Last month's Los Angeles User Experience Meetup event regarding Taxonomy offered the Media Contour team an excellent opportunity to learn about and develop a better understanding of website taxonomy. Media Contour had the chance to conduct a pre-show interview with speakers Jessica DuVerneay and Alberta Soranzo.Jessica DuVerneay is an information architect at the Understanding Group. Alberta Soranzo is both the manager of user experience and strategy at the UCLA Center for Health Policy and Research and senior information architect at the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights. They are both highly regarded in the fields of information architecture and user experience. Below are excerpts from the interview which cover the main ideas of their presentation.
JESSICA DUVERNEAY: The first thing I want to say is that it's not something you just add to your project. It's not like if you get this service you should get this service too, and if you get wireframes, you might as well get functional specs. At least that’s the way that I look at it. It’s like, is it even a problem? For some clients it may not be a problem. If you're working in a really small property and your language is very clear, very domain specific or there's industry standards that are really easy to follow, not everybody needs a taxonomy. It is more for you know the thing that I'm seeing, why it's really relevant right now is because so many people are taking their old kind of main site and they are trying, they are realizing that the strategy of creating 15 micro-sites each time they have a new launch or a new iteration of a product. It has not been serving them well because they have confusing language. Something is called a shirt over here, it is called a blouse over here. You can't track SEO events. And really, I mean if you are going to look at it from a high level taxonomy, it just gives you an agreed upon structure that increases learnability and the findability of the your content on your website. That is the high level answer.
“Something is called a shirt over here, it is called a blouse over here. You can't track SEO events.” Jessica Duverneay
Throughout the Internet you can find all manner of articles and blogs dedicated to telling you exactly what you need to do to create the perfect website design for mobile devices. You’ll hear different opinions on content, context, and outright design features that are a must for your site to be successful on the mobile web. However, few of these articles and blogs address the mobile website design issues that could be holding your site back, like these.
Overwhelming text
People who are using the mobile web are often people who are on the go. They want to look information up quickly and with as little pain in the process as possible. Don’t make them scroll through a ton of information they don’t need in order to find what they’re looking for. Less, really is more, when it comes to mobile website design content.
Use of Pop Ups
Pop ups are annoying in the best of times, and downright loathsome in the worst. On mobile devices, they can be completely problematic. It’s best to disable them altogether on your mobile website design for the convenience of users if nothing else.
There was once a time when updating a website – even doing a very minor update – required you to have a working knowledge of HTML. That time has long since passed. Today, website designers can provide you with ways to update your own site using a content management system that makes it just as easy as updating the newsfeed on your social media profile or updating your Twitter feed. Here's how it works.
If you're going to update your website, one of the things you're going to want to do for certain is to take advantage of what social media has to offer. There are some elements of social media websites that are vastly overblown in terms of how their advertising potential is described. There are other elements of the sites, however, where the realities do live up to the hype. Here are some of the feeds you will definitely want to have connected to or displayed directly on your own website.
Flickr and other image sharing websites can sometimes be added to your own website in the form of a stream. If you happen to be a photographer, this is a sensible and useful addition to your website. Many photographers use these websites because it allows them to store a huge number of photos online without having to have those photos stored on their own server. Ask your website designer about having your photo feeds included when you update your website.
Entering the tech world can feel daunting, and it can be somewhat overwhelming to meet with a new agency to discuss your needs. This is particularly the case when you plan to revamp your website. Here are a few steps to help ease the process and communicate effectively with your web designer. These actions will assist in clearly stating your needs and keeping the designers informed about your expectations.
Involve Your Team From The Start
It's essential to rope in your in-house team before starting any website updates. You probably already have a group who handles website maintenance tasks. A prior discussion with them can help you pull in unique insights and address any issues they could face. This is especially necessary for those who directly do website updates. Acknowledging their hurdles and needs can greatly shape any planned site improvements, leading to a more effective and easy-to-use website.
Using Visitor Comments Through Short Surveys
Are you working with a web designer? Consider asking them to include a quick survey on your site. This method allows for collecting direct visitor feedback on desired website enhancements. Taking such a customer-oriented approach can offer useful suggestions for your web design team, ensuring that upgrades meet your audience's needs. Most designers can add this tool without much difficulty. This tactic is highly beneficial, especially if your site is a vital platform for delivering goods and services.
