So everyone’s heard — Consumer Reports says that the new iPhone is badly designed causing weak signals and dropped calls. As a left-handed person, I was shocked that lefties were told they were holding the phone wrong. Jobs cleaned it up soon after, but here is a good example of poor usability. This blunder cost Apple a decrease in stock price, bad PR and some annoyed customers. The negative media attention seems to have outweighed the phone’s many good features.

RANT: Web sites and interfaces in general should clearly and easily draw people to where they want to go. Offer people too many choices, and they can’t make a decision.

Perfect case in point: Even though I love my HTC Droid Eris, there are little annoying things about the interface. Sometimes I wonder if the programmers and designers ever tried to use the phone. Let’s say you want to use the GPS feature and get directions to go to a destination. In the menu there are three feasible options — Navigator, Navigation, and Maps. Now the first two choices seem more likely, but already I’m annoyed that the phone is making me feel stupid for not knowing the difference between Navigation and Navigator. By the way you can get text directions through the Maps option. Choosing Navigation, you also get text directions, but voice turn-by-turn directions are only through Navigator.

Then if you’d like to change your Home screen, would you choose Setup or Settings? Only a tech savvy person would know to choose Settings. Setup would be for when you are first setting up your phone. Then why is it a menu option next to Settings?

The clock feature is also exasperating. How do you edit the city shown on the clock? You don’t. You must create a new clock for a new city and then delete the old one.

The list goes on and on. With each new phone I am forced to learn new things that aren’t even in the manual. I had to Google a couple of things, thank goodness the phone has internet access. Anyway, the point is, test your applications, interfaces, web sites please. Don’t be lazy, cater to the users. They will thank you in the end.

Does your business cater to young people?

Do children primarily use your website?

Have you tested your website’s usability on your target market… children?

Children and toddlers, even, are using the internet on a regular basis. A website that targets these young people will need special design considerations, but it will also present challenges in user experience. What this means is that young kids have special needs and challenges that need to be taken into consideration when designing a website for them. These include:

Eye-hand coordination

Non-readers or new readers

Ability to click mouse buttons

Ability to use keyboard

You may want to consider:

Having audio or video instructions

Not placing important navigation below the fold

Not using complicated functionality when simplicity will do

Not recreating standard design conventions, this could be confusing

Check out an article in UX Matters that Heather Nam recently published entitled Designing User Experiences for Children. She lists a useful list of suggested design conventions when designing for children.

What is a Competitive Analysis?

I often recommend a competitive analysis to small business owners who are looking to design or redesign their websites. You generally identify several or many industry competitors, and based on quantitative and qualitative analysis, I prepare a summary of findings and recommendations for the website. A competitive analysis will help you see what your competition is doing right and what they’re doing wrong, and how you can do things better. You also save yourself time by not reinventing the wheel, while at the same time adapting and innovating features and functionality.

How Would My Website Benefit from a Competitive Analysis?

• Get an edge over your competition’s website
• Find the best way to format your website
• Get a conversation going about possibilities
• Think of new ways to present information
• Think of new things to include
• Help decide the best approach for a visual style
• Compare usability and set a benchmark for improvement

Get your competitive analysis now. Contact Mindspring Design.

A client asked for a scrolling bookshelf. The client requested custom graphics on the shelf, informative popups, and links clicking through to each product. And the client wanted it to be easy to add or remove products to the shelf. Could I do it? Yep. If you’d like your own custom shelf, call me.

But if you want a FREE scrolling bookshelf, Shelfari can give you one of your very own. I created a quickie shelf on their website’s widget creator and this is what I came up with (it takes several seconds to load):

Not too shabby, huh? Click on a book and you go to the Shelfari site, then you can go to Amazon.com to purchase. Shelfari even allows you to input your Amazon affiliate id while creating the bookshelf. There are also a few different shelf color choices. Try it out, it’s fun!

Dowload: 25 Essentials for Email Marketing Campaigns.

What do you think? Have these worked for you?

“Colour is my day-long obsession, joy and torment.” — Claude Monet
“I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way — things I had no words for.” — Georgia O’Keeffe

Who makes your business’ color choices and how are these choices made? (Is your logo blue because that’s your favorite color? Does your graphic designer choose colors because they are popular?) What are the colors in your advertising and collateral actually saying about you? And why is it so important?

According to recent research, people are 55% more likely to pick up a piece printed in color. The use of color increases retention by an average of 65%. Using color in printed material increases readership by up to 80%. And color can increase the likelihood of a purchase by 80% or more. (Taken from Color Your Business: Develop a Color Marketing Scheme)

The colors in your marketing materials involve the emotions and senses in a way that cannot easily be explained. Colors can convey information about your brand, visually engage potential clients, and involve their senses, memories, and responses. So it’s important to choose a website or graphic designer who makes adept use of color combinations to help you achieve your marketing goals.

Before I briefly list basic color connotations, please remember: Everyone’s reactions to color will differ slightly based on their personal experiences. Western color connotations will differ from those of Eastern cultures. Almost every color has warm and cool shades. The temperature of the color will also dictate usage.

Red. Strength, passion, excitement, stimulation, energy, attention, danger.

Pink. Youthfulness, romance, energy, fun, sentimental.

Orange. Warmth, energy, whimsy, friendly, vibrant, cheerful, youthful, fun.

Yellow. Happiness, sunshine, energy, optimism, warmth, alertness, enlightenment, creativity.

Green. Freshness, nature, energy, growth, refreshment, healing, tranquility, wealth.

Blue. Trust, loyalty, peace, coolness, dependability, security, serenity, stability, trustworthiness.

Purple. Royalty, wisdom, mystery, spirituality, nostalgia.

Brown. Old-fashioned, earthy, stability, upscale.

Black. Power, mystery, sorrow, strength, elegance.

White. Purity, cleanness, innocence, simplicity, youth, sterile.

Book Recommendation:  A Pantone Color Resource. COLOR: messages & meanings.

For a color consultation or analysis of your current marketing materials and website, call Mindspring Design at (856) 393-0385.

Okay, a bit of shameless self-promotion never hurt anyone. Hey, it’s my blog! So the following is going to be put into my new ads. It’s adapted from The Web Design Business Kit (www.sitepoint.com). Everytime you try a new online marketing approach, document it. Document how much you spend, how long it runs, who responds and who buys. Here it goes:

Free webinar details the secret to web site success…

Often times web sites are developed by cool designers who have little or no interest or understanding in your business needs. What you need is a website that really works.

Mindspring Design is a cutting-edge web development firm. We know how to make a web site that generates leads, positions your business, and increases customer care.

Specializing in:

• web site development
• improving under-performing web sites
• online marketing

For your FREE Webinar: 9 Steps to Building a Small Business Website, or for your free consultation, call (856) 393-0385.

Are you taking full advantage of all avenues to connect with potential clients? I recently attended Scott Belsky of behance.com’s “Bring Your Best Ideas to Life,” and he provided the following list of “inboxes.” He was actually discussing how these forms of communication can hinder our workflow. But I want to present it to small-business owners.  Use it to reach out to your target market. This list is hardly exhaustive, so think outside the box! And share ideas with your business community.

• Email
• Text messages
• Phone voicemails
• Print mail
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Instant Messenger

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