Fuzzy Content

Unfriendly Unsubscribe Confirmation
Originally uploaded by bobrobboy.

I unsubscribed from a mailing list today and was reminded of an article I read a few months ago called “Death by a Thousand Cuts Kills the Web Experience.”

If only the pain those cuts cause were as obvious to the businesses who inflect them as they are to us readers. If that were the case, WebTrends would be in a world of hurt. My experience has been plagued with usability problems and challenges.

And as a fond farewell, they tell me that my “request to unsubscribe from the above newsletter has been committed to [their] database.”

There are so many touch points in the consumer courtship you can be sure that businesses will fail to meet our expectations from time to time. That’s why recovery so important. In this instance, WebTrends appears to be saying “Goodbye and good riddance. You never understood us anyway.” rather than attempting to understand the problem or to keep a bridge open for future engagement. Too bad for them. There are many other good tools available to the Army of Davids roaming the internet.
Do you have any examples of the small things businesses have done to recover from times they have failed? Here’s what you do:

1. Post them on your favorite photo or bookmarking site
2. Tag them with “another cut”
3. Blog that photo or bookmark
4. Trackback to this post

BTW: I love the scene in Bugs Life when Hopper opens the seed bottle and overwhelms the nitwits at the bar.

It’s the new year. This is always a good time to get your bearings, straighten lingering issues, and catch up with the latest trends.

I talk often about following Web conventions. There is no point reinventing the wheel on elements that are so common for people. Conventions make life easy. Picture a vehicle hitting the US market with the accelerator and brake pedals reversed. Here are some Web conventions that I believe you cannot ignore when developing your Web site:

• Branding. Your logo (or nameplate) is always at the top of the page. It identifies who you are. Visitors to your page look to the upper left corner first to make sure they are on the right site. Even better, your logo is linked to the home page, allowing visitors to start at the home page at any point in their session.
• Global Navigation. Global navigation identifies major sections for site visitors to move through. Either topic- or audience-oriented, your global navigation better stand out from content on the page. A horizontal list under Branding or vertical list on the left side of the page are the two locations that visitors first look to.
• Site Resources. Where do you look for a search box on every Web site? So many Web sites (and big Web sites) have used the upper right corner. Because of this, that’s where visitors’ eyeballs go. Don’t fight it.
• Consistent Elements. Picture a phone book where every page is laid out differently. Would it be easy to use? The same premise exists for your site. CSS allows us to do some amazing things with site layout, but keep the common elements in the same location. Page-level navigation, body content, and alternate content (or feeds) should show up in roughly the same place from page to page. Better yet, they should be formatted consistently as well.
• Short Content. Site visitors are scanners before they are readers. They are looking for relevance. They are looking for a connection. When they find that connection, whether that be one click in or ten clicks in, they will read. And even at that point, they want Cliff’s Notes, not the novel.

I know there are more out there, such as microformats, font sizes, and drop-down menus. But these are certainly the “at your own risk” rules. Break these, and try new ways to attract your site visitors. If you have others, feel free to share through comments.

Many moons ago, I was a corporate trainer for software and web development. One of the unique aspects of my job was instant feedback. If I had a bad day, I knew about it that night. If my students agreed with everything I said, I knew about it that night. Every student completed an evaluation form and rated my session from 1-10…instant feedback.

Since then, no other organization I have been with provides instant feedback. And unfortunately, that is how most Web sites work. I talk frequently about consistent usability testing and audience focus groups, but that may not be instant enough. It also may not be truthful enough.

There are several places on the Web that provide instant feedback. Any product you purchase at Target.com has reviews from other consumers. These products are, at most, $500. Most of their products are around the $10-20 range. If it is so important when dealing with products at that price level, why wouldn’t it be more important for the second largest expense of your lifetime (typically).

Gerry McGovern wrote a great article a few months ago, titled “Truth Sells on the Web“. Many institutions I have met with have been worried about blogging. Either they are worried that external blogs will say bad (or incorrect) things about their university or that comments on internal blogs may not be favorable. But that is what makes people believe the content on your site. If it’s all rosy, prospective students wonder what’s missing.

Page-level commenting on every page of your site is not quite feasible at this time, but open the door a little. Provide a link on pages for readers to comment (then publish those comments). Open up your blogs for commenting. Comment on external blogs about your college. This is what will allow instant feedback to ensure your site is moving the right direction.

By the way, agree or not agree with my viewpoints….comment on it.

Social content on the internet has reached a blistering pace. My head spins, but my eyes twinkle at the possibilities. For example:

For all of you who enjoy regular podcasts, you now have your favorites. I listen to about 4 or 5 podcasters on a regular basis. Some have daily podcasts, but others are for less frequent. For those everyday podcasts, I find it hard to catch up. But a service has been out there for a few months that caught my eye. Pluggd has Hear Here, which allows you to search podcasts for appropriate content. So, let’s say you are listening to Chris Pirillo, but find his hour-long daily program too much. You just want to know more about the new ChaCha search engine. Type in ChaCha, or “search engine” and it will show you where in the hour-long program that may be discussed. Brilliant! I’m not supporting their service, but if you use it and like it, let me know.

How does this relate to you? It is now more important than ever to expand your walls of the .edu site. If there are no services that push people to your site (besides standard Google searches), you are missing the boat. Your podcasts, blogs, and events need to be found in aggregators, microformat searches, and blog searches.

It’s a crowded marketplace…your content needs to rise to the top.

I’m not the organizer, I’m just passing the news along

After a great turnout last year, we are trying to organize another installation of the SXSWi Higher Ed Meetup! Location and exact time are still to be determined, so we would like to get an idea of how many might attend.

RSVP for this event at http://upcoming.org/event/136826.

See you all in March!

Chip Diffendaffer
University of Denver

A large percentage of us start every new year with resolutions: lose some extra weight, spend more time with family and friends, and be more generous. But if our Web site had some resolutions, what would they be? Let me take a stab:

• Usability testing. Just to get our bearings and make sure our site is serving audiences properly, let’s try some one-on-one testing with actual users. Spend 10 minutes watching people use the site. Grab 10 a month and make it part of your site maintenance, not part of the next version of your site.
• Retraining authors. Content authors across your organization can certainly use some refresher tips going into a new year of managing site content. Cover latest trends and statistics in site usage, re-emphasize searchable content, and review overall goals of the site. Recharge their batteries for a successful year of content management. Make a plan to get authors together every couple months or so.
• Reviewing standards. Are you up to date on compliance? Always a nice time to improve overall compliance. Remember that higher education is one of the lowest in compliance, especially public institutions. Update your standards policies per state and federal guidelines and test the site to see where you stand. Don’t be afraid to throw this into your training sessions if page content is a common violator.

Have others? Don’t be afraid to share them.