F5 conference - How refreshing!

Just heard about this conference "F5" Expo in Vancouver April 7th 2010. They have Malcom Gladwell as their guest speaker. What I really think is great is that they have used a computer reference, hitting the F5 keys will refresh a page, as their name and theme.

It looks like it'll be a good conference and it looks affordable...if you can get to Vancouver. Something to consider.

Does MS have a good idea?

Microsoft is doing something interesting. They are aggregating social media feedback about Windows 7 - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/social/. It is a bit annoying too, hard to read as it changes and I have a sneaking suspicion they are doing some filtering to get positive sentiments.

Several months ago I saw a presentation that used "Skittles" as an example as they had added a twitter stream to their site - only it wasn't filter and they had to quickly take it down as not only was there a lot of negative comments but also lot of spam and irrelevant information.

Aggregating social media activity is a good idea, exposing it for public consumption in one collection may not be the best idea. I guess it depends on how confident one is about the product and services being offered as well as the commitment to respond and join the conversation.

The Business Value of Intranet 2.0

You think collaboration and even social networking tools are a good idea but there is a real concern that they’ll waste employees’ time and decrease productivity. Do intranet 2.0 tools, like internal social networking, wikis, blogs and discussion forums have a business value?

The main uses of intranet 2.0 tools are by the information worker whose current task load unfortunately isn’t quantified. However, studies show that as much as 11 hours a week are wasted in the search for and the management of information. As well, when trying to find subject matter experts, employees use different methods with varying degrees of success. This inefficiency is compounded by the enormous amount of information available which is growing exponentially and is in a diverse range of formats.

When all is said and done, however, there is a growing perception of the importance of intranet 2.0 tools. And there is an increasing expectation, especially amongst GenY employees, that they will be able to collaborate and contribute. While there are risks, the benefits can be considerable especially for innovation, engagement and gaining efficiencies.

11 hours a week – time being lost

It is estimated that the average information worker spends almost nine hours a week searching for and gathering information but almost half of that, 3.7 hours a week, is spent in searching but not finding information. Add to that the estimated 3.7 hours per week that is spent reformatting data because it comes from multiple sources, plus 2.5 hours per week recreating information that couldn’t be found, and another 1.2 hours per week caused by version control issues and you get over eleven hours per week per information work that could be better spent, at an approximate value of $20,000 per year per information worker (based on a $75,000/yr salary) – is there value in that? 1

Who are you going to call? – finding subject matter experts

Over 50% of employees want the ability to locate expertise to help them with their jobs (according to Recommind). They currently try to find experts by:2

• asking around (71%),
• using the company directory (46%),
• using the intranet (34%) and
• 30% will send a company-wide email (according to Vanson Bourne).

Information growth – 6X more

Information is expected to have increased six fold between 2006 and 2010, and while that may not be reflective of all organizations, it is safe to say that information is increasing and is available in more formats from more sources. Therefore, the challenges to find the information and the people you need is only going to get harder.3


2.0 Importance

More than 50% of those surveyed in a recent AIIM study consider the use of Enterprise 2.0 applications to be important or very important.4


Generational Expectations

Companies are recognizing that there are four generations at the workplace:

• Traditionalists (1925-42)
• Baby Boomers (1943-60)
• GenX (1961-81)
• GenY or Millennials (1982-2001)
  

GenY are eagerly engaging in, and have an expectation of using social networking and collaboration tools. While GenX and Baby Boomers understand teamwork and expect to be able to give feedback, GenY’s expectations are that they can collaborate, give their opinion on everything and use all the tools at their disposal. Understanding emerging expectations and behaviours now in order to implement processes and governance will ensure that everyone starts at the same footing.5

Risks – failure, low use, quantifying value

Some organizations can’t see the benefits in using new technology especially if they’ve had a negative experience, and of those who have tried social media internally many have experienced low participation and adoption for multiple reasons.

• 70% of social implementations fail because they lack a business purpose, according to Gartner (source: socialtext.com)

Adoption:

• low adoption is perceived as failure even though the emphasis needs to be on the business use of the tool to drive results and therefore the quality of information being shared with the people that most need that information
• satisfaction and adaption to change needs to be measured in terms of the use of the social media tools
• enabling and empowering employees by giving acceptable use policies and fostering a culture of collaboration can increase participation
  There is difficulty in quantifying the benefits since inefficiencies around knowledge work isn’t measured

Intranet 2.0 Value

Measurable benefits attributed to web/enterprise 2.0 applications can be categorized under three key areas of Innovation, Engagement and Efficiences:1,2,4

Innovation

• an increased ability to share ideas
• Improve company performance as awareness and knowledge increase
• Being able to find information quickly allows time for further analysis which spurs thought and innovation and can lead to new product ideas

Engagement

• Improvement of departmental synchronization and alignment
• New employees onboarded quickly
• Employees know each other
• Having a more rounded and diverse range of information rather than just email pieces

Efficiencies

• Reduction in costs (as much as 10% decrease) for travel, operations and communications
• More rapid access (as much as 30% increase) to knowledge experts
• Reduction of email by 30%+
• Ability to quickly respond to opportunities
• Implementing 2.0 tools can force the streamlining of processes as well as the implementation of governance and strategy

Value Examples7

Socialtext and IBM have recently published good examples of the effective use of social media tools with measurable results.