Record Your Thoughts
We often get sudden ideas for our website. The secret is to note these ideas right away. Record them or quickly email your designer. This practice means you can discuss your ideas during meetings. It's smarter to gather these ideas and share them all at once, instead of spreading them out during development.
Suggested Read: THE SCIENCE OF ECOMMERCE CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION: TIPS AND TRICKS
Engage Designers with Assurance
Meeting your web designer doesn't require you to be tech-savvy. You only need to supply clear, well-prepared ideas for your website update. Be eager to understand how your concepts will be put into action. Stay creative when teaming up with web design experts.
Know Your Audience
Identifying your website's target audience is critical. Who checks your site? What are they looking for; what do they like? Make sure your website's design matches what your visitors expect. This is how you boost visitor engagement and contentment.
There is a great deal of marketing information these days that has to do with social media. In fact, social media, in some regards, is being played up to the extent that businesses may be becoming a bit too grand in their expectations of what it can do. It's important to remember that the website you actually own is much different than any social media site in an important regard: you have complete control over it. If you're updating your website, you may want to do so while keeping in mind that you can update your website in a way that takes social media into account but that does not make your entire marketing effort dependent upon social media.
The display quality of desktop computers, mobile devices and just about everything with the screen on it is increasing constantly. Lately, HD and retina displays have become standard features on just about every new device. These displays have some beautiful resolution. Watching videos on them is amazing compared to what it was before the new generation of displays hit the market. The iPad and other Apple mobile devices, in particular, are known for their tremendous display quality. This has some important implications for when you update your website.
Spam is one of the greatest threats to your website. Luckily, there are strategies you can employ to help fight spam as you update your website. Today, there are more types of spam than there were in the past. In the past, the term referred specifically to unsolicited commercial e-mails, but today it refers to blog posts that are designed to advertise something rather than to inform or entertain, pages that provide links to sites that have no value to the person clicking them and to other online scams that trick people into clicking on something that is malicious, deceptive or otherwise undesirable.Fighting against spam oftentimes employs technological and human solutions. Here are some basics that you should understand.
Subpar website design can leave your website sporting the digital equivalent of a mullet – outdated and awkward. And the consequences of this digital fashion faux pas are far from trivial. Imagine a potential customer faced with the choice of shopping on your website or one that looks sleek and contemporary. It's a safe bet they'll opt for the latter. Let's delve into how web design can transform your company into a time capsule and why a design refresh should be on your radar when updating your website.
Security Concerns
Everyone is well aware of the paramount importance of security. When your website exudes an outdated vibe, it's only natural for visitors to assume that your security measures are equally archaic. If they're prompted to enter sensitive information, like their credit card details, on a page that seems straight out of the '90s, you can bet they'll have some justified reservations. This underscores the significance of updating your website with a contemporary design. A fresh and modern appearance conveys the message that your company invests time and effort in evolving its online presence. A well-designed, up-to-date website instills confidence in your visitors. This is a critical consideration when you're contemplating a website update.
The Stale Factor
Websites that appear as if they've been gathering digital cobwebs make your company seem either antiquated or, at worst, defunct. Even if it doesn't directly scream "out of business," it certainly hints at your enterprise possibly being a one-person show operating out of a dimly lit basement. Maintaining a consistently fresh design as you update your website is your best bet for signaling to visitors that your online presence receives regular care and attention. It lets them know your business is alive and kicking. Conversely, an outdated website suggests your business may have thrown in the towel ages ago, making it an untrustworthy choice for potential customers.
Take a look at your webpage. Does it look as good as your competitor's webpages? Does it look dated and maybe like it was made sometime in the 1990s? There are a lot of different ways that you can make this assessment and determine when to update your website, but one of the most useful is to take a look at the current trends in web design and to see whether or not your site is incorporating any of them. Remember, not all trends are good ones, but there definitely are some great ideas out there right now.
One of the most common features you'll see on modern webpages is a columnar layout. Most webpages these days are two- or three-column affairs. This allows the website owners to get a great deal of content on the webpage without crowding it out. If you're still on a primitive one-column website, it's a good idea to talk to a web designer about adding columns when you update your website. One of the reasons you may want to do this is that it actually allows you to cut down on the number of pages on your website.
Just about 100 percent of the websites out there have a combination of content that is more or less static and content that is dynamic. For example, many websites have a blog section that is updated on a regular basis. This would be an example of a dynamic form of content. It's always changing, it's regularly renewed with new materials and the search engines tend to notice this. The static content on the website includes things such as the "About Us" page, the "Contact Us" page, and so forth. It is important to update static content as well and not only your dynamic content when you are update your website.Believe it or not, it's a good idea to update the static content once in a while. Obviously, a lot of this information isn't going to change. There are real advantages to updating, however.
