http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/ adjustafresh: a fresh design features the digital portfolio and stream-of-consciousness blogging of online strategist, information architect, user experience designer and UI developer Scott Kiekbusch. en adjustafresh@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-14T15:17:11-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/five-reasons-why-you-should-be-lifecasting/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/five-reasons-why-you-should-be-lifecasting/#When:15:17:11Z Are you a narcissistic attention whore?  Do you have an innate desire to annoy friends, family and perfect strangers?  Then you should be lifecasting! Lifecasting - it’s all the rage!  Here are five reasons why you too should blog and tweet incessantly about the minutia of your life, take daily photographs of yourself and post them to Flickr and strap a video camera to your body that will stream your every move to anyone with an Internet connection. … And Now, The Top 5 Reasons to Broadcast Every Second of Every Day of Your Life... You’re a narcissistic attention whore. Your mommy taught you that everything you do is exceptional and worthy of exuberant adulation. You have an innate desire to annoy friends, family and perfect strangers. You think people actually give a shit about the fact that someone put poppyseeds on your onion rolls. High probability slight chance of receiving a development deal with a TV production company. If any of these apply to you, what are you waiting for?  Get out there and start over-sharing with the world!  What’s the worst that could happen?  In all seriousness though… please don’t. Social, Trends, Uncommon Sense 2008-08-14T15:17:11-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/how-to-outrun-the-crap-avalanche/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/how-to-outrun-the-crap-avalanche/#When:03:19:00Z To ensure the optimal user experience on your website or corporate intranet, it is important to understand how to outrun the crap avalanche.  The following steps will help make sure things stay neat and tidy. As a father, it is my parental duty to escort my children to countless birthday parties. Birthday party etiquette states that all party-goers must leave the party with a bag full of cheap plastic toys. Against my better judgment, my children enjoy the occasional trip to McDonald’s, Burger King or Chuck E Cheese (usually while on a road trip, or when their mother is out of town). These dining establishments also guarantee that your children return home with at least one—usually summer-blockbuster-themed—cheap plastic toy.  Apparently, it’s part of the draw. Every holiday and birthday, my children accumulate even more (usually not quite as cheap) toys.  While batteries are not likely to be included, many of these toys come with thousands of tiny pieces. At the moment that a child first encounters any of the aforementioned toys, it is a priceless object, worthy of the child’s absolute attention and adoration. What may look like nothing more than a three cent choking hazard to a parent, is as precious as the Holy Grail to a child.  At least for the next 15 minutes or so… The ongoing accumulation of all of these toys adds up. Even the most fastidious among us—those of us with our color coordinated wicker and plastic storage bins—cannot keep up.  Eventually, we are overrun with the avalanche of crap. Corporate websites and intranets suffer from a very similar problem.  As time goes on, a myriad of stakeholders add more essential content and features to each page.  Content and features that users certainly cannot live without.  Yet, we humans have a way of filtering out the noise, and returning to only what we find value and familiarity in: our favorite toys. I observe the toys that my children tend to gravitate to most regularly.  Kids grow up, and some toys are all but forgotten.  Toys that were once priceless sit idle and forgotten in the bottom of a crowded toy chest.  These are the toys that, when my children aren’t looking, end up in the box to be donated to Good Will. To ensure the optimal user experience on your website or corporate intranet, it is important to understand how to outrun the crap avalanche.  The following steps will help make sure things stay neat and tidy: Use analytics to monitor the content and features your users find most valuable. Avoid confusing users with superfluous content; get rid of it.  Only what’s essential and valuable should be present. Offer helpful and friendly error pages and redirects for the few people who may have come looking for what was removed. ...and always remember.  If everything is important - nothing is important.  Prioritize and visually highlight the essential content that users must see. We can’t avoid the need to temporarily deal with the occasional cheap plastic toy.  We can take steps to make sure that they don’t end up getting in the way of the good stuff.  IA, Uncommon Sense, UXD 2008-08-11T03:19:00-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/what-defines-you/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/what-defines-you/#When:18:15:25Z In our gadget-obsessed age of disposable consumption and materialism, I notice more and more people identifying their own self-worth through things.  This has all lead me to consider what really matters. What external things really define me as a person?  