Cooper’s latest journal is out and inside it contains a fascinating teaser article called Beautiful Monsters

David Fore authors part one of a pending series on the topic he calls “Ecosytem-Centered Design”.

The problem comes when UCD is taken too literally, for it can also promote a myopia that blurs what’s outside the immediate reach of individuals, preventing us from clearly seeing the inter-woven social, industrial, and environmental ecologies within which people live and companies exist. This must change. Whether interaction designers hear it or not, we are being called upon to address the broader ecological contexts of the companies that build what we design, and those who use the product of our labors. It is, therefore, urgent for our design values, methods, and collaboration habits to evolve. Now.

What is called for is an Ecosystem-Centered Design, a shared set of ideas and methods to guide our way toward more sustainable creative endeavors that address vital social, organizational, and environmental influences upon—and consequences of—the creation, use, and retirement of what we design.

Will be keeping an eye out on this one.

When I was in college, there was a class that occurred every semester where we always knew when its most popular exercise was taking place. Students would be everywhere on campus with blindfolds on, being led by their guide person to classes and lunch.

I’m reminded of this class experiment when I visit web sites with clumsy navigation. They may start off with a simple “walk forward” link and think this is good. However, it’s not. If you’re blindfolded and someone tells you to “walk forward”, you may ask, “Where are you taking me” or “Why?” We have the same questions when we walk around web sites.

The “scent of information” is a funky phrase that means, “Give me a strong hint about where you’re going to take me next”. We’re more likely to take the step forward if we know we’ll be rewarded with something we want or need, and if we’re confident we’ll get there intact.

Getting Lost

I was on Twitter’s web site today and, being curious as to why the “older” button is deactivated, I decided to poke around the site to see if it was something I had done. This is typical user behavior. We blame ourselves first when something doesn’t work. I, like some of you, think that while we were sleeping, tiny gremlins went into our favorite sites and wreaked havoc on our personal settings.

I clicked from the Twitter homepage to their Help page. Apparently, they want to keep me on that page forever because they removed the top global navigation, including the user support and frequently used links like “home”, “settings” and “find and follow”. If I hunt for links to get back to where I started from, I find some navigation in the footer, along with a copyright date of 2007, rather than 2008. The only “home” link I found went to the homepage of the “Help” hub. If the way back “home” is on this busy the page, I didn’t want to hunt for it. Things have to be where I can see them without any effort.

Despite the fame Twitter has, it’s also an example of too much hoopla, too soon. If they even have Performance Testing Engineers, those people are battling every day to keep a site up that’s live and “in production” from crashing every hour. As Twitter users know, Twitter’s as fun to use as training a toddler to use the potty. Some days it works. Most days it doesn’t.

Lost in the Hub, Bub

I was hired to test a web site that’s famous around the world. It’s a gigantic site aimed at readers all over the world. Despite its credible reputation, the web site is clunky, chaotic, not consistent from page to page or hub to hub and has an alarming number of big ads on each page that make reading difficult.

It’s broken into categories, which are set up as “hubs”. Hubs are like rooms on a site with windows on the walls.

A typical hub is an About Us section where the hub’s “homepage” explains what’s interesting to see inside that hub, may contain a mission statement and devotes some space to proof of the company’s existence like a picture of the store or office.

Left side navigation takes visitors to the other “windows” in the room, such as press releases, media kit, or contact page.

Sometimes hub windows contain window panes, or another level. This means that if you click from the hub’s Homepage into the Contact page, you may see breadcrumb navigation to “Staff”, “Bio’s, and “Directions”.

On the famous web site I reviewed, there was a weak attempt to create hubs but it wasn’t finished. I couldn’t locate the way out of some hubs to the main site in some cases. I certainly couldn’t jump from hub to hub, or if I could move deeper into a hub, I became stuck there. There was little or no direction on how to escape or move backwards. They also made another common mistake, which is to remove all navigation from pages like privacy policies and terms.

I Love Navigation Cliffhangers

Most web sites are designed for forward momentum. This means if you land on their homepage, you’ll find key, top-level links to move inside the web site. What becomes less obvious is when you want to return to where you were, or move side to side from hub to hub without first requiring a click back to the main homepage first. Try not to force visitors to go home to reorient themselves or find a new hub to explore. This is especially handy advice for landing pages, which have their own requirements for navigation and usability.

