Last Sunday I was quoted in the Sun Herald (Sydney) and the Sunday Age (Melbourne) by David Wilson.  He writes for the small business section and often provides tips on how small businesses can use the Internet.

I gave him an overview of my thoughts, a good wrap for Terapad and some tips on small business websites:

• Clarify what business you are in and what your customers need to know.
• Determine how your customers will use your website, if at all. If your site will be of limited value, abort.
• Based on your budget and skill, consider available product options such as forums, blogs, video and chat. Post questions in online forums such as LinkedIn.
• Determine what actions visitors will perform on your site. Write down the top five, which will help you choose the appropriate product features.
• Establish how much the site will need to change as your business evolves. Allot time to manage it.

and then threw in that ‘a cyberspace presence may be as important as a Yellow Pages listing once was‘.

Then I get this email on Monday…

Hello James,
 
Re: Article in Sunday Age.
 
I got this “info” email address from your website.  I hope you don’t mind some feedback on the article from the Sunday Age that you are quoted in - “Websites an easy choice for business”.
 
You wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Yellow Pages people were disappointed to read the comment attributed to you in the Sunday Age ……a cyberspace presence may be as important as a Yellow Pages listing once was.
 
I work for Yellow™ and we remain an important presence for Australian businesses.  Why?
 
- Yellow™ print directory is used more than 7 million times a month (Roy Morgan Jul 06- Jun 07)
 
- Yellow™ now has yellow.com.au – which gives thousands of small businesses that don’t have their own website an online prescence..  2.5 million people use yellow online monthly.
 
- Search engines (like google) send Sensis (white pages, yellow pages, whereis, sensis.com.au) about 43% of our traffic, so while google is a competitor they also refer business to our sites.
 
- Yellow™ sole purpose is to connect local sellers and buyers, search engines have a much broader purpose (general info/education) - what Australian businesses want is buyers not browsers.

In his article David states that 300,000 Australian businesses don’t have a website, many of them probably don’t need one and that is why the Yellow print directory is still available.

I bet you have two of them propping up your computer monitor..

Greg Doss has created a useful collection of information architecture and user centred design deliverables and tips organised around the project lifecycle.  Lot’s of PDF examples!

I so agree with him;

..’I have come across many inconsistencies in the way Information Architects and other Web professionals refer to Web information architecture deliverables and diagrams. In speaking with various Web design groups I have heard multiple terms for the same deliverables. Information architecture is a relatively new field which has yet to develop a consistent and universal set of deliverables, and terminology to refer to those deliverables. I also haven’t come across a central repository of IA deliverable and diagram documentation. This document is an attempt to fill that void.’

I found this post through Google Alerts

Christina Laun from virtualhosting.com has pulled together some facts about design that are directly observable from eyetracking studies.

1. Text attracts attention before graphics. Make sure your website is designed so that the most important parts of your text are what is most prominent.
2. Initial eye movement focuses on the upper left corner of the page. Keep the habits of your readers in mind if you want your site to be successful.
3. Users initially look at the top left and upper portion of the page before moving down and to the right. Users generally scan webpages in the shape of an ‘F’. Make sure the important elements of your content are located in these key areas to keep readers engaged. 
4. Readers ignore banners. 
5. Fancy formatting and fonts are ignored.
6. Show numbers as numerals. Readers will find it much easier to find factual information on your site if you use numerals instead of writing out numbers.
7. Type size influences viewing behavior. Want to change how people look at your page? Change the size of your font. Smaller fonts increase focused viewing behavior while larger fonts encourage scanning. 
8. Users only look at a sub headline if it interests them. Don’t put in subheadlines just to stick to a particular format–make sure that they are relevant and interesting. You can also help yourself out by making sure they include keywords that will bring search engines to your site.
9. People generally scan lower portions of the page. Highlight certain sections or create bulleted lists so information is easy to find and read on your page.
10. Shorter paragraphs perform better than long ones. Keep paragraphs and sentences short unless context mandates otherwise.
11. One-column formats perform better in eye-fixation than multi-column formats.
12. Ads in the top and left portions of a page will receive the most eye fixation. Ads placed next to the best content are seen more often. 
13. Text ads were viewed mostly intently of all types tested. 
14. Bigger images get more attention.
15. Clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixation.
16. Headings draw the eye.
    
