recommend that a response (if needed) is provided within 24 hours.

These general usability guidelines for social media activity are a good start, but their application should always be informed by an understanding of the audience’s preferences and behaviors.

Content & copywriting – usability of social media

High quality copywriting is essential to the success of an organization’s social media messaging. After all, it is the words which will determine how effectively your social media message attracts attention and communicates your message!

Here are some good usability guidelines to bear in mind when composing your social media content:

•Bespoke – Perhaps the most important usability guideline for social media content is that it should be written specifically for the medium. It’s not enough to simply ‘cut and paste’ existing content – social media is its own channel with its own specific characteristics.

•Tone of Voice – Social media messages should generally have a less formal tone than other modes of communication. They should, however, make it clear that they are written on the organization’s behalf (for example: using ‘we’ instead of ‘they’).

•Single topic – As with all good web copywriting, social media messages benefit from focusing on a single topic. We would recommend this usability guideline for all social media messaging.

•Start strong – Powerful and informative words should be used at the start of social media content. This will help your social media content communicate its core message as soon as possible to its audience. Following this usability guideline is a particularly important factor when one considers than many people quickly scan – rather than read – their social media messages.

•Avoid abbreviations or ‘SMS/text speak’ – You can’t assume everyone will understand (or like) these terms, so it is generally best to avoid them.

•Concise – Keep your messages as short as you can. Remember: people use social media to stay in touch with friends and family, not to engage with organizations’. Here are a few tips:

?Name checks – don’t ‘sign’ messages or include the organization’s name in the message (your details will be shown next to the message).

?Links – provide links to more detailed content (using short and informative link text where possible).

Note – due to Twitter’s current 140 character limit, it’s a good idea to keep tweets below 120 characters. This will allow 20 characters for people to retweet (RT) the message.

Most of these social media usability guidelines also apply to all online copywriting. They do, however, become even more important within social media because we have less content – and user attention – at our disposal! As always, however, these usability guidelines should be applied in a way that is appropriate to, and relevant for, one’s audience.

Summary – usability of social media messages

Social media is generally used by people for interacting with friends and family, not organizations’. This means that organizations’ need to be very careful (and considered) in how they use social media. A key usability concern is ensuring that your organization’s social media messages deliver the audience some benefit and are not simply ‘fluff’.

Ways to help deliver this benefit include: focusing on your target audience(s), making sure the timing of your social media messages is appropriate and creating social media messages which are well-written for the medium.

This article was written by usability and Information Architect Raymond A. Monaco, who works with armadalabs & armadaresearch – a leading usability consultancy. The armadadigital teams are experts in all areas of Usability research, Information Architecture including social media.

“ If you need further advice or would like to discuss your social media strategy, give us a call 718-775-4838”

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1. Not conducting any customer research.

Some companies still don’t conduct customer research, but instead rely on their best internal guesses as to what their customers want. Except in organizations where ESP is a common employee skill, this tends not to lead to healthy, customer-centered operations.

2. Conducting “pretend” research.

Let’s pretend our user’s name is Jane. Let’s pretend she is 38 years old, drives a purple Prius, reads mystery novels, loves bulldogs, and likes to go sailing. Let’s pretend she comes to our website and likes feature A but not feature B. Therefore, we should develop more things like feature A. See? We’re very customer-centered.

This is the fun of creating a persona, which allows teams to make decisions based on fictional people, rather than doing the hard work of listening to real customers.

3. Conducting research, but the wrong type.

One of the most popular research methods in business today is the focus group: an individual moderator, typically a high-energy person, encourages a live panel of many respondents to give feedback on a product or service. This can be useful in some situations. But where customers interact individually with a company – say, on a website or in some other customer experience – the one-to-many method of focus groups doesn’t yield very appropriate findings.

4. Conducting one-on-one research, but with tasks defined beforehand.

Traditional usability dictates that the moderator should write the test questions beforehand. But how can you know the right questions to ask before you’ve even met the customer? Task definition comes from the age of software, when the tool – a piece of software – was being optimized (thus the term “usability” refers to – and focuses on – a tool, not a human). Customer experience is concerned with the customer; their individual, real-life experience is what we’re supposed to be observing. It’s beyond presumptuous to think you can predict the appropriate tasks before the session starts.

