Jan 16th, 2012
by SusanaB.
I met with an ecommerce company who wanted a UI that was different from their competition. So strongly they felt, that they did not assess their competitors’ design, architecture or task flows. Thus, they had a clumsy UI and complicated tasks compared to their competitor. Customers do appreciate uniqueness, though they appreciate a company who does it better, so much more.
emfluence's marketing platform, before and after
You put months into developing your site or software, why not spend a few more hours on a competitive analysis (sample). Are you in a proprietary industry and can’t access the competitions UI? Than a heuristic evaluation (sample) perform by a consultant can give you the external perspective you need to assure you’re at a marketing advantage. Company’s fall prey to group thought, thus should routinely take measures to seek and set benchmarks based on external research of design, features, and functions.
Who better to help you benchmark your UI then FluidUI experts who have aided Hallmark, Sprint, Cerner, and emfluence. Let FluidUI help position you as an industry UI leader.
Posted in: Design, Software, Technology, Usability, biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · Design for Usability · Software · strategy · UI Design · Usability · User Experience Design · User Interface Design
Oct 26th, 2011
by SusanaB.
We have had a wonderfully engaging summer. Working for Sprint, Spiral16 and National Seminars we improved, expanded and created search and sort functions. The experience, paired with the invigorating Indian Summer weather, has our creativity humming.
First-up, Sprint who wanted to encourage self-service and reduce customer support on their ‘email us’ page. The page had a search box and contact form, plus 1/3 white space. So to emphasize their search engine (which is phenomenal compared to their competitors) and make the page more search dominated, FluidUI designed the following:
- First we changed the titles of the two sections with their response times.
The search section was titled “For Immediate Answers” and the email form was titled “For One Business Day Responses”
- Next we branded the search to beget confidence.
- Then we took the 2 trigger modules titled “I need help with” and “I want to” from other areas of the site and customized their bullets to the top topics users of the form request information on, such as making a payment or questions on a phone plan.
We hit a home run with Sprial16’s social media monitoring software, for searching as well as scoring and indexing defines what they do best. FluidUI helped them determine the flow and look of their new self-service search function, by:
- Breaking the search function into a 4-step widget.
- Giving some of their terminology and icons more relevancy and a contemporary look.
- Designing 3 styles of page layouts to choose from.
Bringing it home was National Seminar’s detailed search on their Star12 training site. The site had advance search functions, which were spread across the center and left side of the page, plus falling below the fold. In addition, it did not have the desired tabs they wanted for sorting training into lists of training types (seminars, web, etc.). For them we:
- Reviewed their detailed branding and web guidelines.
- Reviewed how navigation treatment and tools were handled throughout their site and reviewed other well known search & sort sites.
- Then we went to work and 2 revisions later gave them a centrally located search and sort function with a simple search, advance search, and two rows of tabs.
During the summer we also assisted Sprint with a new ‘green’ promotional campaign using the emotional design tactics of PET and initiated adding e-commerce to their mobile site. All in all, a fun filled and productive summer indeed. As such, we’re looking forward to new grand slams and a few (only a few please) snowy days.
Posted in: Design, FluidUI News, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Human Factors · Software · strategy · User Experience Design · User Interface Design · ux · web design
Oct 14th, 2011
by SusanaB.
by Eric Melin, Spiral16 Manager Marketing & Communications
Companies today have a wide array of options when it comes to web and social media monitoring and measurement. Once you have collected all the relevant data for your brand or online market study, though, that’s when the real challenge begins.
What do you do with it?
The answer to that depends on the specific use that you gathered your online data for in the first place.
Are you doing a basic brand management study where you are looking for all mentions of your brand? Are you comparing your online presence to that of your competitors? Are you tracking a particular marketing campaign or product introduction? We quickly found out a few things:
more on:
Posted in: Software, biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · social media · Software · strategy
Aug 31st, 2011
by SusanaB.
Designing for Persuasion, Emotion, and Trust (PET) is going beyond the usability’s Can Do factor to designing incentives for Will Do and Still Do. These three Do factors of PET can be defined as:
- Can Do (can users easily navigate and find info)
- Will Do (will users act on the info and press buttons)
- Still Do (will they come back to do it again and again)
PET research has provided the following 7 principles for designing to persuade, provide emotion and build trust, so your users Do:
- Don’t overwhelm: If people have too many choices they will not choose at all – they freeze. This is a consideration for when adding functionality and features.
