Google Analytics remains the most powerful suite of tools for measuring and tracking online performance. However, it requires considerable expertise and study to master. Most of those who use Google Analytics have only passing familiarity with its true capabilities, and most are self-taught, which while admirable, leaves a great deal uncovered. By undergoing official training through the Google Analytics Academy, Matt was able to engage in lessons from true experts, including those developed by Justin Cutroni (Google’s own self-styled Analytics Evangelist).

Google Analytics Academy is the search engine giant’s education arm, offering the Digital Analytics Fundamentals course. Matt completed the course and earned his certification after mastering topics that included building an effective measurement plan, actionable data collection best practices, understanding key digital measurement concepts and analysis techniques, and understanding Google Analytics reports for digital marketing performance evaluation.
The course consists of six units total, followed by a final assessment:

• The initial course overview
• Getting started with digital analytics
• Understanding and using Google Analytics data
• Collecting actionable data with Google Analytics
• Navigating Google Analytics reports
• Navigating Conversions reports

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Only those who pass the course with at least 80% are able to earn their certification, and the subject matter is no cakewalk. However, Google has implemented some interesting ways for learners to both personalize the process and learn through interaction. The course includes several different Google Hangouts with other professionals, and video lesson delivery for greater engagement in learners (the first unit alone consists of 22 different videos, ranging up to 10 minutes each).

Again, heart-felt congratulations to Matt on his certification!

The post Celebration – Matt Dandurand Passes and Receives Google Analytics Academy Certification appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/?p=2852 2015-12-07T21:39:11Z 2014-01-31T17:10:23Z
Our very own Art Director & CTO, Luke Swenson, was able to catch up with Steve Portigal at the Los Angeles User Experience Meetup & IxDA organized by Crystal Ehrlich. Steve was able to give us (and you, our readers) … Read More →
The post Is User Research Is Important? Expert Steve Portigal Says So appeared first on Media Contour.
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Our very own Art Director & CTO, Luke Swenson, was able to catch up with Steve Portigal at the Los Angeles User Experience Meetup & IxDA organized by Crystal Ehrlich. Steve was able to give us (and you, our readers) a great deal of information about user research, and if you’re not sure just how important that research really is, his interview is more than worth a few minutes of your time.

User research is probably one of the least understood aspects of business, particularly when it comes to user design, or even product value and utility. Steve points out that just because you can make something, that doesn’t immediately mean that it’s worth making. Does it answer the needs or problem of the ultimate end user? That’s one thing that user research excels at doing – ferreting out the answers to questions like “how does it help our users” and “what need does it fill for our users”. User design is, after all, about the users.

View the full article on UXmag.com

Steve was very direct in his answers, especially on some of the most important topics out there today, and happily expanded on several vital points. Quite a few questions abound on exactly what types of user research even exist – Steve managed to pack a lot of information into his response. He was also particularly enlightening on when you should invest in user research.

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If you’d like to read the entire interview with Steve Portigal, you can catch it over at UX Magazine. You should also make sure to check out Steve’s book, Interviewing Users: How to Uncover Compelling Insights. Not only is it a great read, but it’s very illuminating when it comes to really digging into how to interview users and conduct research while asking the right kinds of questions.

The post Is User Research Is Important? Expert Steve Portigal Says So appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/?p=2685 2014-02-03T18:45:26Z 2014-01-17T01:28:08Z
We are back in the saddle and ready to tackle the New Year and new challenges. As we refresh our skills and set our personal and business priorities for 2014, we thought we’d check in with some of our industry … Read More →
The post Media Contour asks Design and UX Leaders – What are you Reading?   appeared first on Media Contour.
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We are back in the saddle and ready to tackle the New Year and new challenges. As we refresh our skills and set our personal and business priorities for 2014, we thought we’d check in with some of our industry peers and experts.

We asked industry insiders what they are reading and what books they recommend.  Take a look at what other design and UX gurus have on their desks, and make your own reading list.

Not all of the recommendations are industry related; we do have outside interests and know you do too.  We would love to hear your book/reading recommendations in the comments!

Our contributors:

Susan Weinschenk – Weinschenk Institute
Nir Eyal – Nir & Far
Whitney Quesenbery – A Web for Everyone
Dan Klyn – The Understanding Group
Chris Noessel – Cooper
Jod Kaftan – BLITZ
Lane Halley – The Apprentice Path
Hilary Bienstock – Hilary User Experience
Fabian Geyrhalter – FINIEN
Sarah Dzida – Sarah Dzida interactive Design
Steve Portigal – Portigal Consulting
Kai Gradert – Cheers/HingeHeads
Alberta Soranzo – Head UX & Strategy UCLA, Co-organizer LA-UX
Cara Quinn – Model/iOS Developer
Eric Reiss – FatDUX’s




Susan Weinschenk

Weinschenk Institute

What are you currently reading?  Or what did you recently finish?
 Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I just finished Erasing Death. It’s’ about the science and policy of bringing people back to life through resuscitation techniques after cardiac arrest. It’s a fascinating book on several levels — the science of how they do it, the questions about what is consciousness that it raises.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
Next up is: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People by Mahzarin R. Banaji, Anthony G. Greenwald (Hardcover). I’ve heard it’s good.

What is your favorite book and why?  What are the key takeaways?
My favorite book? Well, I read a lot so this is hard…. but probably I would say Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. He explains two major kinds of thinking — System 1 thinking, which is intuitive, fast, easy and System 2 thinking, which is effortful, difficult. We walk around most of the time in System 1 mode, and that explains a lot of our behavior!




Nir Eyal

Nir & Far
Author of “Hooked: A Guide to Building Habit-Forming Technology.”

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
The last book I finished and would recommend is The Success Equation by Michael J. Mauboussin. The book does a masterful job of answering the question of when success is a mater of luck versus skill and what to do about it.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
Principles by Ray Dalio, it was highly recommended to me by a friend

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

Though it’s hard to claim a favorite, Influence by Robert Cialdini is a classic introduction into the psychology of persuasion and a major influence on my current work — studying how technologies form our habits. I am also a big fan of Kevin Kelly’s What Technology Wants, an elegant and convincing exploration of the deterministic nature of innovation.




Whitney Quesenbery

A Web for Everyone

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
Lately my reading has been split between research reports and fiction in a search for balance.

The research reports are looking across disciplines for insights into better civic and election design, from voter guides to ballots. Everything from political science to cross-cultural communications, and work on forms, typography, security, accessibility.

Amy Tan, NoViolet Bulawayo, David Eggers, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Neil Gaiman loom large on my fiction list. All different, they all seem to be books that explore how we make our place in the world.

I just finished reading Chris Nodder’s Evil By Design and re-reading B.J. Fogg’s Persuasive Design. It’s interesting to think about when we want to be overtly persuasive, and how we can make an interaction engaging while remaining neutral on the choice of actions someone might take.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
My guilt pile is so large that I don’t dare admit how many books are waiting for me to actually read them all the way through. Instead, I graze when I have some free time or when I’m searching for something specific.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?
These days, my favorite book has to be A Web for Everyone…because I wrote it (with Sarah Horton) and so happy that it will finally be available to everyone in January.

We wanted to make accessibility a little more, well, accessible, and show how doing good UX leads to web sites, mobile apps and everything in between that work for everyone, no matter how they interact with the web. The same principles that apply to designing for a diversity of devices are useful for designing for a diversity of people. The UX fundamentals, including easy interaction, helpful wayfinding, clear presentation, and plain language all make our work have a clearer purpose and delight the audience.