5. Not inviting stakeholders to attend research.

I’ve often heard the complaint from UX professionals that “we don’t have enough impact in the organization.” Maybe that’s because too many practitioners write reports about their work, and lob them over the cubicle walls, rather than getting stakeholders involved in the research. Writing reports may work in the publish-or-perish academic world, but in the business world, it’s infinitely better to have stakeholders physically sit and watch customers as they interact with the website (or product or service or whatever).

6. Not prioritizing findings.

My favorite, love-to-hate conclusion of a usability report goes something like this: “We uncovered 52 usability errors on the site, and here’s a list of all of them.” Oops: an unending list of tactics that no one will want to wade through. Instead, whenever discussing results (presumably in-person, to stakeholders who attended labs), focus on the most important two or three strategic findings – the ones that will really move the needle on key business metrics.

7. Not relating to business objectives.

Some usability researchers seem to see their work as an extension of their master’s thesis in human factors – a scholarly exercise that demonstrates their mastery of various research and analysis methods. This may work in academic research labs, but in the business world, the point of this work is to improve the business. If you want to have an impact, then conduct the work in the light of business objectives: increasing revenue, or cutting costs, or improving usage or conversion rates or pageviews or something that helps pay the bills. Remember to keep the recommendations as structured, focused and tactical in the short term and more strategic for longer term goals.

8. Missing the larger picture.

Tactical disciplines like usability and information architecture are useful, valuable, and have their place in the development process. But what’s much more important is to understand the people, the human beings, who make the company possible. The customers, the visitors, the patients, the readers, the guests, whatever you call them – their experience is what determines the company’s success or failure. So focus first on the overall experience. It’s strategic, not tactical. It’s about the people, not the tool. Focusing on the larger picture first will set a better context in which to work – later – on usability tactics.

9. Building interfaces that don’t conform to user goals and or objectives.

This is frequented by an overlay of not useful technology that has more of a wow factor versus a utility to the user. Creating simplistic user paths and defining the user path experience is key to a successful user journey through you website or application. Validating the implementation of the interface, navigation and findability of content should happen in a formalized usability testing cycle.

10. Leveraging web or application analytics as a usability input.

Many companies have the sophistication and data to overlay the web analytics on to the user experience. Using the web analytics data can provide an insight that is very critical to user journey and understanding the frustrations that user might have on a particular web application.

“ If you need further advice or would like to discuss your social media strategy, give us a call 718-775-4838”

We work with large and small companies on a variety of different projects. We have also worked with several non-profit organizations as well.

• launch a company, new subsidiary, or product (Web, Mobile or Dashboard)
• Usability analysis for success product launch
• penetrate a new markets with better user interactions
• establish credibility and customer preference with a superior user interface
• elevate their profile in the market via an outstanding user experience
• shift market perception with social media
• rebrand or reposition/redesign
• connect value to market
• energize a sales force and increase sales with marketing and SFA recommendations

You may be thinking of having a new user interaction and or prototype created, need a better user interface and a better website?. We’re happy to discuss your immediate projects, while also focusing on the long-term benefits for your organization.

Start working with armadadigital today!

Our Methodology

We develop interfaces that help businesses leapfrog the competition by taking an in-depth dive into understanding your business, your customers, and your products. The start of any significant User Experience Design exercise begins with our 4-step process that allows the armadadigital UXD team to understand our clients and their needs. We start with your business goals, creating a user experience that maps to those goals and exceeds customer expectations. Here’s a detailed overview of our UXD methodology, and what it means for delivering high-impact UI transformations to clients.

armadadigital creates user-centric interfaces for web application, mobile applications and Portals. The goal of our engagements is to increase adoption and provide a user centric experience.

Our Process

Research

This initial phase is extremely crucial to a successful design. Research can only be successful with the right perspective and gathering of information. This phase can include (but is not limited to):

• Ethnographic Research
• Psychographic Research
• Demographic Research
• Content Audit
• User, Stakeholder Interviews
• Qualitative, Quantitative Research

Digital  Strategy

With the information we’ve gathered and analyzed from phase 1, we not begin to construct a plan of attack for the most optimal outcome. Procedures can include (but are not limited to):

• Persona Creation
• Focus Groups, JAD sessions (Output: Functional Requirements)
• User goal Analysis
• Market, Social Media Positioning
• Mindmapping

Design

When we’ve established an attack plan, we then mock it up.

