Casual Fridays

The ever so practical Jakob Nielsen gives his list of Top 10 Web Design Mistakes.

They’re so easy to overcome, yet so often overlooked. In my opinion, at least six of these mistakes are easily fixed with a good blog or simply good content management software.

1. Bad Search
2. PDF Files for Online Reading
3. Not Changing the Color of Visited Links
4. Non-Scannable Text
5. Fixed Font Size
6. Page Titles With Low Search Engine Visibility
7. Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement
8. Violating Design Conventions
9. Opening New Browser Windows
10. Not Answering Users’ Questions

Concerning #1 and #6, here’s an example from my personal experience. Dentyne-isms are the cute “parables” on the back of Dentyne gum packages. Type “dentyne-isms” into a Google search. The top two links are to this blog. Dentyne’s website doesn’t even show up in the search results.

Apparently people really like these dentyne-isms. Right now, the post that comes up in the search results has over 50 comments. It’s one of the top search terms bringing people to my blog.

Read the rest of Jakob’s Top 10 Web Design Mistakes. His details are worth the few minutes of reading.

In your opinion, should your business send catalogues?

On occasion, I buy stock photography. I get photo catalogues all the time. Usually they wind up in the same place… the trash. I glance at most of them, but I’ve learned they’re pretty much all the same, except for Stockbyte. Each year they send what they call a resource kit. Last year was in a hardback book format. It cried out, “Don’t throw me away.” so I still have it on my bookshelf.

Last week I got two stock photo catalogues. This year’s “Resource Kit” from Stockbyte, and a traditional catalogue from PictureQuest.

So, some people at PictureQuest were familiar with the idea of a traditional catalogue. In their opinion, it was a good idea. So, they concluded to make one and send it out to prospects. They executed it well. They selected nice photos, produced attractive layouts, and printed it on high quality glossy paper.

The folks at Stockbyte are also familiar with the idea of a traditional catalogue. Instead of just forming an opinion of whether or not they should send one, they decided to come up with a better idea of what a catalogue should be. So, they created cards with a large image on one side, four on the opposite, and all of these convey something related to the title of the card. The cards are alphabetized and stuffed into a cute, little box that you can’t help but open. Their idea was to not just create an ad, but to create a gift. And who can stomach throwing away a gift?

Sure, the Stockbyte idea was more difficult and more expensive to create than the PictureQuest opinion. What if you measure the longevity? I throw away traditional catalogues within a few days of receiving them. Over a year later, I still have Stockbyte’s resource kit. Their idea is a resource to help me create new ideas.

In my mind, they’ve set themselves apart… because of their IDEA.

Thanks to Andrea Learned’s posts on Artistic Tile’s ads this week, was one of those weeks where I wish I didn’t restrict myself to only updating this blog on Fridays.

Concerning Artistic Tile’s provocative ads, Carole Fuller (Director of Strategic Marketing for Smith College) decided to contact the tile company’s VP of Marketing. In her email, Carole stated this:

I communicate with about 50,000 smart, educated, well-to-do women who live around major cities, and I lived in northern New Jersey for 22 years. I would be appalled to market to the smart women I know with such sophomoric humor. It’s not funny; it’s just lame.

Sounds like a valid critique from an informed professional. Jan MacLatchie, VP of Marketing at Artistic Tile, included this in her response:

In fact, this campaign, strategically developed to differentiate our brand within the category, was produced by some of the top talents in advertising in the world, and was photographed by one of America’s leading fashion photographers. His work includes the current campaigns of many of the top fashion houses. The theatrical model makers who hand craft our tile costumes are the same people who are creating costumes and set designs for current Broadway plays, feature films and television, including the amazing angel wings you may have seen in HBO’s (Mike Nichols’) adaptation of Tony Kushner’s brilliant and moving “Angels in America”. The copywriter is the same brilliant talent that made Kenneth Cole a household name. While the copy (as well as the idea that anyone would actually wear tile) is certainly tongue-in-cheek, we feel it underscores our key message points of style, selection and service in a memorable, playful way.

Pretty impressive… if these were ads for an HBO original or a Broadway musical. They’re not. They are ads intended to market a high-end tile to a sophisticated audience. Instead of addressing the possibly misguided strategy of these ads, Ms. MacLatchie focuses on the execution. They are beautiful ads which will probably win a few awards for the ad agency. With a little target market feedback and some sharper copy, they probably could have helped Artistic Tile win lifelong customers as well. Alas, I feel as though Ms. Maclatchie is too emotionally invested in the credentials of her ad producers to adjust the campaign. Instead, she’ll likely continue to defend her decisions.

Andrea Learned’s series of posts this week points to the dirty grout surrounding these tile ads.

The problem with ads like these is that they work… temporarily. They get attention and may even get a “decent” response (greater than 2% – wow). But, they’re short-sighted. They don’t create long-term conversations with the market that eventually convert into sales.

The problem is that they don’t see the long term effects on their image and reputation.

The best way I can phrase it? They’re prostituting their business.

OK, so bloggers like Andrea Learned and Jory Des Jardins have me thinking I’ve ignored women too much in my marketing. But that wasn’t enough, CNN had to tell me that I’ve ignored them in web design as well.

This cnn.com article reports that 94% of websites show a masculine orientation while only 2% show a “female favored arrangement.” Yowza! If we expect the world wide web to procreate, I’m not real keen on the girl-to-guy ratio here.

The article piqued my interest in an obvious market opportunity, but their solution left me concerned.

So should Web sites consider having two faces, one for male users and another for female visitors? Moss said more research is needed.

“At the very least,” she said, “we think there ought to be a combination of aesthetics.”

I’m often leary of anything that says, “He likes blue. She likes red. Make it purple.” That’s exactly what comes to mind when you say, “combination of aesthetics.” Instead, maybe we should try to understand why women enjoy bolder background colors and why men were pleased with a 3-dimensional look. Then we can take that knowledge and see how it intersects with our products, our company, and our brand.

(thanks to Jason for sending the cnn.com article)

I was talking with my brother-in-law a while back and we were talking shop. He is a manager within a large software corporation. Somehow the conversation lead him to discuss how their consumer software has changed over the last few years.

Over the course of time we just kept adding more and more features to the application. Then we started a program where we actually would go to the customer’s home and watch them use the software. We realized that they didn’t need more features. They needed things to be easier to use. At some point our features had stopped being useful and had started making things complicated.

That’s a great example of capes and kryptonite. You can take great ideas and turn them into something that cripples the customer. It might be new features, a new website design, a new phone system, or even a decision to move your location. You have to weigh these decisions from the eyes of the customer. “Is this going to help my customers soar, or is it just going to make them sour?”

Seems like everyone is getting into the “act” today. Author Dan Pink wrote a short article for Fast Company entitled How To Act Like A Designer.

Stating, “If you’re in any business, you’re in the design business.” he gives 5 tips on sharpening your design acumen. Now, I don’t think Dan got any ideas from my “Market Like An Actor” series, but I do think the tips are great. Coming from a design background, I feel like more designers should pay attention to these tips.

He shares how to:

1. Keep a design notebook.

2. Create an inspiration board.

3. Participate in the “third industrial revolution.”

4. Put it on a table.

5. Read design magazines.