17. Users spend a lot of time looking at buttons and menus. Because of this, you’ll want to put in some extra time making sure that yours are well-designed.
18. Lists hold reader attention longer. Use numbers or bullet points to highlight important information within your content. 
19. Large blocks of text are avoided.
    
20. White space is good.
    
21. Navigation tools work better when placed at the top of the page.

I just visited this.

The The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in Florida ran a webinar at 6am Sydney time tomorrow Friday 16 Nov (2pm in New York, Thurs 15 Nov)  They described how (heat mounted) eyetracking research helps us understand how people read newspapers online and offline.

The presentation was mainly focussed on how about 600 people read newspapers offline.  However, I have ordered the book being promoted in the Webinar as it has more research about how those people read new online.

They did suggest that once people selected an article to read online they are more focussed. They also read the article in its entirety.  This is particularly because the content deeper into articles is surrounded by less clutter on the page and also because people have had to wade through more online fluff to find an article they were interested in.

Much of what was  discussed was stuff that seemed common sense.  I’m sure there were a few nuggets there ( I had audio issues).  I will check to book out and add to this post.

I was fortunate to attend the Thought Leaders Spring Showcase today.  Hosted my Matt Church (thanks for your comment below, it help round out my thinking), a collection of 6 inspirational public speakers were featured at the Hoyts Cinemas at Fox Studios.  I certainly was inspired and left pondering 6 of my very messy mind maps.  My maps posed so many questions. From how much ‘madness’ is required for funky thinking, through to the Zen-ness of golf and it relationship to surfing and spending time thinking, or not.

Here’s some Nuggets I took with me:

1)  Nils Vesk
An urban designer come yoga hippie, Nils’ client list almost mirrors mine.  He blends Madness with Science, logic with illogic, left with right brain to encourage us to break the ‘habit traps’ we fall into. He reckons that if you use the same approach all the time, you’ll get the same results.. ring true with you??  Instead we should:

• Fight it - using every method we can, stupidity works well
• Challenge it - ask yourself ‘what if’, challenge your fundamentals
• Change it - generate ideas from everything you experience, not just your competitors

I certainly don’t do this enough, you know.  For example, a business issue came up in the last weeks and I just went about it in the way I knew, same old, same old. In hindsight I could have got even more people involved and supported my business goals in the process.  If only I remembered to ‘think’.

2) Steven Di Pietro
As an expert on customer service measurement, Steven helps organisations captivate customers & staff by helping them find true purpose.

• What’s ‘The Point’?
• Why do you and your organisation exist?

Get that right and money will come. Just look at Google.  Their mission - ‘To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’  Where’s the money in that?

I will certainly be putting a new vigour into helping organisations create a massive shift for their online customer service, to raise it up a level.

3) Anders Sorman-Nilsson
Anders states that our brains create the most productive outcomes in society, not how hard we work. ‘The quality of your thinking determines the quality your results.’  He reckons business is characterised by three types of thinking:

• Blinkered Thinking 1.0 - Cynicism
• Rah Rah Thinking 2.0 - Motivation
• Funky Thinking 3.0 - Inspiration

In this ‘Age of Ideas’ the only thing that allows us to cope with change in our lives and at work is to upgrade our thinking.  Just like the software on our computers, as Ander’s says. Inspiration is the only way to keep our staff engaged at work.  The thinking that came up with the existing processes in our organisations (Blinkered and Rah Rah Thinking) will never be able to overcome the faults and the processes have created, only inspiration will.

In this merit-based society we must learn, unlearn and relearn the paradigms by which we live our lives and we must be inspired [and be driven] to achieve this.

This rings true for me, to survive in this dog-eat-dog IT/business world we have to get all parties in an organisation to work together toward a common outcome, otherwise we’ll end up with more systems that no-one uses. Inspiration is certainly one way to get us there, closely followed by communication of course.