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Dan Klyn

The Understanding Group

What are you currently reading?  Or what did you recently finish?
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I AM A MONUMENT. I’ve been on a Venturi / Scott Brown kick for the last year or so and have read every monograph on and critical study of this husband-wife architecture team’s landmark book Learning From Las Vegas that I can get my hands on.  Most of them are written by and for folks whose primary job is reading difficult monographs.  Not so with I AM A MONUMENT.  If like me you’ve been alternately charmed and baffled by Venturi and Scott Brown’s Ducks and Decorated Sheds theory of meaning and structural form in architecture, and can read just one book on the matter, this is the one.

What’s up next on your reading list?  Why?

Not Even Wrong: A Father’s Journey into the Lost History of Autism – Paul Collins.  I joined a secret Facebook group for dads of kids affected by autism and one of the gents on there recommended it.

What is your favorite book and why?  What are the key takeaways?

The Selected Letters of Oscar Wilde, ed. Sir Rupert Hart-Davis. Wilde was my first literary “true love” – I think the reason why has a lot to do with this book, and not as much with the novels and stories and plays.  As a 17 year old I knew that I loved writing and that I enjoyed reading and that I liked some books much more than others… but had never gotten “meta” before receiving this book as a gift. Turns out that for however great Wilde’s literary works were and are, he approached being alive in the world and interacting with people as his most important artwork, and these letters prove out the brilliance of Wilde’s magnum opus. That’s the key takeaway: evidence and lessons from a life lived as a work of art. This book was also the first publication in English of the entirety of Wilde’s long letter from prison to the man he’d been jailed for loving.




Chris Noessel

Cooper

What are you currently reading?  Or what did you recently finish?
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I celebrate/make up a new winter holiday each year, and this year it’s “Xmas” or a celebration of the letter X, which led me to reading Plato’s Timeaus. Sounds high-falutin’, but turns out it’s equal parts pathetic apology, horrible logic, bad science, dualism, and misogyny. Not what I was expecting. But it does have a charmingly old-world description of the obliquity of the ecliptic that involves the letter X. So there’s that.

On a more professional note, I’m jamming at Cooper on the design of an iPhone app about equipping kids with healthy eating skills, and so I’m just into a book about persuasive design called Nudge. I think I’m a little late to this particular party, and it’s a little breezy for my tastes, but proving a good read nonetheless, and formalizing an increasingly important interaction design toolset.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?

I’m getting back to my series of Design the Future topics for the Cooper blog in 2014, so I’ll be tucking into Don Norman’s book The Design of Future Things to see what he’s said about it.

(Not pictured because I’ll be reading it in dead-tree version…) For the Cooper book club we’re about to read Microinteractions by Dan Saffer, and I’m very much looking forward to sharpening up my thinking on that fit-and-finish aspects of the design I do.

Personally, I’ve had The Horse, The Wheel, and Language recommended to me by someone whose recommendations I trust a great deal, so likely to be opening that during commutes, because it fits well with my interest in understanding major themes about the way the world works.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

The book that counts as my favorite changes, based on any number of things (Work-related? Favorite for teaching? Favorite for laughs? Best-articulated? Most important?) but the one that almost appears somewhere on my desk is a copy of The Book of Probes by Marshall McLuhan and David Carson. Both are probably outdated as far as design thinking fashion, but it’s still a beautiful, indulgent, mind-expanding thing to flip through in the occasional break.




Jod Kaftan

BLITZ

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?

I’m currently reading Just Enough Research by Erica Hall… I would recommend it for its elegant brevity (ability to cut to the chase) and the collection of design research techniques that aim to demystify the aura around research. But mostly it’s the ethos of the book, which seems to say “everyone can do research now.”

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
Seductive Design by Stephen Anderson. It’s hard to find good design writers and he’s definitely one of them. I’ve read his articles and I think he’s a daring and articulate design thinker and is a major contributor to the Pesuasive Design community. I mean his URL is poetpainter.com. I think he’s got a lot to say. I’d be happy with just being a poet.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?
I enjoyed Effective UI. It’s an O’Reily book that really introduces some good thinking around the paradoxical nature of design—how the truth of design can never be defined at the beginning of a project but must only be revealed in the heat of battle, where insights are fresh and contexts take root. It goes beyond this with some interesting concepts like requirements frameworks that still leave open the possibility of emerging truths and so on. Very good read. But my real favorite book is Lolita by Nabokov of course.




Lane Halley

The Apprentice Path

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I read a lot and hardly ever finish one book before I start another. Here are several favorites from the top of the stack.

Evil by Design: Interaction Design to Lead Us Into Temptation by Chris Nodder. The practice of User Experience design requires an understanding people and their motivations. In this well-written book, abundantly illustrated with examples, Chris examines how the seven deadly sins (Pride, Sloth, Gluttony, Anger, Envy, Lust and Greed) form a framework for understanding human behavior and provides 57 design patterns to make the insight actionable. I’m savoring this book a chapter at a time, because I’m taking so many notes about ideas I want to test in my current projects. I do most of my reading on my iPad or Kindle, but I made an exception for this book because It’s beautifully produced and a pleasure to read on paper.

Design for Hackers: Reverse Engineering Beauty by David Kadavy. David is the author of famous and funny blog posts including Why You Hate Comic Sans.

I work with a lot of people who don’t have a design background. When they ask me “what’s an accessible book about design?” I love recommending David’s book because he’s such a clear thinker and good writer. He also has done a great job building a community of learning around this book. You can connect with David and other readers of the book on his Facebook page.

Earlier this year, I also enjoyed jQuery for Designers: A Beginner’s Guide by Natalie MacLees. Natalie is a pillar of our local WordPress community. It’s great to see some of her wisdom captured in print. If you enjoy working through cookbook-style tutorials, and have a basic understanding of css and html, following the chapters of this book will give you a great basic understanding of the mechanics of jQuery for use in your next Web design project. I am grateful to Natalie for making this subject approachable enough I could tackle it in a couple weekends.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
I have a huge stack of technical books I plan to skim or reference in the next year. Here are a couple that I’m reading for fun.

The Year Without pants: WordPress.com and the Future of Work by Scott Berkun. I started getting more interested in WordPress this past year. I’ve been self-hosting my WordPress blog The Apprentice Path since 2010. After attending WordCamp LA in September I started to realize the greater potential of the platform and was impressed with the culture and community that surrounds WordPress. I picked up Scott’s book to learn more about how things work behind the scenes at Automattic. I also had the pleasure of seeing Scott speak at the Warm Gun conference in San Francisco a couple weeks ago. You can see a summary of his talk on his blog.

I’m really excited to see that Mary and Tom Poppendieck have a new book The Lean Mindset: Ask the Right Questions. Everyone who is interested in “Lean Startup” or “Lean UX” or “Lean” anything will do themselves a HUGE favor by going back to the source and reading Mary and Tom’s writings about Agile and Lean Software Development.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?
Am I allowed to say “my sketchbook?” What, you mean a PUBLISHED book? Well then

I had to think carefully about which books I’ve read more than once. And then I noticed 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick on the shelf near my desk. This small, lovely and useful book is a collection if thoughts and practices drawn from architecture and relevant to many other disciplines. Sometimes when I am stuck for an idea (or procrastinating!) I flip it open at random and find just the answer I need.

Best wishes for the New Year, and Keep Reading!