In our gadget-obsessed age of disposable consumption and materialism, I notice more and more people identifying their own self-worth through things.  Perhaps defining ourselves through external objects and attributes rather than our own inner values and character is evolution?  Lately, I have noticed an increased level of conversation about material things and how those things seem to define a person’s self image.  I have noticed myself yearning for material goods as a means of propping up my own self image—yes, I’m talking about you iPhone. This has all lead me to consider what really matters. What external things really define me as a person?  My Family In my family I see the best and the worst of myself.  I see unlimited joy, potential and pride; the realization of my childhood dreams.  There is also an underlying caution about the future and the unknown.  My children and my wife are the most accurate mirror into who I am. Music I used to say that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at their CD collection.  Well, we don’t have CD collections anymore, but you can still judge a person based on their musical taste—even if it’s on a hard drive.  I love music; all kinds of music.  I tend to have music playing at all times—at home, work, in the car.  The variety of music that I enjoy spans my many moods and truly defines me as a person.  Movies That thing I wrote about someone’s CD collection… the same thing could be said about their DVD collection (or their Netflix queue).  Tell me your favorite five movies of all time and I can pretty much tell if we’re going to get along.  Yes, my taste in movies defines who I am.  Ironically, if you asked me about my favorite films, it would be hard for me to quantify.  My favorites tend to change, but a few that are always in contention include: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Fargo, Raising Arizona, Seven, Fight Club, The Shining, The Usual Suspects… to name a few. As I’ve gone through this exercise, I found it interesting that the types of things that I think many people would use to define themselves (religion, race, nationality, political affiliation, favorite sports team, etc.) really have very little bearing on how I see myself.  Now that you’ve read my little list, what defines you? Uncommon Sense 2008-08-05T18:15:25-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/an-adulterous-confession/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/an-adulterous-confession/#When:02:23:01Z I’m coming clean. I’ve been with someone else. It’s grown from a lurid fascination to an obsession. I have even recruited my friends to join in the fun. I disgust myself. I’m coming clean. I’ve been with someone else. I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve been neglecting you lately, and I apologize. I’m not trying to blame you, but we both know that you’re a little high maintenance. Don’t get me wrong—you’re great… really, you’re wonderful. It’s just that, with her it’s so quick and dirty. It’s so damn easy with Twitter. We both know that over the past five years we’ve had our ups and downs. Back when we first started out, I couldn’t get enough. We used to do it every day, sometimes several times each day. And it felt great. Then, as time went on, I started to get busier. Work, kids, life… you know how it is. The excitement—the spontaneity had vanished. It started to take so much more effort and planning. I know, a lot of that… all right, most of that is my fault. I admit I’m a perfectionist. But you, of all blogs, know my philosophy: if you’re going to do something, do it right. Then it happened. I heard people talking about her. How easy she was. No commitment; nothing serious. I ignored her siren call for a whie, but eventually, I started thinking of excuses to get closer to Twitter, to give her a spin. But I stayed loyal to my blog… for a few months anyway. I even used my blog to publicly mock Twitter. I’m so sorry. Over time the urges continued to strengthen. I lingered on Twitter’s website more frequently. Rumors of how often Twitter goes down peaked my lusty interest. I finally made up an excuse: I needed to succumb to her seductive call for work… it was social media research.  Again, I shamefully used this very blog to publicly document my initial tryst with the hussy. And it was, no… it is so easy. Even as I sit with you, pouring my heart out to you, I think of how easy it would be to quickly send a 140 character or less missive off into the ether. It’s grown from a lurid fascination to an obsession. I used to see her once or twice each day, mostly at work. But I quickly longed for more time with Twitter. I wanted to tweet in all kinds of exotic and unusual places: on my way home in the car, at the grocery store, even on my family vacation to Puerto Rico. I have even recruited my friends to join in the fun. I disgust myself. I thought maybe Twitter would bring us closer. I thought I’d learn a few things that I could use here. Ultimately, it’s just distracted me from the business of blogging. Why am I telling you this? Guilt I suppose. I can’t promise I’ll be around as often as I was when we first started out; and Twitter will still be part of my life. But I’ll do my best to spend more quality time with you if you’ll allow me to have an open relationship. Social, Trends, Uncommon Sense 2008-07-01T02:23:01-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/kol-rip-who-do-you-trust/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/kol-rip-who-do-you-trust/#When:00:07:01Z As a consumer, whom are you more likely to trust—someone you’ve never met who is likely getting compensated for his or her product endorsement, or a peer who shares your tastes and interests, is genuinely excited about the product and isn’t getting paid to have an opinion. Treat each and every customer as if they are that coveted KOL. I’m officially sick of the term KOL.  