• Information Architecture
• Interactive Process Flow
• Wireframes
• Prototyping
• Iterative Design Evaluations

User Experience Capabilities

We offer services from initial research & usability analysis to interface prototyping. Our capabilities include:

• User research
• Expressive wireframe concepts
• Visual design
• Interactive prototypes
• Usability testing
• Creation of full UI layer in AJAX or Flash/Flex

We can build out applications with our development team or collaborate on the integration of the UI layer with your internal teams or off-shore resources. We partner with technology firms to augment our offerings

Digital Strategy Services

Use the same navigation elements in the same or similar position on all pages within the website. Studies show users ignore the navigation and scan for fresh content when landing on a new page. Therefore, consistency is super important for the user experience. Users should always be able to quickly learn the navigation and adapt to the interface.

Therefore, remember to keep the navigation simple and constant throughout the website to avoid any confusion. Your users will thank you. The navigation is not the part of the site you want to get too clever with.

2. Use clear names or icons for menu items

Always use intuitive, clear and easy to understand text or icons in menus. Keep users from guessing what buttons, text or icons mean. If they need to click on a menu item and load the page to find out what the page is about, you’re not doing it right. Users who do not understand a certain part of a web page will most probably ignore it and continue to scan the page, or leave.

Make things simple and intuitive. Leave complexity to family dynamics, relationships, and puzzles. The things you create should be easy to use, easy to learn, easy to find, and easy to adapt.

http://uxmag.com/design/guiding-principles-for-ux-designers

3. Highlight the current page

Usability guru Jakob Nielsen says you must tell your users where they can go, where they are and where they’ve been. This particular tip is about where the user is. This sort of feedback is crucial if you want to show your users where they are within your site.

Highlighting the current page is a simple trick with great benefits, but many fail to use it. Take a look at the menu bar of Smashing Magazine:

4. Provide a search form

Users often scan for the search form to help them find what they’re looking for. If they get lost or they think they will find what they’re looking for more quickly, they will use the search form.

Note that very small sites may not need the search feature, but any bigger site should have it.

Just this morning, I wanted to get more information on a feature my phone company introduced. I was very thankful the search form on their site was not only available in the header, but it worked just as I anticipated. It took me only one click, typing of a search query and hitting the enter key to get to the information I needed. Awesome. If the search form was not available at all, it would take me a whole lot of clicking through their rather complex navigation system. Or I would leave the site and tried a Google site-specific search (with site:).

5. Don’t link pages to themselves

Omit the link that points to the current page. This will only confuse your visitors and many will end up clicking on links that will lead them to the page they are on already.

This is another aspect which many, many sites could improve, including Smashing Magazine.

Derek Powazek wrote a great article for ALA which talks about this issue. Here’s a great quote from that article:

The other day I was driving on the freeway. I was on the 120, going north, dutifully following my Mapquest directions, which said to get off on 120, and then turn right on 120. Say what? I thought I was on the 120 already. Am I lost?

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whereami

Do provide clear instructions for your users and don’t allow them to spin around in circles.

6. Don’t add mailto, Twitter or iTunes links or links to other sites to your main nav

This was my main inspiration for writing this article. I don’t know about you, but I am treading very carefully when I am clicking through menu items on practically any new website I visit. You often see these menu items before you: Blog, Portfolio, About, Contact. Before clicking on Contact, my eyes go all the way down to the left bottom corner of my Safari and check where the link is pointed to. If the link is a mailto one, which is often the case, I won’t click it. I was not expecting a mailto link, but a page with contact info.

7. Don’t use lengthy animations or transition effects

Animations and transition effects can be appealing, if used sparingly. No-one wants to hover over a menu item and then wait for the animation to finish. Users want information and they want it instantly. Animations, if done well, are attractive, and you do want eye candy every now and then. But not at the expense of good usability. You want the users to focus on the content, not distract them.

“ If you need further advice or would like to discuss your social media strategy, give us a call 718-775-4838”

Do you have some tips of your own to add to my list? I’d love to hear your thoughts.   Email Me