Hilary Bienstock

Hilary User Experience

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I just finished reading The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. An engaging historical adventure novel, although I was a little disappointed that it didn’t include more about the science behind it all since it really is the profile of a scientist. Two other books I really enjoyed recently were Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, and The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
I have some books to read for my book clubs coming up (I belong to two): Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones, and The Light Between Oceans by M.L Stedman. I don’t know much about either of them, but we all work together to choose books that are well-reviewed with interesting subject matter. I love belonging to book clubs because not only do I get to discuss books with good friends, but I also get to learn about new literature that might not be on my radar otherwise.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?
Honestly, a lot of my favorite books are ones I enjoyed as a child. Rereading them gives me the double pleasure of enjoying a good story and revisiting myself at an earlier age when I first read it — they’re like saying hello to an old friend. Recently I reread two: The Twenty-One Balloons (a fantastical historical adventure) by William de la Pene, and The Westing Game (a fantastic, inventive mystery for young adults and everyone else) by Ellen Raskin. Another favorite book that’s not for children is A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth, whom I consider to be one of the great literary talents of our age — a wide-reaching saga set in India in the 1950s that is very long, but immensely involving. Great for a very long trip, as long as you’re comfortable lugging it around!




Fabian Geyrhalter

FINIEN

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I have strange reading habits. During the day I am glued to my Flipboard to read the content I am interested in and that further educates me in my business. At night I spend an hour plus going through my monthly and weekly magazines, ripping out pages and circling names of people and companies, while scribbling down thoughts and new ideas. It’s quite messy, but inspirational and somehow calming at the same time. The publications I religiously go through are Inc., Fast Company, The New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Graphic Design USA and Bloomberg Businessweek. For the couple of books that find their way in between, they are books that people in my industry are writing that I need to be aware of. I just brushed up again on Marty Neumeier’s Zag, which anyone with a marketing, business or brand interest needs to consume ASAP.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
I just ordered The Alchemist by Paolo Coelho because Pharrel Williams, who is an amazing entrepreneur, listed it as one of his most inspirational books in a recent article I read.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

Of course the book we just published (How to Launch a Brand) really is my favorite as it is our daily bible on how we create brands in our consultancy, but as for the favorite personal book of all time, sadly I believe I am still searching for it. Maybe that will change after reading this post with other’s favorites.




Sarah Dzida

Sarah Dzida interactive Design

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?

I just finished Victor Lombardi’s Why We Fail: Learning From Experience Design Failures. It’s an excellent read because Lombardi digs deeply into the tangled histories of Microsoft Zune, OpenID and other companies to explain why the world didn’t use them. I also think many tech books get caught up in buzzwords and future trends. Lombardi’s book is refreshing in that he’s talking about the past. He has the benefit of hindsight and that gives him a lot of content and context from which to draw.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
Probably Content Strategy for Mobile by Karen McGrane. She won me over in the first few pages by comparing users to readers so I’m pretty excited to read more. I’m also always looking for other UX and visual designers who understand how essential content is to a project.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

This is always a tough question, but one of my favorite books this year was by poet Ryan Ridge. OX just encompasses so many elements I admire about UX design and content strategy because poets are designers on a micro-level. Ridge’s little book is just joy. I think I’ve shared it with everyone. See samples here.

About Me: Sarah Dzida is a UX designer and content strategist for JLR Interactive in Los Angeles. Find her online at twitter.com/dthroughz.




Steve Portigal

Portigal Consulting

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I just finished The Best American Noir of the Century by James Ellroy. It’s a massive tome but wow, did I enjoy it. The book presents noir as a narrative aesthetic more than a visual aesthetic and traces it through, well, a century. I especially enjoyed the stories from the forties through the sixties, where they reminded me of film noir I’ve enjoyed but in such a different format. So much of the book was violent but it was the darkness of the soul that was really impactful.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
The Connected Company by Dave Gray. I’m fascinated by Dave and his way of thinking about the world. He seems to be ahead of the curve in a lot of areas and his thinking about how the working world is changing seems like something I should delve into so I can be better at what I do.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?
This is a tough one. I’m going to say Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. For me it’s about books (or any piece of art or communication) that connect with me at a certain point in my life. Fear and Loathing reveals a profoundly different way of looking at the world and it came to me at a point where I was ready to be shown that; the day I sat and read that book marked a dividing line in my life and how I approached what was around me; while none of my takeaways were at all actually from the book itself (no lizards or drug-fueled paranoia), the occasion of reading the book – where I was sitting, how I was feeling, what was going on in my life, everything – opened up the world for me.

Steve Portigal, Principal of Portigal Consulting and author of Interviewing Users.




Kai Gradert

Cheers/HingeHeads
https://twitter.com/kaigradert

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish?
 Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
The $100 Startup by Chris Guillebeau. Startups have become part of the American Culture, but a lot of people still have the idea of traditional fund raising and business plans. This book follows the story of different entrepreneurs bootstrapping their (ad)ventures. It’s a very light and quick read. I read this one on a one week bicycling trip down the California coast. This book won’t get you into business school, but it will show you real alternatives of how to start a business. The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. I read this one earlier this year. This is a tricky one. There are some methods in the The Lean Startup that are worth knowing if you are part of a startup — either working at a startup or running your own startup. Eric Ries provides tools that will hopefully help you make better decisions early, but it’s important to keep an open mind when reading this book. It’s a recommended book but keep in mind that every startup is different and what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for all.

What’s up next on your reading list?
 Why?
I always have a few books queued up. Some on my Kindle and some in paper format. Some big and some small. I tend to get books for different reasons. Here are a few that are queued up: Age of Context by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. There is a shift happening in technology from Personal to Mobile to Wearable Computing. Along with this there is a shift to contextual computing and awareness. More and more devices are context and state aware, and it will change how we interact and experience technology. As user experience designer I always try to keep up and stay ahead of technology waves. Context aware computing will have a big impact on the user experience. Just keeping up with what’s happening around us. Autobiography of a Yogi by by Paramahansa Yogananda. Not sure when I will read this, but it’s sitting on my desk. I practice Bikram yoga myself and Steve Jobs was a big influence and personality throughout my design career, so I figured I should at least check this one out. The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial by Paul Bogard. We find inspiration in different things. For me, this year I got back into photography, among others into Astro and Timelapse Photography. I have spent a great deal looking at the night sky this year, and when you are out in nature you realize how much we are missing out. There is so much light pollution from our cities, that some people have never experienced natural darkness. It’s fascinating and inspiring. Researching the night sky online lead me to this book. I got the hard copy edition so I can read it anywhere. I have not opened it, but I am looking forward reading it. Design Is a Job by Mike Monteiro. I am waiting for the hardcopy on this one. I am a fan of the A Book Apart series. They have created a niche of valuable content packaged in a compact format. I have read all of their books and I am looking forward to this one. I have no expectations yet, but I always enjoy hearing and reading about insights from other designers.

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What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

I don’t know if I have one favorite book, but here are two that stood out over the years: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene. I have read this book twice after I moved to the US from Germany. During that time I would often pick up random books at the book store (yes I said book store) to help me with my English. The 48 Laws of Power was one of the books I picked up. It looked promising and I liked that you don’t have to read it in a linear fashion. You can read it asynchronous as you like. As a designer and entrepreneur I am fascinated by the psychology of power and decision making. CSS Mastery by Andy Budd (2006). This book is outdated by today’s CSS standards, but it was one of the books that really made it all click for me. I already knew all the fundamentals of CSS, but it wasn’t until reading CSS Mastery that I fully grasped some of the deeper thinking that goes into CSS. I don’t know if there is an updated version, but it’s worth mentioning that sometimes it’s a good idea to just pick up a book even if you think you already know all the fundamentals. Sometimes you just need a book to tie it all together for you.




