Archive for “Industry”

Lisa Welchman of web operations management consultancy WelchmanPierpoint has published a lighthearted yet deadly serious e-book called “The Digital Deca: 10 Management Truths for the Web Age”:

Most organizations address low Web quality by redesigning their Web site or installing expensive infrastructure technology. The real reason your Web site keeps falling into disrepair is because your organization’s management practices don’t align with the 21st century business dynamic.

It’s a straightforward, compelling introduction to the difficult topics of web strategy, governance, and execution. Is there a businessperson in your life who could benefit from it? Download the PDF e-book or browse the slideshare presentation.

UK industry magazine New Media Age published a feature on content strategy this week, including a couple of quotes from us. It’s great to see the discipline getting so much attention in the industry. It’s a solid introduction to content strategy, well worth a read:

Everyone’s a content producer these days. But the growing volume of content that brand owners distribute across multiple digital platforms is driving a fresh challenge up the corporate agenda: how to create a publishing culture that allows you to plan and manage content more strategically.

Full article at NMA.

Update

To avoid NMA’s paywall, visit the article via google.

The discipline of content strategy plans for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content (as defined by Kristina Halvorson).

It’s been around for as long as the web, but only in tiny pockets; most web projects still don’t consider content until the last minute, resulting in poor user experiences, stagnant websites, and unfulfilled objectives.

2009 was the breakout year for web content strategy; in 2010 it’s finally coming to Europe. This April, Paris will host the world’s first Content Strategy Forum, featuring an exceptional programme of leaders in this emerging field of practice. We’re honoured to be presenting: Jonathan Kahn’s session is called “A ‘Do It Yourself’ Guide to Content Strategy”.

On their way to Paris, Rachel Lovinger,  Karen McGrane, and Jeff MacIntyre—three of New York’s finest content strategists—will be speaking at a preview event here in London called “Content Strategy, Manhattan Style”:

Join Content Strategy UK and London IA as we welcome three of New York’s finest content strategists to London on Tuesday 13 April 2010.

Taking place at The Book Club in Shoreditch, this informal evening of discussion and socialising is the place to be if you want to learn more about the business value, opportunities, and practical application of this emerging field of practice. The event is free but space is limited, so get your ticket now.

Two great events, get your tickets now!

There’s been a lively debate recently around the topics of web governance, web strategy, and their implications for web design in general. So we were delighted to hear that Lisa Welchman of WelchmanPierpoint, a thought leader in this area, is speaking in London on 12 November on the subject of Web Governance:

Fifteen years into mainstream Web adoption, most organizations operate their Web presence without fully understanding who in the organization is in charge of, and accountable for, the quality and effectiveness of the Web. The do-your-own thing, implement first and plan later mentality, which may have been useful during the start-up phase of a web site, is now choking the effectiveness and maturity of your Web presence as various factions tussle over who has absolute control or the “last-word” when it come to the web site. In order for the Web revolution to continue, organizations need to come to grips with the fact that policy and standards enable collaboration, not hinder it.

It’s a free breakfast briefing at Church House in Westminster (nearest tubes: Westminster or St James’s Park), hosted by technology vendor Vamosa. For more information, and to register online, check out the event page.

Highly recommended; we’ll see you there!

You might have heard people claim that blogging, and social networking tools like Twitter, can help your business in the way that advertising used to: a supercharged, free successor to traditional marketing.

But if you’re not sure how on earth that might work, you might want to check out some of best-selling author Seth Godin’s material. A great place to start is this series of four videos from the Amex Open series. Seth argues that the value of blogging comes as much from the process of thinking about what you’re going to say, as the audience you reach; and that social networks only have business value when they represent real relationships.

Highly recommended.

This year we’ve seen an increased focus on the issue of web governance—specifically around the discipline of content strategy, which we’ll write more about soon. Christine Pierpoint has a great post on the topic of web governance and legitimacy, called “Legitimizing your Web program”:

Even if you don’t have a written Web strategy, at some basic level most managers understand that the Web has taken over as the primary communications channel. … So, given all the critical functions supported by the Web, the notion that an organization would lack a formal Web operations strategy seems downright irresponsible, yet somehow the Web is rarely seen by managers as a legitimate business operation.

An insightful analysis of the big changes, happening right now, in the perception of the importance of websites to businesses. Worth a read if you’re facing similar issues in your organisation.