Socialtext examples:

FONA International
Problem

• Email burden of 50,000 estimated per year
• Excel and email used to track training and certification of each employee for regulatory compliance with versioning and accuracy issues and a lack of an audit trail

Solution

• Collaborative software with calendaring and social spreadsheets
• Eliminated 50,000 emails a year
• Version confusion eliminated
• Audit trail established
• Accuracy and engagement improved as individuals are responsible for their own information

TransUnion
Problem

• Custom software code performance issues

Solution

• Using social tools started conversations to solve the issues
• Brainstorming occurred
• $2.5 million estimated saved as they didn’t go out and purchase hardware

Law Firm
Problem

• Several lawyers on account with little coordination
• Redundant work effort
• Higher search and coordination cost for client
• Strained client relationship

Solution

• Wiki workspace
• Structured formal processes
• Transparency in sharing what each was working on including with the client
• Improved client satisfaction and loyalty

IBM example:

• By instituting an enterprise tagging service, IBM estimated that they saved 12 seconds per person or 955 hours per week with an estimated value of $7.5 million with the one time cost of development of $700,000 delivering ten times the value.6
  

Conclusion

The question really isn’t whether or not intranet 2.0 tools have business value, rather it is can you afford not to use them to improve information workers’ ability to find the data and people they need quickly and easily to do their job? And is it realistic to ignore 2.0 tools because of fear of misuse when time wastage is already occurring? Is it reasonable to expect a whole generation that is hot wired to collaborate and share to change their behaviour?

Assigning business value by having a strategic plan for 2.0 tools and their use, as well as implementing defined processes and governance, will empower employees to do what you’re paying them to do – think.

Sources:

• Hidden costs of Information Work: A Progress Report by Susan Feldman, www.IDC.com
  Social Text http://www.socialtext.com/
• An Expanding Digital Universe: A Forecast of Worldwide Information Growth Through 2010 http://www.emc.com/collateral/analyst-reports/expanding-digital-idc-white-paper.pdf
• Paloalto Application Usage & Risk Report: http://www.paloaltonetworks.com/literature/whitepapers/Application_Usage_Risk_Report_Fall09.pdf
• You Talking to me? http://www.prescientdigital.com/articles/content/you-talking-to-me-online-communications-considerations
• IBM example: http://www.lbenitez.com/2008/08/ibm-earns-award-from-ciocom-for-social.html

Showing is more powerful then telling

Rick Hansen has done it again. He has shown us the power of showing abilities rather than speaking of disabilities. This week on the Rick Mercer Report Rick Hansen met Rick Mercer's challenge of bungee jumping See: RMR: Rick Hansen Bungee Jump.

It's not enough to make websites and buildings accessible. We have to see the potential and abilities in everyone - and the best way to see it is by showing it.

Thanks Rick, and Rick

If the culture is raining excuses start a weather blog

When conducting a strategic planning session for a client we discussed the culture of the organization as being very formal and risk averse. Its funny how there is always at least one person in a meeting the encapulates that culture. The discussion led to blogs and having an executive blog.

But who would write it, they asked with a groan.

I'm a strong advocate of getting the information from the horses mouth so to speak, even if its one or two sentences.

Then they wanted to know what would the CEO write about?

Well, why don't we start with the organization's performance.

No, no that was sensitive information, most is confidential because they are competitive.

Well, no, not if its in general terms - yep we're doing well; or this quarter will be tight...

But there is so much not in our control that affects performance and not just the employees, what about the economy and the weather!

Then have a blog about the weather - I suggested. Seriously. If your company's performance is affected by the weather then you surely can find someone within the organization who is equally fascinated by the weather to write about it and you can challenge them to comment on how they think it'll impact the business.

There is always a solution - If someone is raining on your parade, tell them when the sun will be out.

Why Projects Fail...

There is an old saying "failure to plan is planning to fail". I just read an article, which I am not referencing because it provided bad advice. It said if your project isn't moving along just start activity and develop the plan as you go. Seriously. I have had to fix projects precisely for that reason. You must have a project plan with clear goals.

The article went on to state that meetings are a waste of time and don't achieve anything and you should just have informal huddles! I bet they wouldn't even agree to that in football. Meetings don't achieve anything when they aren't properly planned, don't have a purpose, when no one takes notes and when actions aren't assigned. I was fortunate enough to have belonged to a Toastmasters' Club way back when and I was taught Robert's Rules of Order which include the proper way to run a meeting. I recommend both Toastmasters and Robert's Rules. Take responsibility, show some leadership, have goals, assign tactical activities and for pete's sake plan to succeed.

Good Hosts Listen

Last week I attended the "Print in the Mix" conference, well, the last few sessions but I felt like I had a good understanding of the whole conference because of the host. The host was Evan Solomon, Journalist/CBC Broadcaster and Author. Evan showed that the most important skill for a host is listening and then having the ability to quickly summarize. He was also very gracious in thanking speakers and ensuring they were acknowledge. Audience members asked him questions because he is such a credible source of information and is very eloquent. Who ever thought of getting him as a host should be congratulated. He even had a Bill Gates anecdote - people at Microsoft realize the value in face time with Bill that they understand they must be quick and succinct in putting their ideas and requests before him because face time has high value. So we're not ready for digital to fully take over yet. And yes, there still is a place for print.

Ride the Viral Wave

I love brilliance. The "Localtvmatters.ca" campaign has hired Dave Carroll, of the United Airlines breaks guitars song on YouTube fame to sing in their tv spots. The song is simply the cable song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKLS6sNKRGU - give it a listen, its pretty good. It has had almost 22,000 views on YouTube so far. Brilliant.

Facts and Examples of Online Impact

The 4th in the series of "videos" called "Did you know" from the Economist has been posted - http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/did-you-know-4-0-video-by-the-economist/ and provides interesting statistics on online channels and use. Apparently advertisers are turning to mobile devices for their spend which only makes sense since most Americans have a cell phone and its expected to be the computing device by 2020.

