Blogger vs WordPress for hosted blogging - Blogger wins

Must say that Blogger had superior quick-start functionality compared to WordPress for hosted blogging. Why aren't we hosting our own blog? Because our site's under construction and the stimulus package is gummed up in the works. Here's our thumbs-up for ease of use - although something is certain to bite us in the derriere later.

ACLU app and Facebook privacy

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) brings your privacy on Facebook front and center with its What Do Facebook Quizzes Know About You app. People who are concerned about privacy on social media sites often don't realize that Facebook makes no guarantees on what data those cute little apps are mining, or how it's used. Read this great article about Facebook knowing too much about you in the San Jose Mercury News.

Our Web Strategy poll on LinkedIn

Do you have a Web strategy, or is the sheer existence of your Web site the strategy? Please take our brief LinkedIn poll and tell us where your company or organization stands on this crucial topic. If you're not a member of LinkedIn, you should be!

Where's the hurricane, weather.com?

Looks like we in the Southwest wont have to worry about any pesky Cat 4 hurricam effects later this week, according to Weather.com's forecast.

Weather Web sites should know no borders

To recap Zoe's post on weather sites: Why is it that weather data ends at the US border?! It's hurricane and typhoon season, friends. The LA Times reports that sizeable Hurricane Jimena is intensifying, with max sustained winds at 145 mph. It's already affecting Texas and will come to Arizona and New Mexico as well. Weather Underground is border-agnostic and shows the weather data beyond the US/Mexico border, while StormPulse does not. It's called the World Wide Web for a reason - looking at global issues such as weather within political borders is worse than pointless.

Top Twenty Magazine Web Sites 2009

Via our colleague Lou Ann Sabatier, the Top Twenty Magazine Web Sites 2009 . "The sites were rated “A” though “F” based on: 1) strength of content; 2) ease of use and navigation; 3) use of new technology and online tools including comment sections, message boards, and multimedia; 4) layout; 5) presence of a strong set of advertisers; and 6) size of audience based on unique visitor data from June measurements by Compete.com." More about Lou Ann at Sabatier Consulting's Web site.

What is usability? Remove the jargon and it's just common sense.

What is usability and user experience? The Web is so full of jargon and buzzwords it's easy to easy to write off terms that like as more of the same. But, while somewhat clunky, these two terms do state exactly what they are. How usable is something? How good was your experience using it?

Let's look at a weather site for some basic usability. I need to know if my outdoor practice will be rained out tonight so I go to weather.com. I'm not sure where to start looking in the navigation until I see a search box where I can get local weather info.

Great start - right until a Mentos ad popped up and my fingers reflexively twitched toward the command+w keys. Like all the users we've tested, I hate pop-up ads that hi-jack the content I asked for. But I restrained my trigger finger and the info I need is available in a variety of presentations on the same page. There's not much chance of rain so I'm ready to gear up for practice.

Overall I was able to find what I was looking for right off the home page. Score one point for task-based usability! However, I'm not sure how I'd find anything without the search box. Let's see if I can find a satellite map of the weather in my friend's town, where she's been without electricity due to storms.

Starting from the home page, I click on the "maps" link under the big picture. The first things I see on the new page are animated ads. Next, a list of map options: outdoor activities, health and safety or weather details. I don't know the difference so I'll try "weather details".

Now there's another menu with at least 20 options that don't mean anything to me (US regions, US satellite, severe alerts, short term forecasts). When I pick a map to enlarge it doesn't identify any cities or get big enough to make an informed guess about what cities are under the glowing green blob.

At this point I'm muttering out loud and ready to just start Googling. That's a huge ding in the usability points - confusing your user to the point where she just leaves the site is exactly what you don't want to do.

Finding a satellite weather map on a site dedicated to weather shouldn't be this difficult. But the glut of options and lack of explanation about what any of it meant left me confused, irritated and empty-handed. Although it did leave me with inspiration for a blog entry about bad user experience.

Usability isn't about what you hope people will do or what advertisers want them to do. It isn't about being the most cutting-edge, the most expensive or providing the most options. Often those frills end up making something that's more frustrating than useful. Good user experience means your users are able to do what they need to do, simple as that.

Attention to detail - careful with the clip art

This URL for a goth dating service was being passed around the office not long ago. I shall refrain from expounding further on who among us has the goth-iest tendencies but let's just say that black clothing, Neil Gaiman, and Smeggs are not unknown to most of us.

