Entries for month: August 2011
26 August 2011
Steve Jobs' Best Quotes
In honor of the revolutionary and now former Apple CEO, the Wall Street Journal has put together a list of Steve Jobs' best quotes.
Here are some of our favorites…
“Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works. The design of the Mac wasn't what it looked like, although that was part of it. Primarily, it was how it worked. To design something really well, you have to get it. You have to really grok what it's all about. It takes a passionate commitment to really thoroughly understand something, chew it up, not just quickly swallow it. Most people don't take the time to do that.”
“That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.”
“The most compelling reason for most people to buy a computer for the home will be to link it to a nationwide communications network. We're just in the beginning stages of what will be a truly remarkable breakthrough for most people — as remarkable as the telephone.” (Feb., 1985)
“I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful, not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next.”
“When you're a carpenter making a beautiful chest of drawers, you're not going to use a piece of plywood on the back, even though it faces the wall and nobody will ever see it. You'll know it's there, so you're going to use a beautiful piece of wood on the back. For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.”
For a complete list, check out the WSJ article.
Categories: General
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 11:17 AM | No Comments
23 August 2011
Current Trends in Website Navigation
Clients as Information Architects
That our clients have become more sophisticated web users is a reflection of the web not being a new medium anymore. We're finding that our clients are increasingly thinking like information architects about how their audiences will navigate to desired content. It is a time for web designers to examine long-held notions of what constitutes a good UI.
Best Practices in Website Navigation
At RainCastle, our formative years as web designers and information architects coincide exactly with the evolution of the commercial web. Through nearly 20 years of trial and error—well, not too much error—we observed user behavior and developed website design best practices in the process.
"Best practices" has generally included allowing for some redundancy in navigation to accommodate the fact that some people are more text-oriented while others respond better to images. We felt that providing more ways to get to the right content was better than a minimalist approach. The web was young and people were finding their way.
Accenture's website is a classic example of detailed navigation. In order to provide their visitors with as much information as possible, on this page they have a top navigation menu, a secondary one with four pages explaining their services, and an additional third one listing all of the services (which is also, in itself, a separate left-hand menu).
Simplifying the Navigation Process
We're seeing a movement toward simplicity these days. As websites have increased in complexity, users have become correspondingly sophisticated. Where we used to need to go out of our way to devise multiple paths to make sure users could find things, we're finding now that less is more.
Providing less choices or less levels of navigation, while making it potentially more necessary to explore, appears less daunting for users who are less likely to indulge cascading or redundant navigation.
Yes, I Said Yes is a modern video production company. Their site features a fixed left-hand navigation menu with four items, but requires you to scroll through the site to find their information and work.
Apple uses a navigation menu with no drop-downs; a rarity for an e-commerce site that wants to feature its products. Instead of pinpointing the one product you want, Apple directs you to a general overview page that allows for further exploration.
Categories: Web / Interactive
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 1:05 PM | No Comments
16 August 2011
From amazon.com to the Harvard Business Review: How B2B websites are becoming more B2C
It's exciting to see the world of possibilities open up for B2B websites. In the past, B2B sites have often been "brochure-ware," with predictable, one-size-fits-all content presented in a static drill-down hierarchy. One had to look at consumer sites, like amazon.com to understand the concept of a "user-driven" experience. Since website users were often transacting business, consumer sites innovated new ways to capture and keep their audiences, like amazon.com did with personalization.
B2B Websites Grow Up
Happily, B2B websites have entered a new phase of greater audience sophistication, and with it comes higher expectations on web designers and marketers to create meaningful interactive experiences to which even a consumer audience would respond.
Harvard Business Review
Take a look at the Harvard Business Review website, www.hbr.org. Ignoring for a moment the busyness of the graphic design, this venerable publication has created a content-driven experience that is constantly changing in ways that will encourage people to return often.
For example, they've adopted the idea of serving up content by popularity so that visitors know what peers value. Their "Most Read/Most Commented" area encourages and perpetuates interactivity.
