Is your website “fresh”?

One of the most annoying things designers have to deal with is translating what their customers have to say into plain English. Here are some quotes I’ve gotten in the past:

• The design just isn’t “fresh” enough!
• It needs more spunk!
• There’s not enough pizzazz!
• It lacks glamor.
• The tables are exploding!

Do you see what all of these phrases have in common? None of them actually mean anything. All of the above comments are subjective. When you ask them to define further, they’ll say something like “I won’t know what I want until I see it”. That my friend is total bullshit.

This is where you have to take a step back and figure out what it is going to make this particular customer happy. Personally, I don’t take web design customers that don’t (a) know exactly what they want, (b) respect and trust my design judgement, or (c) at least utilize actual users when they make design decisions. If they don’t follow any of the above criteria, it’s really hard for me to make them happy. Another caveat to add here: generally, when client’s sway away from my design and incorporate their “ideas”, the designs almost always look like shit. They’re rarely ever portfolio worthy. I recommend if this is the case to fire that client. It’s a win-win for both parties involved. 

Another thing to watch out for with this type of client is that it’s impossible to get something right the first time. No matter how good the design is, they always want endless iterations. Many of them want 3-4 demos before they’ll even get started—the best designers in the world do ONE demo and iterate from there—that’s how I roll.

This is precisely the reason why I advocate a user-centered design philosophy. I think it’s a terrible idea to design by committee and what stakeholders ask for rarely amount to anything that improves the user experience, usability, or sales—on the contrary—it usually hinders all of these things.

New Year’s Resolutions

I generally do not make New Year’s resolutions because I hate making myself the feel like a  loser. You see, New Year’s resolutions can be exactly that: everybody wants to make a resolution, but your likelihood of keeping it is very low.  So, you go about your business and you quietly kick yourself in the ass for the rest of the year for not keeping your word.

This year is different!  My first New Year’s resolution is:

“To not let things bother me not are out of my control.”

How often you let things bother you? Have you ever noticed that the majority of the time, those things that bother us, are completely out of our control? If there is nothing we can do to fix the situation, it is a waste of time to let it bother us.

My second New Year’s resolution is:

“To do more videos for you all of course!”

I started doing these videos last summer, and spent quite a few weeks since it provided an update for you all.  I’ve been working hard at building out my studio, so it’s about time that I start providing more valuable content for you all.  After quite a bit of thinking, I decided to make these videos a little bit more agnostic. I have many many interests I would like to share with you all.  besides working in the field of user experience and website usability, I’m also very good at visual design, lifestyle design and coaching, body language, and many spiritual awakening (woo woo) things I’d love to share.

Are you using “reset” buttons on your forms?

Does your website contain forms that include an HTML reset button?

If you’re using this godforsaken tag, I think you’re making a big mistake. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve observed users accidentally clicking the reset button and leu of submitting the form. The two are obviously not interchangeable and I feel the reset button does more harm than good. Quite honestly, I’ve never been through scenario where the user actually had a need to click on the reset button.

Here is an example of what I mean. There are so many problems with the way these buttons look. For one, two buttons that perform completely different actions look exactly the  same. Some users, who may be accustomed to traditional button behavior, like the like you would experience in Windows or Mac OS for example, make a inclination that all progressive buttons appear to the right—like you would experience in a wizard. I’m not getting into an argument about button placement,  but I can at least recommend deemphasizing the reset button or eliminating it altogether.

Here is an example I recommend: As you can see in the figure below the submit button—the button you want them to click on—is clearly highlighted and recognizable, while the reset button looks much less important. I learned this approach from a colleague a few years ago (@cindyblue, follow her, she’s awesome):  there is a button you want them to click on and then there are the other options.  Always put emphasis on the actions you want the user to take, and deemphasize the actions the users are less likely to take.

Here is one important thing you should always remember: any time you are performing an action that is not recoverable, like resetting a form, deleting a file, or performing a cancel operation, you need to prompt the user first that their changes will be lost if they continue with the operation.

Have you ever accidentally hit the “reset”  button by mistake?

Do you have a phone number on your website?

There aren’t many things I consider cut and dry when it comes to website usability and user experience design. When I put concepts in front of users, no two websites get the same results—so I’m cognizant about sharing these hard and fast rules with others.

One rule I believe to be almost universal is:

Failing to leave a phone number on your website for people to call and allowing them to get in touch with someone right away.

I have no idea why so many websites make this detrimental mistake. After all, it’s one of the most common website scenarios: getting in touch with someone. It’s also one of the most common usability problems. The data is pretty consistent: people want to talk to someone—especially if they’re genuinely interested in investing their time and money with a company.

Even when showing qualitative data to organizations that have a strong UX culture, I almost always get push back in the end. Here are some reasons people get worried about this:

• Cold calls/marketing solicitations
• Sales team isn’t prepared – they want to talk to customers on their terms