Alberta Soranzo

Co-organizer of the Los Angeles User Experience Meetup
http://twitter.com/albertatrebla

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish?
 Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
I recently finished the revised edition of Don Norman’s The Design of EverydayThings originally written twenty-five years ago, it remains an important primer on design and interaction. Revised to cover new concepts, trends and
innovation, the new edition remains a pleasant and fun read while covering the key areas of user centered design. Chapter two is particularly fascinating in that it explores and clarifies beyond doubt how emotions affect experience, processing of and interaction with the things we design. I would definitely recommend it as one of the fundamentals of our practice.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
Next on my reading list is The Circle by Dave Eggers. Being a science and dystopian societies fiction fan (think 1984, Fahrenheit 451 and Snowcrash), I approach this book with a certain trepidation. The idea of reading something that continues in that glorious tradition is terribly appealing, but the risk for disappointment is pretty high. Eggers, in his not-so-subtle references to Google and its evil plans to acquire all of the world’s data, seems to want to capitalize on our inner conspiracy theorists a bit, but his writing is so good that I have no problem with it. Amazon describes the book as “What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge.” — what’s not to like? Winter break reading, here I come!

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

I have several favorite books, but one of my top-five has to be Little Golden America, a mostly unknown book first published in the Soviet Union in 1936. Written by two Russian humorists, Ilf and Petrov, it’s the factual description of a trip the two took through the US in 1935. America is seen through their eyes in a dispassionate description of what they encountered during their trip: great roads, the enormous technological advance that America had over the USSR and the helpful and honest people they’ve met. It also portrays the frivolity of Hollywood, the ridiculous ad campaigns that already were so ubiquitous and highlights the propensity for standardization and conformism.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this book is that despite its age, it continues being current in its depiction of a country the flexibility of which is based on the sense of safety afforded by homogeneity of commercial offerings, the cult of service, and the worship of entrepreneurship. Phenomenally insightful.




Cara Quinn

Model/iOS Developer

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?
While I’ve finished several books in this past month, one in particular stands out to me in regards to UX. It is The Ultimate Introduction to NLP, by Owen Fitzpatrick, Alessio Roberti and Richard bandler. I’ve had some interest in Neuro-Linguistic programming for quite some time and have read quite a bit on the subject. So I thought I would check out this audio version, which turned out to be quite well done. I mention this book as I feel that many of the ideas behind its content really resonate with the concepts of good UX. One point which is quite important in NLP is the concept of representational systems, which are modes of thinking and communication between people. (auditory, visual, kinesthetic etc) Obviously taking these systems into account can greatly increase how your site, app, product or service is received, understood and used by people. So, I’d recommend this book for anyone who would like not only an introduction to Neuro-Linguistic programming, and a study of ideas such as the above, but also because this book might inspire you in your UX work.

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
The next book on my list is The Science of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Michael Hanlon. Although it would sound way cool and sexy if I said I had some deep and meaningful reason for reading this book next, the truth is that I don’t. I’m a huge Douglas Adams fan and have recently been catching up on the material released after his passing as well as material produced about his writings. The above is part of the later. While the Hitchhiker’s Guide series may be familiar to many, and the humorously ‘outlandish’ sci-fi scenarios may stand out in reader’s minds, the fact is that with our current studies and explorations of ideas such as quantum entanglement and superposition, our concepts of what reality is and how it works really do seem to take a step closer to making some of what may have been thought of as outlandish before, seem not quite so absurd. Frankly, not only does this inspire me but it sure does make me smile. So I’m soooo looking forward to reading this one and seeing what the author brings to mind.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?
Lastly, as for my favorite book; this is quite simply impossible for me to say at the moment. I could offer some glib answer such as ‘my favorite book is the one I read last,’ but I won’t put y’all through that sort of thing. I’ve given this a bit of thought and while I’ve read many books just of late that have very much moved me in different ways, I thought I’d suggest one that really has inspired me to read much of what I am reading today. The book is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. A teacher gave audio copies of this book to a class I’d attended a few years ago and I was amazed at how much insight this book had to offer. Quite frankly it is one of the best books I’ve ever read and I am eternally thankful to the teacher who recommended and shared it with my classmates and me. So I would like to do the same. Not only has this book made me think and opened my mind in several ways, but it has also greatly helped me in my UX work. Yes, there is a lot of common sense in the book and it is presented in some quite refreshing ways. As a quick example, Mr. Carnegie relates a story of fishing. He mentions that though he personally loves strawberries and cream, he would not offer this to the fish he is trying to catch. While he may love strawberries and cream, the fish love worms. You may have certain things in mind for your site, app product or service; remember that your customers may have something completely different that they want or need. It’s a simple and great thought to keep in mind. With that I’ll simply recommend this book to you. There have been several releases of this one and the revision that I was introduced to was one that Carnegie’s wife updated. I believe this is the latest revision, though I cannot be sure. I hope you enjoy the book and that it does inspire you as it has, me.




Eric Reiss

FatDUX

What are you currently reading? Or what did you recently finish? 
Would you recommend it and Why/Why not?

I tend to have several books going at once, so this isn’t a particularly easy question. However, the two books that did leave me with a feeling that I’d learned something were Jakob Nielsen and Raluca Budiu’s Mobile Usability (New Riders, 2013), and James Robertson’s Essential Intranets (Step Two Designs, 2013).
 The Nielsen/Budiu book was good because it gave us a snapshot of current usability problems as they relate to small-screen devices. The downside, though, is that their recommendations were not particularly generic in character, which means that this book will soon go out of date as technology develops – haptic technology in particular. But if you are working on small-screen apps or responsive design, you should really take a look at this book. James Robertson of Sydney, Australia, is truly the world’s leading authority on intranets. This self-published book (his second) provides an amazingly insightful journey behind the firewall. That James has access to so many important intranets is in itself amazing. But it is very much to his credit that his clients have allowed both their failures and successes to be showcased in this brilliant book. If you still think the key draws of any company intranet are the employee directory and the lunch menu, think again. Ignore this book at your peril!

What’s up next on your reading list? Why?
On a recent trans-Atlantic flight, I practically inhaled Bill Bryson’s One Summer: America, 1927. This is absolutely one of my favorite historical periods. Bryson got me thinking about how history repeats itself – and suddenly, I see clear parallels between events of the 20s’ and those taking place in our industry today. I used to be a voracious reader. But how many of us actually give ourselves the time to just stare into space and think? So, with the holidays coming up and an exceptional opportunity to put Bryson’s observations into a different perspective. That said, I am thinking of reading The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry by Kenneth Bilby – if I can get hold of a copy before Christmas.

What is your favorite book and why? What are the key takeaways?

I am a tremendous fan of Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth, which just celebrated its 50th anniversary in print. Although it ostensibly is a “children’s book”, “Tollbooth” actually has powerful messages for all generations. Describing the creative awakening of a complacent, bored, big city boy, Milo, The Phantom Tollbooth could just as easily be describing today’s Generation Y. The key takeaway is that things are rarely as they appear to be – and that each and every one of us has an opportunity to change the world. And I absolutely adore G. Cabrera Infante’s Three Trapped Tigers, which is for me one of the most exquisitely well-written stories I have ever encountered. I may reread this over the holidays, too.

