Simple fixes for floundering websites

iMedia Connection Linda Eskin A good user experience is the same as good customer service. It's fundamental to the success of your business. You need to ensure your site is treating your customers well, just as you would expect of any other representative of the company. In this article, we'll consider several ways to uncover problems that your site visitors encounter, as well as approaches to fixing these issues. I recently told a friend about some ideas I heard during a [...] Continue Reading

When You Launch the Maritime Museum Web Site, Do You Smash a Bottle of Champagne Across the Bow?

One of the best things about working at Red Door is that we get to serve extraordinary clients. The Maritime Museum of San Diego is a perfect example. Red Door Interactive was recently chosen to create their new Web site. The museum is great local organization and has been an asset to the community for decades.

The Maritime Museum’s research credentials and educational programs are second to none. Nautical books, seafaring music, a [...] Continue Reading

Weekend Assignment: UX testing for the price of a pizza

In my previous post we looked at a few quick, easy tests you could do to check how well your site is working for your customers. If you haven’t done those yet, you can go back and do them any time. So maybe you found a few little broken things (and if you did, good job!), but your site seems to be doing OK. If there were any big problems you’d have noticed them, right? Isn’t is obvious to everyone, that your “Neat-o Stuff” button leads to the store where you sell your products? N [...] Continue Reading

Weekend Assignment: Find problems with your Web site

Here’s something you can do to help your bottom line the next time you have a few minutes free. Yeah, yeah, I know, free time is hard to come by. But this will be worth it, I promise. Watching the Superbowl this weekend? You can do this during the commercials. Watching the commercials? Here’s something to do when the game is on!

You’re going to use one or more features of your own Web site. Look for anything that would confuse, annoy, [...] Continue Reading

A Delightful Little Blogging Application

Is the idea of maintaining a blog just too much? Installing software on your server, learning an admin interface, and of course all that writing every day... It can be intimidating to get started, and sometimes it's a challenge to stay caught up. Until a few weeks ago I had a blog on one of my personal sites. The latest post was over a year old. I just didn't get around to it, and it was too much of a chore. But recently I discovered a fun alternative: Tumblr< [...] Continue Reading

Blogging about tweets about blogs about social media

In this article, Jeremiah Owyang, Sr. Analyst at Forrester Research: Social Computing, discusses some important points to consider when hiring an agency to provide social media services.It seems appropriate that I heard about this blog post via Jim Durbin's Twitter post this morning.Follow me on Twitter, or Continue Reading

Good Copy Is Good Usability

Usability consultant Caroline Jarrett submitted an article to UsabilityNews.com about an issue that's near and dear to my heart - the usability of writing. She says: "USA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES PASSES PLAIN LANGUAGE ACTThe answer is that the USA House of Representatives passed the Plain Language in Government Communications Act of 2008. It achieved bipartisan support, p [...] Continue Reading

Papa John’s Hits $1 Billion in Online Sales

Yes, that's billion, with a "b".According to this article on CNN.com: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/biztech/05/08/papa.johns.ap/index.html, "In the past seven years, Louisville-based Papa John's International Inc. has made a lot of dough from online ordering -- more than $1 billion to be exact.""Since launching its Web-based ordering in 2001, Papa John's said it has invested more than $15 million in online ordering [...] Continue Reading

Excuse me, do you sell concrete blocks?

Let’s chat about one of my favorite user experience concepts: Good user experience is good customer service. Does your site treat customers like you’d want your employees to treat customers, with competence, and a helpful attitude? Here’s an example:

The other day I dreamed up a simple backyard project I wanted to do. I went to the Web site of a popular national home/garden supply store (you know who) to get the answer to a seemingly simple qu [...] Continue Reading