Storytime
Laurence Sterne ‘A Sentimental Journey’
Stories are fun at any time of year, but Christmas in particular lends itself to storytelling, having a get together, watching films, reading books.
This quote above shows how stories are a powerful way of teaching because they allow the audience to connect emotionally. Sterne draws a parallel with heat – indicating that stories can inflame passions, and questions why the ‘heart’ cannot be convinced with cold facts, but tends to need the frame of a story in order to be convinced.
This reminded me of an excellent book. Made to stick examines at how to make ideas memorable and comes up with a set of rules that each idea needs to abide by in order to make it stick in people’s minds. One of the key rules, of course, is to use a story to represent the message.
Following on from this, I wondered how storytelling online differs from traditional methods. This article by Rob Mills at Carsonified talks about how to make storytelling work on the web and was a useful way to consider the different elements that you would online.
I liked Rob’s conclusion that the web offers opportunities for new ways of storytelling that are not necessarily linear and it presents a range of creative challenges.
Ok, and now my contribution. Well, it’s not it’s not strictly a story – but jokes counts as stories right?
There were two monkeys in the bath.
One went ‘Ooh ooh ahh ahh’ and the other said ‘Add some more hot water then!’
Credit goes to Jimmy Carr for that gem- he did a fabulous show at the Apollo!
So off to Xmas – I wish you all a very happy Xmas with lots of storytelling and cracker jokes!
Peaks and troughs
Chatting to my brother at the weekend who was concened he hadn’t ‘achieved’ a lot during the weekend and he felt a bit guilty.
I recognised the feeling – if I don’t do everything I set out to do, it can be a bit disappointing.
I do have a to do list, which is a wonderful thing.
But it’s almost as if by the time something makes it onto the list, it becomes an obilgation, a chore = no fun.
Then, getting round to looking at the list turns into a chore in itself.
My wise friend Elaine mentioned looking at the outcome in order to motivate the action.
I thought about the letters that I’m going to get back from my friends once I’ve written to them.
Think that bit of advice did the trick. I’ll meander around some stationary shops today…
Leo has done a lovely simple post on getting things done.
Pic credit: Rick McCharles
Making it simple to search for a mortgage
We launched the new lovemoney.com mortgage engine recently.
It’s designed to
- show you mortgages you’re eligible for
- allow you to filter the mortgages on the market according to what you want
so that when you see the table of products listed, they will be suitable products that you are qualified for.
What we did
We started the project by spending a few months asking users what they wanted and developing the journey. We ended up with wireframes outlining what the journey might look like.
Then we specced it, built it, tested and launched it. It took a couple of months to spec out the work and about three months to build the first version.
Now we’re iteratively adding functionality. Since it’s been launched, people can share their searches with others and Instant Messaging went out in the last release, so people can now chat with our advisors.
There’s more in the pipeline!
Wireframes made simple
Came across this great tool today. Makes doing wirefames as easy as pie.
We’re close to launching a new engine on the site today (more about that soon!) and the wireframes were the bit that took the longest – thinks it’s related to trying to visualise something that doesn’t exist.
Looking for an excuse to use this now! Thanks Balsamiq
Nice example of Twitter competition
DontStayIn are running a competiton to win tickets to Lovebox Weekender
People can enter by tweeting about it.
Looks like it’s working well:
Good idea!
Thanks Take That
Bit of a music related theme going on here, but I was lucky enough to see Take That during the weekend and I got to thinking about why they have been, and continue to be, so successful.
A few things came to mind
- They have overcome obstacles – things haven’t always gone smoothly for the guys, take Robbie leaving for example, but this seems to have made them all the more popular. Dusting yourself off and getting back on the horse when your plans go pearshaped takes determination and courage but also earns you respect.
- They delighted the audience - they went the extra mile and pulled out all of the stops to put on a fantastic, entertaining show. They took the audience on a journey with unexpected surprises along the way, they appeared from the floor on top of a massive elephant at one stage!
- They were themselves – and the audienced picked up on this authenticity. They also used it to their advantage by injecting humor, for example, they each came out riding a unicycle at one point but before Gary came out, you could tell that the audience was wondering how the heck he had learned to ride a unicycle, knowing about his lack of co-ordination on the dancefloor (sorry Gary!) then when he came out on a tiny bike with stabilisers, the audience erupted!
