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.
Debunking some social media myths
Came across this article which empahsies that as with any marketing tool, there needs to be a framework in place for social media.
It needs a team, a plan and a budget. As it relies on a user base, you already have to have a large following in order to get an immediate effect, if not, time needs to be invested in building this base in the first place.
The article also mentions some sites that can help to measure social media campaigns; Google Trends, Twitter search, Google Analytics, BackType and Compete.
All change
We’ve recently undergone a big change so I thought I’d make a few notes on how we went about it.
The Motley Fool used to comprise a mixture of personal finance and investing content. It was decided to separate this content into two specific sites – investing would be the main area of focus for The Fool and personal finance would be the main offering from the other site.
Initially, the challenge for us was to develop a new name and brand for the new site – I’ve written some details about how we did this here.
We also needed to communicate the change to our users and here is how we did it.
By the time we needed to begin communication, we had already put up a temporary site in order to build link equity and it looked like this:
As you can see, it was pretty basic, but featured comparison tables – Lena’s speciality, which are key to the site in terms of revenue and article churn, which contributed to the freshly updated content that Google loves. Carl also started a blog which added a nice human touch to the site.
On The Fool site, meanwhile, the messaging was done through the About Us section:
Emails also went out to our customers explaining the change.
A few weeks later, we moved to the second phase of the change. This involved changing some areas on The Fool site to incorporate the lovemoney.com site and make it clear to customers that lovemoney.com is the new offering from The Fool, whilst emphasising the differences in focus.
Here’s what the homepage looked like before:
…and here’s what the homepage looked like once the details about the new site had been added:
As you can see the homepage gives significant focus to the new site, which is all part of the signposting and managing user expectations. There were also tool tips, written by Sara, which floated above the article titles on hover over, explaining that they were being sent to a different site.
The About Us page was also updated to outline the forthcoming changes:
Then the next step was the launch of lovemoney.com. For this, we built a new site in the background which featured all the bits from the original lovemoney.com site plus a registration box for people interested to learn more about the new features, new navigation including a top bar for comparing products and extra bits like home and car insurance. This is what it looked like:
Then, on April 1st, it blossomed into the current green and luscious looking site. Profiling details, comments on articles and Q&A were also added to this release:
Of course the grass/growing concept is related to the ‘nurturing’ philosphy behind lovemoney.com.
I think a nice ‘paradise’ background would also look good as paradise is probably quite a nurturing place.
Love lovemoney.com!
Ta da! lovemoney.com, our sparkling new site went live recently.
And it’s not just a pretty site.
It’s designed to help users grow richer and offers useful tools which aim to motivate and support users to get their finances in order. With personalised content and tools like Q&A, the idea is that users will be able to get access to relevant content that will help them get to where they want to be financially.
As it will be a site that people use as a tool, the challenge is to make sure that it’s easy to use, with logical user journeys and clear messaging.
This is still very much a work in progress with new bits being added regularly and I think that will keep it looking and feeling fresh as the grass in the background.
Carl has been tweeting about the site and we’ve had some positive feedback from users. What do you think?
What does Google know about you?
This thought provoking post about googling people shows that as Google is generally the first port of call when researching someone, it’s probably a good idea to attempt to influence to the information Google has about us in a effort to create an accurate online reflection of ourselves.
Developing a personal brand
Apparently our personal brand is ultimately a culmination of what we say and do every day according to this article by Rajesh Setty, so it already exists, it’s just a question of making sure that the information gets out there.
There seem to be some good reasons to develop a personal brand online, whether it’s to improve your reputation, make you more memorable or differentiate yourself. This excellent e-book by Rajesh Setty talks about how to improve your personal brand in general.
Once you have your lovely personal brand – what next?
Promote your brand
This article by Chris Brogan has 100 tips on using social media to promote your personal brand online. Obviously this article is aimed at getting the widest audience online, and as with any marketing effort, attention should be paid to the type of audience you will attract, so some level of targeting relevant sites would probably be a good idea.
I like the fact Chris starts with listening – usually a good place to begin when developing relationships.
He then goes on to mention all of the tools that will help to develop the ‘offering’ – like passports and websites/ blogs, followed by using those vehicles to create dialogue and then ending with promotion.
It’s a a really good way to kick start your online profile and get your voice heard! Thanks Chris!
Photo credit: chrisbb@prodigy.net
The age of Twitter users
I was listening to the radio other day and the dj mentioned that he felt no-one on Twitter is below 30 – I found this quite surprising because I thought it would be biased towards a younger audience.
This survey by problogger showed that the age range on Twitter does indeed peak at the 31 – 40 age range (a category that I now fall into 
) but it’s also really popular with the 21 – 30 year olds and 21- 50 year olds (and even one user over 100 
)
Thanks problogger – this is good to know. Nice survey tool aswell.
Commuter blogger
Saw this ad on the tube and thought it was quite interesting that they had put this ad together in the voice of a blogging commuter…guess it’s an acknowledgement that there are engaging blogs for every niche group out there – grumpy commuters (like me) included!
Hooray!
www.lovemoney.com is live!
It’s a new way of thinking about personal finance with lots of useful tools that will be launched soon. Love it!
Definitely need a beer after all that testing so we’re off to the pub!
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