The post Media Contour asks Design and UX Leaders – What are you Reading?   appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/?p=2531 2015-12-07T21:44:30Z 2013-10-01T18:40:44Z
The LA UX Meetup on August 15 was just as much a lesson in psychology as it was an insight into user experiences and web design. The Los Angeles web design community was lucky enough to learn from Dr. Susan … Read More →
The post Dr. Susan Weinschenk On How To Get People To Do Stuff, Pt. 1 appeared first on Media Contour.
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The LA UX Meetup on August 15 was just as much a lesson in psychology as it was an insight into user experiences and web design. The Los Angeles web design community was lucky enough to learn from Dr. Susan Weinschenk as she discussed her new book “How to Get People to Do Stuff“. However, the night was not a shameless plug for her book but instead it was a thorough explanation of her researched and studied seven drivers of motivation. The Media Contour team conducted a pre-show interview with Dr. Weinschenk focusing on user experience and marketing. Here’s what the team discovered:

1.) Seven Drivers of Motivation: “Some are more powerful than others”

“Really it depends on who are the people, what is the situation, the context and what it is you want them to do,” begins Dr. Weinschenk when asked which of the seven drivers is most important in targeting key demographics. She continues by explaining how it is wise to not use all seven of the motivators in one design, “We can start filtering out the ones that probably are not going to be real effective and the ones that are going to be the most powerful.”

2.) Strongest Driver for Online (One-Directional) Conversations

Dr. Weinschenk proposes these important questions for web designers to consider when creating content that will convert users into buyers, “Who is it that you’re trying to get to do stuff? What is it that they want to do? So the website example, they’re coming to the website for a reason. What is their reason for coming? What is your reason, what do you want them to do and what is the reason for that as the owner of the website? Because often those things don’t match.” She used an apartment finding website as an example to detail how the seven drivers can influence the browser to register information with the website. She explains how there is always a moment when the user is on a certain page and it is then up to the web designer to have the right information on this page; it seems to follow the right place, right time principle.

3.) The Usefulness of the 30 Day Free Trial

“In general it is a good idea, there are a lot of reasons it would be a good idea. For example, reciprocity, right? You’re giving me something for free and therefore I will feel, unconsciously, somewhat indebted to you to do something about it, to do something with it. But that only works if I consider it valuable, right? I think what happens is that some people sign up for thirty day trials but they don’t really want it,” Dr. Weinschenk said. Sometimes a thirty day trial can be effective but for users it is mostly just a “going through the motions” type of thought and something they may not remember signing up for later. Social validation, “to do what other people are doing”, Weinschenk explains is one of several ways that a thirty day trial can be effective. Let people know how many other people have used the product in the trial version. Another reason people may like thirty day trials is for the sense of progress. They are learning the product. It is important for the web designer to remind users that they have downloaded the product, and how many days they have left — offer sessions to get people to more fully use the trial.

4.) Online Evangelists: Help Get the Word Out!

The biggest driver of motivation to get people to evangelize about your website or topic is the need to belong. Once people feel a connection to your brand and notice that other people feel the same way, then it is possible for them to make everyone else aware of the satisfaction they have in dealing with your business or website. The excitement of the evangelist is also important, how one conveys emotion about a brand. She also noted that people like to pass along new ideas and brands because it makes them feel “smart” or “savvy”.

The MC team learned a wealth of knowledge in the pre-show interview and the presentation only added to the wealth. After the show followed a book signing and allowed guests to further discuss what they learned with Dr. Susan Weinschenk

The Los Angeles web design community sure had a lot to learn and apply after this informational session with Dr. Susan Weinschenk. Many thanks to the LA UX Meetup, Santa Barbara UX Meetup and the UX Book Club of Los Angelesfor hosting Dr. Weinschenk. Also thanks to the venue hosts at Cross Campus in Santa Monica.

If you would like to learn more about the 7 drivers of motivation be sure to check out Dr. Susan Weinschenk’s new book “How to Get People to Do Stuff“. This is her latest book and base for the night’s presentation but it is one of several other great books she has written, give them all a read! Check out our recap of Susan’s presentation (PART 2).

The post Dr. Susan Weinschenk On How To Get People To Do Stuff, Pt. 1 appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/?p=2544 2015-12-10T22:53:52Z 2013-09-28T23:56:16Z
The LA UX Meetup on August 15 was just as much a lesson in psychology as it was an insight into user experiences and web design. The Los Angeles web design community was lucky enough to learn from Dr. Susan … Read More →
The post Dr. Susan Weinschenk On How To Get People To Do Stuff, Pt. 2 appeared first on Media Contour.
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The LA UX Meetup on August 15 was just as much a lesson in psychology as it was an insight into user experiences and web design. The Los Angeles web design community was lucky enough to learn from Dr. Susan Weinschenk as she discussed her new book “How to Get People to Do Stuff“.

In addition to her Ph.D., Dr. Weinschenk has over 30 years of experience in behavioral psychology. She applies the discipline of neuroscience to figure out what it is that makes people tick and why they make the decisions they do. Clients have sought her help to implement plans of better communication and persuasion with customers. She has researched and written about ways to persuade for websites, presentations and many other mediums. The seven drivers of motivation highlighted at this LA UX Meetup were supported by her examples and inspired the web design community in attendance. Let’s take a look at them:

1.) The Power of Stories

“There’s research that shows us that the brain processes information best in story format, people will understand it better, they will remember it longer and they will be most emotionally impacted by the information if it’s in story format,” Weinschenk begins on her first driver of motivation. She notes that this is something most people are already aware of and goes on to explain the other aspect of power in stories, “We have stories that we tell ourselves, we have self-stories.” Self-stories are significant because it is how we communicate ourselves to others. If a company can change an individual’s self-story than it has the power to change that individual’s behavior or buying process. Her example was illustrated through her story about how she was once a PC person and then converted into an Apple person. Her first purchase was an iPod Nano. That caused a “crack” in her self-story of not being an Apple person. Now she was kind of an Apple person, which led to her purchase of the iPhone. Apple was able to change her self-story by getting her to purchase one product and then to purchase another and more. She concluded by saying she now owns an iPad, Macbook and Mac desktop computer and even an Apple TV.

2.) Tricks of the Mind

This second motivator dealt with the unconscious and how we perceive things in daily life. Dr. Weinschenk shared Daniel Kahneman’s categories from his book “Thinking Fast and Slow. There are two types of thinking: ‘system one’ and ‘system two’ thinking. “System One thinking is quick, intuitive…effortless,” explains Dr. Weinschenk, “that’s our normal mode, we walk around all day thinking like this, most of the time.” She then showed a video to display the difference between these two systems of thinking. When you are thinking in a system two mode your eyes tend to dilate because of the heavy, more focused thinking. Another insightful note Dr. Weinschenk presented during this portion was “Most mental processing is unconscious.”

3.) Instincts

This portion was a nice lesson on the different parts of the brain and how they affect behavior. Humans all have three basic instincts: food, sex, and danger, and in order to motivate people to do things; these instincts can be tapped in finding different ways to reach people at a level in which we all share these basic human instincts.

4.) Carrots and Sticks

This motivating factor is based on rewards. She uses an example of how a casino gives rewards to winners, but not every time. She warns, however, that of the seven motivators this is the weakest one, “It’s probably one of the less powerful techniques that I am talking about…use some of these other things, the power of stories, instincts.” She also warns that one should not use punishment because that only discourages, “It’s one of the least effective things you can do,” she said. Rewards are much more beneficial and are more effective in getting more of a behavior than punishment..

5.) The Need to Belong

“We have an inherent need to belong to a group. We want to be social. We want to belong to groups. We are social animals,” Dr. Weinschenk said following a nice display in which she invited seven members from the audience to participate. Each member had a different percussion instrument. At first the sound was the very dissonant but as the group members looked around at each other, the sounds became more synchronous. This is tied to getting people to do stuff through the need to connect. People want to trust each other and the best way to get someone to trust is you is for you to first show them that you trust them. Once trust is established it gives companies and clients the chance to maintain a relationship which can continually improve business.