If you take a look at most of the contact information pages on modern websites, they'll have a map on them – usually from Google Maps or another, similar, service – along with the phone number, address and so forth. It wasn't too long ago that most contact pages only had the name, address and phone number that applied on them. Updating these pages when you update your website to include new content that's only recently become available is a great way to keep your site fresh and offer your visitors something at the same time.
Even if your website is very content heavy, your graphics play a huge part in the impression that people take away from it. If your graphics are looking dated, you may well want to consider having them updated when you update your website. Even if you're not ready for a full site redesign, simply updating your graphics can do a lot to improve the quality of your site. Here are some things that should make you consider having your graphics updated.
Some outdated graphics suffer from pixelation. Pixilation is usually seen in the form of rough edges around the borders where colors join or where the graphic actually starts. You may also notice it in some types of lettering.Having a graphic designer take care of this when you update your website can make your website look much more professional. Computer technology where graphics are concerned is much more advanced than it used to be. There is absolutely no reason that your graphics should not look as clear and sharp on a computer screen as they would in print.
Multimedia content delivery is a very big consideration for any website. If you're streaming or offering multimedia content from your own server, you're likely utilizing a great deal of bandwidth to do it. There are improved ways of delivering content compared to what was available in the past. Having a professional web designer take a look at this and see if there are improvements that could be made could be very beneficial for you when you update your website.
If you started offering video or audio on your site a long time ago, there's a good chance that you're using a format that may not be optimal. When formats for streaming improve, it's generally an improvement in compression. If you are using very large files to deliver content, you may be consuming unnecessary bandwidth for no appreciable benefit. Having a web design expert take a look when you update your website at how you are delivering content in terms of format may reveal that you have a lot of options available for reducing bandwidth without compromising quality.
Are you sick of looking at your website? When getting ready to update your website, consider these five ways to make your site a lot more interesting place to surf.
Even if you have a color scheme to which your company is very attached, you may be able to update it a bit and give your site a new look. Talk to a web designer about enhancing the colors by making them brighter, sharper and so forth when you update your website. You may also want to talk to them about incorporating your color scheme into areas of the site such as borders, which can make your site more interesting to look at.
Picture this: Your website, ideally, is flourishing. It's like a vibrant garden, growing and thriving as it takes root on the internet. But here's the catch: rapid growth can quickly turn your once-pristine website into a crowded, tangled jungle, making navigation a daunting expedition. What do you do? Well, dear reader, that's where the expertise of web designers comes into play when you're ready to update your website.
The Chronicles of Old Sites
Let's journey back in time to the era of older websites. They were the epitome of simplicity, often sporting one-column layouts. Perfectly suitable for basic promotional websites with a sprinkling of content – a few pictures and whatnot. However, when you started piling on more content, trouble brewed. It became a Herculean task for visitors to navigate your site. Imagine them stumbling upon a page they fancy, only to embark on an endless scrolling odyssey just to locate the desired article. Frustration reigned supreme.
Updating the layout of these vintage sites typically translates to revamping how content is organized. Engaging a professional web designer to scrutinize your site can unearth ingenious ways to enhance layout and make it a breeze for visitors to find precisely what they seek. This might involve adding distinct article headings, tinkering with columns, and more – all part of the grand overhaul when you update your website.
The Saga of Organization
A web designer might also feel inclined to embark on an organizational crusade. Over time, if you've been merrily adding content to your site without a second thought about where it should reside, chaos takes hold. Your content morphs into a disheveled mess, and the navigation menus become a labyrinth of confusion. Fear not; a strategic reshuffling of content and a navigation menu facelift can work wonders. If you've got fantastic content yearning to be read, this endeavor is more than worth it.
One of the truly innovative things you can do to update your website is to add features that allow you to automatically update your social media feeds. This eliminates the need for the people who handle your Internet marketing to update your social media feeds individually after making an update to your website.
Sites such as Twitter, Facebook and other social media giants do have tools that work with them and that allow you to update them regularly. In fact, there are tools available that you can incorporate when you update your website that allow you to update your social media sites on a schedule. Your Internet marketing people, using these tools, could make several updates for these feeds and schedule them to deploy automatically.This can save a great deal of time and money and increase the return on investment you get from your website and is a great addition when you update your website. It also allows you to do something very important, given the fact that many social media sites are coming up with various payment schemes for companies that use them for largely advertising purposes.
