March 30th, 2011
User Experience Design, Visual Design
I recently came across Hipmunk, just one more site to search for flights, right? Actually, the ability to visualize search results on a familiar calendar spreadsheet instantly sets this site apart. (more…)
Shivani Aneja
March 23rd, 2011
Internet Strategy, Social Networking
In the past a website was brochure ware or advertising, it served merely to provide general visitor information. Now the-ever-evolving social media tools and technology provide a platform for museums to facilitate interactivity within the physical and web space. This has allowed people to experience museums in a different paradigm. (more…)
Shivani Aneja
March 17th, 2011
Insight Article, Project Management, Technology
The use of website analytics and reporting software isn’t new to most website owners. Tracking and analyzing the usage of your website by people and search engine ‘bots are obviously essential activities for validating your investment. Typical metrics tracked include number of visits by various user types, number of downloads or access to particular content, and navigation routes most commonly taken by visitors to, through, and out of your site. These metrics, perhaps aggregated into meaningful reports (i.e. overall unique visits per month), tell you how your site is performing. But are these reports evaluated for the impact or opportunities they reveal with respect to your entire IT budget? In other words, do your web analytic reports support “Key Performance Indicators” (KPIs) for your entire IT Investment portfolio, not just the website maintenance budget?
If your answer to this is “no”, your overall organizational IT investment may not be properly balanced to deliver the maximum ROI from your website, resulting in a lot of money left on the table and accumulation of very real business risk.
Ted McLaughlan
March 14th, 2011
Internet Strategy, Social Networking
Groupon and Living Social and What’s the Deal are all the rage on the frontier of online advertising, representing the most successful of the quickly-growing pack of “social group coupon” merchants. They’re a very popular mashup of a number of well-known online marketing techniques, implemented in a way that clearly separates them from traditional banner ads, coupon clubs or classified advertising. They’re fun, they feel exclusive, and count on social buzz and absolutely real savings to succeed. No doubt these kinds of coupons are valuable to the users (50% off a nice dinner out? – pretty good deal); but are they beneficial to the merchants? The Jury still seems to be out with respect to reliable ROI for the businesses actually offering these “deals”.
Ted McLaughlan
March 9th, 2011
NavigationArts’ Doug Brashear discusses mobile user experience trends and future innovation for mobile in this live webinar. Doug is the Mobile Practice Director at NavigationArts and has extensive experience creating mobile strategies for a variety of organizations and industries. Doug is a Senior Information Architect with 15 years of experience, and has been with NavigationArts since 2005.
During this webinar you will learn about: (more…)
Douglas Brashear
March 8th, 2011
Believe it or not, the Internet is not always clear. Take a simple thing like the keyword meta tag: does it or does it not influence page rank? Well, that depends on the search engine, right? While exploring this for a client, I realized that what I originally thought about meta tags was true, but barely. Google, Yahoo, and Bing do not look at the keyword meta tag for page rank.
Dustin Collis
March 7th, 2011
Interaction Design, Internet Strategy, Social Networking
Social Media prognostications are always fun to consider, and try (if there’s a Beta version) – but last week’s Potomac TechWire “Social Media Outlook 2011″ breakfast was all business, with true ROI. As Rohit Bhargava put it, “what’s the ROI of attending this meeting?” It’s the “social” ROI, vs. the “media” ROI – and it’s actually not that hard to categorize and track.
Ted McLaughlan
March 4th, 2011
Internet Strategy, User Experience Design
Earlier this week I attended another terrific DC Mobile Marketing (dcMOMO) event. Eighty mobile aficionados turned out to listen to a panel of gurus discuss what’s going on in their respective corporate mobile landscapes. Mobile directors from NPR, Discovery Communications, and National Geographic made up the panel, which was moderated by the Chief Vice President of Millenial Media. Apart from lauding their own apps, the discussion circled around platforms of choice, the questionable mobility of the iPad (Demian Perry from NPR referred to it as a “nightstand”) and the monetization of apps. It was this last topic that piqued my interest most, particularly when Mr. Perry proclaimed “Rupert Murdoch’s strategy will fail.”
Hayley Wilson
March 3rd, 2011
I recently had an experience all-too-familiar to many of us: rushing a loved one to the emergency room. Upon arrival, we joined dozens of fellow human beings who were bleeding, crying, panicking, and, of course, waiting. We all had one thing in common: the agony of not knowing how long we would wait for our much coveted trip behind the sliding security doors.
We also shared a common pastime: surfing the web on our phone and iPads while we waited. It didn’t take long for us to realize that when it comes to the uncertainty of waiting for the ER, “there’s an app for that.” Well, sort of. (more…)
Michael Heckman
