Posts Tagged ‘usability’
Tuesday, April 10th, 2012
 Joseph Dickerson By Allan Maurer
When you are thinking about usability and design, whether for the web or for mobile devices, the old saying, “Keep it simple,” rings true.
User expectations have shifted over time, says usability expert Joseph Dickerson, User Experience Architect with Wisconsin-based Fiserv, the largest provider of IT services to the financial industry.
Dickerson is among the several dozen experts from brands such as Google, Pandora, The Onion, YouTube, Twitter, and Klout, among others participating in the 2012 Digital Summit in Atlanta May 9-10.
Functionality and delighters both necessary
Dickerson says usability questions generally break down into two categories: baseline functionality and “delighters,” the stuff that makes people go ‘wow, that’s really nice!”
But, Dickerson notes, “What were delighters previously have become baseline functionality now. The expectations of customers is getting higher than what their software or hardware provides.”
He adds, “There is an interesting phenomenon in the mobile space. We’re now in the era of the dumb smartphone user. You have people who were using basic cell phones now using smartphones. They have access to a whole depth and breadth of functions they didn’t have before because smartphones have become so cheap.”
The same thing has happened with web apps, though. “People have gotten used to a higher standard. Companies that don’t deliver that will hear customers complain thorugh social media and abandon the company’s products.”
Three usability tips
Dickerson’s offers three usability and design points to consider for web or mobile projects:
First of all, he says, “Create the simplest form of user interface (UI) required to accomplish the task. Take out everything that isn’t necessary. Simplify.
Second: “Streamline any process toward an obvious end point (enter this data and submit a form, sign up for a newsletter, like a Facebook page, buy something).
Third: Don’t rely on “help” text. “Form labels are the only text you can rely on. Customers do not read. We tried an experiment. In bold letters on a form, we added the text, ‘If you bring up this note you’ll get an extra $100 gift card.’ None did.”
He adds, “People don’t read copy. I’ve fought copywriters quite a bit over this.”
Dickerson suggests, “Boil what you have to say down to 3 bullet points. That’s how people read on the web and mobile devices.”
“Don’t be verbose. Use terms people understand.”
Dickerson admits that can be a challenge if a firm’s legal department wants to insert legal boilerplate few understand.
“If you don’t want 80 percent attrition rates on your forms, tell legal to shut up and let you design the forms effectively. You can’t succeed doing things the old fashioned way. It’s not going to work in this day and age.”
Star Trek tech didn’t wait for the 24th century
Dickerson says his dream job would be designing futuristic technologies for the movies (such as “Minority Report,” although some of that is already old hat, he says).
“Look at Star Trek, which was supposed t be happening in the 24th century. We now have some of it in the 21st century. So we already have stuff influenced by sci-fi. I’d love to have a working Tri-Corder.”
One future tech his innovation team is looking at for use in the real world is voice payment technology for mobile devices. “If we can get that to happen, it will be the next revolution in IT.”
Tags: Atlanta, Best Practices, design, Digital Summit, Fiserv, Joseph Dickerson, mobile, usability, web
Posted in Best Practices, Business advice, Events, Internet/New Media, IT, Tech life/Culture | No Comments »
Friday, November 11th, 2011
 Gary Vaynerchuk keynotes the 2011 Internet Summit in Raleigh next week, which is nearly sold-out. Fewer than 50 seats remain for next week’s Internet Summit, which is bringing hundreds of digital media and marketing thought-leaders to the Raleigh, NC Convention Center Nov. 15-16.
The event, which attracts a capacity crowd, offers take-away insight into social media marketing, search engine optimization, ecommerce trends, email marketing, we and mobile analytics, big data, cloud computing, startup fund-raising and much more.
You’ll have access to visionary thought leaders who will share their insight and experience with you. Hear from the founders of companies like Twitpic, TheLadders & HowStuffWorks! Not enough? How about a Keynote from Top rated SXSW keynote and ‘Social Media King’ Gary Vaynerchuk?
That’s just a sampling of the more than 120 speakers and presenters that will be on hand.
We interviewed just a handful of the many presenters. For a preview of what thought-leaders will be presenting at the event see:
The Internet Summit’s Talented Speakers & Presenters include:
- Gary Vaynerchuk, Co-Founder, VaynerMedia
- Marc Cendella, Founder & CEO, TheLadders
- Marshall Brain, Founder, HowStuffWorks
- David Payne, Chief Digital Officer, Gannett
- Noah Everett, Founder, TwitPic and Heello
- Ro Choy, COO, Formspring
- Liz Strauss, Co-founder, SOBcon & LizStrauss.com
- Brian Hitney, Developer Evangelist, Microsoft
- David Perry, Business Development Executive, Google
- Jack Krawczyk, Sr Product Marketing Mgr, StumbleUpon
- Traug Keller, Sr VP of Production, ESPN
- Catherine Cook, Co-Founder, myYearbook
- Eric Ranta, SVP of Value Engineering, SAP
- Micahel Cristinziano, VP Strategic Development, Citrix
- Doug Smith, Dir Product Management, Taleo
- Malin Huffman, Head of Product Development, NetSuite
- Jerry Cuomo, CTO WebSphere, IBM
- Lee Congdon, CIO, RedHat
- Jeff Ragovin, Chief Revenue Officer, Buddy Media
- Peggy Fry, Chief Revenue Officer, Clearspring Technologies
- Mike Relm, Founder, Relmvision
- Bob Young, Founder & CEO, Lulu.com
- Donna DeMarco, Co-Founder & VP, Viddler
- Emily Keye, Marketing Strategist, Bronto
- Tammy Gordon, Dir Social Communications & Strategy, AARP
- Markus, Renstrom, Head of SEO, Yahoo!
