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Archive for January, 2009
I just finished watching the movie Gabriel.
It’s not good. I don’t recommend it.
I'll be honest, this is not the first bad movie I’ve seen. I wish I could redeem myself by blaming it on my husband, who put it in our Netflix queue. However, part of what drew us together 11 years ago was a shared appreciation for Hudson Hawk.
Turns out, though, that after extensive research, I've discovered this secret: Not all bad movies are bad.
Sometimes you get to the ending and the concepts reveal themselves to be thoughtful, although unsuccessful, attempts at telling a story.
This got me thinking.
As an Information Architect, I start every project with a current site audit. Now, while mocking a bad website provides great office fodder, it's safe to say that the site will nevertheless have good or interesting parts. Usually, it's typically an unsuccessful site experience because there are somehow barriers between the users and their goals.
Some of these barriers are similar to what makes a bad movie bad.
Bad Dialogue. Even 20 years ago, the theater audibly groaned at, ”Nobody puts Baby in a corner." But how often do you see web copy like, "We deliver a complete, pre-integrated technology foundation to reduce the cost and complexity of building and deploying enterprise business intelligence." Seriously. Groan. Talk like people talk and use plain language on your site.
Bad Editing. Ever get to the end of a movie and have no idea why the long lost cousin who liked to do magic tricks kept showing up? Scenes or characters that don’t advance the story need to be cut. Same thing on the web. Just because someone, somewhere might find the random detail interesting does not mean it's earned a place on the site. Ask yourself "Why would the user want to know this?" Do some research, decide who you're talking to and make some strong decisions based off that.
Bad Structure. 53 minutes in, it's the coolest sword fight of all time. (Oh, did I mention I like movies with sword fighting?) Too bad the past slow-going 52 minutes to get there just weren't worth where we arrived. I know there's an expectation that movies are a certain length, but there are no such rules for websites. Determine the importance of your information and make sure the structure of your site reflects that. When something needs to be told later, provide some really good hints to keep the interest going.
I'll wrap with a personal note to my IA colleagues out there. While writing this, I realized two things that affirm my career choice as an Information Architect. I figured you might appreciate them.
1. When I watch a bad movie, I think about how it could be restructured to tell a better story.
2. Watching bad movies reminds me that I enjoy digging through the junk to find the good bits.
Posted in Information Architecture, User Experience
In a recent blog entry by the always insightful Colleen Jones, she writes that the customer service (or self-service) experience is an often-overlooked opportunity to use "persuasive content."
I agree. A successful customer service experience is an opportunity to deepen the relationship with your customer. At that moment, your customers are more open to hear what you have to say, or to see what you’re selling.
But what about the customer service experience itself?
Unfortunately, companies tend to pay little attention to the interface and support content that drives the self-service application.
Here are a few examples I’ve run across recently. In this case, the diagnosis is poor explanatory content delivered at a critical point in the application:
I had to read the top two sentences several times to be sure of what I was about to agree to. Do you know what "initiate automatically payment" means? Can you "debit" a credit card?
Beyond being poorly written, they didn’t provide with me any useful information that might make me feel more comfortable with what I was about to agree to. Like: When will my credit card be charged? Will you send me an e-mail letting me know it went through?
Here’s one of my favorites:
The fact that I’ve logged in successfully is grounds for an error message? Yes, it turns out. I had logged into a black hole that I couldn’t click my way out of.
If I was logging in to the wrong place, couldn’t the error message have told me so, maybe with some instructions about getting to the right place? Better yet, could they have told me before I logged in?
Imagine you’ve just completed one of these transactions. Would you be open to giving one of these companies more of your business?
Provide a high-quality, simple, and above all, effective, experience for the customer and he or she will be much more receptive to the persuasive content that follows.
Take a good look at your self-service application. Carefully read your interface and support copy. Now ask yourself:
- Am I clearly telling the customer what they’re supposed to do?
- Am I using clear language on my online forms, or am I using jargon?
- Have I told the customer what they need to have on hand before they get started (so they’re not left scrambling for their driver’s license on page 9 of the app)?
- Am I offering help content throughout the user’s experience, not just in the help section?
- Have I told the customer what their—and our—next steps are after they complete the process?
When you can answer "yes" to these questions, you’ve demonstrated (and not just written about) your respect for the customer–for their time, and for their business.
Coming soon: Some examples from companies who are doing it right.
