Viaspire - Define.Innovate.Maximize.

Objectified: The complex relationship with objects/experiences and people who design them

If you haven't seen this movie yet IxD/UX fans, well then you are in for a treat. This is such a great movie. Here's a taste!

Not satisfied, go get Objectified!

The dCMO & Building Pervasive Customer Experiences

My favorite article of 2011 to date!

Justin Wilden's post, Pervasive Customer Experience And How Digitally Focused CMOs Are Leading Our Revolution, is spot on for organizations looking for that "perfect person" to lead their marketing initiatives, and more specifically, creating a "pervasive customer experience," around the clock, seven days a week.

Here's some key points from Wilden's post worth considering:

• In 2011, the digitally focused CMO (dCMO) will replace the specialized digital executive.
• The dCMO knows that digital touchpoints are not websites and applications, but products and online services delivered via a digital experience.
• The ubiquitous nature of digital means people consume information on their platform of choice.
• dCMOs know that customers live in a connected world, and they expect a consistent product experience to be delivered across mobile, desktop, and other digital touchpoints.
• A good dCMO is always evaluating, tweaking and rethinking their digital strategy to align and support customer-facing, connected products or services.
• The dCMO looks for digital tools that aspire to be a proactive part of their customer's everyday life.

For more great points in this article, read on >>

Social Buttons: Attract, Click, Post, Like

Who'd ever think social interaction buttons would be so much in the news, but truth be told, they are the keys to social networks and their communities interested in your attention and interaction. 

Druzhok, Sultan, Zhuchko, click here!

As reported in our last post, The Tweet Button - Making Your Content Easy to Share, social networks are investing lots of time studying and modifying the engagement layers behind the simplest and quickest user tasks, for example, the Facebook "Like" button, Twitter's "Tweet" button and the numerous other social network "plug-ins."

Make no mistake, there's lots of design and deliberation going on behind these shiny buttons. That's why it's no surprise that Facebook is making some updates to their own Like button, much like the new Tweet. According to Mashable, for Facebook these enhancements are all about making the "Like" buttons more "seamless for people to like content and share it with their friends."

In terms of user experience these buttons aim to:

• attract
• elicit response
• acknowledge and reflect a change
• satisfy and allow the user to move on.

The next time you select one of these buttons to share on your profile, see how reflexive and innate this action has become. There is a science and attention given to these buttons. They create a simple interaction, which is ultimately conditioning us for a reflexive and repeat response.

With each click, we add to the big, heaping bowl of drool-worthy data mining heaven.

Like Tsygan! Like!

Maps to the Power of Q - MapQuest's UX Journey

There are very few websites that have stood the test of time, like MapQuest. Even with new entries in the space, MapQuest has always served as a reliable, accurate and trustworthy maps and directions resource.

MapQuest's Brand Identity 2.0
Their mark is indelibly a brand that everyone recognizes, but after 15 years, MapQuest is all grown up! With a new mark, MapQuest matures its brand by distilling it down to its simplest essence.

MapQuest UX 2.0
Christian Dwyer of MapQuest writes about the journey the team has taken to truly simplify and enhance the user experience. Their video explains their approach and shows many of the capabilities alive within the new MapQuest experience.

Sticking to their core values, the redesign has all been based upon the simple promise that MapQuest helps people get directions to their destinations.

Their new streamlined design and map features certainly seem to deliver. Check it out at the new.mapquest.com.

Wireframing: Blueprints for the UX

When you get to the point of doing a presentation in the form of visual design comps, often times, it's the first time people start to see and really understand "the work" you do. There is so much behind the scenes that happens before the design is applied. Wireframes, for one, draft the necessary elements that make up a page or series of pages. Wireframes are critical in defining the concept, testing the information architecture (the buckets, the pathways, the conventions used to create a user's experience) and outlining the real estate of the page to facilitate usable and functional design.

GeekChix compiled an amazing list of templates designed to draft the many details that goes into Web design and development before even placing the presentation layer on for people to "see."

These are some great templates to help create the blueprints for the user experience.

Thank  you, GeekChix!

Our Voice, In a Tweet Cloud - "Feel. Love. Follow"

There's been a lot of discussion this year about how individuals and brands should represent themselves on the Social Web. Our philosophy has been if you are speaking on behalf of your organization or brand - be sure to represent yourself accordingly. Likewise, if you are true to your own personal brand, what you share online is both reflective and telling.

Thanks to @icodeforlove, you can view your tweets in a visual cloud of keywords in a month, six months, even over the course of a year.

I did a little experiment to see how the Viaspire team's personal Twitter accounts represent our personal brand and how it compares to our company brand, @Viaspire.

Feel. Love. Follow.

I was happy to see that my tweetcloud was consistent with my personality and my interests. I think as we round the corner for 2009, I think the last line of my tweet cloud reflects a new mantra... "feel, love, follow!"