Sub-navigation and breadcrumb navigation are planned out during the information architecture stage, not as a last resort. When navigation schemes are mapped out in accordance with IA there is less chance for cliffhangers. I love these. It’s when you get going on a site and you’re rolling along until suddenly you’re taken to a page that drops you off into the Unknown Internet Universe. Typically, the browser’s “Back” button has been disabled, making this trip all the more groovy.

Every web designer faces navigation hurdles. This is why user testing during the design phase or pre-production is so valuable. I grow frustrated with the number of stories I hear from the field by IT folks, programmers, project managers and QA Engineers whose companies completely ignore user testing and usability/accessibility design or standards. They’re not happy to be knowingly building a “piece of crap” and it boggles one’s mind when upper level management encourages them to do so.

The blindfolded students learned many lessons, as did their guide persons. As a user experience web site designer, you play the role of both.

Now, if we could just convince your blind managers and directors to get with the program, we’d have software that works when we want it to and web sites that never drop us off the side of the road.

Linkedin has a discussion going called What don’t you trust about SEO (search engine optimization) … and why?. It’s a nightmarish tromp through the minds of those who equate SEO with human sacrifice rituals.

To be fair, some of the poor reputation is well deserved. Anyone worth their greed DNA knows that it takes a devil SEO to make potato salad out of cashews. If you’re dreaming of getting rich tomorrow, promising orgasmic results by reading the ebook you wrote while drunk at your buddy’s house last Saturday is absolutely going to require some down and dirty tactics to trick Google algorithms and brain-dead humans.

One guy in the Linkedin thread impressed everyone with his knowledge of AltaVista. The last press release from that search engine was in 2003. He also mentioned Lycos as a place SEO’s submit to. I just went there and learned about a girl who swallowed magnets and this week’s Mover and Shaker is Jamie Spears, the unmarried teenager who just had a baby. Yep. I want my web site there.

Some respondents in the “Bad SEO” thread had nothing to offer accept links to their web sites. Most wanted proof that SEO works. This is like saying we want proof that string theory is real or Moses really saw a burning bush. With each web site, results and techniques are unique. There are successes and failures. No two situations are the same. There’s so many variables involved. Believe in the promise of number one rank at your own risk. It’s like being baptized and promised you’ll go to heaven if you do. Nobody really knows for sure how it will all turn out.

The conversation in Linkedin is limited to the experiences of those who chose to participate. I don’t visit there myself for Q &A and had it not been for Sphinn, I wouldn’t have known about that discussion. Nearly every commenter had nothing positive to say about SEO. Quite depressing. I thought of going in there with my “Rah Rah SEO and Usability” position but this definition held me back:

Optimization is essential to an effective paid placement (SEM) campaign because of the importance of relevance. If your SEM matrix is not properly relevant (you are bidding on the phrase “Toyota” when you are selling “Ford”) you will pay more for a click. This CAN be optimized, but not easily. A proper optimization WILL reduce the CPC and the major search engines encourage this practice and will even help you do it.

I can tell when the mere mention of web site usability or user experience are going to be met with “huh?”

For the record, there are individual SEO’s and search engine marketing companies who include some sort of usability audit on their clients’ sites as part of the overall holistic approach to online marketing. I know this to be fact because I’m subcontracted or hired to perform their usability reports.

The goal of adding usability site reviews is converting inbound traffic to meet your business goals. This could be product sales, ordering services, booking reservations, newsletter signups, blog RSS feed subscriptions, sales leads, etc. A ranking promise for being “Number 1 in Google” is hollow. I can’t imagine paying money to be number one for a keyword and not having a powerful, working, persuasive web site behind those clicks.

Usability services can be applied at any time and may include (to name a few things):

1. Mock up reviews
2. Business requirements review
3. Functional requirements review
4. Assistance in preparing web site guidelines
5. Assistance in web site planning
6. Checking to make sure legal requirements are met
7. Functional testing of applications
8. Accessibility testing
9. Shopping cart and forms testing
10. Review of overall information architecture

Would you buy a house without first having it inspected by an outside, objective person trained to look out for your welfare?

An SEO company that doesn’t care about your investment is a red flag.

Does Your SEO Offer This Service to Support Your Objectives?

The main objective of usability reviews and functional testing is to help a business succeed. Often, a company simply doesn’t know how to be successful online because their staff isn’t experienced with all the skills necessary to be and remain competitive.

Usability is a business decision if revenue is expected to come from a web site. It’s used to determine what is wanted and needed by a business. Usability input is focused on delivering results and supporting all the ways and opportunities available to successfully meet those results. It’s tied to reputation management, customer service, word of mouth advertising and the return of investment for all marketing.