And a phenomenal example of the power of YouTube is the "United Breaks Guitars" songs and video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo by Dave Carroll. I saw in the news last night that he spoke to US Congress on behalf of passengers' rights. He mentioned that he did meet three VPs from United and after a year of trying to get compensation, and after his videos and songs went viral, they have offered to compensate him. He did mention doing a 4th song and video, I guess to explain how the story ended.

They didn't teach us about this in Public Relations when I went to school. If United was smart they'd write a song saying they were sorry and that they've corrected their ways...they could turn this around some if they tried, that's if they are smart and join the online conversation - they certainly can't stop it.

Personal Web Presence or Brand

Believe it or not you now have your own brand and web presence - if you are on any of the social networking sites or have contributed online. Its a hard concept to wrangle but there are some steps you should take right away.

1. Audit your online presence - what accounts do you actually have and how active are you in them? Are you on Facebook weekly? LinkedIn daily? Twitter? Do you have a blog? any videos on YouTube? any presentations on SlideShare?
2. Think about who is looking at you - if a potential employer "Googled you" what would the results look like? would they be representative of you? of the professional you, that is?

It goes back to - if you don't want everyone to possibly see something, don't share it online.

Employers are now looking at web presence to get a sense of the person - do they have friends? are they well adjusted? mature in their comments? intelligent in their comments? do they have a range of interests? is their overall behaviour acceptable? (e.g. not profanity or malicious comments).

You need to consider what you are really saying about yourself when you participate online. You also need to consider your audiences. Are your friends on Facebook really your friends? or are they colleagues, bosses, and potential bosses? There is an email going around about a young woman who complained about her work and her boss on her Facebook page forgetting that the boss she was complaining about was one of her "friends". OOps - she got fired.

It is always important to have goals, and even more critical to have goals for what your own online brand is. If you want to leverage the Internet for your career then you need to shape your presence to one that is professional. You never know who may read what you've written.

Intranet for business or for communications?

There is a shift happening in intranets in terms of the role they play and their purpose.

• It used to be that intranets were seen as information repositories, a place to store stuff to refer to later, or as one client said "like a garage for your business documents".
• Then people started seeing the value in using the intranet to communicate to all employees so that consistent messages were sent to everyone.

Some organizations are still within those two phases, however, more is being demanded of intranets.

• The business has now realized that they are paying for something and they should be getting something back - enter ROI, efficiencies, productivity, and yes, collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• And finally, the intranet is being edged out by more of a "portal" experience where employees can access all their online applications from one interface.

The intranet is changing and organizations need to recognize and identify opportunities to use the intranet both to achieve business results as well as to strategically communicate to the employee and have employees communicate with each other.

Social Media - what to use, when to use it and why

Everyone is talking about social media, or they may be saying they need a blog, a wiki, a discussion forum, or a way to engage employees and/or customers. But most aren't sure what they need, how to use it or when to use it. There is a sense that they have to start using something or be left behind but what, when, how and why?

There is a pretty good slideshow with some statistics on social media that can give some context of what is happening - see http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/social-media-has-grown-up-stats-one-year-on/.

Blogs
Blogs started as web diaries. One person expressing their opinion about something. To make it have any value it should be a subject matter expert. For organizations, someone on the leadership team that can provide insight on what is going on and can articulate that on a regular basis is great. There is an expectation that comments can be entered and responded to as they relate to each article. This is how you begin getting a two way conversation happening and engaging people.

Wikis
Wikis are a collaboration tool. This is where the "democratization" starts to come in. Wikipedia is the most famous wiki. Wikis can be used for managing projects and information. Users can collaborate on documents and ideas. Wikis can be used to create and manage. They are good to create glossaries and as a tool to work on information without having to send multiple emails and worry about versioning.

Discussion Forums
These aren't new but they can be revitalized and used properly. They need to be monitored and managed. They are good for Q&A opportunities and can be set up for various topics.

Web Presence
The website may be your storefront but you need to reach people where they live so creating an online web presence is the answer. Post your videos on YouTube, your presentations on SlideShare, create Facebook and Twitte communities and put your comments everywhere - on other people's blogs and wikis. Move out into the web to establish your presence and get known. This creates viral word of mouth. This creates engagement with your audiences.

Push, Pull, and Participate
It isn't enough anymore to push information out by just having a website. It isn't enough to have email campaigns with links to your site to pull people in. You must go out into the web and participate. There are conversations going on, ok many are lame, but there are opportunities that can be mined to expand your exposure and get people listening, and talking. That is what social media is all about.

Strategy is Imperative for Intranets and Websites

The strategic plan for the intranet helps manage the initiative to ensure that priority is given to items that will have the most impact for staff and the organization. Therefore, if something (either functionality or content) is seen to have value to the employee in saving them time (a measurable goal) then it should be given priority. Also, a strategic plan not only helps prioritize items for the first few phases but provides insight and direction on how the site can grow and what those implications are (this would indicate the degree of collaboration seen as important and how fast that needs to be fulfilled).

Any requirements gathered are a wish list. Certainly there are some obvious priorities both in terms of what wasis mentioned frequently (typically search and staff directory) as well as what the IT can feasibly rollout in the first two phases. But how will content priorities be determined? They must be aligned with the organization’s goals and the intranet’s goals so that employees can be assured of getting the information they need (and not just what they want or like to have).

In order to ensure that the site doesn’t just become a document dumping ground, goals must be in place so all employees understand what the intranet is there to do for them.