- Dr. Manuel Aparicio, CEO & Co-Founder, Saffon Technologies
- Julianna DeLua, Enterprise Solutions Evangelist, Informatica
- Tony Haile, General Manager, Chartbeat
- Ryan Mannion, Chief Technology Officer, Politico
- David Giambruno, SVP and CIO, Revlon
- Gaurav Howard, Sr. Dir Product Marketing, Marketo
- Michael Lubek, CIO, GE Global Applications
- Angela Connor, Social Media Manager, Capstrat
- Ryan Allis, CEO, iContact
- Prerna Gupta, CEO, Khush
- Kevin Dando, Dir Digital & Education Communication, PBS
- Clint Smith, Co-Founder & CEO, Emma
- Matt Crenshaw, VP of Marketing, Discovery Communications
- Scott Gunter, VP of User Experience, Usability Sciences
- Lindsay Wassell, Partner & Consultant, KeyphraSEOlogy
- Steve Ashley, VP Internet Marketing, Market America
- Dennis Gullitto, APM Product Marketing Manager, Compuware
- Scott Baker, Sr. Mgr Virtualization & Cloud Engineering, NetApp
- Jeramiah Dooley, vArchitect, VCE/Cisco Virtualization
- Gerard Bush, Chief Creative Dir, The brpr Group
- Ted McDonald, Analyst, Verisign
- Rob Ousbey, VP Operations Seattle, Distilled
- David Gudai, VP of Marketing, Storkie
- Glenn Mersereau, Dir of Internet Marketing, PHE
- Jim Tobin, President, Ignite Social Media
- Kevin Pomplun, CEO, SkyGrid
- Sherry Bastion, Web Creative Director, Lenovo
- John Lovett, Sr Partner, Web Analytics Demystified
- Drew Diskin, Dir of Interactive & Web Strategy, Penn Medicine
- Lynette Montgomery, VP Ecommerce, Burt’s Bees
- Noah Dinkin, Co-Founder & President, FanBridge
- Jessica Bowman, SEOinhouse.com
- Todd Moy, Sr User Experience Designer, Viget Labs
- Donna Bedford, Global SEO Lead, Lenovo
- Francis Shepherd, Media Evangelist
- Dallas Lawrence, Chief Digital Strategist, Burson-Marsteller
- Karen Albritton, President, Capstrat
- Thuy LeDihn, Senior Marketing Manager, .ORG
- Adam Covati, Co-founder & CTO, Argyle Social
- Kyle Scott Richardson, Social Media, NC National Guard
- Cara Rousseau, Social Media Manager, Duke University
- Loren Baker, VP of Marketing, Blueglass
- Matthew Muñoz, Partner & Chief Design Officer, New Kind
- Jill Whalen, CEO, HighRankings
- Jason Caplain, General Partner, Southern Capitol Ventures
- David Heaney, Senior Associate, TomorrowVentures
- John Lawrence, Partner & CFO, Longworth Venture Partners
- Brooks Raiford, CEO, NCTA
- Roger Krakoff, Managing Partner, Cloud Capital Partners
- Charles Nicholls, Chief Strategy Officer, SeeWhy
- Jeff Campbell, VP & Co-Founder, Resolution Media
- Gary Storr, Business Architect & Solutions, Nortel
- Jeff Spivey, VP Board of Directors, ISACA
- Doug Hanna, CEO, A Small Orange
- Lisa, Braziel, Strategy Director, Ignite Social Media
- William Blackmon, CEO, LinkMein
- Chris Condayan, Public Outreach, Am Society for Microbiology
- Kyle Scott Richardson, Dir of Social Media, NC National Guard
- Jill Carlson, Marketing Manager, Argyle Social
- John Lane, VP Strategy & Creative, Centerline Digital
- Michael , Gowan, Associate Dir of Web Strategy, Duke Medicine
- Dana Kirchman, SVP Head of Client Operations, Lumi Mobile
Internet Summit is an outstanding learning experience mixed with prime networking opportunities and entertaining keynotes.
There’s even 5 additional hours of intense session digging deep into Social Media, SEO & Search, User Experience & Design and Analytics when you add the pre-conference to your registration.
Tags: AARP, Buddy Media, Capstrat, chartbeat, Clearspring Technologie, cloud computing, David Payne, David Perry, ecommerce trends, email marketing, ESPN, Gannett, Gary Vaynerchuk, Google, Howstuffworks, Internet Summit, Khush, Marshall Brain, measuring social, Microsoft, mobile presence, myYearbook, NC, NetSuite, Noah Everett, online advertising, paid search, Politico, Raleigh, Red Hat, reputation management, SAP, SEO, social media marketing, startup strategies, TheLadders, Twitpic, usability, web & mobile analytics, Yahoo
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