- They were humble – they said thanks to absolutely everyone, down to the people who built the stage. It’s such a simple but important thing that’s easy to forget.
Plus, of course, they had perfected their performances of catchy Barlow-penned songs; I didn’t realise just how many song lyrics had drifted into my subconscious!
Thanks lads – think you’ve taught me a few things and not just the words to your songs!
MJ the innovator
In a philosphical mood following the sad news about Michael Jackson.
Granted, there are some people who would point to the more questionable things he did in his life in recent years, but from my perspective his songs were the soundtrack to a lot of memories in me and my friends’ lives.
Without doubt he was a master at what he did and in his earlier years at least, came out with songs, unexpected styles and dance moves that broke from the norm. Take, for example that scary Thriller video and the ‘leaning’ move in Smooth Criminal – it plays at 7.15 in this video.
In so many fields, one of the pillars of enduring success is innovation. Michael Jackson was great at this and it’s probably one of the reasons that he has created so many classic songs and dance moves. He could always be relied upon to make the audience sit up and take notice with something fresh, energetic and exciting.
However, even though innovation was a natural talent with Michael Jackson, it also needs to be combined with focus, because, as the last few years of his life show, it appeared that his self absorbtion and various personal dramas clearly took the edge off his ability.
Whatever your opinion, the force of emotion is clear – not sure that news about anyone else would have the effect of slowing the web down!
RIP MJ
Bing-a-ling!
So along with the sun, something else bright and shiny recently made an appearance in our lives; Bing – the new search engine from Microsoft.
I’ve had a little look. It seems pretty good and there have been some positive reviews of it.
In terms of relevancy, it returns quality results, which is a good start!
There are also little additions that make it easier to use – for example, I like the fact that you don’t need to click on a link to see the contents of a web page.
There’s also a handy map search tab which features a multimap partnership – I am forever typing in ‘Google Maps’ to Google…..
The image search allows you to choose the types of pictures you want to see filtered by e.g. people, colour
The only thing is, like Lena, I wonder when we’ll be able to personalise it, like you can with Ask !
Interesting to see how Bing will fare in the search engine standoff…..
When less is more
Had one of those days with emails flying in all day, reminders flashing and IM messages blinking so sought out a few articles which give great advice on ’zenning out’.
Tammy Erickson has written a great post about when not to speak. I agree with her point about keeping it simple but weeding out the ‘core’ message (as mentioned by Chip and Dan Heath in Made to Stick) from the detail can be hard to do.
Tabita has put together some fab tips on email management. I have to say I really like the idea of checking email a few times a day rather than having it on constantly.
Leo’s article about a minimalist computer experience definitely helps to keep a clear and focused mind.
Ohmmm…..
Is Google wrong to rely on data?
Coming from a company that carries out a lot of user testing, I was interested to read this article, passed on by my colleague Sara.
It’s about the departure of a top designer at Google, who claims that the way they develop their sites – by using data about how customers use the site – limits the freedom of the designers. But surely this is a sensible way to develop a site like Google?
Looking to users for direction, not only on design but also on site development has proven to be pretty useful for us.
When we’re building a new section of the site (or even a new brand), it’s more a question of presenting users with ideas and getting their thoughts (although aware that sometimes what they say they would do and what they actually do can be two different things!) before we start thinking about what we need and this gives a good idea of the key points that we need to prioritise.
Then, as we develop the ideas on how the site/brand is going to look, we test our ideas with them and use their feedback to improve and refine the journey.
The challenge with developing any new work on a website is balancing the user feedback and requirements with the business owners who have their own reasons and objectives for that piece of work.
Working out what is actually possible technically and within timeframes also impacts the work. So part of the process is finding some middle ground which satisfies all stakeholders.
Once the finalised version of the part of the site we’re working on is built and live, we look at the activity and continue making tweaks in order to optimise it. For example, if conversion drops on a certain page, we can change the order of the pages or amend the information or layout of the page to see if that affects activity.
As far as design is concerned therefore, as the designers are involved at every stage of this process they are able to use their skill, guided by all sets of stakeholders, to produce a design that’s going to help the site do what it needs to do.
So the aim is to use design alongside all of the other elements of the site to make it a success – for us it’s an integral part of the site development process that is guided by a large number of factors, but customer activity and feedback is one of the most important.
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