• The functional plan can’t be completed until the strategy is completed otherwise all the decisions will be based on what is easiest for IT and not what the intranet needs to achieve for all employees.
• The governance plan can’t be completed until the strategy provides clear goals –even as simple as “content will be kept up-to-date”; otherwise there can be no guideline.
• That is the same for the content management plan – until there are goals in the strategy it will be hard to determine what content is mandatory for the home page and the secondary pages and what will need RSS etc.
• And the IA is also directly related to the strategy, even again another simple goal that “the content must be easy to access within three clicks”, will impact how the IA is structured – so if a few employees say they want a separate navigation or site, if it doesn’t meet the goals of the intranet it doesn’t happen. (That is not to say that they wouldn’t get something but just because one group of employees has a focus doesn’t mean it is right for all employees and it can be managed to help the group achieve their goals while not impeding other employees from theirs).

People will start asking for everything. The strategy is a clear, intelligent way of telling employees what direction the organization is taking and what the intranet is being used for.
A strategy is invaluable. It doesn’t matter whether for a profit or not for profit. Every organization needs to work efficiently and effectively. A strategy helps ensure that the right decisions are being made for the intranet (or website) at every phase.

Strategy in Communications

What is it about strategy that make people forget it? It seems like common sense. If you don't know where you are going how will you know if you get there?

Goals are imperative for success but lately I've come across several instances where people want to get tactical and I'm forced to stop them and ask them what they are trying to achieve. They look at me like I've spoiled their party. They are excited by having the opportunity to use blogs, wikis, RSS etc. but they haven't considered why they would use them and what they hope to achieve. They want to run ahead and court failure.

I'm finding people say they are strategic. They say they want to be strategic. But at the end of the day they want the shiny new toys. And a few just want a list of toys they can play with. Very few are looking at the big picture and defining what they hope to achieve.

Design III: Making and sustaining a good first impression

If you only have one quarter of the time it takes you to blink to create a good impression - what are you going to do? Find out the best practices in design and a standardized approach to strategically designing your website.

Design is meant to facilitate understanding in communicating a message.
You probably know that website visitors make rapid decisions about a site’s quality, but you might be surprised to learn how fast that judgement is made. "Visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds, suggesting that Web designers have about 50 milliseconds to make a good impression," according to Dr. Gitte Lindgaard of Carleton University in an e-commerce Times article about a report published in the journal Behaviour & Information Technology.

It goes on to say “If the user thinks the Web site looks good, the impression translates to other areas of the site, like its content. Since people like to be right, Lindgaard reasoned, they will continue to use a Web site that made a good first impression.”

Making a good impression will determine the success of your site, which is why so many people respond “re-design,” when asked: “what’s the one thing you could do to improve your online presence?” (read Design I: Making your site pretty can get ugly). Determining how best to generate that positive judgement in the first few milliseconds is not easy, however. It requires that you to address the following considerations:

• Good design – effectively using colour, fonts and graphics.
• Mind your manners – follow your brand and style standards including use of logos, typeface, colour, use of photos and graphics, and position.
• Be consistent; even if you break the rules do so in a consistent manner.
• Understand your users.
• Follow your site Strategy to fulfill set business requirements that you are measuring.

Good Design
In general, an impression is made from the overall design of the site which combines the look and feel, the layout, and the ability for the user to find what they need. Good design follows some basic rules for colour, fonts and graphics as well as in its layout.

Colour
The use of colour is complex. The human eye can discern over 16 million colours. The most important thing to remember is that colour can be used to add emphasis or to de-emphasize. Colour can evoke emotion, establish mood and create themes. Today most websites base their colour schemes on their branding. Usually three colours maximum with lighter shades – any more colour dilutes emphasis and gives too much of a rainbow appearance which can be perceived as unprofessional or childish.

Colour best practices

• Use your brand colours.
• Use three main colours and then shades of those colours.
• Either use complimentary colours or contrasting colours.
• Be consistent.

Fonts
Typography enhances and extends the meaning of words. Fonts also can aid in readability and be part of your overall brand. “Good design is design that is readable”.

Rules of font readability

• Underlining words actually make them harder to read. On websites underlining is a signal that something is linked – therefore, don’t use underlining – leave it as the default for links.
• Italicized text is also harder to read – this includes cursive and fonts that emulate handwriting.
• Bolding text adds emphasis but also makes letters thicker which can hinder readability if used too much.
• ALL CAPITALIZATION is hard to read. Upper and lower case allows the eye to quickly recognize the look of words for reading. All caps create a block and therefore the eye has to slow down and read each letter to create the word. All caps or uppercase should be used sparingly, at the most for titles.
• Left alignment is easiest to read in western culture since we read left to right. The eye knows where to return to at the end of each line.
• Centred text is a bit harder to readand should only be used for smaller chunks of textlike titles and quotes.
• Right aligned text is the hardest to readsince the eye needs to search for the beginning;this should be used sparingly.
• Be consistent. Using heading styles will aid readability and search engine positioning which seeks out keywords by importance which includes use in headings.

Graphics
The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” is true because visual elements aid in our understanding and appeal to us on several levels. Visual elements are used in design to:

• Enhance understanding
• Grab attention
• Aid memory
• Add clarity
• Generate mood
• Convey themes, symbols and intangibles

Photos vs clipart
Photographs convey a more professional look while clipart/cartoons have a comical/fun feeling. Animated clipart, so popular 10 years ago, can be distracting. Whatever you decide, you should be consistent – either use photos or clipart – avoid using both as they do give different look and feels to your site. And remember copyrights apply, for Internet sites either own the art you use or only use royalty free images.

