There’s been some discussion in the blogosphere recently about the importance of wireframes and how they should be handled within interactive agencies. Going by a recent post by Sarah Harrison and reiteration by Paul Boag of the Boagworld podcast, there seems to be a disconnect between information architects (IAs) and the designers that they work with in relation to the position of wireframes within the overall website development process. The basic caveat as introduced by Sarah is that wireframes, even if they are meant to be lo-fidelity representations of a final website that contain no true graphical direction, colors, or themes, still focus on physical information layout, something that is generally handled by designers in lieu of the IA (in a perfect world.) Sarah suggests a novel document known as the Page Description Diagram, as introduced by Dan Brown in his excellent work Communicating Design, as the perfect solution to this impasse. The Page Description Diagram  lists the elements of a page in a standard three-column format with the most important information featured in the left column with less important aspects listed in the center and right columns. The standard horizontal structure of the document keeps it layout-neutral in a design sense and leaves placement completely up to the designer. (more…)

Consider the time and dedication NASA puts toward preparing the space shuttle for its next mission. Months of research, planning, and prep to get all the details in place for a flawless launch. It’s launch day and the countdown is on…5…4…3…2..LIFTOFF!

You can hear the hi-five’s sparking all around the control center. Then the director announces over the loud speaker, “Okay everyone, great job…have a good night!”

Say what? 
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Proper visual and structural design is a crucial step in building a site that won’t kill you.

Design gets a bad rap sometimes. It’s expensive, time consuming, not needed—designers create answers that nobody wants to problems that don’t exist…yikes!

We’ve talked with many companies over the years. They’ve ranged from shoestring startups to some big names. No matter what size of company it is, many times there is someone there unwilling to make the investment on design and usability. The main complaint is that the payoff in those areas are not worth the investment.

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There’s an excellent post up over at Signal vs. Noise by Roby Fitzhenry concerning user paths in web navigation design. The basic argument is that website designers should think beyond the common, top-down hierarchical structure present in most websites since it may not necessarily match up with users’ desired paths. In this case, a “path” is the series of steps (pages viewed, actions taken, etc.) a user undertakes to meet an end goal, whatever that may be from finding applicable information to making a purchase. Here’s Roby’s own words explaining the concept: (more…)

When approaching the development of a new website, project managers, designers, and application developers initially have little data to inform their design decisions and must rely upon research in order to construct successful user experiences. Research, however, is completely invalidated if the decisions it suggests end up being ineffective after a project launches. The fail safe for avoiding such an outcome is extensive usability testing, a portion of the development process many organizations sometimes wish to avoid due to perceived associative costs and resource drain. Usability testing, though, does not have to be expensive or take a prohibitive amount of time, and the changes that will come about due to interacting directly with users will reap benefits that far outweigh any costs in capital or time that is accrued throughout the process.

Keeping usability testing light and cost effective is key, and here are five quick tips on how to do just that:

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Sensible concepts for those ready to expand their website and search engine marketing.

1) Content will always be king…make sure your content is top notch and don’t just focus on the pretty pictures, you’re visitors aren’t. Wether it’s copy, audio or video, invest as much as needed to get it right. If you’re trying to convince someone to believe or do something, then always test your content and keep working to one-up the current set. Refine and grow.

2) Brand loyalty is tough to come by on the web. When I say loyalty, I mean, for the most part, no one will suffer through a site just because it has a logo they know on it. Only a handful of sites have extremely loyal customers. Make sure your site is relevant, easy to use, and gives visitors what they’re looking for. Poor site design and usability sends me looking elsewhere. Why waste time trying to figure a website out when I can find the company who did this for me and buy from them?

3) Web design is much more than colors, font selection and creative juxtaposition. Good design determines how easy a site is to use (intuitive), builds trust (almost instantly) and serves as a guide for visitors. Great design takes online marketing into consideration in the planning phases to create maximum customer conversions.

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