There's more than one doorway to our websites. People come in through the garage, basement, window, chimney — well, you get the picture. Colleges are learning that their website user experience doesn't always start on their homepage. Sometimes the first web content people see is a blog post or a student handbook PDF or an inquiry form. Or is it? Actually, the user experience never starts on your website. The doorway to your site is … [Read more...]
Web Content Insights Through ‘Understanding Comics’
June 6, 2011 by
I am not a comics nerd (I don’t think my Archie obsession as a kid holds muster), though I have befriended many — and married one. So while I’ve never sniffed at comics and graphic novels as child's play, I didn’t fully realize the complexity of the form until I picked up a copy of Scott McCloud’s seminal text, Understanding Comics, in which he explains many principles of visual communication and what makes comics tick. I had heard of the book … [Read more...]
User Feedback, Where? Right There!
May 24, 2011 by
Understanding our users’ needs and evaluating the efficacy of our web content is an ongoing challenge. But sometimes the most relevant, valuable insights are right in front of us. In her post, "Revisiting the cliché, 'the customer is always right,'" Tara DeMarco reminds us to make use of everyday user feedback. Just like customers, our web users are always right when they respond to our content — such as a visitor … [Read more...]
It’s the Little Things: Why Microcopy Matters
May 5, 2011 by
Our digital experiences -- whether they involve updating Twitter, reading a web page, using an app or filling out a form -- do not typically take place in single bursts. Rather, they take place incrementally, with each step gradually (hopefully) moving us toward our goal. Some of the most important signposts along that incremental journey are the words that guide our way. There’s a name for it -- microcopy. “Microcopy is small yet powerful … [Read more...]