What do people want? No, what do people really want? That’s a hard question to answer when they may not even know. This is where researcher, teacher, and designer, Amber Howard, PhD steps in. Howard was this month’s guest lecturer at AIGA’s Lunch and Learn seminar.
“Companies make huge mistakes by not including the customers in the decision making process,” Howard explains this concept further by usingNetflix’s and their poorly conceived subsidiary company Quickster as an example. Simply asking people “what do you want?” isn’t enough. Additional research through open-ended questions and storytelling is key to finding out what people truly value. Simply using “multiple choice” surveys limits the amount of possibilities to those available on the page. By engaging people in storytelling exercises, a wealth of ideas can open up. People have emotional responses when they are sharing a story, by reliving a memory. This storytelling is valuable recordable data that can be categorized by settings, characters, journey, resolution, and moral and then be analyzed though use of a comparable format. Researchers can then identify patterns and themes through systematic inquiry. The results can show how things relate, what people value, and what people believe. Decision made based on these results can have a stronger impact than decisions based on simple “yes or no” questionnaires. Exciting possibilities and new ideas can emerge from this interaction that may not have otherwise. Speaking of storytelling I’d love to keep this conversation open, so post any comment or questions below and let’s share.
1 Comment
We attended another great event with AIGA Raleigh’s Lunch & Learn series. This particular one involved image rights with Pam Chestek, an intellectual property lawyer for Red Hat, Inc.
Pam discussed basic copyright principles, as well as the rights you as a user have vs you as a contractor. In America, copyright subsits at the time of creation but you must have registered it to contest copyright infringement. It might seem a bit confusing; many people confuse copyright registration with granting a copyright. They’re considered separate… rights, I suppose. Creators are granted copyright as an automatic international right by the Berne convention, as well as other international conventions. Some countries don’t required copyrights to be registered while others require registration to provide evidence of authorship in case of copyright infringement. In America, registering a copyright is necessary for domestic copyright owners to sue regarding copyright infringement. Also, works published before January 1, 1923 are considered public domain. Wonder why? I did! It’s because up until 1998, works could only be registered was 75 years. Then we delved to the more nebulous action of inspiration. There are no hard or fast rules regarding being inspired by other work (not your own, of course). 10%? 20%? 30%? It’s hard to quantify where the line would be blurred between inspiration and copying. Basically, it’s best to err on the side of caution. If you think you’re being shady, you’re probably being shady Of course we also discussed the Creative Commons license! Man, I love them. It’s used by some big hitters, such as flickr, GlaxoSmithKline & whitehouse.gov. There are a variety of licenses from a user to choose from so I won’t go too in depth. Suffice to say, anything you’ll need… it’s there! However, don’t forget, this doesn’t register your work. If you need to register a copyright, check out copyright.gov. “Responding to Innovations” was the name of the game at AIGA’s latest luncheon! Les James, senior front-end developer for Capstrat led the lecture on responsive design. Let me break this down for you: the lecture had to deal with being mindful of developing your website so it is optimized for a wide range of devices. You want your site to look and function as you designed it whether on a desktop computer or a smartphone.
James discussed using fluid grids and adaptive images when developing sites. These techniques optimize the design and user experience no matter the device. When developing for multi platform sites, columns would be a better choice than containers. This allows your layout to adjust to the display accordingly. Content is the main purpose people go to a website, thus this is the most important aspect when designing a site. Really flush out the content with your client. Otherwise all you have is pretty boxes Not only should you consider how a site would look on a phone, you should design for a phone first and build off of that! It is easier to add something than it is to take it away The nature of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is to start with a base and build up anyway, so it is best not to fight that by working backwards. With that in mind, James went on to talk about backwards compatibility for web browsers. Let’s face it, the majority of computer users are not up to date with their machines or web browsers, so we should make sure your site won’t exclude those users. Everyone seemed to leave the luncheon discussing how to best implement this information within their own companies and how to convey these ideas to their respective clients. It is important to stay up to date on innovations in media, and how to best utilize them. With that being said, it also equally important not to leave out the people who are not up to date with technologies. You want the message to be able to broadcast well over as many platforms as possible. Have an opinion or would you like to share your thoughts? We’d love to hear them. The Triangle AMA’s June Luncheon, which focused on how to utilize your own website data, featured the speaker Chris Leone, who gave members some insight as to how to test, analyze and learn from those who are visiting your business’ website and your social media outlets.