- Social validation: This is why ratings and reviews are so powerful. Also why peer reviews are more influential than experts.
- Scarcity: Less available items become more valuable (only 3 items left / only 4 more days to order), because they create the fear of loss.
- Food, sex, or danger: Not appropriate for all sites, though if content lead s itself to these, they are powerful triggers for action.
- Power of faces: There is a part of the brain that is reserved for only processing faces. People especially focus on the eyes.
- Stories: The brain processes information best in story form. For example Facebooks’s wall and Twitter’s ‘what’s happening’.
- Commitment: Ask for small commitments and over time they become loyal fans of your site/product/service.
Want more info? View the quick sketch video on PET or we can stop by for a quick site critique on PET’s seven principals. Just give Susana at FluidUI a holler, 816-561-2315.
Posted in: Design, Technology, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Human Factors · User Experience Design · web design
Jul 14th, 2011
by SusanaB.
The look of emfluence is even more friendlier and sophisticated. How did emfluence’s 8-year-old application called the Marketing Platform get this updated look? It all began with a usability study called the Flow Pack. Similar to a heuristic evaluation, FluidUI’s Flow Pack scored and commented on 60+ app traits. We covered everything from aesthetical appeal to consistency in error messaging. We also looked at the top navigation to see if it‘s telling of what’s under each menu item.
After a walkthrough on our findings emfluence’s design, development and support teams went to work, so to unveil the new UI (user interface) at an email marketing summit in Las Vegas.
The results
- Sophisticated UI reflecting advanced functions
- Cleaner look with fewer distractions
- Hi-lighted key assets and features
- Better defined calls to action
- More focused work area, minimizing user errors
Straight from the user
“The new interface is great. So easy to navigate and of course aesthetically pleasing. Should be a very easy transition if there is one at all!“ – Emily, Boulevard Brewing Company
Let FluidUI help you wow your users. Call today to schedule a FlowPack, 816.561.2315.
Posted in: Software, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Human Factors · Software · UI Design · Usability · User Experience Design · User Interface Design · ux
Jun 14th, 2011
by SusanaB.
by Jessica Best, emfluence marketing manager, emfluence.com
The emfluence Marketing Platform is a web-based application that helps clients create, schedule, deploy and track their digital marketing campaigns. Born in Kansas City in 2003, emfluence is a full-service digital marketing agency, built around the success and growth of the emfluence Emailer, now called the emfluence Marketing Platform. Branded templates capable of drawing in data 
from any live data source and built-in pURL (personalized URL) functionality puts emfluence at the top of their class as an Email Service Provider.
The Platform includes capabilities for email marketing, social media marketing like Facebook and Twitter posts and landing page creation and management, all without the help of an IT person. With advanced marketing functionality from segmentation to variable blocks of email content and an expert account and support staff, the new look of the emfluence Marketing Platform now matches their sophisticated reputation in the industry. Using the emfluence Marketing Platform, marketers can manage and measure their digital marketing campaigns to maximize their digital marketing ROI. http://www.emfluence.com/marketing-platform/email-marketing
Posted in: biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · eCommerce · Software · User Interface Design
Apr 20th, 2011
by SusanaB.
Let’s look at why your apps and sites may fail and how we can fix them. We’ll start with the informative article ‘Why Software Fails’ by IEEE, a technology association. Then we’ll look at the intriguing video based on the article, ‘The ROI of User Experience’. This ‘quick sketch’ video, by Human Factors International, shows us how to fix and prevent some of the failures.
