Mind on Marketing

Some interesting comments from the Usability Professionals Association (UPA) on the ROI of usability. The article  provides examples and statistics for each return on investment. I find the observation on increasing market share, quoted below, particularly compelling.
Web sites are becoming more usable across the board as noted by Jakob Nielsen, showing general improvements as certain  conventions [...]

Last Thursday evening the Charlottesville Business Innovation Council recognized several businesses and individuals at the annual Awards Gala at Farmington Country Club. The Gala is a great party for the regional technology sector, a chance to dress up and schmooze in a beautiful setting, and honor innovation and service. I was going to post all [...]

Tonight I’ve been reading a post on the UX Matters Blog about Content Quality. The author, Colleen Jones, attempts to come to terms with how to ensure good quality content on web sites, and includes several checklists and thoughtful discussion. She rightly states that style guides are all too often not developed until after site content [...]

I’ve been actively participating in Facebook and Linked in for the past couple of months, and am now beginning to use Twitter. A step at a time. And I’m coming to appreciate and enjoy the communities in each venue, beyond what I first thought of primarily as a business adventure. On Monday night I attended [...]

Okay, this is a survey of one, so take this for what it’s worth. Although I’ve been on Facebook and Linked In for more than a year, I didn’t start tending and cultivating those networks until a couple of months ago. And I started this blog a couple of months ago. I also taught a [...]

This week I conducted user testing for the University of Virginia’s Arts and Sciences web site. I’ve been working with the web team for nearly two years. When we began working together, we were looking at what changes were needed to make the site easier to use. The site had recently been overhauled by the [...]

I went to a great workshop this morning, Social Networking 201, led by Marijean Jaggers (Standing Partnership PR), Sasha Farmer (Montague Miller) and Jason Hull (OpenSource Connections). Reminders of important basics, and much info on more advanced topics.
I learned I can use Facebook’s privacy settings to set boundaries on who gets to see what–as a way to [...]