The first thing I thought when I looked at the home page was "Hm. This font seems suspiciously... corporate for being the '#1 alternative dating community on the net'." And while the word "goth" was sprinkled liberally throughout the content something just didn't seem authentic. I decided to find out more about the people behind GothScene.com who profess such dedication to bringing together single goth members of the gothic lifestyle scene. It wasn't easy. I couldn't find any "About Us" page and the FAQ focused just on technical and payment questions. The lack of identifying info fueled my suspicions that these goths were just skin deep. I continued searching for company info, clicking through various links and wondering how the division was made between "goth chicks" and "goth babes".

My suspicions were rewarded when a pop-up window appeared, asking if I'd like to chat live with a customer service representative about GothScene. Attention to detail had failed here - the pictured representative was a smiling, tanned blonde in a blue polo shirt.

Aha, in the privacy policy I found IP DatingMedia LTD is the owner and operator of this site. Further whois research led me to the parent company's site. Lo and behold, the very same headset-wearing lady is smiling at me from the front page! As I suspected, GothScene is just one of many "Premium Niche Related Sites". Not that there's anything wrong with that.

But when you're positioning yourself as the premium site for a selected niche that prides itself on individuality and being different, it's attention to detail that can make or break you.

Why US travel sites needlessly fail their users

Recent dust-ups such as the gratis redesign by Dustin Curtis of spreadsheety American Airlines and the Mr X response have drawn attention to yet another hole in US business: Dreadfully unusable travel Web sites. National Public Radio's recent article exposes the tiniest tip of this iceberg. From the NPR story:

"Since 2007, there's been a steady decline in the percentage of travelers who actually like using the Internet to research and purchase any kind of travel, according to an online travel survey conducted in February by Forrester. Those who enjoy using the Internet to both plan and buy travel dropped from 53 percent in 2007 to 45 percent in 2009, the survey found.

"Forrester projected that by year end there will be 68 million online travel buyers, up from 66 million in 2008. But the survey found that an increasing number of travelers are willing to use 'offline' travel agencies."

Do the math: You've spent big bucks building a Web site with high functionality - like, say, airline ticketing - but people are so frustrated with the Web site that they're abandoning the online transactions and calling the toll-free number. How did this expensive mess come to be? Our take: A lack of focus on information design - "we don't have time/budget for that."

Our work with call centers clearly demonstrated that there is a cost per second for excess time spent on calls. over a year, it adds up to a very big number. What are bad Web sites costing the US travel industry? Time for US travel Websites to commit to better business. Test your Web sites, then fix them. Or lose to a competitor that "gets it."

We have a Web site, and that's our strategy

Why do US companies waste millions of dollars every year on Web projects that never had a strategy to begin with?

I'm writing this while flying Chicago to Dallas on a Southwest 737. Everything around me has been designed and tested to meet the needs of humans in flight: The cabin, the lighting, the tray tables, the seats, the doors. The cockpit instruments meet the critical needs of the pilots. The soft-drink glasses stand securely and don't leak. Why do we fail to bring this sort of thinking to the Web?

Many of our potential clients come to us saying there's no time of budget for strategy and planning. Please take note: You *must* make time to plan Web presence. If you do not, the end product, and your brand, will suffer. At best, you will miss opportunities.

Our process for Web strategy is simple in concept, difficult in execution: Get all the stakeholders in a room, and get them to consensus. You may (and should) cringe at the thought of doing this at your company. But it must be done. That's why companies hire people like us - to take the sting out of hard questions, while ensuring we get to an answer.

If your company has not developed a defined Web strategy based on business goals, it's not getting the most from digital media. We guarantee that.

Seeking social media success? Do the groundwork first

Every client is different. The real-life answer to "how and when do we use social media?" is: Who are your users? Unless user types (a more granular view of audience) are clearly defined, a social media strategy is likely to underperform or misfire.

Criteria for defining users must include traditional demographics/psychographics; they must also include generational and regional differences in technology usage.

At Interface Guru, our experience is that very few companies outside of Silicon Valley approach their digital media presence from this perspective, including very well-known and well-funded brands.

I hope this note brings you a useful perspective on social media. The most important takeaway: Get Web 1.0 right before attempting Web 2.0. What does that mean? It means a Web site must be relevant, clean, and usable - social media cannot save a company from a poorly-designed Web presence.