Viaspire - Define.Innovate.Maximize.

Does your UX include Quick Response (QR) Codes?

Great little video on what QR codes are and how there are so many ways to utilize them.

 

Interesting Answers to the Question: What is a Browser?

I love this video by Google, who asked over 50 folks of different ages and backgrounds basic questions about the Web, like "What is a browser?" and "Do you know what the difference is between a search engine and a web browser?"

It is a good reminder to hear and see how Search, like Google, has made the web browser virtually transparent. Great for Google, not so great for Google Chrome, but all in all - great for Google. :)

But Wait, There's More to "Like"

There are some cool developments today in the world of "Liking" the Web a la Facebook. According to their Developers Blog today, the "New Like Button Features Mean More Opportunities for Liking."

Launching three new updates today, the Facebook Like button now offers the ability to:

• Like canvas URLs for Facebook applications that represent things such as a cause, movie, or any other real world object
• Link a Like button to a Facebook Page - (e.g., www.facebook.com/Viaspire)
• Offer “Box count” layouts that display the total number of likes above the button.

For more coverage on this development, also read:

• Facebook Tweaks The Like Button: Like Things In Apps, Link To Pages, And Show Box Counts by TechCrunch

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.

Leveraging Social Media in Education

We'll be presenting today at the CASBO CBO Symposium 2009 in a special breakout session on Social Media - Using new technolgoy to deliver information to staff, students and the public. In conducting some field research for our presentation, we came across a couple of videos, we think provide further insight on how digital learners and teachers today interact and engage in online communities, co-collaboration, user-generated content and constant conversation.

Digital World: Teachers Today

A Vision of K-12 Students Today

A Vision of Students Today
By Digital Enthnography at Kansas State University

Seeking Answers on the Perfect Design Width for Websites?

We are asked this question all of the time - "What is the perfect design width for our Website?" Thanks to several great articles on this issue there are some great answers, but I also like to counsel our clients, designers and developers that like all aspects of the Website, you gotta know who's coming to your site specifically. You need to make your Website accommodating and accessible.Google Analytics, WebTrends, (Adobe) Omniture and even your old Web server logs will tell you some very insightful information on who's viewing and how they are doing so.

This article, Is There a Perfect Web Design Width?, by Five Fingers Coding, shows great statistics on a more universal scale from W3Counter where the optimal design size is trending.

For more on this topic, also read some articles from the past:

• Design for Browser Size — Not Screen Size
  
• Screen Resolution and Page Layout
• Don't use the statistics defence as a reason to exclude people from your content
• Screen Resolution Statistics - W3Counter

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.

Social Media - Fad or A Revolution?

Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics (the blog and the book) covers the latest trends in social media. Socialnomics, the book, looks at how social media transforms our lives and the way we do business.

In a recent post, Qualman reports Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think.

Citing over 30 statistics, Qualman reports:

1. By 2010 Gen Y will outnumber Baby Boomers….96% of them have joined a social network
   
   
2. Social Media has overtaken porn as the #1 activity on the Web
   
   
3. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
   
   
4. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
   
   
5. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia
   
   
6. Yet, some sources say China’s QZone is larger with over 300 million using their services (Facebook’s ban in China plays into this)
   
   
7. comScore indicates that Russia has the most engage social media audience with visitors spending 6.6 hours and viewing 1,307 pages per visitor per month – Vkontakte.ru is the #1 social network
   
   
8. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
   
   
9. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
   
   
10. % of companies using LinkedIn as a primary tool to find employees….80%

Check out this great video for more:

Social Media & the Gov’t, Helpful Insight for Managers

Number one recommendation for managers in government, learn everything you can about Social Media. Jeffrey Levy, Director of Web Communications at U.S. EPA provides a great introduction to Social Media for Government managers.

Social Media And The Gov’t: A Brief Introduction for Managers

View more presentations from levyj413.