shelley-ann.com: musings in exploring design + business » Design

I want to do social…but I don’t want to engage

Shelley — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 14:00:12 +0000

Huh? I’m not crazy. I’ve heard that alot. A client wants to add Twitter or Facebook… or whatever social network to their site but they aren’t interested in doing any work. The reasons vary but honestly why bother. It’s like asking someone on a date and then not talking for the entire time.

Why would you care to see them again? You wouldn’t…unless you had lost your mind.

Throw a link to Facebook on the site. Why?

What are you planning to DO once you have a fan page? Does your business really need one? Or rather are you going to do anything useful with it other than talk at your customers.

Or someone gets excited and says “Oh let’s get a Twitter account!”. Again…to what end? I can’t tell you how many meetings I’ve been in where it was obvious that a) the person speaking had never used Twitter b) had no idea what they were talking about and c) had no valid reason other than it sounded cool. On what planet…is something cool if it doesn’t make sense for your business and no one is going to take ownership of it. Waste of time and money.

Some people don’t want to give customers a platform to complain. Well… get real… consumers complain all the time. But people who love you write more good things than bad. Besides if you had a lousy product wouldn’t you want to improve it. When did we get so afraid of criticism? Not everyone is going to like your product or service.

Just a thought.

By not giving your loyal happy customers a place to talk and share their stories you are missing out. Word of mouth is your friend…not your enemy.

Promoting your products or service all day long is not a relationship building activity.

Go have a conversation already…social media is about building relationships, which you cannot do without engagement just being on the network isn’t enough.

A Design Thinking Mashup

Shelley — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 01:42:02 +0000

Can innovation be reduced to a process? Well that debate has been raging about design thinking for several years. Some think it’s a failure others believe it works. With any process or idea the question ultimately is..does it work? It depends. Not every process works for every situation.

Thinking like a designer can transform the way you develop products, services, processes—and even strategy. ~ Tim Brown

Here are several articles, resources and videos about design thinking. Some are for it, others describe its failures and other discuss what it is and how to use it.

Design Thinking video from The Institute of Design at Stanford University.

Tim Brown, CEO and president of IDEO, author of Change By Design talks about design thinking in this TED presentation.

So what process works best for you or your organization?

Want to be more productive and creative?…TAKE A BREAK!

Shelley — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 21:30:37 +0000

The average American takes about 15 minutes for lunch and usually eat at their desk. Oh and before I forget they don’t stop working while they eat either. What sort of a lunch break is that?

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met who never leave the office during the work day. People who smoke have a built in excuse to leave the office. Depending on their habit a few times a day and usually with friends. So it’s a social activity.

In a study from 1999 Cornell found that -

Workers who used computer software to remind them occasionally to assume good posture, take short breaks and occasionally stretch do more accurate work and as a result are more productive

Most “traditional” creatives need time away from their desk to come up with ideas. Forcing yourself to sit at a desk to produce usually leads to frustration. Everyone creates something…needs an idea to spark their work.

Go to the gym, a yoga class, take a nap, go on a coffee run with a co-worker or your pet if you work from home but take a break…especially if you’re stuck. No excuses.

The “I don’t have time” is just that an excuse. Make the time to take a break. Your work will improve and so will your mood.

Working non-stop only leads to one thing…BURNOUT.

Can media deprivation improve creativity?

Shelley — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:30:29 +0000

I am currently taking “Creativity Bootcamp” taught by Julia Cameron the author of The Artist’s Way. We have had several homework assignments to complete over the duration of the course. For example, morning pages, artists dates, etc. For the 2nd week our homework was “media deprivation” which meant we couldn’t expose ourselves to outside media. This meant we couldn’t watch television, go to the movies, read books, newspapers or magazine and no music with lyrics. Social networking was out too…so no Twitter, Facebook or whatever other network you used just for fun. Work related stuff was ok. You couldn’t use the assignment as an excuse to not do your day job!

I’m a pretty connected person so I thought it might be difficult to not be updating my virtual worlds on a regular basis. But it wasn’t. Not to say I haven’t been tempted but I overall have found it a calming exercise.

I did slip once and watch TV but I was out with friends having brunch at a football bar during World Cup season. So I watched 1 game. 90 minutes of television in 7 days. That’s not too bad.

I haven’t missed watching the news. I got out of the habit of watching it when I cut off my cable last year and since I got it reconnected I rarely watch it anyway.