Flash
If you are using flash animation be conscious of the download times – no one wants to wait while something takes forever to load. Use flash to convey and add emphasis to messages – don’t use it just because you know how to or because you think its cool – always think of your user and audience first. To check out how fast your page loads and what size items on your page visit http://www.websiteoptimization.com/services/analyze/index.html.

Best Practices for photos:

• Use ALT (alternative text) attributes – if any user can’t see the image at least they will know what should have been there; search engines and readers for the blind read them so this is best practice for accessibility.
• Photos should lead the eye into page/screen – have photos of people looking into or at your page and have graphics lead into the page and not off it.
• Choose your photos carefully. Portraits should be consistent in size & perspective; they should be head & shoulders.
• Photos should be interesting. They should show movement or action as that creates interest. Some branding strategies include the mandatory use of action photos.

Layout
A good information architecture is all about getting visitors to where they want to go quickly (read: Design II: Structure comes before design) and will drive the way your site is laid out. Ensure that there is a good white space ratio to give the eye a break so that you’re emphasizing what you want; over crowding your page causes viewers to get confused and frustrated.
The layout of each page should aid in luring and holding a visitor’s attention. The layout design should serve a purpose and help to achieve the objectives of the site through its look, size, shape, arrangement of copy and pictures.

Page size

• The maximum amount of users can easily view 800 pixels wide pages.
• 50% of readers use 1024x768 screen resolution (17” screen);
• 35-40% use 800x600 (15” screen);
• the rest use 640x480 (12” screen) and pdas and cell phones – source: Thecounter.com

Other page considerations

• Provide a printable version
• In traditional page layout (for print) the general rule for design is that if you place a $5 dollar bill on the page any way (vertical, horizontal or angled) it should cover a design element (including headings). If it doesn’t, it means you have too much unbroken text which is hard to read – especially on a website where your writing should be chunked. See Writing for the Web and Getting printed content online.

Branding and style standards
Design should always follow brand (see Building a web brand), especially for websites. It helps build your identity and credibility.

Be consistent
Consistency in design reveals that there are standards and plans in place. Consistency conveys professionalism. It also shows attention to detail and that you take care and have pride in everything you do. If your site isn’t consistent, what impression do you think you’re conveying to your site visitors?

Understand your users
You don’t know what you don’t know – so find out. Some standard user information gathering methods are:

• surveys
• interviews
• focus groups
• usability testing

Your users will show and tell you what they want – it’s up to you to put it into action.

Strategize and measure
You need to keep in mind what your goals are for your website and how you plan to achieve and measure them. By listening to your users and stakeholders you will be able to implement content and tools that will provide them with what they need to achieve their goals on your site which in turn will help your site achieve its goals. And of course the best way to know and articulate that achievement is by having defined measures in place which are tracked on a regular basis and responded to quickly. There is no sitting back on your laurels.

What does a good first impression look like?
Well, if visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds then that first impression is made on whatever page the user views first and on the overall look and feel (they’ll get to the details later if they like what they see). Don’t assume that your visitors are looking at your snazzy new home page first – your site has various entry points made available through reciprocal links, newsletter links and bookmarks. Yes, that means your entire website needs to be designed and consistent but if you have a strategy and information architecture in place then it is a piece of cake.

Once you’ve made a good first impression you must follow through with content and functionality. Design is by necessity judged on its ability to achieve a function – whether it is to attract, emphasize, aid usability or facilitate understanding. Design can’t stand alone, it needs to be wrapped around function and if no one knows what the function is you can’t possibly achieve good design.

To make a good first impression make sure your design supports your site’s objectives, has a purpose and puts the emphasis where you want your users to go and enables your users to find what they want – design strategically.

You only get one chance at a first impression – make it a good one.

Design II: Structure comes before design

Every building starts with a blueprint, an architect’s vision of the structure. The blueprint organizes space to ensure that its purpose is met – the number of rooms and bathrooms are all taken into account along with doorways, windows, hallways and electrical outlets. Without the blueprint critical items would get missed or may not fit, and the integrity of the building would collapse.

Every building starts with a blueprint, an architect’s vision of the structure. The blueprint organizes space to ensure that its purpose is met – the number of rooms and bathrooms are all taken into account along with doorways, windows, hallways and electrical outlets. Without the blueprint critical items would get missed or may not fit, and the integrity of the building would collapse.

Websites are very similar - if the structure isn’t there and reinforced your website will collapse. Your site’s structure should be based on your business strategy. (See Design I: Making your site pretty can get ugly). The structure, or information architecture, is how your site is organized and following your business strategy ensures that nothing gets missed.

The major complaint of website users is “I can’t find anything!” Sound familiar? But the solution isn’t jumping into a redesign. The problem could stem from lack of meta data (e.g. keywords), poor naming conventions and taxonomy, out of date information, or poorly organized information. The solution involves finding out what users are looking for, what they can’t find and what they need – as well as having a clear understanding of the purpose of your site and what you are offering and why and how it all relates to your business objectives. Until you have a good understanding of the business requirements colouring it blue just won’t solve the problem.

Site Design Strategy
Once you have a clear understanding of your user and business requirements you need to develop your site design strategy. Your design strategy should be reflective of your business and communication objectives:

• What is it that you want your website to do?
• What do you need it to achieve?
• What do you need to emphasize?
• What are your organization’s brand rules and limitations?
  

Once you have clearly outlined your objective you can take a closer look at organizing your content to best meet your business requirements by understanding user behaviour.

User Behaviour and Organization of Information
You need to know your users and understand their behaviour before you organize your information and design your site.