6.) The Desire of Mastery

This motivator refers to how people like to learn new skills and gain knowledge of new practices. This is a way to motivate people because it allows them to grow and reach new heights and will ultimately benefit them. Clients will become more loyal to your products and services once they see they are progressing in their skills and knowledge with a product. Achieving and learning new things establishes a sense of pride that allows people to brag and talk more about your company.

7.) Habits

The easiest way to create a new habit is to anchor to an existing habit explained Dr. Weinshcenk. New habits can form in less than a week by using this anchoring technique. Breaking things into small steps is important to getting people to develop new habits.

The Los Angeles web design community sure had a lot to learn and apply after this informational session with Dr. Susan Weinschenk. Many thanks to the LA UX Meetup, Santa Barbara UX Meetup and the UX Book Club of Los Angelesfor hosting Dr. Weinschenk. Also thanks to the venue hosts at Cross Campus in Santa Monica.

If you would like to learn more about the 7 drivers of motivation be sure to check out Dr. Susan Weinschenk’s new book “How to Get People to Do Stuff“. This is her latest book and base for the night’s presentation but it is one of several other great books she has written, give them all a read!

For Part 1 of 2, the Susan Weinschenk INTERVIEW click here.

The post Dr. Susan Weinschenk On How To Get People To Do Stuff, Pt. 2 appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Peter Dondlinger https://mediacontour.com/?p=2540 2014-01-10T21:56:10Z 2013-09-18T23:37:18Z
Life has become a science fiction movie. Ok, while that may be a bold claim, current trends in technology have pointed toward a world where humans and machines interact in a fantasy, movie-esque fashion. Screens can now recognize faces and … Read More →
The post The Future of Gesture Recognition Technology appeared first on Media Contour.
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Life has become a science fiction movie. Ok, while that may be a bold claim, current trends in technology have pointed toward a world where humans and machines interact in a fantasy, movie-esque fashion. Screens can now recognize faces and fingerprints and the Google glass project has turned glasses into fully functioning computers. This emerging trend can be better defined as gesture recognition or language technology. Since there are so many devices that now incorporate gestures into the user experience it is vital to ask the questions of where does this take us? and can the movements of humans be patented?

Before we begin the dive into theorizing what the future of gesture recognition technology has in store for all of mankind; we should first explore where these things are most present. The two biggest devices which support this emerging trend of interaction are smart phones and televisions. The blink of an eye, the wave of a hand and much more are ways that humans friend their technology per say. The Google glass, while not so much based off gestures, is important to bring into the discussion because it is the first of its kind; essentially a wearable computer.

Smart Phones

For smart phones it all began with the touch screens. This allowed finger motions such as swipes and taps to become the norm for advancing user experiences. The next step as seen with the latest model of the Samsung Galaxy is the detection of when a user is looking at their phone. The campaign for the Samsung Galaxy S4 includes a commercial which boasts the phone’s ability to pause video when a user looks away. The Galaxy S4 also supports a wide array of touchless gestures where a user can simply shape things over the phone with his or her fingers and the phone responds. This could be the reason behind the heavily-fueled rumor that Apple’s newest iPhone will feature an eyeball recognition locking system. Voice commands, although are not gestures, have become popular with many phone companies as it allows users to be completely hands free regardless of whether the fingers touch the phone or hover above it.

Televisions

In conjunction with its newest Galaxy model Samsung is also spearheading the future of television interaction. Its new SmartTV, as the commercial campaign boasts, can be controlled by voice and hand motions. Simply waving one’s hand in front of the screen in predetermined motions act as a mouse or remote when choosing things on the screen. The voice command can simply be used to shout out the name of desired program. Although this may not necessarily be the first time that a television has had this capability it definitely appears to be the most fluid working.

Google Glass

The Google glass project is still in the early stages as it is not available nationwide in stores yet. The glasses are mostly limited to developers and people who have written Google personally and then Google decided whether to grant the privilege of owning them or not. These go beyond gesture technology because they are wearable and the user doesn’t necessarily even have to make gestures. It is a lens that projects all the information one would want from their phone directly in front of them. Text message, phone call or GPS; the Google glass can do these things easily from a voice command.

Future of Gesture Recognition Technology

The future of this technology is hard to predict because with any technology, it is always changing. The horizon is a little blurry but one can make the assumption that it will only continue to develop and eventually turn into voice command technology. These two have already been integrated together but the point of technology is to be able to use it without thinking about it. Whatever that secret may be is what the future is going to be. Wearable tends to be the forerunner right now with Google glass becoming popular and the rumor of Apple releasing an iWatch next year. It will be interesting to see where technology takes us because it is just as important to remember to stay human. Google has also been talking about making a car and with the Siri integration in others; technology and our phones have entered into every part of our lives. Perhaps there will come a day we will be able to speak things and they will just happen all in part to devices being able to completely understand our meanings.

The post The Future of Gesture Recognition Technology appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Luke Swenson https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/?p=2520 2015-12-07T21:38:20Z 2013-07-11T17:50:25Z
The Los Angeles web design community focused on the future of interaction design last week at Art Center in Pasadena. Two speakers took the stage to discuss what users can expect in the near future for user experience (UX), interaction … Read More →
The post The Future of Interaction Design With Noessel and Hendrie appeared first on Media Contour.
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The Los Angeles web design community focused on the future of interaction design last week at Art Center in Pasadena. Two speakers took the stage to discuss what users can expect in the near future for user experience (UX), interaction and visual design. The first speaker, Maggie Hendrie, is a user experience designer and educator, who is the Chair of Interaction Design at Art Center. She highlighted some student and graduate work from Art Center IxD students to see how social and creativity have become central to their practice. The main speaker of the night was Christopher Noessel (@chrisnoessel) who recently co-authored the book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Sci-Fi. He discussed the relationship of design to science fiction, and how sci-fi continuously inspires people to be more innovative with interaction design. The Media Contour team had the opportunity to sit down and talk with both before the show, here are the main ideas:

Mobile Design and Beyond

The first topic Luke Swenson asked the pair to talk about was what is next after mobile design. He noted an increase in business for website design on a mobile interface but what’s the next big technology that will further improve user interaction?

Chris Noessel is excited about future technologies and began, “I think that the Leap Motion millimeter-wave gesture recognition is going to be super promising. Now that we can read fingers it’s going to get a lot more interesting as far as gesture recognition, and we’ll be able to maybe even sort of meet sci-fi at what sci-fi has been promising for that sort of thing.”

Gesture based technologies sound fun and futuristic but it’s not what Noessel is most excited about. He is interested in eyes. “I am most excited about our eyes because there are two technologies that, I believe, are on the verge of breaking through, that is going to change our experience with technology. One is “gaze monitoring.” It’s been around in art for twenty years.” He then explained the method of how it works, involving infrared LED monitors that triangulate gaze. As a pointer on a screen, this would be far more efficient than a mouse. “I think we’ll be able to relate to computers a lot more when they know where we’re looking, especially given that we’re entering a world of multiple devices, multiple screens, and multiple touch points. Knowing where I’m looking is pretty critical and computers will be able to know that,” said Noessel.

Consumers, Existing and Future Technologies

The discussion of future technologies led to trying to discover how customers will be reached by brands in the coming years. Many references to the Google Glass project were made because of the bridge it has built between mobile interfaces and a eye-projected interface.

Maggie Hendrie began with this important point to consider, “A lot of technologies exist today that we just don’t use. So near frequency, RFID, Bluetooth..you know the fact that we still have so many connectors instead of bluetooth-ing a lot more is kind of untapped but I do agree that the opportunity to have a personalized, visual experience is new for people. People have had the data experience or a promotional experience or a mobile experience but they haven’t had an immersive visual experience outside of gaming and it could naturally focus our attention in a way that our devices used to distract our attention.”