One of the most important aspects of your website is the color scheme that you use. Sometimes, a site that looks dated and stale may benefit from a new color scheme. Here are some things to consider if you want to update your color scheme to breathe some fresh life into your old site when you update your website.
People tend to interpret colors in particular ways. For example, red is commonly associated with power. The same is true of black. Blue tends to be associated with trust and green tends to make people feel relaxed. You'll want to learn a little bit about the psychology of color before you decide upon a new color scheme when you update your website.Remember that a color scheme doesn't have to involve many different colors. For example, many banking and other financial sites utilize blue color schemes because of the trust that the color tends to engender in people. You could utilize several different shades of blue rather than trying to find a good two- or three-color theme for your website.
Because just about everybody is on a broadband Internet connection these days, site designers have become bolder about including sizable elements in websites. These include videos, complex animations, very large images and complex page structures. Unfortunately, for some users, these elements do slow down their computers quite a bit and make websites load more slowly. Given a choice between a fast loading website and your slow loading website, most visitors are going to choose the fast site. Here are some ways to speed yours up when you update your website.
Have a web developer look at the code that underpins your website. This is particularly useful if your website has been online for a long time and has had many alterations made to it or if your website was worked on by several different designers over the course of its lifespan. A designer may be able to go through and find code errors that will cause the site to load more slowly or that will cause certain elements not to function correctly.
Internet users are easily distracted. The Internet, when it works the way it should, provides one of the best ways for people to get information and to find related information by simply clicking on a link. This is a great set up for research and learning, but it's not always the best set up for commerce sites. If you need to retain visitors on your site, you have to know when you should not encourage them to leave by presenting them with a rather interesting link. Here are some great linking strategies for when you update your website.
Anyone who has studied search engine optimization knows that adding links from your site to useful resources tends to make your site appear more worthwhile in the eyes of the search engines. The trick is not to overdo this when you update your website. You want the benefits you get from those links for search engine optimization, but you don't want to create a situation where most of your visitors show up on your page, read a few paragraphs and then immediately go elsewhere because one of your links encourages them to do so.You'll definitely want links off of your site to other sites that have genuinely useful and related information, but you need to do it in a way that retains visitors, which is something of a challenge when you update your website.
If your business relies on the Internet, chances are you're already a higher ratio of mobile traffic to your site each and every year. The use of these pocket-sized wonders has surged as they've grown more powerful and versatile. People now use them for tasks that were once exclusive to their desktop computers. So, as you gear up to update your website, it's crucial to steer clear of the common pitfalls that can turn mobile sites into user frustration zones.
Mind the Size
Mobile devices come in various screen sizes, but human fingers are relatively consistent in size. This means that just about everyone's digits occupy a certain amount of real estate on their mobile device screens when navigating a webpage. As a general rule, aim for navigation links on your site to be between 30 and 40 pixels in size. When you update your website, remember this nugget of wisdom. Small navigation links, or any other type of links, can be infuriating for mobile users. If you haven't experienced this irritation firsthand, try tapping on a link with your finger when visiting a regular website on your mobile device. You'll quickly discover that not only do you tend to hit the wrong link, but it's also a challenge to discern exactly where your finger lands on the screen. When you update your website, incorporating appropriately sized navigation elements can make your site far more user-friendly and encourage exploration.
Provide an Option
Websites tailored for mobile devices are typically streamlined versions of their full-scale counterparts. However, some users may prefer to access the regular website over the mobile version. Ensure that your site offers them this choice. While most smartphones boast compact screens that make mobile sites more practical than their full-sized counterparts, devices like the iPad come with larger screens that permit users to pick between the mobile and regular versions. The absence of this choice can be vexing, especially when users need to access something more readily available on the regular version of your site.
Suggested Read: THE SCIENCE OF ECOMMERCE CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION: TIPS AND TRICKS
When you are ready to update your website, there is a temptation to update every single aspect of that site. One of the things, however, that tends to get overlooked is the font selection on your site. Most of the time, font selection is rather easy. If you have a very content heavy site, however, you may want to consider this as a way to give your website a new look.