Siemens
Siemens is another B2B site doing a good job of building an online brand, not just selling stuff; www.siemens.com is an impressively simple, spare experience for such a large, complex company.
They present a collection of high production value videos that show how seamlessly Siemens is integrated into people's lives. Not only are these videos captivating, each is tagged with social bookmarks enabling one to comment on Twitter or Facebook, and see who else has commented.
IDEO
IDEO, a product design and innovation company, uses their B2B website as a canvas for experimentation, inviting visitors to see not only their high ticket work, but the process of experimentation — not always the successful kind — that precedes their polished work.
For example, they've created a separate microsite, "IDEO Labs" in order to share the often-messy process of innovation and creative thinking. IDEO Labs maintains a blog-like format that encourages commenting.
B2B Websites are Becoming Content-driven
What these evolving B2B websites have in common is that they are content-driven experiences, with content that delivers on both a corporate/informational and a personal/emotional level, the latter of which is relatively new territory for B2B. I'll be talking more about usability in B2B websites in future posts.
Have you seen any great B2B websites lately?
Categories: Web / Interactive
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 11:29 AM | 2 Comments
11 August 2011
Happy Birthday World Wide Web and RainCastle's Childhood Photos
This past Saturday marked the 20th birthday of the first ever website, which was, well, a text page with many links explaining the World Wide Web.
Not exactly a designer's dream.
But WWW, we are proud to wish you a happy birthday in thanks for the many things you've brought our way.
If you want some fun, visit the Way Back Machine to see how your website has changed in the past 20 years.
Here's a look back at how RainCastle has grown:
1997
2001
2003
Today
Stay tuned for a deeper look at how B2B websites are becoming more like B2C.
Categories:
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 10:20 AM | No Comments
09 August 2011
Copywriting For the Web Part 3: How To Write to Your Audience
After examining Parts 1 and 2 of Copywriting for the Web: the three C's and five great examples of writing for the web, it's time to concentrate on addressing the right people.
The first step in finding your followers, is to question…
What is the mission of your website?
Examine your company's mission and branding and how they are supported by the website: what do you want to accomplish with your site?
Here are some possibilities:
- Exciting visitors about your mission, approach, and impact
- Informing visitors about your expertise, activities, and achievements
- Inspiring visitors to explore the ways they can participate, contribute, and benefit
- Attracting visitors to your services
You want them to think and act, and come away with a basic understanding of your company and it's mission.
Next, think…
Who are your audiences?
Before you sit down to crank out what is sure to be fantastic website copy after this 3-part series, you need to identify the types of people who will visit your site. These could be:
- Potential clients/customers
- Prospective team members
- Industry professionals
- Investors or board members
Try to do a little research and check web traffic analytics to see the kinds of people coming to your site, what pages they're visiting most and the bounce rate of each page. This will give you a general idea of what kind of content they're looking for and who they are, which will enable you to tailor your writing to them. Which leads us to…
What do your audiences want?
Understanding your audiences' motivation will give you insight on how to approach them. Consider:
- What motivates them?
- Why should they care?
- What will they gain?
Think about why you visit certain websites and what you hope to take away from them, and then pair this knowledge with the traffic research you've done and look for the consistencies. Then, consider what do they want in relation to…
What do you want them to do?
This is the ultimate goal of your website: aligning your audience with what you would like them to do. Is it about lead generation? Building a community? Gaining customers? Your writing should build on a consistent theme of action; if not, you run the risk of it serving only as a brochure.
Taking these steps will help you create content that is aimed at providing for your audience. However, it is always important to remember that while the visitor's actions may be fairly consistent, you should always:
Speak to one person.
The diversity among readers is often overlooked when it comes to marketing copy. There is no "one size fits all" approach, and writing copy that implies a generic reader will be of little value. When writing, make sure to address this by tailoring your voice to the individual.
So go forth with quality content, tailored messaging, sharp writing and an eye for the individual, and create fantastic copy for your website.
Categories:
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 9:50 AM | No Comments
Previous Entries