With the launch of Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 imminent, .net magazine and our own Craig Grannell have launched a campaign to finally ditch Internet Explorer 6—the obsolete, insecure, and slow throwback from the early noughties, which, to the dismay of web designers worldwide, is still widely used, particularly in corporations.

From the Bring Down IE6 campaign site:

Craig Grannell asks designers and developers if it’s finally time to take IE6 behind the shed and shoot it.

If you have the misfortune to still be using IE6, visit the site to see a polite warning suggesting you upgrade—something that’ll become common from now on. This is a campaign that’s going to prevail—so if it’s in your power, upgrade, and if not, send the link to the person with the keys. For your own sake…

In the middle of a global recession, spending money on web design might sound like a crazy idea. But for many businesses, this is a smart time to invest in your website—acting now might be safer than sitting it out.

Fear makes us want to hide

Recessions are scary—nobody knows what’s going to happen, how bad it’ll be, or when it’ll end. Our natural reaction to fear is to hide—freeze projects, hoard cash, and lock ourselves away in a warm room until the trouble has passed. Investment in web design seems out of the question.

Inaction isn’t safe

Is hiding really the safe option? Clearly, for some organisations it is—those who are winding down their businesses, or who can survive on existing contracts indefinitely. But for businesses that want to stay competitive through the recession, and emerge from the other side, inaction now could be dangerous.

Smart investment can strengthen your business

During the good times, many businesses could count on customers coming through the door, even if the customer experience was poor. On the web, this shows up as a complacent attitude towards user experience—websites are “good enough” if nobody seems to complain.

Now that everybody is cutting spending, customers are more selective about who they buy from—and concepts like customer service are coming back into fashion. If you need to hold on to customers in this climate, “good enough” won’t cut it. A smart investment in improved user experience could make the difference between leading the field and being just another competitor.

Room for improvement

Most business websites have some room for improvement, but what kind of changes are we talking about? Here are just a few suggestions.

You could commission some user-centred design, based on the findings of user research. Or, you could write a content strategy, and then rework your information architecture around it. You might want to look at your use of web standards too.

Worth spending money on

Is web design really worth spending money on now, when money’s so short? It depends on your circumstances, but we think you should give it serious consideration.

A web design project might look expensive at first—but when you’re working collaboratively, a lot of the cost comes from your own time. And in a recession, you have more of your own time available. Add that to the likelihood that your competition will have frozen investment, and you’re on the way to a substantial competitive advantage.

If you’re interested, get in touch

If you think we might be onto something, why not take advantage of a complimentary review of your web presence. Get in touch for details.

You’ve heard about Wikipedia, YouTube, “user-generated content”, and Web 2.0, right? But what’s their significance—isn’t it all just a fad?

The idea that people can contribute to and share “media”, as well as consuming it, is actually a big deal, and it’ll probably affect you, whether as a user or a publisher.

Clay Shirky’s speech at the Web 2.0 conference back in April, “Gin, Television, and Social Surplus” provides a wonderful perpective on where this fits in with our everyday lives, and specifically our relationship with television. Shirky compares television to gin, and argues that, “it’s only now, as we’re waking up from that collective bender [of watching sitcoms],” that we can begin to work out what we can create by using our spare time to participate.

You can also watch the speech as a video. Great stuff!

It might sound a bit sad, but I was genuinely excited last week: Firefox 3 was finally released. If you’ve never heard of Firefox, it’s the open source web browser that rose from the ashes of Netscape, after Microsoft claimed victory in the original browser wars.

Since then, the browser space has started to get interesting again, with Apple’s excellent Safari now available for Windows, Opera appearing on the Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft restarting its browser development with the release of Internet Explorer 7.

Firefox is now a mainstream browser, with market share of 10-20%, depending on who you ask. It runs on three major platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux), and version 3 features improved performance, an ingenious bookmarking system, a smart interface for saving passwords… I could go on. Check out the Wall Street Journal’s review.

If you’ve never used Firefox, I urge you to give it a try–it makes using the web feel more like a pleasure and less like a fight. It’s easy to install–just get the download and you’ll be up and running in minutes.

If your IT department only supports Internet Explorer, try giving them a call–many IT people won’t mind installing it. If that fails, you always could install it on your home machine…