Tips included learning which data really was the most important and meaningful to your analytics. Most people are under the impression that “hits” and “page views” are the most important numbers. Leone explains that the numbers we should be looking at are the number of sign ups, the economic value and revenue that are generated, the conversion rate, whether the visitor has clicked on any downloads, the per visit value, and the conversion rate. You want to know how someone got to your website; was it from a social media channel, typing a key phrase into Google, or seeing a business review elsewhere? For those who are interested in Google Adwords, there are certain ways of going about how to decide which phrasing draws in the most clicks. Let’s say your business is running a special, but you don’t know which wording to use. Adwords will allow you to have as many different versions as you want, and display them in a rotation and by keeping an eye on how each of those ads perform, you can find which version of the ad was the most effective and continue with the most successful campaign. Overall, the examples and tips that Leone provided were simple numbers to keep an eye on. As an overall strategy, he recommends establishing goals for each type of platform – meaning a different goal for your own website versus your social media pages, and sites that you have no control over, such as blogs or forums. Most importantly, measure the influence your business is making (your size, audience, and reputation), track review sites like YELP and see what kind of feedback your customers are giving, and try to observe and record what is being said about your business in blogs or forums. The more visibility your company has in all of these platforms, the more likely you are to develop new customers and generate revenue. Olivia’s Thoughts:
Fewer words, more action was the message for AIGA’s luncheon on web copy. Alice Williams from Hesketh, spoke about limiting the words on your website because when there are less words the visitor spends more time at your site. Those who aren’t designers tend to try and put as many words as possible to get their message across, but Alice explained to the group that there’s a few key things you can keep in mind while designing your web page, if you want the visitor to stick around. First, establish a tone for your entire site. What kind of mood will your customer be in when they are researching your industry on the web? What kind of voice do you want your website to have? Pay attention to the sentence structure and cadence of what words are there, and establish what words need to be emphasized. Then, when getting into the design aspects of your site – keep in mind that scan ability is key! Research has shown that most internet users scan web pages in the shape of an F. They read the top line, a line somewhere in the middle if it stands out or is bulleted somehow, and then continue to scan down while staying mostly to the left. Visitors read maybe 20-30% of the wordage on your site, so keep that in mind when developing your copy. More info on F-shaped scanning here Other tips from the expert: use a call to action, but not in paragraph form – make it stand out! And last, people like to see results. Use a tool, such as infographics, to create a visual way for potential customers to view and understand your results. Kathy’s Thoughts: As a designer here at Burning Oak Studios, I try not to handle copy too often. It’s not that designers can’t be great copy-writers; it’s just that I’m not great with words. I tend towards the verbose but I want succinct. We had the lovely Alice Williams from Hesketh speaking and she put a slide that I fell in love with. For every 100 words, people spend 4.4 seconds less on screen THIS. The biggest difficulty I face is trying to design copy, whether I’m designing with it, around it, over, under… my hurdle is the sheer amount of words clients love to use in copy. Alice mentioned a study at Stanford where they were able to track user’s eye movements and detect the strongest area of a user’s concentration, which is fleeting at its best. I did some follow-up reading on the subject via Jakob Neilson & Kara Pernice’s Eyetracking Web Usability collection, and Sandra J. Blum’s 2006 article. This is invaluable information. It helps drive the fact to clients visually regarding “less is more”. AIGA Raleigh Alice Williams at Hesketh Jakob Neilson & Kara Pernice’s Eyetracking Web Usability collection Sandra J. Blum’s 2006 eyetracking article Kathy’s Thoughts
Bradley, Olivia, and I were able to make another great Lunch+Learn session from AIGA Raleighand this time I was determined to bring the Canon 5D. I love my iPhone 4S but Sitti’s great conference cellar just doesn’t have enough lighting for a phone camera without utilizing a flash. The topic this time around was selling, and we had the pleasure of having Dave Fellmen as our guest speaker. Take a look at the intro video provided by AIGA! As a designer here at Burning Oak Studios, I don’t have that much experience with selling but it is something you must always have in mind when dealing with clients, whether you work at a studio or freelance. Dave spoke about knowing how to lose, important factors such as intelligence and courage, strategies, like vs. trust, suspects, prospects, clients and much more. He was kind enough to even go beyond the allotted time and expand upon dialogues, citing his own specific experiences as examples. Bradley’s Thoughts I’ve never considered myself to be a sales person, so attending this event was a really good idea for me to help increase my skill set. Listening to everything that Dave had to say helped me tremendously. The audience was engaged and asked some great questions, and Dave’s responses were