For the uninitiated, KOL is a TLA (Three Letter Acronym) that stands for Key Opinion Leader.  As a digital marketing strategist, I hear this term (as well as thought leader, KOL’s less hip counterpart) incessantly—from clients and colleagues alike.  The conventional (old) school of thought has taught the top down marketers that the secret sauce to any successful marketing initiative lies in influencing the influencer, or KOL. Social media and communities have further democratized information which has had a direct impact on exactly how much influence (depending on the audience) a KOL has.  In an age of skepticism, where consumers are leery of anyone occupying once trusted positions of power, the sway of the influencers is seeing a downward trend.  Steve Rubel recently highlighted some specific findings from the 2008 Edelman Trust Barometer that indicates consumers prefer to hear from people like themselves rather than KOLs. The question of targeting super nodes vs. smaller groups is all coming down to trust. While the marketplace - both marketers and publishers - continue to focus on reach, they are missing the big picture. Trust is by far a more important metric, one that clearly rules when it comes to influence. Does this mean that the endorsement of influential personalities has lost its value?  Absolutely not; the backing of influential thought leaders can certainly attract attention.  Based on the aforementioned trust report, I would encourage marketers to place less emphasis on the so-called thought leaders.  Treat each and every customer as if they are that coveted KOL. As a consumer, whom are you more likely to trust—someone you’ve never met who is likely getting compensated for his or her product endorsement, or a peer who shares your tastes and interests, is genuinely excited about the product and isn’t getting paid to have an opinion. Marketing Geniuses , Strategy, Trends, Uncommon Sense 2008-05-28T00:07:01-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/information-architecture-graveyards/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/information-architecture-graveyards/#When:00:51:00Z An IA Graveyard is a collection of content that, for some reason, would not fit into the existing architecture of a website, often resulting in confusion and a lack of findability for the end user.  Avoid sending content to the dead zone at all costs! Avoid sending content to the dead zone at all costs! I have dug up some examples (which weren’t hard to find) of instances where a website’s information architect a.) never existed b.) went on strike or c.) just plain sucked at their job. An IA Graveyard is a collection of content that, for some reason, would not fit into the existing architecture of a website, often resulting in confusion and a lack of findability for the end user. A lack of proper planning, dramatic changes to an organization’s infrastructure, flat out laziness or a combination of all three often lead to these data dumping grounds. “Quick Links” So someone wrote an “important” article that doesn’t fit into any of the content areas defined by the site’s architecture… Why not just add the title or topic of the new article to a list of Quick Links?  Typically consisting of a laundry list of topics and titles that a user must sift through, these lists quickly get out of hand and offer no help to a user trying desperately to find information on your website.  The ironically labeled “Find it Now” feature of the Little League website is a prime example of a list of links that grew out of control. If you’ve resorted to building a handy list of “Quick Links” on your website, it’s time to consider a few things (especially number one): Is this content really necessary? Does the content fit into or duplicate any existing content buckets; can it be modified to work into the existing architecture? Is it time to modify or redesign the site architecture? IfAQ - Infrequently Asked Questions At some point people forgot what the “F” in FAQ stood for.  FAQs have transitioned from a useful Q&A repository into a wasteland of unorganized and often irrelevant content.  My advice: avoid setting aside an FAQ section in the site’s architecture entirely.  Design the architecture and craft the content in such a way that it will address the topics that are of primary concern to your users.  Kevin Kelly agrees: And of course, your FAQ does not need to be in the form of a Q&A at all. You can cover the same ground by writing it in prose, or essay form, or even a story. Doing this requires that you do your homework; understand the topics your users are primarily interested in and glean a solid understanding of how they would like to search for and find that information.  If, after doing your homework and researching your audience, the content on your website still hasn’t answered your users’ questions, make it easy for them to contact you directly to get a personal answer. Don’t be a Lazy IA! Speak with users and site stakeholder to ensure that the site is well-planned to accommodate necessary content.  