Because each website appeals to its audience differently, the prudent user experience designer takes a measured approach when communicating; especially when they do so on behalf of their client. No matter what the vision and no matter how it’s executed, a design can always communicate more effectively. Online and off we gauge the effectiveness of communication by its affect; in other words: what action(s) do people take after they give us their attention? Properly utilized, Web Analytics helps us answer this fundamental question.
As the article progresses it provides just enough detail about how analytics, or more specifically measurement, is being applied today. it starts out with discussing how to design an Outcome and then takes you through the basic three step optimization program: Measure, Monitor, & Act.
While the article is well written and has some great points, to be honest I’m most excited that Andrew in all his diligent research has listed me as an “official” Web Analytics Luminary amongst some of the great and well known industry leaders. In addition Andrew cited two of my presentations for further learning and reading: User Experience By the Numbers for Behavioral Metrics and if I could make my grandparents understand what I do for a living you too can understand the process and rules that govern analytics with Analytics & Gambling – How Similar They Really Are presentation. THANKS ANDREW!!!
A short and sweet – only a 20 minutes – talk that I gave at Henry Stewart DAM 2010 last week.
When it comes to onsite (enterprise) search engines these days there is a misperception and an over reliance on using algorithms or algorithmic search only to serve search results. With the exception of good eCommerce sites I don’t think I’m too far off when I say that the results you get blows chunks – serve irrelevant results – on most sites. So is all lost? Are we doomed to bad search and forced to browse forever? No, of course not. The solution is not another peice of technology, it’s something we’re all (or should be) familiar with – taxonomy.
Let me break it down as simple as I can…
IF YOU WANT TO SERVE MORE RELEVANT RESULTS , HAVE BETTER FINABILITY OF CONTENT, AND GREAT RETURN ON INFORMATION (ROI) YOU WILL LEVERAGE TAXONOMIC SEARCH!
A bit dramatic? Sure, but I needed to make a point.
If you use taxonomic search properly I GUARANTEE (as a consultant and being Sicilian I RARELY ever do that) you will get better more relevant results. Guaranteed.
Recap:
Stop relying entirely on an algorithm to deliver search results
Start leveraging metadata & taxonomies to deliver MORE relevant search results
Enjoy and good luck with achieving better search results!
“User Experience By The Numbers” is my presentation I gave at JBoye Conferences Philadelphia 2010 on May 5th. This presentation shows how user experience (UX) professionals can start using web analytics to inform the experiences they design by focusing on Behavioral Metrics and using onsite search and SEO to inform site content for a better experience.
1) Behavioral Metrics – which are what I feel everyone, but especially UX folks should be focusing on. Behavioral Metrics actually capture and show a user’s behavior, which is in contrast to site and aggregate metrics (visits, visitors, page views, etc).
2) Content & Keywords – By understanding your visitors natural language you can apply that knowledge to you site and improve your SEO, SEM, content, URLs, metadata, labeling, taxonomy, ontology, site navigation, etc.
Both of these methods are a huge step in the direction of leveraging both qualitative & quantitative data and is very easy to learn. GUARANTEE if you use these two methods it will have a MAJOR impact on improving the experiences you design.
Q: Do you think websites and web design have the power to shape lifestyles and enhance health?
Q: What’s the future of social media?
Q: Where will this lead?
Q: We’ve seen applications that allow you to look up grocery items to determine if they’re gluten free or allow you to search from home for the nearest store that has a certain product. What’s the next step?
This was a fun interview to do. The article Pam envisioned was not what came out of it. She expected me to talk about how the Intranet & websites will make people healthier so it took an interesting turn from the beginning, but came out quite well if I say so myself.
I thought this was a great example of a seemingly simple error that started with one individual, but ballooned into something you just can’t make up and ended up wreaking havoc on an entire community.
While done in a cute and comical format and the author provides his own morals at the end the story, this is exactly why standards must be enforced and how human error can creep into any organization and the posible consequences of making decisions on “bad data”. Enjoy!