First from the IEEE article some alarming stats on IT and its downfalls:
The ROI of User Experience - 6 min video
- $1 trillion dollars is spent worldwide per year on IT
- up to 5% of a company’s total revenue goes to the IT group, 10% for financial and telecommunications companies
- 15 % of projects are abandoned due to hopeless inadequacies
- programmers spend 50% of their time on rework
- the time of fixing an error after development is 100% more costly than fixing it before development
Now let’s look at 3 of the top 12 reasons why IT projects can fail, that are directly due to UX (user experience) inadequacies. These reasons are:
- badly defined requirements
- poor communication between developers, users and customers
- stakeholder politics
And how does UX solves these, with:
- stakeholder interviews
- user research
- user testing
- user centered design
How about a case study from the video that illustrates UX in action? Let’s say you’re part of a global non-profit micro lending organization for small businesses, whose website has a searching and donating UI (user interface) that is confusing and hard to use.
- so if 50 of your customers a day are abandoning before donating because of the poor user experience and on average each user donates $50
- thus, you are loosing $2500 a day or $912,000 a year
- to solve the issues you spend $50,000 to fix the UX and $50,000 to rewrite the code based on those user experiences, thus spending $100,000 improving the user experience
- it will only take 40 days to recoup your investment, giving you $812,000 more for lending power
Besides saving money here are some other measures of ROI (return on investment):
- conversion rates on actions you want users to take
- increased form completion
- decreased in abandonment
- decreased in calls to the help desk
- reduced training
- increased usage of app
- saves user time
- saves development time, reduces errors
The video ends with a quote by Albert Einstein “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex… It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
Posted in: Design, Technology, Usability.
Tagged: Design for Usability · Human Factors · Software · strategy · User Experience Design · User Interface Design · web design · Website
Apr 5th, 2011
by SusanaB.
by: Art Gangel, Business Consultant
The book E-myth Revisited by Michael Gerber is the most important business book you’ve never read.
Gerber was one of the progenitors of the business systems movement of the late 80’s and 90’s, and his words ring just as true now as they did then. Why do most small businesses fail? How can I motivate my employees? How do I prevent my business from consuming my life? These questions and more are answered in this provocative and readable book. The focus of my practice is on the spiritual, which is why I resonate so deeply with this book. Gerber demonstrates how your business is merely a reflection of you. He gives the reader credit for wanting “something more” out of life, and shows in concrete terms how to use your business to deliver not just dollars, but meaning. I’m currently re-reading it for the fourth time, and it’s still challenging me in new ways. If you own your own business or if you are a decision maker in a large business, The E-myth Revisited is a must-read.
For more useful information about running your business or life, follow Art on Twitter at “@ArtGangel” or check out my website www.groundworkcoaching.com .
Posted in: Entrepreneurial, biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · Entrepreneurial · strategy
Mar 16th, 2011
by SusanaB.
Do you want to think outside of your company’s box? How about revolutionizing how customers perceive your products and services? Then hire consultants who think differently. 
If you are a technical company who wants to tailor your products to your users, hire non-technical consultants who see your products as your users do.
Hire someone with a powder puff approach. Someone who thinks, looks and acts differently from you and wins over your team with gentle insights rather than trampling over their efforts. A person without the company baggage, who like a compact case travels lite and applies a formula that is seamless to your skins. Thus, giving your users transparency in what they do. A powder puff consultant can give your technology a whole new face-lift.
Posted in: Design, Technology, Usability, biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · consultants · culture · Design for Usability · UI Design · Usability · ux
Mar 8th, 2011
by SusanaB.
by Corey Morris – emfluence SEO Expert, emfluence.com
Google monitors search engine optimization tactics for websites of all sizes, including major brands like JCPenney. The company’s SEO vendor had the entire JCPenney product line averaging a rank of 1.3 – page 1 results, between 1st and 2nd place out of hundreds of thousands!
Unfortunately for the JCPenney brand, the methods used by the SEO vendor fell under the umbrella of what Google calls “black hat” tactics, a term used to describe any search optimization activity that unfairly pushes a site’s content higher up the search results than that content deserves. The vendor was immediately terminated.
The lesson here is to thoroughly vet your search vendor’s tactics and practice, and to monitor the results of their efforts periodically so you don’t get caught off guard. As a result of this incident, JCPenney’s average rank fell from 1.3 to 52. For searchers, that’s page six, which basically means the JCPenney product line is invisible to users of Google search.
emfluence uses all “white hat” best practices to drive client’s search results closer to the top. Contact an emfluence SEO expert at expert@emfluence.com for a review of your search settings.