Push back when stakeholders start creating content that doesn’t have a home within the site’s structure.  Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions, especially: is this content really adding value for the user? If the content isn’t valuable for the user or meeting the overall business goals, it doesn’t belong on the website.  Stop that IA graveyard before it gets out of control and makes you look bad. IA, Uncommon Sense, UXD 2008-05-17T00:51:00-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/your-customers-are-talking-are-you-listening/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/your-customers-are-talking-are-you-listening/#When:00:41:00Z Every day, millions of people are going online and creating content.  Do you know what your customers are broadcasting online about their experiences with your brand and your products?  Learn how to just listen or engage your critics and fans alike in the social media landscape. Google’s search results don’t discriminate between approved brand messaging and an irate customer. Admit it—you’ve Googled yourself; we all have.  It can be surprising (or alarming depending on your perspective) to see how many search results turn up when performing the ego search.  What kind of content is returned when you enter your name into a search engine?  Is the information personal?  Is it favorable?  What about your business or products; what are people saying across the web about your brand? Every day, millions of people are going online and creating content.  Remember when we were Time Magazine’s Person of the Year?  The combination of search engines indexing billions of pages of content and the social web have given millions of people a megaphone to broadcast their messages to a global audience.  Sometimes that message can be unflattering, embarrassing or downright false, and Google’s search results don’t discriminate between approved brand messaging and an irate customer. Fortunately, there are tools available to help businesses detect valuable user feedback by monitoring online conversations. As noted earlier, Search Engines are a reliable way to locate online content that is being published about your brand.  Unfortunately, depending on the search term, sifting through several pages of results can be time consuming.  Moving beyond the standard search engines, the following are useful applications which can enable marketers to monitor social media: Blogpulse – search and other tools targeted around content found on blogs Technorati – another search tool specializing in blog content Twing – this tool locates content specifically on message boards and forums Summize – what are people saying about you on the micro-blogging site: Twitter? Rather than spending hours manually sorting through search results, Google Alerts will deliver the results straight to your email account.  Users can set up alerts in no time, just enter the search term(s) that you want Google to monitor, define the type of search (Video, Blog, News, All, etc.) to be performed and how often you’d like to view results.  This method is the most effective for searches that contain unique keywords: like “Kiekbusch” or “adjustafresh”. Google and Yahoo! allow users to create custom RSS news feeds (similar to the Google Alert, but delivered via RSS) that will automatically aggregate content and push it through users’ RSS feed reader of choice. In addition to the aforementioned tools, there are, of course, businesses like Andiamo Systems and PopularMedia that are developing algorithms specifically to monitor and track corporate reputations and buzz. You’re Listening, Now What?  Engagement Now that it is clear how to monitor content on the web, the next step is developing a Social Media Engagement Strategy (SMES).  Each corporate culture is unique and each should approach social media engagement differently with an understanding of possible privacy, public relations, marketing, legal and regulatory concerns.  Does your business want to be proactive or reactive; have a distinct voice or let your customers do most of the talking; create content or collect content?  Whatever engagement strategy is best for your business, there are some general best practices to consider when becoming involved with social media: Build trust Develop relationships with consumers Be transparent & respectful Facilitate a dialogue Above all, it is imperative to remember that your customers control the message in social media—this is a bottom-up philosophy that many senior marketing and brand managers find uncomfortable.  Rather than attempting to control the conversation, let your brand be the catalyst for conversation– the campfire around which people gather to connect and converse with one another.  This mentality goes a long way to promote a positive corporate image online and off. Marketing Geniuses , Social, Strategy, Technology 2008-05-05T00:41:00-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/embracing-innovation/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/embracing-innovation/#When:01:57:00Z As websites evolved over time, a set of accepted user interface, content and programming standards were established by the architects of Web 1.0.  In 125 years, people will still use the Internet as a tool to communicate and share information, but the World Wide Web of the not-so-distant future will bare little resemblance to today’s experience. The WWW of 2133 will bear little resemblance to today’s experience. My eyes are sore and I’m tired as I enter this blog post from a hotel room in New Jersey.  