Intranet users:
Employees tend to use intranets to get corporate information and tools as needed. Information therefore needs to relate to tasks and must be easily accessible. You don’t necessarily want them spending a lot of time on the intranet but you want them to be familiar with it and to return to it. Intranet users want useful information that is reliable, relevant, and organized in a logical, intuitive manner. Focus on common tasks that employees need to complete by providing a convenient arrangement of information to accomplish the task quickly.

Internet users:
Internet users are either browsing, in which case you need to catch and keep their attention, or they are looking for something very specific and will search until they find it. If they can’t find it quickly they will move on. The goal is to maximize contact time, draw readers in, reward curiousity with interesting and/or entertaining information, motivate the user to stay – purchase, and then to return on a regular basis.

Goal for users
Your goal for both intranet and Internet sites is to provide information that can be found quickly and categorize it appropriately.

• On the intranet categorize by task.
• On the Internet categorize by product or service.

Use interesting and motivating enticements (deals, contests, polls, etc.) to get and keep your users.

Cost/Profit Centres
Intranets are considered cost centres while websites are now expected to be profit centres (direct or indirect). Not surprisingly, consumer facing websites are taken more seriously and there is a commitment to keep them current and interesting; intranets on the other hand often struggle for success and resources.

Interaction
Interactivity is good for both users and the host organization. On intranets there is an opportunity to collect information on employee satisfaction, collaboration, information sharing, training and development. On the Internet the most important interaction is the purchase of a product or service followed by subscriptions, and customer inquiries. Using feedback forms and FAQs, and involving users with contests, polls and surveys creates a positive experience that will keep users returning to the site.

Organization of information
“Information is a source of learning. But unless it is organized, processed, and available to the right people in a format for decision making, it is a burden, not a benefit.” William Pollard

Information can be organized in hierarchal or linear formats. It can be based on departments (product or service lines) or tasks.

Hierarchal means that there is a parent page with multiple child pages which offers the user choice.

Linear or sequential allows the user to go forward and back. This is typical of slide shows and videos and, to some degree, games where a given path is preset.


Navigation can be ambiguous (topical, task oriented) or it can be exact (alphabetical, chronological, geographical). The best option is to use both ambiguous and exact types so that all your users will be able to find information in the way that they are most comfortable with.

Walk before you run
Before starting your site design, you need to formulate the website a structure— the information architecture details the information categories and relationships, and the navigation structure.

A wireframe, or site schematic, can be drawn to show the basic skeleton of how information with be positioned.

Often when looking at the combined information architecture and wireframe you can clearly see what you need to emphasize. Users scan websites. In the west we scan from left to right top to bottom in a Z pattern. Our eye is attracted to design elements – colour, photos, white space etc. We’re also reluctant to scroll, so the more you can entice users with content and design “above the fold” or within screen view, the better off your site.

Design isn’t simple. In order for it to be effective it needs to be based on a good foundation which takes into account user behaviour and information organization. There are important differences between intranets and Internets but both ultimately need to deliver good content quickly — you can only do that if you’ve planned your information architecture to meet your business requirements. It’s not just enough to have a site, you need a site that users can find what they want on – and to do that, you need an information architecture based on strategy.

Design I: Making your site pretty can get ugly

The importance of putting a business strategy to your site design It is the first thing people think to change; the first thing people notice; the first thing people complain about; and it is the last thing that should be changed - website design.

Redesigning a website isn’t a simple matter. People tend to think that if they just change a few colours, the font, and add a photo, their website will be a winner. But unless there is a clear understanding of the site’s purpose and the desired audience, the site will not be a success – and that is never pretty.

“Companies are increasingly embracing the idea that design is a key element of strategy” according to a recent article in Business Week. The article highlights the upcoming redesign of Yahoo, which, though it can be considered a successful site and is ranked 8th in Business Week’s list of 50 top performers, could be better. Yahoo.com remains cluttered and scattershot, almost schizophrenic. If looking at a company's home page is like reading its palm, Yahoo's tells the story of a company trying to be everything to everyone. There are headlines, celebrity gossip, e-mail logins, search -- even Web hosting for small businesses. Is it a media company, a services company, or a search company? Says John Zapolski, a former manager of several design teams at Yahoo: "You can't immediately tell why Yahoo is the best at anything." Ouch.

So how can you learn from Yahoo? It’s as simple and as involved as developing a business strategy for your website.

Business Strategy
Vision, mission, objectives, goals, strategies and tactics aren’t just a collection of words dusted off at the beginning of every year or for every communications’ plan. They need to be understood if they are to be realized and goals need to be measurable. Whatever your strategy, before implementing any project you need to know what your critical success factors are so you know how to achieve success and measure it. For websites it is tempting just to fall back on web logs and page view metrics. However, more and more companies are coming to believe in the importance of understanding behaviour. How are users using the site and how do you want them to use it?

Defining the site’s purpose
Why do you have a website? Does your answer(s) align with your business strategy? Does your site have measurable objectives? Who is accountable for its success?

There are four basic objectives to communicating information: to inform, to entertain, to promote (indirect sales) and to sell. Your site may have one or more of these objectives in which case you need to prioritize and define different areas.

Your goals need to be smart — specific, measurable, accessible, reachable and timely. To have a goal that just states “to communicate with employees/customers” isn’t sufficient. How will you know if you are communicating successfully? Is it through use of the site? Employee Satisfaction survey results? Online sales numbers? What is it that you are communicating? How often? Do you have weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual goals that need to be reached? What happens if they aren’t reached? Who is accountable? How are you promoting the site? How are you measuring your promotion efforts? These are just some of the questions you need to address to develop your goals for your strategic website. You also need to have a strong understanding of your users.

Understanding your users
It is important that you have a good understanding of your audience.