Posted in Content Strategy
Writing and designing for the mobile web—it’s about being pithy on an even smaller scale. There’s a mode that will be helpful to keep in mind when considering content for the mobile web: transactional.
The inverted pyramid keels at even steeper pitch, and each word must work twice as hard on a miniscule screen.
Typically, people logging on from Blackberrys, Treos, iPhones, and the like are looking to make some kind of transaction—bill pay, driving directions, checking a bank balance, fantasy football rankings, the weather, or their flight departure time.
And since they’re on the fly (sometimes literally), they want what they want and want to move on. Small screens, even tinier keyboards, and limited navigational capabilities means they don’t have time or patience to mess with multiple screens, gigantic graphics, or extra features—whether writers or designers find it to be filler or not.
It comes back to the mantra of keeping it simple. Think about what users are coming to the site for and make it readily available, near the top of the page. They might be in harried situations or moods and need to take care of business immediately.
Make transactions simple—one-button "pay now", "check flight status," or other commands with easy-to-use forms (as few open fields as possible) at the tops of pages and little to no redirection to other screens.
As always, the simplest routes and products have the most complex thoughts behind them, and have to be planned in advance so that the web site serves all of its users, no matter from which device they access the web.
Posted in Content Strategy, User Experience, Web Writing
Recently, Christine Beardsell had a must-read post on ClickZ called Developing a Diverse Brand Content Strategy.
The post focused largely on video, but replace "video" with "text," "audio," or "graphics," and it's still applicable.
Four types of content to consider in any web content strategy.
We're pretty excited about her ideas over here at Brain Traffic, and we're going to adopt her classification system of web content types:
- Original content: Content your business creates and owns. By default, planning for original content is the foundation of any smart web content strategy.
- Co-created content: Content that's co-developed with a partner (like a blogger) who is already developing content for your target audience.
- Licensed content: Content you pay licensing fees for, in order to republish under your brand.
- User-generated content: Content generated for and about your brand, product, or service by an audience.
One thing we don't agree with, however, is that your web content strategy should automatically include ALL of these types of content. At least, not right away.
Why? Two reasons.
You might not need all these types to meet business objectives and user expectations.
What do you want your web content to accomplish? What do your users expect from your content? How are you going to measure success?
Get these questions answered and make your original web content work, FIRST. You may find it does a fine job on its own.
It's simply a matter of prioritization. If you're a health insurance company, figure out how to use plain language about health insurance before you license health content from WebMD. If you're a financial services company, figure out how to make your product and service information more customer-facing before you publish dozens of videos of your executive team doing soundbites on CNBC.
You might not have the resources to create, manage, and oversee it all.
This is something we see time and time again. Companies commit to a web content strategy they simply can't sustain. They launch websites with unfinished or subpar content no one really had time to generate in the first place, let alone pay attention to once it went live. They create newsrooms and blogs that languish after only a few months. They start YouTube channels but aren't sure what to broadcast (except commercials).
Again: Start with the basics. Figure out how you're going to get a handle on planning, creating, and managing your original content. What should you publish, and why? What are you trying to accomplish with your content? What's the workflow? Who's responsible?
Go slow. Be smart.
It's tempting to go publish content – text, graphics, video, audio – just so you have something to show your boss or client. "See? We're out there, doing stuff!" It's easy to license content. It's sexy to build communities for (or solicit) user-generated content. But web content needs to be useful. Relevant. Actionable. Content for the sake of content is a commodity, and a worthless one at that.
Posted in Content Strategy
My mind is a microwaved hot dog. I’ve just stumbled on a site that offers web content for $4. Four. Dollars. That’s like, a sandwich. A gas station sandwich. And here’s the best part: The company selling "$4 contents" (as they put it) is Niche Writers India. Yep, India.
People are actually outsourcing web writing—English web writing—to India. To a NON-ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY.
Since when did web content become a cheap commodity? We’re not talking about zipper togs and baby socks! We’re talking about communication. Often, very technical and advanced communication. The idea that anyone would send English source content to India for editing just defies all logic ever. It’s a real-life Monty Python sketch.
With that premise, it makes sense that the NWI site itself is comic gold. Seriously, I couldn’t make this stuff up:
“Niche Writers India is the core when it comes to writing and this is what our clients feel about our content writing services expanding to various domains and collaterals. We have bubbling, energetic and youthful warp and woof of writers!”
I’m a lumberjack and I’m okay!
“Website content writing is an elaborate terrain, which deals in content for websites and website content writer is one who maneuvers such copywriting skills.”
Who’s on first?