In addition to support for the business goals, usability testing acts as an advocate for customers and end users by educating companies on data collected on known user behavior, usage habits and issues such as those of disabled persons and the sight impaired. In some countries, such as the USA and the UK, web sites must meet certain legal requirements to do business online. Usability and human factors research are ongoing and closely tied to marketing goals and incentives.

Making a bad choice is your right of course.

There’s plenty of information available to help companies make wise decisions. I’m surprised that with all the search engine marketing conferences and live blogging of sessions, that barely a dent is made in the overall reputation of the SEO/M industry. For every class-act business or search marketer, there appears to be 20 rip offs and countless thousands of people and companies who buy into their schemes.

I hate to say it this way but the truth is, if you’re hiring any service that’s intended to help you succeed, put your “bullshit detector” on. There’s no magic formula. When you do locate and hire a credible company or person,  listen to them and follow their advice.

Sometimes the fault lies not with the SEO, but with the fact that nobody followed their guidance.

Parents will recognize the statement, “Please use your words”. It’s used when children scream, cry, punch, jump on furniture, bite, pull hair and clothes, throw their toys and essentially use some form of body movement to express how they feel.

Since people can’t throw pots at each other online, we try to use words to communicate our feelings and ideas. However, it’s not enough to write sentences and be grammatically correct. We still can be misunderstood even though we used our words.

Divided We Type

If you use computers, you’ll type words into it. Some of us are better at it than others. What’s interesting is that though the Internet united us globally, it also divided us in the same way we categorize ourselves off-line. Social networking allowed us to narrow things even more.

For example, a women-only web site is intended to attract “just women”. A few soared to the top of the pile, like iVillage , Oprah and BlogHer. Each of these large web sites is a community that tries to meet the needs of the female gender. Women are encouraged to join and meet others like them.

Some women may quickly realize their gender is like an endless rainbow. There are so many ages, interests, likes and dislikes. And, if the homepage doesn’t somehow communicate the special sweet spot you want that day, it won’t hold your attention.

The answer to this is more niche oriented social networking web sites. Women can now find working women, stay at home moms, boomer women, and every female in between in their own web space.

When this happened, the dialog may have changed as well. The divisions whittled down even more. For example, stay-at-home mothers sometimes feel threatened by working mothers. The two sides stopped talking to one another and each has their own place on the Web where they can continue to not talk to one another.

Why have we created cyberspace to be a carbon copy of our physical space? A good friend of mine has a saying, “It is what it is.” We laugh often at it, because it explains so much. But what if we could make ‘Net communication more bendy, fluid, mingly, or centered where we can be together in the same space, rather than continue to go into our separate rooms, slamming the door behind us.

How to Use Your Words Online

Here’s some ideas on how to write comments, forum posts, opinion blog posts, offer feedback in forms, write PM’s and emails and some types of articles. Feel free to add your suggestions in this blog’s comments area.

1. Balance the negative and positive energy in your piece. For every negative point or thought written, express a positive counter point for it.

2. Use “may” instead of “should”. Example: “You may want to consider…” instead of “You should consider”. We have no right to tell anyone what they should do. We can suggest.

3. When approached with a perspective or point of view that you disagree with, it’s best not to push back if you can’t do it without sounding like somebody stole your stuffed bunny toy. Accept it with grace and move on.

4. Agree to disagree. Example: “I accept your difference of opinion.”

5. ALL CAPS MEANS YOU’RE THROWING THE IRON SKILLET AT MY HEAD. I WILL NOT ONLY DUCK, BUT I WILL IGNORE YOU.

6. Allow different views, opinions and perspectives in the same space. Everyone is in a different place in their life experience. If we were all the same, it would be boring wouldn’t it?

7. Write clearly. There are many reasons for this that range from satisfying spelling and grammatical control freaks, to those who have trouble understanding your language, to people who equate proper sentence structure with intelligence.

8. Write from the perspective that you are NOT the only person on the planet with something important to say.

9. Avoid labeling people, countries, places, ages, whatever. This isn’t easy to do. We all have feelings, opinions and attitudes about everything and we have a right to express how we feel. I hold back how I really feel 90% of the time because I don’t want to shut out the possibility of learning something new. We can learn from those we don’t agree with or like. We can politely listen to those we don’t admire.

10. Must you pass judgment? On the ‘Net, especially when you can be anonymous, judging is the way of the land. It’s done with votes, diggs, sphinns, thumbs up and down, barks, yelps, subscriptions, feeds, testimonials…we have lots of ways to say “I hate this” or “I love this”.