Websites may have been initiated for a variety of reasons but at the end of the day it is the user of the site that determines if the site is a success. Demographic information like age, sex, education, economics, and geographic region, will provide you with some basic guidelines but the more detail you can collect the better able you will be in addressing your users’ needs. In order to understand your users and the issues they face, data can be collected using qualitative (interviews and focus groups) or quantitative (surveys and log analysis) research. A mixture is recommended as qualitative information will give you details and depth in understanding issues; quantitative will provides statistical data for baseline comparison (comparing results over time).

Research questions should relate to corporate objectives. Understanding corporate goals and getting a clear picture of current issues will enable you to develop questions to bridge the gap between where you are to where you want to be.
Once you’ve collected sufficient information on your users and have analyzed the results you need to confirm your goals and outline tactics to fill any gaps.
Understanding site requirements

Your tactics in fulfilling your website strategy need to include an assessment of your resources —content and digital assets, staff, as well as technology and functional requirements.

Content requirements
A site content audit is highly recommended prior to redesign. If undertaking a new site then an assessment of the material you have available needs to be completed and a list compiled of new content that needs to be written including digital assets (graphics, images, documents) that may require treatment. Research on your users will reveal what information they want and need to access, the frequency they need to access any content and also the importance of specific content. This knowledge will provide the shape of your information architecture and layout of information.

Staffing requirements

Content authors and owners need to be defined so that content is maintained and updated regularly. Every site needs to have an executive champion – someone who understands the site’s strategic objectives and who is accountable for its overall success. Publishers, designers, and content authors should meet on a regular basis to discuss issues as well as to ascertain whether or not the site is meeting the strategic goals. An editorial policy should be created so that all staff involved with the site understand the standards and follow the site guidelines to maintain consistency and cohesiveness. It is highly recommended that an editorial committee be struck to provide a point of contact for people involved in the site. Both the intranet and Internet have unique challenges but providing clearly established roles and accountability there is less opportunity to get bogged down in internal politics. (See Governance articles for more information)

Technical requirements
Technology should support business and user requirements and should ‘scale’ to support future requirements. Most companies started with simple websites with static HTML and FTP (file transfer protocol) but now they recognize the need for more users to be involved. Some considerations include number of users managing new content, publishing and workflow; collaboration; application access; file management, etc. You may require a content management system, a document management system, a portal, or other technology to support your requirements. There may also be specific features that the business and users need access to – tools, dashboards, reports etc. Knowing your business strategic objectives as well as the day to day requirements of your users will enable you to create a list of functions and features you require in your technology.

Once requirements are clearly defined you must incorporate how success is to be measured.

Taking Measurement
Measurement is a must. A measurement plan should include weblogs or metrics programs such as WebTrends or Urchin analyze key user data including:

• Page views
• Visits
• Unique visitors
• Referrals (what URLs did the user come from)
• Entrance pages
• Exit pages
• Top sections, pages, downloads, etc,

Weekly, monthly and annual comparisons are important for updating and tailoring sites according to user demand. HITS are not business metrics – they’re server performance metrics and can be very misleading.

In addition to log analysis, periodic user surveys (coupled with focus groups and usability testing) are good tools for gaining valuable insight into what users want and need from your site.

Design Strategy
Once you have an understanding of your users and your business requirements and know how you’re going to measure success you can build your design strategy.

Your design strategy should be reflective of your business and communication objectives:

• What is it that you want your website to do?
• What do you need it to achieve?
• What do you need to emphasize?
• What are your organization’s brand rules and limitations?
  

Design should incorporate and be an integral part of your branding strategy. Standards and guidelines need to be developed for consistency and effectiveness. After all, if everything on your site is a different colour how can you emphasize what is important?

Applying strategy
Now that you know what your site’s purpose is, who your audience is and what you want to achieve with your site you can put it all together. You want to emphasize content that will get your users to do what you want them to do – learn, be entertained, become aware, and/or buy. You need to establish measurements of your users’ behaviour to determine if your site is achieving all it can.

Design isn’t simple. It will need to be redone if it isn’t reflective of business requirements that take your users into account and have defined success measures. So if you want your site to be pretty, first make sure it is strategic – then it will be pretty successful.

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Designing by Committee - STOP

If you haven't seen this video of designing a stop sign by committee you simply must if you are involved with designing anything - websites, intranets, marketing material etc. and you have been told you need committee input. Make everyone watches this video and then make sure they know who the experts are http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wac3aGn5twc.

Designing by committee just doesn't work. If you have brand standards then start with a creative brief - an understanding of how to implement the brand on a website (including intranet) - believe it or not I've seen where the advertising company had developed an expensive brand campaign and forgot to apply it to the website which was a critical channel for the financial institute they developed it for! Design for strategic goals, putting emphasis on key success factors. Design for usability and findability. Design for the culture of the organization. But never, ever design for a committee.

Great Speech by JK Rowling

JK Rowling was asked to give the commencement speech at Harvard and did a fantastic job. She is witty, funny, clever and poignant. One of my friends said "she is someone I'd like to know" - now that is a testament for any speaker to aspire to.

Here is the link I have though it also seems to be on YouTube - it is in two parts of 10 minute segments each but well worth it http://tinyurl.com/mmegzt.

Health and Wikipedia

In a recent article on Wired scientists are being taught how to use wikis and specifically contribute to Wikipedia (see http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/wikipedia-training-scientists-on-wiki-culture/). Wikipedia is stepping up its quality of information after much criticism of accuracy of information. I've heard that you can not cite wikipedia as a reference in any college/university papers. But the issue of readibility is still real as scientists tend to write for scientists, so will the next step be an interpreter?