filled with real world stories that were easy to relate to. Dave talked about having courage and confidence in your ability, and building trust with your potential customer. We found that building that trust is the most important part about selling your services. You have to make sure that the person you are selling to is confident in your ability to deliver what they need. Wear Your Selling Hat With Confidence was not only educational, but also inspiring and motivational. Next time I come face to face with a potential client I will have the confidence to sell my services. Keep these events coming AIGA Raleigh Olivia’s Thoughts As the new sales face in Burning Oak Studios, I found this AIGA Lunch and Learn Seminar very informative. Dave Fellman introduced the crew to some very simple methods of bringing in clients – whether it be stealing them away from someone else or providing them with something new and better. First and foremost, you must have a process of finding prospects, who are similar to your current clients, and how to contact and build relationships with them from start to finish. He emphasized the difference between clients liking you and clients trusting you, and of course which one is better? TRUST. Trust will bring them back for more business and encourage them to spread the news about your business. Most of all, Dave gave some useful advice on managing conversations with prospective clients – have as much knowledge as possible about what you are selling, have the courage to talk to people about their business and their needs, and be willing to ask questions that facilitate conversation about how your services can satisfy their needs. The members attending had plenty of questions for Dave and he encouraged reading his book Listen to the Dinosaur, which I purchased on Amazon right after the show! First, you must have a product that you know people will go for. Second, make a video that is bound to go viral.
Dollar Shave Club of California has done just that. With a deal that is sure to capture people’s attention, they needed to ensure that people would hear about them. And what better way to do that then by creating a video stating how you don’t take yourself so seriously, and using humor the max. Give the people what they want. In a career that requires you to be a creative problem solver, it’s always good to be able to step out and breathe a little bit. Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending another local AIGA event with a co-worker during normal work hours. It was great to be able to back away from the computer screen that we’re typically glued to and just sit, listen, learn, eat, and mingle with other creatives. AIGA Raleigh’s Homegrown Lunch & Learn series has proven to be a great refresher for a creative mind, being both informative and fun. The Web Designer’s Tool Kit presentation with Mindy Wagner of Viget was no exception. Mindy provided many helpful insights on web design, showing Viget’s streamlined and successful workflow to an intruiged crowd at Sitti in downtown Raleigh. She took us through their process of Kickoffs, Mood Boards, Comps, and Style Guides explaining their intricacies relating directly to real projects they worked on. Mindy discussed building trust with clients, testing the waters with mood boards, etc. all while answering questions from inquiring minds in the audience. It was quite a treat to be able to see another creative firm’s web design process from start to finish. All in all, it was a valuable experience, and I, as well as, the rest of the team at Burning Oak Studios, look forward to attending other events in this series. Follow Mindy on twitter : @graphicsgirl Jennifer Von Stein, the resident artist for Chroma, demonstrates how rewetting your paint allows you to blend colors together for a unique effect using Atelier Interactive Acrylics.
It’s no shocker that advertisers are trying to find new ways to market their products. With so many different media outlets how can you guarantee consumers will buy your product on the spot?
Well there’s no guarantee, but what if the consumer views a product’s commercial inside the store on the same shelf as the merchandise? Automated Media Services (AMS) has officially launched it’s 3GTV Networks. This pilot program will put digital communication in-store at the shelf-edge and provide consumers with an extra push to purchase. Their first attempt to incorporate media into retail stores will be through nine of Food Lion’s Bloom grocery stores. In addition to product advertising, media agencies can also buy airtime for in-store TVs, just like televisions at home. For Burning Oak Studios, the concept of motion activated screens in retail stores is not far away. The idea of putting an advertisement on the same shelf as the product and the consumer’s eyes is genius. As with all projects, commercials are to be geared towards a specific audience and this can change from store to store. Advertisements for art supplies should have a different vibe then say, commercials for vacuum cleaners. This is our expertise. Creating the perfect message for your audience is key with any advertisement, but this new wave of commercials in stores on the shelf will create unique forms of message delivery to audiences. This is media marketing transforming right in front of us. For AMS’ 3GTV, they are ahead of the game. Their digital messaging system will provide shopper tracking and measurement tools to enhance knowledge of consumer behaviors and improve their overall effectiveness. With the development of technologies such as motion activated screens, video advertising opportunities will continue to expand giving marketers and retailers infinite modes to connect with their consumers. |
OAKNOTESCategoriesArchives
February 2018
|