Hendrie theorized another good point after she had brought up the patent case issue between tech-giants Apple and Samsung. The issue was over a patent Apple had made for its “pinch” screen gesture which led to Hendrie asking “What happens when people patent our gestures?” She continued, “There’s an increased understanding of the connection between design innovation and IP creation, right? A lot more people are investing in IP creation, they’re beginning to invest in design innovation.” Her next call was for designers to be conscious of picking the best medium for their work. In science fiction technologies are functioning in an ideal world where the technology in real life is just now being realized. “Again I think that’s going to be the role of designers is choosing the right interactive medium for the desired outcome.”

How Businesses Can Conceptualize Ways to Reach Consumers

The last major idea Luke asked Chris Noessel and Maggie Hendrie to touch points on was how a business can conceptualize ways to use technologies to reach consumers. It may be hard for a client to understand the best way to implement new technologies into marketing efforts and ultimately what will the adoption curve rate be of these new technologies.

Noessel began, “We often ask our clients to do one of two things. One: Imagine its sci-fi…sci-fi is a language in and of itself. For example, imagine it’s in Minority Report, or imagine it’s in Star Wars. That frees them up from the constraints of “what can be done” to what would be awesome? What would be useful?”

Hendrie added that when meeting with clients there are always two big questions to ask and consider. The first question is “What business are you in?” and the second is “What kind of organization are you?” It comes down to what kind of opportunities are available to your type of organization.

Conclusion

The round table interview ended on a positive note with many delightful insights on the future of technology as a business tool. Many thanks to Art Center in Pasadena and Jon Fox and Petra Wennberg Cesario of NorthEast LA User Experience (NELAUX) group who made it possible to interview Maggie Hendrie and Chris Noessel.

Christopher Noessel’s new book Make It So: Interaction Design Lessons from Sci-Fi is available on (http://rosenfeldmedia.com/books/make-it-so/)

The post The Future of Interaction Design With Noessel and Hendrie appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/?p=2524 2014-01-17T19:58:38Z 2013-06-08T17:55:07Z
Last month’s Los Angeles User Experience Meetup event regarding Taxonomy offered the Media Contour team an excellent opportunity to learn about and develop a better understanding of website taxonomy. Media Contour had the chance to conduct a pre-show interview with … Read More →
The post Taming Taxonomy Interview with Jessica DuVerneay and Alberta Soranzo appeared first on Media Contour.
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Last month’s Los Angeles User Experience Meetup event regarding Taxonomy offered the Media Contour team an excellent opportunity to learn about and develop a better understanding of website taxonomy. Media Contour had the chance to conduct a pre-show interview with speakers Jessica DuVerneay and Alberta Soranzo.

Jessica DuVerneay is an information architect at the Understanding Group. Alberta Soranzo is both the manager of user experience and strategy at the UCLA Center for Health Policy and Research and senior information architect at the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. They are both highly regarded in the fields of information architecture and user experience. Below are excerpts from the interview which cover the main ideas of their presentation.

Why Add Taxonomy to a Website

The first major topic of discussion focused on the core definition of taxonomy in the context of website design.

JESSICA DUVERNEAY: The first thing I want to say is that it’s not something you just add to your project. It’s not like if you get this service you should get this service too, and if you get wireframes, you might as well get functional specs. At least that’s the way that I look at it. It’s like, is it even a problem? For some clients it may not be a problem. If you’re working in a really small property and your language is very clear, very domain specific or there’s industry standards that are really easy to follow, not everybody needs a taxonomy. It is more for you know the thing that I’m seeing, why it’s really relevant right now is because so many people are taking their old kind of main site and they are trying, they are realizing that the strategy of creating 15 micro-sites each time they have a new launch or a new iteration of a product. It has not been serving them well because they have confusing language. Something is called a shirt over here, it is called a blouse over here. You can’t track SEO events. And really, I mean if you are going to look at it from a high level taxonomy, it just gives you an agreed upon structure that increases learnability and the findability of the your content on your website. That is the high level answer.

“Something is called a shirt over here, it is called a blouse over here. You can’t track SEO events.” Jessica Duverneay

Practices of Taxonomy

The second major topic allowed for the team to distinguish between the traditional meaning of the word taxonomy and the meaning of how it is used for websites. Here we learn that taxonomy is inherent of its company culture.

ALBERTA SORANZO: I think it is tricky because we use the word ‘taxonomy’ which is a scientific word. And so if you look at taxonomies in science, you think of taxonomy as a categorization. That is generally how people understand it. In sciences the categorization of things is relatively simple because we construct families and you can easily place objects in one group rather than another. When we think of a taxonomy for a website, we deal with meaning and perception, which are highly subjective concepts. Which is why research—reviewing existing taxonomies, keyword research, user and vernacular research, is crucial to building a meaningful taxonomy. The goal, when building taxonomies, is to essentially identify and outline a consensus of meanings.

Taxonomy As a Service

The third significant topic discussed was how taxonomy is provided as a service. Understanding taxonomy as a step in the website design process supports the practice and reason for it in the first place.

JESSICA DUVERNEAY: We have had clients come to us and say we need a taxonomy. “When our team is writing an article they are using eight different words for the same thing in the article titles and it is really confusing to our consumers.” My consultancy never really try to sell taxonomy. Clients come to us with their problems and we say here are the activities that we can do to mitigate these issues. So somebody comes to us and they do not know what to label things. We have all these different things and they are called different things in different places. We are like, oh, it sounds like you might need some taxonomy work then it is our job to do the burden of proof — here is why this is a problem and here is a case study where this has helped a client in the past.

This pre-show interview was the perfect lead into this beginning / mid level practitioner-focused event. A case study was presented to provide an example of how to create and implement a successful taxonomy. A tool demo and peer to peer learning activity provided the chance for audience members to learn through application. The speakers and the audience members acted as one in the peer to peer learning group to help fully realize everything taxonomy has to offer for a website. Overall it was an excellent opportunity for the members of the Los Angeles Web Design Community to learn about taxonomy. Many thanks to Jessica DuVerneay and Alberta Soranzo and the The Los Angeles User Experience Meetup. A stream of the event can be found here: http://vimeo.com/66485666.

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]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/blog/?p=1819 2014-01-17T19:27:27Z 2013-05-01T11:00:36Z
Internet marketing trends change from year to year. Sometimes these fast changes leave Internet marketers and small brick and mortar businesses alike scrambling to catch up. Here’s the good news. Although 2013 is nearly half over, there’s still time to … Read More →
The post 5 Internet Marketing Trends for 2013 You Can’t Ignore appeared first on Media Contour.
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Internet marketing trends change from year to year. Sometimes these fast changes leave Internet marketers and small brick and mortar businesses alike scrambling to catch up. Here’s the good news. Although 2013 is nearly half over, there’s still time to implement these five internet marketing trends you don’t want to miss out on.

1. Responsive Website Design

People visit websites from a wide range of different devices. Your site needs to be accessible to as many of these viewers as possible no matter how they’re accessing your site. In other words, you need a site that flows seamlessly for people viewing on laptops, desktops, tablets, notebooks, netbooks, and mobile phones alike. That’s what responsive website design is all about, creating a site that’s friendly on all platforms. Today, it’s not a nice-to-have feature, it’s a must have.

2. Email Marketing/Remarketing

Email remarketing is one of the Internet marketing trends for 2013 that business owners from all industries can get excited about. An important component of it is contacting people who have allowed website shopping carts to expire by not taking the final steps to make the purchase. It lets your audience know you care to hear why they didn’t make the purchase to begin with. It also helps you shore up areas of concern for customers so they’re confident enough to buy from you in the future. Start off with email marketing. Launch an email campaign and publish an email newsletter to develop a relationship with your existing and prospective customers and make your email remarketing more effective.

