Usability

3 of the most important elements in designing the content of a webpage are color, contrast and font size.

These three elements are amazingly useful when used properly, and mean the difference between action or ignorance. Understanding the important part that these three elements play in capturing the visitor’s attention is critical to today’s online marketing.

Google Analytics finds the Interface

Google is the most recent company to understand the critical role that something as basic as color, contrast and text size have to do with creating a successful user experience. By updating their analytics interface, they have now overcome one of the primary obstacles to gaining great data…

After a few emails and client concerns about Google Instant, I’m posting my thoughts on the good and bad about Google Instant. Any problems suffered from this new interface may be problems to Google and not businesses. Death of the Long Tail? Absolutely not. Google instant provides searchers with additional tools (words) that ultimately help them refine their query. In other words, it helps the searcher qualify themselves better through suggested phrases. By providing these tools to help searchers better qualify themselves and develop more throughout search terms, it drives them deeper into results, providing greater visibility to more websites. For just a few searches, a searcher is only exposed…

This has been stewing for a while. Just brimming under the surface. An brewing anger towards companies that do not understand accessibility, nor the commitment that is required to be accessible, but will give it a light treatment simply as a sales tactic. Basically, I’ve had it. I’m mad as hell and I am not going to take it anymore. I’ve worked with too many projects where a vendor has sold a program, content management system or software application as a part of the overall project, and claimed that it was “technically compliant”. “Sure it is 508 compliant,” they say. Not understanding the implications of such a statement. Invariably, the…

Changes in the Industry like no other It can be argued that no other profession has been so affected by the internet as Real Estate. I count myself lucky to have been in the industry right when it “crossed over” into the Internet age. When I got into Real Estate the agents were the true gatekeepers of information. Every two weeks, a book of listings within your county was published, and every Realtor received one. Buyers were primarily reliant upon their agent to communicate new listings to them in a timely and efficient manner. The only other source of Real Estate information was the circular in the local newspaper, published…

What is Engagement? At the recent eMetrics conference in Toronto, Canada, I heard a number of people talk about site engagement. They all seemed to have their own idea of what it was exactly, but for the most part, it all had to do with time on site and page views. Time on Site/Page Views Engagement I heard the Director of Customer Intelligence and Analytics for a certain major software manufacturer say that they have such a successful site because people spend so much time on it, and look at so many different pages. I have my own idea about what that is called, and it is not engagement.…

The ROI of Search Engine Optimization, Usability, and Analytics. I’ll tell you why I love what I do. I love helping other people be successful in their business. And this industry provides the tools for making an impact. Right now. SEO, Usability, and Analytics are the best investment that you can make for your online business. If you have never looked at optimization, usability, or ‘real’ analytics research for your website, then you have missed a wide-open opportunity to get the most out of your website. These three factors have always resulted in success on many websites, and when combined, they are even more powerful in their results. Even websites…

As many of my friends know, I also run the Website Accessibility Blog. It started as a hobby and a passion, and is now a full-fledged voice in the accessibility community. I rarely cross-post article between the two blogs, but this was one that I felt merited the additional attention to a differnt audience. Many times, in my speaking on various subjects, I do not get the opportunity to delve into accessibility and the importance of it. Recently, I was able to observe some user accessibility testing of a large application, and was fascinated with the people and their stories. What follows is a steam of thoughts and observations that…

Search seems to be at the top of mind for companies and entrepreneurs that develop sites and expect the world to come, much like the proverbial mousetrap. Unfortunately, the best designed and optimized website will not see the light of a monitor unless there is something that draws users and provides a good experience. While search gets the headlines, there is a lack of the ‘nuts and bolts’ activities that make businesses successful, both online and offline. Most site owners believe that simply building a site, optimizing it for “gold terms” and building a PPC campaign will be enough. Yet, there is a great divide between the goals of the…

Here at the World Headquarters of SiteLogic, I become the focus of some very destructive user testing. No, not website user testing – this is much more exciting, and makes much more noise. As I posted in the 5 things you may not know, I am on a sizeable plot of land here in Ohio. When I bought it, it was very overgrown, as it hadn’t been maintained much in about twenty years, so it requires a lot of effort to reclaim the land. Unfortunately, it is grown over with briars, wild rosebushes and other invasive plants that aren’t native to the area. This makes maintaining much of anything very…

Do you ever read an article about some research that stays with you for days, maybe weeks? That happened to me this month as two articles, seemingly unrelated, stayed with me throughout the Thanksgiving holiday. Jacob Nielson and the Digital Divide The first, by Jacob Nielson, discusses the current state of the digital divide. An interesting exposition of the state of the divide, which is not one of “have’s and have-not’s.” The cost of computers is coming down significantly. The cheapest new computer today is significantly less than the Apple Mac that I bought for college in 1988, and significantly more powerful. The goal of mass-producing a $100 laptop is…