4) Ron (Rowdy) McLean
Rowdy told us to ‘Get off our Arses’ and create awesome moments in our lives.  Too many of are average ‘if only’ people.  He espouses 4 steps:

1. Ambition - desire, dream, purpose, pursue, plan
2. Attitude - I can, I will, I am
3. Awareness - what’s out there
4. Action.

And only reward yourself and other for getting things done. A false sense of achievement is a waste of time.  Also, if you or someone else has been mediocre, don’t give out ‘free’ recognition because that’s what the management texts teach you.

Importantly, from my perspective, what really makes an experience in your life awesome is when you have the insight to realise it and then learn from it over and over again. Don’t forget, these experiences can be positive and negative, I certainly learnt a lot about myself during recent work transition.

5) Grant Lewers
Grant sold his IT company and discovered golf.  Put simply, he described how he learnt to have fun playing golf and discovered himself in the process.  Instead of focussing on the minutiae of hitting the ball he focussed on the target you must think about what are you hitting the ball at and who cares what others think!  Now he uses golf as a way to teach and inspire people in business!

I liken this to my experience of surfing.  I have my best days when I live in the moment, don’t worry about what other people in the water think and look along the wave to where I am going, instead of thinking about how to get there, there’s no time for that!

6) Scott Stein

The Pathfinder.  Just as I spoke about Daily Hassles and their contribution to stress in society, Scott tells us to take time to connect.  We need to give ourselves the time out to be with family and friends and to think.  Oh, and then make sure that we continue to allow ourselves the TIME.

I took a long time out earlier this year to think about life and my new business and I have to say it was the most creative time of my life.  No uni assignments to do, no work moneys on my back, just time to plan, to think.  Now I maintain that thinking time through blogging something that’s hard to do without.

All in all a fantastic experience this morning.  I took away these main themes:

• Be awesome
• Focus on the heart of what you are trying to achieve
  
• Make time for yourself, family and thinking
• Think funky, wacky and madly - be inspirational
• Thinking is the number one, most important, currency in this changing world
• Sometimes, don’t think at all

Joanna and I ran a great intranet redesign workshop today.

We kept everyone awake for the whole day and gave participants a whole lot of ideas and strategies to improve their intranet presence.  Participants had sites that ranged from 3,000 staff to 120,000 staff users.

Even though I was facilitating, I learnt stuff:

• Don’t be scared to engage at the highest level possible if you are to achieve change and acceptance of your new Intranet
• Follow a process/script for all communications about the project research, interviews
• Provide ‘brief’ summaries and feedback if necessary, it makes you look like a consultant and people know you are serious
• Involve all aspects of the business in KEY components of the process - Information architecture, requirements etc
• Be judicious in involving others in wireframes and branding.  Give them options but not a clean slate or you will never get anything done
• Make sure you have enough resources to action stuff.  If you don’t then doing something is better than nothing
• Leave bureaucracy at work. It’s not worth ‘worry time’

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Thanks Joanna, Ian, Michael, Tutut, Allen, Draga and Sue - a fun day!

Ah, I created it.

Be one of the SMALL percentage of people who write stuff on Facebook!

Discuss you opinions, issues, techniques and stuff.

I’ve started a couple of discussions:

• Collecting pics of eyetrackers. It’s fascinating how people used to do it!
• How eye tracking is used in reasearch (Autism, radiology, web design, the list goes on - add to it!)
• The value of eyetracking to doing usability on one page.
• Doing usability testing silently instead of asking the participant to think aloud??

Thanks to the Telstra Experience Centre Team for hosting World Usability Day yesterday! And to everyone that helped make the day a fantastic success, particularly Susan Wolfe (UPA-Sydney chair), the organising committee, exhibitors and volunteers!

We were fortunate to have demonstration in the new Telstra Usability labs sporting a new Tobii T60 eye tracker.

Here’s the combined heat map of all the dozen or so people who tested the BUPA health insurance site in the UK on the eyetracker.  They were asked to find health cover that suited a 30 year old single person.

As you would expect, everyone started reading on the top left, where the big red hot spot is.  Notice that no-one really focussed on the navigation on the top, I hope nothing important is there!

Joanna using the new T60

 Check this out! Eyetracking mobile device usage on  Tobii x120.