3. Content and More Content

Of course, a voluminous amount of content alone is not enough. You need high-quality, high-value content that is relevant to your area of business, or niche, if you’re going to really capitalize on the benefit it can provide. A content management system is a great tool to help you “feed” your website with timely and regular content and is one of the most valuable of the internet marketing trends.

4. Smarter Social Media Strategy

Social media is constantly evolving. While you may be using social media, are you using it to your full advantage to capitalize on internet marketing trends for 2013? Do you have a plan and social media strategy in place? A smart social media strategy includes social listening, engagement, call to actions, advertisements and measurement. A solid social media strategy for businesses that is reassessed every year, and not just for 2013, is a wise plan for all businesses operating on the Internet today.

5. Mobile Strategy

Just as social media is growing in prominence and importance as a marketing tool, so is the usage of mobile devices by the population at large. In fact, 24 percent of Google traffic in the fourth quarter of 2012 came from mobile devices. Those numbers are only going to grow in 2013. The current worldwide audience of subscribing smartphone users is 1.1 billion people. That’s a huge market to miss out on if you don’t have a mobile website.

If you aren’t keeping up with these Internet marketing trends your business could suffer in 2013 and beyond. Now is the time to reassess your Internet marketing strategy to be sure you’re embracing the changing way the world does business today.

The post 5 Internet Marketing Trends for 2013 You Can’t Ignore appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/blog/?p=1807 2014-01-10T21:56:58Z 2013-04-23T11:00:47Z
Businesses today need every competitive edge they can get. In today’s fast-paced world, a mobile website is the very edge you need in order to remain competitive, much less get ahead of your competitors. More and more people are making … Read More →
The post Is a Mobile Website a must in 2013? Move it or lose it? appeared first on Media Contour.
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Businesses today need every competitive edge they can get. In today’s fast-paced world, a mobile website is the very edge you need in order to remain competitive, much less get ahead of your competitors. More and more people are making the move to mobile services for fast access to information and for making purchases. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, then you’re leaving money on the tables for other businesses in your field to come in and swoop up.

Unprecedented Growth in Mobile Traffic

Mobile websites offer a whole new world of opportunities for business owners to cash in on the “other” half of people accessing the Internet by engaging them with apps, mobile coupons, QR codes, location-based coupons and discounts, and countless other mobile-specific offerings. However, any of these efforts are pointless if you do not have a mobile website that’s compatible with smartphones and other mobile devices.

“In 2010 more than 50 percent of all Internet access was being done via handhelds of some sort,” reports Inc.com. Those numbers, according to Cisco, rose to 70 percent in 2012.

The widespread introduction of fourth generation, or 4G, mobile connectivity has generated 19 times more traffic than non-4G connectivity according to Cisco. This means that mobile websites are becoming even more critical for business success.

Mobile Users Expect It

Even with faster 4G connections, mobile users have come to expect quick loading, easy to navigate mobile websites. If you do not have one, then they’ll simply visit the next one on the list. The real secret to success with mobile websites is to follow the keep it simple philosophy. Mobile visitors want sites that load fast and give them the information they are looking for without a lot of the clutter full websites include.

Now Offers the Greatest Advantage

“90 percent of websites are not ready to be optimized.” — Get Elastic “52 percent of users who have bad mobile experiences are less likely to engage with the companies.” — Get Elastic

These statistics tell you that it is your opportunity to be the early bird that really does get the worm. More importantly, this means you could be missing out on business today and in the future by not having an easy to navigate mobile website for your business.

Mobile is Where People are Spending Money

Consumers spent $25 billion dollars via mobile devices in 2012. Those numbers are only expected to grow as more people make the move to 4G devices and greater numbers of net savvy youth get jobs and enter the mobile marketplace. — Yahoo! Small Business Advisor

The bottom line is that you need your website to be wherever people are spending money.

Businesses today can’t afford to alienate potential customers by ignoring their mobile audiences. It would be the same mistakes businesses made by putting off embracing social media and could prove extremely costly.

Stay ahead of your incorporation by implementing a mobile version of your website.

 

The post Is a Mobile Website a must in 2013? Move it or lose it? appeared first on Media Contour.

]]> Matt Dandurand https://mediacontour.com https://mediacontour.com/blog/?p=1793 2014-01-10T21:57:07Z 2013-04-16T11:00:30Z
It started with a simple box inviting people to subscribe. Today, Geoff Bartakovics has transformed Tasting Table to a thriving newsletter with over one million subscribers. It only took four short years and a fair amount of elbow grease to … Read More →
The post 7 Reasons to Publish an Email Newsletter Today appeared first on Media Contour.
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It started with a simple box inviting people to subscribe. Today, Geoff Bartakovics has transformed Tasting Table to a thriving newsletter with over one million subscribers. It only took four short years and a fair amount of elbow grease to do it. Not all businesses will grow to one million subscribers. But, it’s not entirely outside the realm of possibilities. Here are seven reasons your business needs to publish an email newsletter beginning today.

Keeps Your Business Name Fresh in the Mind of Customers

Every single time you send out a news email “blast” or email newsletter to your subscribers you’re sending them a reminder that your business is the one that can meet their needs. Whatever business you’re in, this is advertising that keeps on giving – even if they don’t need your products or service today, your business will be the first one that comes to mind when they do because they consistently see your name in their email inboxes (whether that’s on their computer or mobile device).

Brings Customers to You Week After Week

You no longer have to wait for customers to come to your website when they need something you have to offer. Now, you can bring your website, products, and/or services to them with a few keystrokes and a click of the mouse. And – it’s instant! You don’t even need to wait on the postal services to deliver it.

Lets Your Customers Advertise for You

When you send consistently high quality email newsletters to your customers, the chances are good that they are going to share your newsletters through social media or with other friends and family who need the information, services, or goods you have to offer. They become advertisers for your business and all it took was for you to give them the tools to help you out via your email campaign.

Drives Traffic to Your Website

No matter what line of business you’re in, no matter how good you are at taking care of your business, your website isn’t going to be successful without traffic. Email marketing through a well-designed and well-thought out newsletter brings a steady stream of visitors to your site week after week. The best news is that these visitors are generally people who are already interested in the products you’re selling.

Helps You Build Relationships with Your Target Market

More importantly, email newsletters help you build trust with your target market. The more reliable and informative news you share with your audience, the more often they will turn to you for solid industry information. There really is no better way to build solid, trusting relationships with your customer base than email newsletters.

Establishes Your Business as an Industry Leader

For the people who subscribe to your newsletter, you are the voice of authority in your industry. The more information you provide them with, the more proof you’re giving them that this is the case. Give expert advice to your customers and they will keep coming back to you for more and more advice in your industry. Newsletters are, by far, the easiest way to share that advice.

Gives you the Chance to Provide a Compelling Call to Action

More importantly, it gives you this vital opportunity every time you hit the send button for your email newsletter. You’re not just sending one call to action. You’re sending calls to action to each and every newsletter subscriber on your list. And, they’ve invited you to do it. They want to hear what you have to say and when the timing and product is right, they are your most likely buyers on the World Wide Web (and sometimes off the Internet too).

Wouldn’t it be great if you could do all these things so easily? You can! We can help. Contact us today to to see how we can help you get your email newsletter up and running today so you can enjoy amazing results like these tomorrow.

 

The post 7 Reasons to Publish an Email Newsletter Today appeared first on Media Contour.

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