Communications "Buzz" initiatives

All the "buzz" in communications seems to revolve around three key initiatives: "Diversity", "Green" and "Corporate Responsibility" but how many of these are lip service and how many are effective initiatives? How many even have goals and measures?

Basically, corporations are involved in these initiatives to show that they're good guys, they mean well and hey, they're a good place to work (attain and retain top talent), right? I mean, they are saying all the right things... but how many are actually following through and doing them, living them?

Diversity
I was recently involved in a "Diversity" project where, frankly, they just wanted to roll out some technology. Sure, they had some content on diversity, a calendar of multi-cultural events they linked to, committees in the key areas, and a prayer room. But if you went to their executive suite it was still all old, white men; maybe one woman and one person of colour (usually not both). Certainly senior level is not reflective of the organization or the population. But we give them credit for trying - or do we?

Green
I also recently had the chance to observe an organization that had implemented a "Green" program and were very committed to it. They certainly had recycling bins everywhere and encouraged everyone to use their own mugs and not paper cups. They encouraged car pooling and had a place on their intranet to sign up and connect with people to facilitate care pooling. However, they had such convoluted and involved processes that everyone was still printing not just one but up to three copies of things - one for their file, one for their boss and one to move on down the process. And they didn't even know the number of boxes they have in storage -some documents with legal requirements that needed to be printed and signed and saved for a number of years but admittedly, extra documentation that, well, they've always kept and were nervous not to even though not a legal requirement.

Corporate Responsibility
Now, for corporate responsibility; I used to be with an organization that for a few years just went out and planted trees. Isn't that nice? sure. But did the effort (one day a year) equal an adequate corporate responsiblity initiative? no. Oh, they did a food drive and toy drive at Christmas but they were more like tired, obligatory offerings. I did get involved and we asked employees what they wanted to do and surprise, they wanted to use their skills to help the community. We had several events and people started to feel they made a difference; we added a scholarship program; we went back at Christmas time to the community and gave under privileged children we'd met toys and the families that we'd helped food. Admittedly more could have been done but how easy to just ask employees what they want to do and start connecting the possibilities with other events through the year. There is nothing I am more proud of then planning and organizing those events - which also incorporated diversity and environmentally friendly activities.

Let's take the "buzz" out of initiatives and put in some planning, some effort, and some measures; let's start by asking employees what they want to do, what they can do, and let's start connecting the efforts; in other words, let's live the values.

Keeping Employees and Customers Engaged

ENGAGEMENT
Engagement has to be the most overused buzz word in communications today. People are running around talking about how they must engage their employees; how they must engage their customers. But it is rare that you actually hear anyone expand on the why - why must employees be engaged? why must customers? And, what does engagement really mean?

Definitions of Employee Engagement and Customer Engagement

According to the "knower of all things" - Wikipedia, employee engagement is:
"Employee engagement, also called Work engagement, is a concept that is generally viewed as managing discretionary effort, that is, when employees have choices, they will act in a way that furthers their organization's interests. An engaged employee is a person who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work."

The thinking follows that someone who is involved and enthusiastic makes a better employee and will also be easier to retain thereby avoiding all that recruitment cost and time.

Customer Engagement (according to Wikipedia) is:
"the engagement of customers with one another, with a company or a brand. The initiative for engagement can be either consumer- or company-led and the medium of engagement can be on or offline.

Customer engagement marketing places conversions into a longer term, more strategic context and is premised on the understanding that a simple focus on maximising conversions can, in some circumstances, decrease the likelihood of repeat conversions (Customer engagement interview with Richard Sedley). CE aims at long-term engagement, encouraging customer loyalty and advocacy through word- of-mouth.

Online customer engagement is qualitatively different from offline engagement as the nature of the customer’s interactions with a brand, company and other customers differ on the internet. Discussion forums or blogs, for example, are spaces where people can communicate and socialise in ways that cannot be replicated by any offline interactive medium. Customer Engagement marketing efforts that aim to create, stimulate or influence customer behaviour differ from the offline, one-way, marketing communications that marketers are familiar with. Although customer advocacy, for example, has always been a goal for marketers, the rise of online user generated content can take advocacy to another level."

Therefore, the advantages of having engaged customers goes directly to building loyalty as well as advocates for your product or service which in turn builds your market awareness and increases your customer base. The focus here then is in increasing profit margins.

Engaged Employees
According to a June 10, 2009 IPSOS press release "Canadian Employees Feeling Anxious and Less Motivated About Job", employees are not only feeling anxious in these stressful economic times, they are less motivated and thereby less engaged.

“The atmosphere of looming cutbacks combined with an uncommunicative senior management does little to inspire team spirit amongst the ranks,” says one survey respondent. Another stated: “After having 50% of staff laid-off there remains a combination of survivor's guilt and the nagging question ‘Am I next?’”- IPSOS

Another quote in the release highlights how employees feel
[“Why should I keep giving my all when they keep taking away? Salary has been cut by 15%, flex day has been eliminated, work day has been extended. And…not even a sorry...just ‘this is what is happening, like it or leave’,” adds another.]

Getting Engaged
Employees and customers need to feel that they are being heard, that someone cares and that things will get better. If you want that long term commitment then you need to really listen.

What are best practices for websites and communications?

Who decides what are best practices? especially for websites and communications?

Frankly, its a combination of majority rule (in a battle for readership quantity counts) as well as expertise (writing, usability and design are not everyone's forte) and standards (because 15% of the population has some accessibility challenges and they need to be kept in mind as they may be vital depending on who you target).

Read my articles on website design and communications on Prescientdigital.com. Check out my presentation on developing Personas including a case study with CSI.