What I missed the most was reading. To say I am an avid reader is an understatement. I usually read about 2-3 books at a time plus I have about 12 magazine subscriptions. It was really odd to just collect the mail and put the magazines in a pile. And that’s just the print stuff. I have a ton of RSS feeds I read regularly too.

For 7 days the only ideas and input I was getting was self-generated. I got a lot done. Projects I’d been putting off I started to make progress on. I found it easier to write and come up with my own ideas. I felt more connected to my own inner wants and desires the longer I was away from outside stimulus.

After this experience I will be doing media deprivation at least once a week. It really is an exercise in mindfulness and awareness.

Human-centered design for the rest of us

Shelley — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:15:00 +0000

What exactly does it mean for a site to be human-centered?

It means that you don’t have to look at the site and wonder what it is supposed to accomplish. What am I supposed do now?

A site that leaves you wondering why hasn’t achieved it’s goal. The action should be so bright you need to wear shades to not know what you’re supposed to do.

What story does a site/product tell? Is it clear? If it isn’t how can you fix it? Sit down and ask yourself what your audience might think.

Do a “What’s in it for me” a.k.a WIIFM analysis to see what your audience thinks your site is. If it fails that test you know you need to rework your site.

Your message isn’t clear.

Not to worry you can fix it. Put yourself in the position of what your potential visitor is looking for and why they are coming to your site. Make up a little story about what you want your visitor to do and that will help inform your design decisions.

Can designers change the world?

Shelley — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:45:40 +0000

I won Do Good Design: How Designers Can Change the World on Twitter several months ago. I entered the contest because I was intrigued by the idea of design being able to create sustainable change. Poor design was definitely apparent during the elections in Florida a couple of years ago.

Designers have an essential social responsibility because design is at the core of the world’s largest challenges…and solutions

The tools that are currently widely available allows the average person to apply their design skills. Aviary, a startup in New York, has a suite of tools that gives people just that opportunity. So the excuse that price is a barrier to entry is no longer the case. There are also a lot of open source tools such as InkScape and Gimp to name a few.

If you want to design for fun or work you can ill afford not to think about the impact your work has on yourself and the world. What do you want to say and how loudly you want to say it are all key. You don’t have to reach a million people to make a difference. You just have to influence the behavior of one individual. A big noise might get noticed but doesn’t necessarily have a lasting impact on an individual.

Making a design that’s easier to use or making someone smile with one of my drawings is my small way of changing the world. What’s yours?

The future of user-centered design?

Shelley — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:59:07 +0000

Since I usually have to explain what I do I was curious how often people search for the term user-centered design using Google. Well the results using Google Insights for Search were actually rather disturbing. It suggests that interest peaked in 2004 and is steadily declining.

Well despite what big man Google has to say I don’t buy it. People are more interested than ever in making products or services that don’t suck. User-centered design can help do that.

Fixing your piggy bank

Shelley — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 12:00:54 +0000

It’s no secret that the financial industry has a serious image problem at the moment. They also don’t have the most user friendly websites either. There are two financial websites that I think are getting it right. They are listening to feedback from their users and making changes that are useful as well. Sometimes those changes meet with resistance but at least they are constantly striving to improve.

The two sites I am talking about are Mint and Smartypig. Mint is a free personal finance, online money management, budgeting, and financial planning software. Smartypig on the other hand helps you save money for specific savings goals, allows friends and family to contribute, gives incentive boosts.

Mint has introduced some really great changes. They have improved the design of the budgeting features within the application. Mint makes financial software easy and fun to use. It can help you focus on your goals and see where your money is going and help you spot trends. I love getting the emails telling me I’ve spent more than I’ve budgeted for coffee. It’s virtual scolding but hey whatever works to get you to manage your money better.

SmartyPig on the other hand is your own virtual piggy bank or as they say “social banking” at it’s best. You can save for a specific goal or have others contribute to your goal as well. Need help saving for baby furniture perhaps? Or your next computer? This is the place to do it.

I used SmartyPig to save for my new sofa. I’ve watched it change since I signed up several months ago. They’ve added a visualizer so you can see how your money grows across your accounts. They are pretty active on Twitter as well. They offer customer service and hold contests. They were on there before it was “hot”. Smartypig also integrates with other financial software sites such as Mint, Geezeo, Wesabe, Rudder, Yodlee and Buxfer.

The bigger corporations should take a cue from these smaller sites. Listen. Innovate. Then innovate some more. It’s not rocket science make a product people like to use and people will use it.

Follow Mint and SmartyPig on Twitter.