We don’t have a way to say, “It is what it is.”

I doubt a total nirvana acceptance of All the Crap We See Online would be totally satisfying to us. I admit to enjoying reading conversational chaos because it’s entertaining. It’s like people watching while sitting on a park bench pretending to read a book.

Can our words bring us together or do we continue to let them divide us?

Is it better to start a little safe place on the Web where we can control everything and visitors are invitation only, or do we learn to use our words in more creative, educational, positive, compassionate, non-judgmental and loving ways?

I caught this statement in a discussion elsewhere. It went something like, “I don’t think people over 40 get social media, whereas kids love it.” Having seen this sentiment mentioned before, I thought I’d express my feelings on the matter.

I’m 50 years old. I get the whole social media gig. It’s like Woodstock on the ‘Net, where people gather together for several minutes, days, weeks, months and years to hang out, talk, share, listen to music, run around naked and slide in the mud.

What social media doesn’t offer people of my generation is face to face communication. It doesn’t let us hold hands, sing or hug. Instead of raising our lighters as a token of respect and homage to those we admire, social media offers voting and “thumbs up” buttons. There’s no thrill there. There’s no rock and roll. Today’s version of social is “read this, read that”, vote on it, follow or unfollow, friend or unfriend, get answers or be completely and utterly ignored even though you know you’re there.

Social networking on the Internet brings together people who would otherwise never meet each other. Back in the day, we hitchhiked.

Families no longer live in the same towns, so having a MySpace account can help keep The Smiths up to date on what Uncle Bob is doing and when the next baby shower for Sally will be. It’s a sad thing, but with the cost of gas these days, some families only have the Internet as a way to stay in touch. Online photo albums have cheered grandparents the world over.

To think that older people don’t get involved socially online is a mistake. My own parents, in their 70’s, are deeply entrenched in discussion groups on all kinds of topics. They’re in touch with their siblings who are still alive via email and do projects together via the ‘Net, such as genealogy. My Dad sends me workshop and seminar videos and is no stranger to YouTube. Blogher is one community with women of all ages, young and old. One of my favorite Blogher bloggers is older than me. She’s hip and smart.

What I do feel is that social media is not going to make us happy in the long run. It fills a need right now. People are coming together and grouping off into areas of interest or gender, for example. What’s missing is a solid, real feeling of actually being with the people there. We used to call them “Be In’s”.

In most social situations, when you enter the environment, people know you’re there. They see you arrive into the space. They may approach and welcome you. With social media, the goals and missions are different. You can come, drop in, drop out and nobody cares if you were there. They may never know you showed up. Not only that, to participate, you have to give out personal information and obtain a password. You need to configure settings. Its a lot of work just to hang out with people you don’t even know and annoying as heck when you simply wish to stay in touch with a few you do know. If someone spots you, everybody wants to be your friend.

Pot used to do that too.

Today at my house, a friend showed up and after half an hour of chit chat, opened up about some issues he’s having with someone and needed advice. We had a nice talk. Most importantly, it was face to face and I could hug him when he left because I knew he’d like that and it’s what I do with my friends.

Later, another friend showed up and after 10 minutes of banter, wanted advice on her divorce because she saw how my ex-husband and I always put the kids first and get along so well. She wanted to do that too. When she left, she said she wanted to come back because it felt good to talk.

What struck me is both of these people can email me to talk. One has MySpace and Facebook and “Friends”, but doesn’t use them for “real” discussions. The other is a teacher and very computer oriented.

Social networking isn’t the same as one on one talking and sharing. There are no eyes to gaze into and no hand to touch. Conversations are strange, as if you’re sitting on the steps on the street listening to people talk as they stride by you. It’s a fleeting thing. Not sustained.

For me, true social engagement is something of substance. I haven’t felt that on the Internet. I have felt it at rock concerts and rallies, back in the days when we gathered in gigantic groups with signs, blankets, and worn out sandals.

I get social media. I’m happy it’s available. It’s just some social media web sites lack power. They’re missing passion or unity of conscious awareness, although some do try if they’re behind a certain cause. I don’t want to wait for someone to log on to Be With Me because when they are, most of the time I still can’t feel their presence. I just see their words. Sometimes they acknowledge me, sometimes not. I don’t like how that feels.

For me, a really satisfying connection is a lasting one. I want to feel wanted and needed. Social sites haven’t done that yet. I want to come away with something tangible. Something like a feeling or knowingness that I belong to something worthwhile, special, unique, and that I want to return to.

People are still talking about Woodstock.