The Diablog - it's Diabloglical™

Graphic design ≠ UI design.

19 August 2010

The most important part of a website is the navigation. When someone visits a website for the first time, they must learn how to use the navigation before they can absorb the site’s content. That means that poor navigation design can ruin a site visitor’s experience.

Website design is a combination of two different design disciplines - graphic design and user-interface (UI) design. Understanding one doesn’t always mean an understanding of the other.

Some sites are beautiful to look at, but navigating around inside the site is confusing or difficult. Here is an example. This site is very distinctive - a creative concept that stands out like nothing you’ve seen before. The problem is the navigation. I spent a couple minutes clicking on things, but I’m still unsure what they are selling, how they sell it, or what it costs. Several times I clicked on something (I can’t recall what) that moved me onto a totally black screen. If they feel like they are wandering aimlessly, most people won’t stay on a site for more than a few seconds (maybe a minute if there are naked bodies).

Other sites are so easy to use you don’t even think about the navigation system. Take www.apple.com as an example. The graphic design aspect to the site is good - clean, current, and easy to read - but the graphic design doesn’t conflict with UI design. They have a lot of information to convey, and their UI makes it easy to find what you’re looking for.

Here are some UI design suggestions to consider as you design your next website:

• The UI should suit the client and their audience. If your client sells shovels to construction contractors, a wildly exotic UI will likely hurt their business by confusing their non-technical audience.
• Accept current web UI conventions. Some aspects of UI have been executed the same way by so many sites that they have become the norm. Site search and user login very commonly appear in the upper right corner of a site. Primary navigation commonly runs horizontally near the top of the site or vertically down the left side. If you’re looking for ways to make a UI easier, work within the web norms and focus your creativity on your client’s message.
• Design only one UI. I know - I have ranted about this one before. Design one UI system for the entire site. Don’t change the UI from one page to another. Read my rant.
• The iPhone and the iPad have changed the rules. I have heard many different statistics about the market penetration of the iPhone/iPad. Mobile browsers will outnumber desktop browsers in 2010 (some say 2011). Apple sells an iPad every three seconds. Apple has sold over 50 million iPhones. However you look at it, the needs of mobile browsing cannot be ignored. An iPhone-friendly UI has a navigation system that doesn’t require a mouse hover to make secondary navigation available. iPhones can’t hover; they can only click. Being iPhone-friendly also means your navigation can’t be built in Flash. It is highly likely that the iPhone will never use Flash.

Keep UI in mind as you design your next website. If you can create a memorable aesthetic and a functional UI, you will stand out from the crowd.

Dialogs Professional Services includes creative consulting. Our seasoned producers can help you make good UI choices as well as help you leverage the power and flexibility of Dialogs. Talk to a consultant today.

Don't worry if you can't do everything.

28 August 2009

We don't run an agency, but we work with a lot of them. Dialogs Professional Services supports agencies by providing the technical expertise they don't have in-house. We see the inner workings of many ad agencies, design firms, etc. Every agency has a different style or approach to landing new business. Once in a while, an agency partner will be a bit worried that teaming with an outside resource will look bad to a prospect.

Outsourcing technical tasks is a common practice in the interactive business. Smaller agencies and design firms frequently outsource coders and developers. If they had these people on staff, it would be difficult to keep them busy full time. The increase in operating overhead would affect the cost of every project (not just web projects). Large agencies outsource specialized talent for the same reasons. Groups of all sizes occasionally need help when they get overbooked. If a prospect tells you they will only hire an agency that never outsources, that prospect simply needs to be educated about how the world really works.

Outsourcing is a smart business approach. It allows a business to become an expert in a manageable portion of their industry. As a business grows, they can take on a larger portion, but they aren't likely to ever do it all.

When you buy a car, you don't expect the automaker to have made the tires or the glass or the wiring. Your grocer doesn't own farms and ranches. A little closer to home, when a client hires an agency to create a brochure, they expect the agency to have copywriters and graphic designers, but they don't expect them to own printing presses and paper mills.

Agencies need to focus on what brings value to their clients. Successful creative firms understand that there is value in finding good creative solutions, managing projects, and helping clients find new ways to grow their business. The human resources description about who is involved should not be a deal-breaker for the agency or the client.

If you run an agency (of any sort), it's easy to get caught up in trying to give your clients everything they want. The problem is: they don't know the agency business. If you allow your clients to define who you are and what you do, you will not achieve long-term success.

Identify your strengths, define the value of your services, and be who you are. If you have gaps in your capabilities, outsource to trusted, experienced contractors who understand the importance of maintaining your reputation. Be transparent about how you run your business, and let your clients know that you are fully responsible for all members of your team, regardless of whether they get a W-2 or a 1099 and the end of the year. Your clients will respect you for that.

Why are websites so &*#% hard to build?

21 August 2009

If you are part of an agency, I'm talking to you. (Note: when I say agency, I mean that in a broad sense to include advertising agencies, design firms, marketing firms, PR firms, etc.) Don't feel bad - every business has its problems. And the problems that cause website projects to be difficult are solvable.

Website are difficult. Anyone who says otherwise hasn't thought it through.

All too often, site owners are overwhelmed by the difficulty and complexity of building a website. Here are a couple reasons:

Print experience vs. web experience. One reason websites are hard is the internet is still a new medium. Customers understand printing. Your customer could have experienced the process of building a print piece hundreds of times, but have never been a part of a web project. When your customer needs to print a brochure, they could easily be doing business with a printing company that is several generations old. Print is second nature to many people that have no experience with the web.

Content is a challenge. The information included in most websites is more complex than any other company communication. A customer may come to you with a list of projects they want executed over the next year or two. The list may include a few product sell sheets, a couple product line brochures, a refresh to the design of their packaging, some new outdoor advertising, and a new website. Your customer probably doesn't even know that all of their print requests combined aren't anywhere close to as much work as the website. The website will include the content of the new print projects plus the content in all of their other 30 sell sheets and eight brochures plus the everything the HR department knows about the company plus everything the marketing department knows about the company, etc.

Here is an approach to solving the problems associated with building websites.

Agencies fall into three general categories with respect to interactive services. Younger agencies have offered interactive from day one. More established agencies were print and/or media oriented for some number of years, and then they added interactive as it became necessary. Then there are the holdouts who don't offer interactive services at all, although the size of this group is dwindling quickly.

These three types of agencies face different challenges producing websites. If you avoid the web entirely, you are missing out, and you will probably not survive wihtout a plan that includes interactive. If you really can't see a way to include it in your activities, find someone to partner with. The web is not going away, but you will if you don't respond with a plan.

For print agencies trasitioning into interactive, don't spin your wheels making mistakes that can be avoided. Involve personnel in the project who can help you build websites the right way - staff or contractors.

For web-centric agencies, you understand the technical complexities involved in web projects. Your biggest challenge is shared with all other types of agencies: helping your customers understand why a website is difficult and why your involvement in the project has value.

No matter which type of agency you are, you need to:

• prepare your customer for the challenges that come with creating a new website
• stake your reputation on professional contractors who deliver consistent and thoughtful solutions
• understand that the success of the site may not be fully measured for months or even years after go-live.

The problems will always be yours. How you solve those problems will determine how successful you will be in this exciting and growing industry.