Today, I was part of a presentation on innovation, and the topic has inspired some pre-sleep (hopefully coherent) thoughts that had to get out before I head into dream land. The World Wide Web, as we currently know it, is a relatively young technology—approximately twenty-five years by my count.  Sure, the computer network known as the Internet has existed for several decades, but the World Wide Web and the web browser as a content delivery mechanism are relatively young technologies.  As websites evolved over time, a set of accepted user interface, content and programming standards (some documented, others anecdotal) were established by the architects of Web 1.0.  It is fairly common knowledge that browsing technology and programming languages have pushed the online channel into a new generation of interactivity and expectations; you’ve undoubtedly heard of Web 2.0 or even Web 3.0.  So far, I’m likely not telling you anything you didn’t already understand.  The photograph above depicts a car approximately 20 years into the innovation cycle of the automobile powered by an internal combustion gasoline engine; at it’s core, it is the same type of vehicle driven my millions of people today.  By today’s standards, this vehicle (circa 1906) is antiquated, unsafe and inefficient.  As technology and the needs of drivers evolved, features of the vehicle were modified, added and removed to improve the driving experience until the automobile in the photograph became something foreign and antiquated to modern drivers. In 125 years, people will still use the Internet as a tool to communicate and share information, but the World Wide Web of 2133 will bear little resemblance to today’s experience.  Technology and the needs of the user will evolve.  Is your organization prepared to examine the status quo, identify what is no longer working, innovate and update?  Or does your online marketing and communication strategy resemble the automobile in the photograph? Strategy, Technology, Trends 2008-04-16T01:57:00-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/muppet-make-almost-everything-better/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/muppet-make-almost-everything-better/#When:19:53:00Z I’ve been on both ends of a Rick Roll; I was even Rick Roll’d live in front of a few dozen people by my thoughtful and charming user experience team.  The video below takes the art form to a new level by including Muppets.  And, as we all know… Muppets make everything better, except Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. If you haven’t been Rick Roll’d yet, or if you don’t know what Rick Rolling is, you probably don’t frequent The Internets.  Stop reading now, because the rest of this post will seem odd—you will likely ask yourself questions like: Why is he talking about an old Rick Astley song, or Who the hell is Rick Astley? I’ve been on both ends of a Rick Roll; I was even Rick Roll’d live in front of a few dozen people by my thoughtful and charming user experience team.  The video below takes the art form to a new level by including Muppets.  And, as we all know… Muppets make everything better, except Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  Enjoy! A Very Muppet Rick Roll Marketing Geniuses , Uncommon Sense 2008-04-11T19:53:00-05:00 http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/outlook-google-calendar-harmony/ http://adjustafresh.com/index.php/detail/outlook-google-calendar-harmony/#When:21:00:07Z I am chained to my Outlook calendar at work—many of you can relate; I have also been using Google Calendar since it was released to keep track of personal appointments, tasks and deadlines.  The problem, of course, was that these two calendars had communication issues… until now. I’ve been using Google Calendar Sync for about a month now, and after releasing a patch recently, it appears to be working like a charm.  I am chained to my Outlook calendar at work—many of you can relate; I have also been using Google Calendar since it was released to keep track of personal appointments, tasks and deadlines.  The problem, of course, was that these two calendars had communication issues.  I downloaded and used SyncMyCal to manually get the two systems communicating, but there were bugs (the toolbar would mysteriously vanish forcing me to reinstall), and worst of all, I had to remember to manually initiate the calendar sync anytime I booked a new meeting. Fortunately, for those of you as lazy as me, Google released their own tool that automatically syncs an Outlook calendar with a Google calendar.  Users may sync both ways, or one way (I only sync Outlook up to Google) at timed intervals.  This is a wonderful way for me to be able to access my Outlook appointments from anywhere (in the event that I am sans Blackberry), and more importantly share my schedule with people outside of work. Now that this synchronization has become effortless, I anticipate moving even more data into my Google calendar in order to use it as a hub of all family, personal and professional activity and deadlines.  I am already automatically pulling in concert recommendations from Last.fm as well as weather forecasts.  And all Google asks in return is to present me with relevant text advertisements… and my eternal soul. Simplicity, Technology 2008-04-07T21:00:07-05:00