“Oops! You fall short of compelling content. Where will the traffic fall, have you ever given a thought! If not, then it’s the right time to think. Internet visitors are smart, in fact, smarter than you.
The moment they’ll see some prosaic content or no content, you are out and so will be they!”
Daaammmn, Ginaaa!
The absurdity goes on and on, and it just gets better and better. Check out Niche Writers’ writing samples section. It’s a trove of confusing, incoherent treasures.
But here’s the serious point: Niche Writers India, though not in the manner it intends, makes a compelling case for the value of a good web writer. Hopefully after seeing this site, would-be value shoppers will decide to invest (more than $4) in their content. Hopefully.
Posted in Web Writing
Social media proponents tell us that the only way to protect our brand integrity in this Web 2.0 world is to "join the conversation"—get out there and pay attention to what people are saying about your products and services. Listen, respond, deliver on your promises. Be authentic. You know the drill.
But let's back up for a minute. In any conversation, we're really doing two things. We talk. And we listen.
Easy enough. But here's the catch. Once you decide to actively participate in social media (like Facebook or Twitter, for starters), it's important that you answer two questions about your conversations:
- Why am I talking?
- Why am I listening?
These seem like the most basic, obvious questions in the world. But they're the very first questions that must be answered before you lift a finger in social media. And it appears that many, many companies (and their agencies) are forgetting to ask them.
If you're going to dive in, don't forget to keep swimming.
For a quick example, check out these live, sponsored channels on YouTube:
Seriously, people. WHY? What was the plan, here?
Clearly, there really wasn't one. At least, not one that had a meaningful outcome to either the business or its audiences.
I see these sites, and I see three brands that don't have their social media acts together. And that makes me think they don’t care about me, what I need, or what I have to say. Not really.
So how can you participate in social media without losing trust or credibility? How can you mitigate risk and reap the rewards social media has to offer?
Have a plan. No, seriously. HAVE A PLAN.
For starters, create a well-articulated web content strategy that's actually sustainable within your organization. Plan what you're going to say, why you're going to say it, and how it's going to happen. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Scale according to real-world resources.
Then, whatever you do, make sure that content strategy informs your use of social media.
Wherever you're posting, responding to, distributing or syndicating information, be sure that information is on brand, on message, accurate, and delivers on its promise.
This isn't easy. This means you have to listen to more than just the people who are pushing you to "dive on in" to YouTube or Facebook. You must engage marketing, PR, customer service, subject matter experts, legal. They all need to be involved in the decisions you make about social media. Because they all have important information about how your social media content and conversations could impact the business and the customer.
Sound complicated? It is. So take your time. And be sure to start by asking that most basic, obvious question: WHY?
Note: This original post contained a link to a sponsored, empty YouTube channel called AmeripriseDreams. I quickly received a very lovely phone call from Keith at AMPF who let me know that they weren't responsible for this channel. Hopefully they can get it pulled down soon … good luck, guys.
Posted in Content Strategy
"Whatever you may have heard, this is our world, our place to be. Whatever you've been told, our flags fly free. Our heart goes on forever. People of Earth, remember."
The Brain Traffic team sat together in the conference room to watch the inauguration yesterday. There were tears, applause, and lots of comments about Aretha Franklin's hat. Every one of us typing away on our computers—not only sharing the experience with people in the room, but those far away in cyberspace.
Talkin' 'Bout a Revolution
The Obama campaign—which has inspired so many with its themes of hope and change—has often reminded me of the "internet revolution" of the late '90s.
In retrospect, it sounds a bit trite, but anyone who worked in the first wave of interactive agencies from 1996 to 2000 will probably tell you a similar story: We went to work every day believing we were the "pioneers" of the internet age. Groups of incredibly smart people (most of us in our early 20s) toiled for small paychecks in dodgy warehouse spaces. (Revolutionaries have to suffer, right?) But, we believed the Internet could triumph over the big corporations and big governments . . . engage the whole world in a global conversation . . . give every human being on Earth a voice.
This fervor was even documented with a manifesto—the Cluetrain Manifesto. The quote at the top of this post is not a part yesterday’s inaugural address, it's actually part of the introduction to the Cluetrain written in 1999. Thankfully, Obama's speechwriters have more talent, but Locke & Co. (Cluetrain's authors) were trying to convey a message of inclusive, universal change, too.