Posted in: biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · business tips · marketing · Website
Feb 8th, 2011
by SusanaB.
A recent study found that a usable site gives you an upper hand, though a well designed site takes the jackpot. The researchers at Wichita State University’s Software Usability Research Lab (SURL) confirmed earlier findings that first impressions can determine whether someone likes a site—even in the first one-twentieth of a second.
good and bad design sites utilized in the study
Their study went on to prove that good designs are perceived to be more usable. They used two sites, one well designed and the other not. Both sites were altered so there were high usability and low usability versions of each. Then 160 users reviewed the four versions. The users rated the well designed site with low usability as being better to navigate than the ill designed site with high usability. Thus, high usability cannot overcome a bad design.
Want to get a full house each time you deal? Then hire user experience professionals with design and usability skills; they’ll make you royally flush with pride at their results.
the research: SURL or a better designed version at Human Factors International
Posted in: Design, Usability.
Tagged: business strategy · Design for Usability · Human Factors · User Experience Design · web design · Website
Feb 1st, 2011
by SusanaB.
Mobilized is more than carrying a phone, it is capitalizing on the moment. To improvise here and now and not wait until … or hesitating because … . It is seeing the possibilities and putting them into action..
Let the moment, the surroundings and the people within reach define the outcome. Opportunities exist in the moment, though often our minds are closed to them for we are thinking about yesterday, what might be tomorrow, or chatting on the phone with those not present.
For example, you want to make a sale to the CEO, though you are now talking to the manager. Well that manager knows how best to approach their CEO; that manager has most likely worked for other CEOs too. That manager also knows the company’s product/service and you know the most about your offerings, so make the moment by having a worthwhile exchange. Make the most of who you’re with. By doing so you will never be bounded by people, place, time, or who is at the other end of the phone. You will never have a wasted minute. You’ll be only mobilized to make the most of the moment.
Posted in: Entrepreneurial, biz tips, mobile.
Tagged: business strategy · business tips · Entrepreneurial · mobile
Jan 23rd, 2011
by SusanaB.
Ingenuity defines America. France has romance, England is prim-and-proper, and Germany has industrialism. Americans are the inventors of electricity, automobile assembly, the telephone, and the digital computer. If we did not invent it, we capitalized upon it.
How did this come to be? Ingenuity is not in our constitution, but in our spirit. Thirteen colonies defied a motherland. Pioneering is how the West was won. Immigrants became boundless and saw only possibilities.
We have moved from land lines to wireless, boom boxes to iPods, phone booths to cell phones, newspapers to RSS feeds. We know no end. Like an engine we know only how to run.
We can, we do, and we will always define the possible.
Posted in: Entrepreneurial, biz tips.
Tagged: Entrepreneurial · strategy
Jan 10th, 2011
by SusanaB.
Your most effective meeting on user interface design is the one where you show your boss or client what you can do. 
Rather than telling them, or stating what you have done for others, demonstrate what you can do for them. We have helped prospective clients improve their design and usability at the first meeting, before agreements are made and contracts are signed. We have even helped others via email links and screen shots. We believe in intuitive interfaces for all and have benefited from this. Nothing will turn your boss or client into a believer quicker than solutions to their needs.
Everyone wants improvements and everyone has 15 minutes. Go on, show them what you can do.
Posted in: Design, Entrepreneurial, Usability, biz tips.
Tagged: biz tips · business strategy · Design for Usability · Entrepreneurial · strategy · UI Design
Dec 18th, 2010
by SusanaB.
The Net
Loosely woven
Though continuous
A pattern of voids
More gaps to fall through
Than structure to uphold
The Web
Strands connecting
Stringing from place to place
We delight in its structure
Delicately Interwoven
Steadfast mechanism
Not something we can hold, nor touch
Only something to be caught in.
The Next Big Thing
It’s here.
The next big thing.
No longer do you have to wait.
To wonder. To ponder.
There is no learning curve.
No accessories. No expense.
In fact it has always been here.
The big bang is back.
You are here.
It is here.
It is now.
- Poems by SusanaB, more at SusanaB.net
Posted in: Technology.
Tagged: Human Factors · Poems · SusanaB · Technology