Of all the innovations that have come into the web design world in recent years, columnar designs are among the most compelling. This is a great technique to use when you update your website. These designs allow a great deal of information to be placed on a page in a very logical way. If you're not clear on exactly what defines these designs, it's basically dividing the page up vertically so that each of the different vertical sections can hold different information and keep it separate from the other information on the page. It's very similar to how newspapers are laid out.
If you're in the process of sprucing up your website and finding yourself in the all-too-common situation of not having the financial resources to create your own original photos (trust us, you're not alone), you're probably diving headfirst into the vast sea of stock photos. This seemingly endless well is filled with everything from the trusty and somewhat generic like "businessman holding a smartphone" image:
In our ongoing quest to assist you in the noble endeavor of website updates, we've compiled a handy list of guidelines to aid you in your quest for the perfect stock photo that aligns seamlessly with your message.
Finding the Right Message
First and foremost, ask yourself: What message are you trying to convey? How can you express this message without uttering a single word? Sometimes, it's as straightforward as visually depicting the activity, while in other instances, it requires a more nuanced approach. Certain images can eloquently convey ideas without spelling them out. Take, for instance, a photo of a lighthouse; it may subtly suggest that your brand exudes trust and possesses the answers in uncertain territories. Develop a word bank of emotions you aim to evoke in your viewers and associate these emotions with the images you choose.
Understanding Your Audience
Next, consider your audience. While a particular image might perfectly encapsulate your message in your own mind, think about how it resonates with your audience. After all, they are the ones you're trying to strike a chord with. If you update your website or blog with images that are only relevant to you, what's the point? Opt for images that hold significance for your visitors. While you might perceive a lighthouse as a symbol of trust and certainty, someone in the landlocked Midwest might not share the same sentiment.
Suggested Read:Unlock Exponential Growth With CRO
When you update your website design, there is a lot to take into consideration. Sometimes, along the way, some common website design mistakes tend to manifest. These are things that you can avoid by simply doing a bit of planning ahead and by working closely with your designers to make certain that when you update your website they adhere to good practices.
Sometimes, people will get so focused on the content of their site that they'll forget that it needs to be organized in a logical way. Make certain you put some thought into how you're going to organize your site, particularly if it is a large site. The more information you have, the more imperative it is that people are able to navigate their way through it without getting confused, becoming frustrated and simply giving up.
When you update your website, it's a good idea to have a plan mapped out for your pages. You can do this with your designer or you can do it on your own. One good way to do it is simply to use a flowchart format to indicate how each of the pages is linked to one another and the position that each of them occupies in the hierarchy of your site.
We want to get you up to speed on what is going on in the world of web design in quick and easy chunks. So in our inaugural edition of “Update Your Website” we want to get you up to speed on one of the most important tools your modern website should have: a CMS, or “content management system”.
Just like every good idea, a good blog starts with a plan. In an effort to help your team produce better articles, I have compiled this in-depth itinerary to plot out your future texts, no need to thank me, a statue of gold and gift card to Etsy will suffice:
Before stepping into battle it is important to define the roles and responsibilities of each job necessary to craft an excellent piece of writing. Keep in mind that these parameters are made for a “best-case scenario” type of situation; meaning that you have the access and resources available to staff each of these positions and set enough time aside so there isn’t a deadline looming ominously over everyone's head (although some seem to prefer the tight deadline situation). If you don’t have the aforementioned resources, jobs may overlap or even be all one person.
Your writer is the one who crafts the words. The builder of the story. A good writer or blogger needn’t be stout with honors or have the smooth prose of Hemingway. A good writer merely needs to be passionate about the subject he is writing on and stick to the point. Consider the type of piece you are writing and determine who is the best suited to create that article. Sometimes it’s the guy with the English background who can build flourishing worlds and create descriptive narratives that enthrall the reader more and more by the line. But for other projects, you may need the methodical accountant tucked away in the back room who can pragmatically spell out detailed lists in a way that a reader can digest. The abilities of a writer come from his grey matter, what he or she does special outside of pen and ink. Tap the right person for the right topic and anyone can become a journalistic dynamo.
This is part two of our article on structuring and preparing a blog for part one click here. This half of the blog will cover the topics of writing, proofreading/editing and publication.
Now we finally get to the creation of your article. If your research, interviews, and outline were done thoroughly, this shouldn't take too much time, just a matter of plugging in the pieces and bridging the gaps with some opinion, summary statements, and maybe even a joke or two. Once you feel like you’ve compiled something worthwhile, put a period at the end and go to the next step: editing.
%20(1).png)
.png)
.png)