Storm Clouds on the Horizon
Speed ahead a few years. By 2001, the internet "bubble" was bursting. Those of us on the ground realized the big corporations that we were trying to bring to heed were actually the only clients paying us for project work. On September 11, I also sat in a conference room with my coworkers huddled around a TV. There were only nine of us left at the agency. There had once been more than fifty. Like everything else that stopped that day, it seemed like the revolution no longer mattered.
Slow and Steady Wins the Race
Yesterday, after more than a decade of working in the internet industry, I thought I would take a look at the Cluetrain Manifesto again, for old time's sake, and to have a good laugh. I'm not 20 and naïve anymore, after all.
As I read through the Manifesto, there were certainly things that gave me a chuckle. But, I also realized that a lot of the "95 Theses" are starting to happen. The internet has changed big business (airline or newspaper execs can attest). Internet conversations are affecting how consumers spend their money (Angie's List, Amazon recommendations, etc.). People around the world are linking to each other and communicating faster (Facebook, Linked In, Twitter). Even the Obama campaign is a proof of how the internet can mobilize the people. (Not to mention that our new President is taking a stand to keep his Blackberry.)
As Barack Obama took the oath of office, the typing in the Brain Traffic conference room paused. I looked around the room, and realized the same thing that drew me to Obama, drew me to Brain Traffic. Smart people, working toward a change for the better. So, maybe there's a little revolutionary in me yet. (Luckily, this time around, I work in a far less dodgy warehouse.)
Posted in Around the Office, Content Strategy, Information Architecture, User Experience, Web Writing
Meetings: canceled. History: made.
Posted in Around the Office, Brain Traffic
At the top of my reading list last week was a brave post from Mediameme's Lori Laurent Smith called, "Content Strategy for the Social and Semantic Web."
This is a terrifically complicated, difficult topic. Most of us are still struggling with how to effectively plan, create, and manage content for our own company's website(s). Now we have to worry about the many challenges the social web poses for our brand and marketing messages.
Believe the hype: Your content is not your own.
As Lori writes:
Developing a content strategy means it must be resilient against the web reality that the content will be adopted, mixed, mashed and recreated in a post-modern lovefest by enthusiasts and enemies, influencers and newbies.
[The] hyper-connectivity of users, plus the immediacy and velocity of conversation, means:
a. Inconsistencies or gaps between the message and the supporting content or user experience will be called out;
b. Gaps will be filled by users aggregating and adding to existing content; and
c. Online perceptions of brands, products, or services are created that are a new reality from the user’s perspective.
Yikes. How can we simultaneously mitigate the risks and leverage the opportunities social media offers, here? What's a company to do?
Start with a web content strategy.
A centralized, well-articulated content strategy can help you avoid those inconsistencies and gaps by ensuring everyone knows what you're going to say, how you're going to say it, and why.
Before you create or publish content:
- Clarify the business goals you want to achieve with your web content, now and in the long-term.
- Learn your audience's top interests and tasks as they relate to your product or service.
- Identify content topics and types that reflect your brand, support your objectives, and meet your audience's needs.
- Articulate your brand's voice and tone in a way that's useful to the people who will be creating, reviewing, and approving your web content.
While these activities by no means result in a fully-realized web content strategy, they're a solid start to making sure your content is consistent, useful, and usable for your audiences.
And remember: Once your content is out there, it's out there. Rest assured, if you manage to get their attention, people are going to do something with your content. Share it. Reshape it. Act on it. So be careful and be smart about what you publish in the first place. Because after that, it's no longer yours to control.
Posted in Content Strategy, User Experience, Web Writing
No. I assure you — this isn't about those serene photographs with words like "success" in fancy fonts. This is a story about a piece of paper stuck to the magnet board at my desk.
Visiting client: "Hey. What's that?"
Me: "That's my It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia poster."
Visiting client: "No. THIS."
Me: "OH! It's 10 ways to work better. Super simple, but good little Golden Rules, you know?"
Visiting client: "Cool. Actually, it's a policy at our office to only open email when you're prepared to just do some emailing. It can be such a time waster."
Me: "No kidding."
Visiting client: "I like this. Can you send it to me?"
It occurred to me there's no reason to keep this little gem a secret. If you're looking for ways to work better, this list is for you.
From Swiss artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss:
1. Do one thing at a time.
2. Know the problem.
3. Learn to listen.
4. Learn to ask questions.
5. Distinguish sense from nonsense.
6. Accept change as inevitable.
7. Admit mistakes.
8. Say it simple.
9. Be calm.
10. Smile.
Posted in Around the Office