For most of you who know us personally, you'll laugh as we did over Avery's personal twitterstream. If we are not working, we are eating! Like networking socially online, our offline social network, includes sitting around a table with family and friends talking about the day's events - even tweeting about them. Avery's tweetcloud reflects these conversations paired with good food from Sacramento.

Social. Policy. Experience.

For Viaspire, our firm's tweetcloud represents our focus and passion for technology and the user experience. We focused a lot this year on measuring social media and what it takes to engage people effectively and intuitively online. Every aspect of this tweetcloud is reminiscent of so many conversations, blog posts, presentations and shared resources we exchanged over the year. Naturally, the last line of our tweetcloud seems to be prophetic for next year's focus - more "social experiences" and more of a focus on social usage policies and standards.

What does your tweetcloud say about you?

Is it consistent with your thoughts and feelings conveyed this year? Do you see a pattern or a trend?

How will you use your voice next year? 

Will you share new thoughts and ideas more on Twitter than in email? Will you focus on your personal brand? Can you retain a personality within your Twitterstream or are you trying to "sell" too much of who you are or what company or product you are marketing? Is there a distinction? Should there be separation?

What can the cloud say about you?

Will there be new influencers that threaten your tweet authenticity? Are these open analytics that can be profiled and mined? What can the clouds say about each of us? This is something to consider and share to protect the integrity of the community, called Twitter.

Special thanks to @icodeforlove for creating new depth to the Twitter experience.

Is Email Dead in the Era of Facebook, Twitter & the iPhone?

Clara Shih, author of "The Facebook Era," examines the question is email dead in the era of Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone? With eight billion minutes being spent on Facebook a day, people are not only logging in, they are engaged and communicating actively there. So what role does email play going forward? Watch this BNET video to learn more:

Also, be sure to take BNET's poll: What’s the Etiquette for Social Media and the Workplace? Give them your insight.

Lessons Learned from Project Managers - "Focus on the User"

BNET talks to project heads from GM, Nokia, Mehtod and Facebook to find out what they consider "lessons learned" from working on high-stakes projects.

What I loved about each response was that the "user" was an influential factor in each take-away.

The perfect enemy is the enemy of the deadline.
"When you’re late, nothing happens ...and you’re not learning anything [from your customers]."
— Bill Wallace, engineering group manager for GM’s Volt battery

Always know whose problem you’re solving.
"Never forget who your customer is. Make that person real — it’s the key to getting the best product and keeping the team motivated... Bring in actual users so they can tell you early on, “I don’t know what this button does.”
— Lisa Waits, Nokia’s director of corporate business development

Make sure you’re talking to the right people.
"The right people weren’t talking together enough [to look at a customer / product challenge holistically]. People often get into silos in their heads..."
— Josh Handy, head of industrial design at Method

Ask yourself, “Is this necessary?”
"We have ideas on how we can help users communicate better, but we’re not always sure how well they will work. We do tons of testing for every little change to the page. One thing I know now, which I wish I had learned earlier in my career, is how to prevent “feature creep.” You have to be able to recognize when you’re inventing a feature that duplicates another or only adds unnecessary complexity."
— Peter Deng, product manager at Facebook

View full article: Lessons from the Worlds Best Project Managers >>

Following Web Design Lifecycle - Wireframes before Visual Design

This is a quick post on a great article addressing why wire frames need to come before the visual design phase. Check out Pathfinder's article, Developing Good Wireframes Ahead of Visual Design. It addresses why preparing wire frames first, before expressing the ideas visually in design comps is critical to the success of your Web project:

Wireframes...

• Focus the [scope and] conversation
• Create a path toward better design
• Allow for choices to be driven by users' needs
• Save time
• Save money

Read more >>

Now for a great time lapse of the process from wire frame to website - an awesome video.

Writing for the Web - Articles, Blogs, Books, Oh My!

To all of our Web content creators out there, here's a list we've compiled to help inspire, guide and instill good writing techniques for effective online communications:

Insightful Articles - Give These a Try

• Optimizing the User Experience
• Usability Basics
• Content Organization
• The Importance of Headings, Titles & Labels
• Writing Web Content
• Writing for the Web/Plain Language

Blogs & Feeds - Read & Subscribe

• How to Write for the Web
  By OJR: Online Journal Review | Online Journalism Wiki | RSS
• Copyblogger
  By Brian Clark

Books - Get Them Off the Shelf

• Developing Online Content - The Principles of Writing and Editing for the Web
  By Irene Hammerich, Claire Harrison
• The Web Content Style Guide
  By Gerry McGovern
• Writing for the Web - Writers' Edition
  By Crawford Kilian
• Call to Action - Secret Formula to Improve Online Results
  By Bryan Eisenberg
• Persuasive Online Copywriting
  By Bryan Eisenberg
• The Elements of User Experience
  By Jesse James Garrett
• Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
  By Steve Krug
• Information Architecture - Blueprints for the Web
  By Christina Wodtke

Also, be sure to visit past posts, Viaspire has written on Writing for the Web.