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Feb 20 2012

The Pinterest Effect on Web Design and Usability: Let's Evolve, Not Devolve

Category: community building,design & user experience,pinterest,social media,social media marketing,tech opinion,tools — jmacofearth @ 2:33 pm

I was recently asked a few questions by a design magazine DOLODY about some of my Pinterest observations in my Web Design is Dead post. (Questions provided by Joanna Wiebe.)

Q: In comparison to previous methods of cataloging information (esp. visual info) online, can you please unpack how you feel Pinterest's approach – i.e., visual, random, social – is different?

A: The pros and cons of Pinterest are both in it's visual simplicity. I was amazed the first time I looked at a Pin Board at the quality of the photos. "This has to be planted material, how could consumer generated content have such great photos?"
So Pinterest is all about the image. The photo or video still represents the content. There is room for a CATEGORY (a board) and a short description. But the majority of people visiting Pinterest and PINNING and LINKING out will only react to the image.

The downside of this approach is the Pin Board is not sortable. So your navigational systems are very flat. And with the current UX the user must bounce back and forth from the Pin Board to the various Pins. I have written a post on fixing that problem with simple back and forwards arrows on the PIN page itself.

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Q: When designing in this new Pinterest world, what should a UI or UX designer keep in mind? In particular, I'm interested in hearing what will kill a novice who's not paying attention vs helping someone who is?

A: The image is everything. Can you sell the entire story with your image? Do you have a hero image that will draw in the Pinners?

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Q: What do you think Pinterest is going to do to user/visitor expectations from an interaction perspective? From a content perspective?

A: I'm hoping Pinterest won't have too much of an influence on navigation and UX design. We would be moving backwards and not evolving. The Pinterest API is coming, so soon you will be able to embed Pinboards into your site. But do you want to? Do you think giving Pinterest all of your link-love is wise? I think you will want to add PIN THIS buttons on your sites, but finding a way to not lose your traffic to PIN-happy visitors will be a challenge.

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Q: What is your opinion on the type of content being pinned on Pinterest?

A: For the most part, Pinterest has been a women's network. The Likes of Pinterest on Facebook are 97% women. And there are 2 million Likes. So Pinterest is a force to be understood. As the mainstream internet users get ON to Pinterest, the content will evolve. Today the taxonomy overlaid by Pinterest's categories is a bit rudimentary. And I would guess the SEARCH function is not used very much, yet. But for Pinterest to be of "interest" to the mainstream net user it will have to provide more features and functions. Today it is like electronic scrapbooking with other people's pictures. And it's not very social.

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Q: What might 'democratizing' visual feedback mean for bloggers and web designers alike, if anything?

A: I'm not sure what you are asking. If the PIN is a VOTE then Pinterest will have an affect as long as the buzz continues. I'm already a bit bored with it. And even bored of talking about it. I want to see what it will become, or if it will fade back into a scrapbook of shoes, skirts, and kitchen ideas.

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Q: Is there any cause for concern – or joy – about Pinterest users shaping expectations of what is beautiful / pin-worthy (in a way similar to machines in the Industrial Revolution influencing Art Deco and then the Arts & Crafts reaction to mass production)?

A: Well, there's going to be a ton of Pinterest clones. Walls of images with little or no coordinated navigation. And there will be SOCIAL Pinterest extensions as well. Today it's a PIN and POST network. Tomorrow, I'm betting the PINS and your friend's PINS will become more connected, more threaded. It's not social today, but I'm sure someone is working on that.

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Q: Did Pinterest kill web design as we know it? If you think so, please explain why. If you think not, please explain why.

A: Web design as we used to know it has been dead for awhile. I think the first wave of destruction was blogs and the ease of use of WordPress and the free template. Certainly grabbing your information from RSS-feeds, as I do, rather than from the site itself has gone a long way towards taking the "design" out of the information for me.

Pinterest is again going to challenge the designers of the world when new clients arrive and ask, "Can you make it like Pinterest?" The designer's question needs to be, "What about Pinterest do you like? What things do we need to change?" And the most important question of all, from a design AND business angle, "What is the goal of your site?"

The User-Interface on Pinterest is pretty simple. See a picture, click on a picture, click BACK, and repeat. After a while that gets quite tedious. And that's were designers can come back in and make a better Pinterest-like site.

The visual is ever more important today, but the navigation is key to the usability of the site. Without navigation and organization, Pinterest is merely pretty pictures. And what is the user goal of that model?

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)
permalink: http://uber.la/2012/02/pinterest-design/

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Tags: designing pinterest, navigation, pin that, pin this, pinning, pinterest, pinterest api, pinterest design, repinned, sharing pins, usability, user-centered, web design is dead, web navigation

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Feb 17 2012

Close of Business Rituals: End Your Week and Reset for What's Next

Category: executive learnings,social media,tools,trust & reputation — jmacofearth @ 6:43 am

Either Friday before you leave work or Sunday before you go to bed, teeing up your next week is a good practice. Here are few steps that will close out the work week with a satisfactory CLICK and set you up for success in the week to come.

1. Inbox Zero – get the todo list of your inbox emptied. GTD shows us that there are just four things to do with any task: 1. do it; 2. delegate it; 3. delete it; 4. schedule it for the future. By clearing your inbox you're ready to receive the next flood of activities and tasks without being bogged down by the stuff from last week.

2. Browse and close all your LinkedIN activities. If you have Link requests, either do them or delete them. If you need to make some new requests of your own, this is a good time to spend a few minutes inviting a former colleague to connect. Or better yet, writing a recommendation for a former colleague, unsolicited. Won't that be a nice surprise to start their Monday morning?

3. Close out your calendar items and set any appointments for next week. If you didn't get a todo item done, either move it to the coming week, commit to doing it over the weekend, give it to someone else, or get rid of it.

4. Update profiles on all networks. Have you had any significant changes in your projects or career? It might be nice to let your network know what you are up to. Does that profile picture on Twitter still have your halloween costume? Might be a good time to simplify on something professional across the board. There are a lot of networks to keep up with these days, so simplifying your profile (bio, pic, references) can really make things easier to manage.

5. Simplify your infofeeds. Unsubscribe to emails your simply ignore or delete. Review the newsletters and white papers in your INBOX and unsubscribe to the ones that don't truly feed your goals.

6. Set the BIG THREE for next week. What are your UBER GOALS? How will your activities move you closer to the BIG changes or BIG advances you want to make in you life. This can be personal, professional, and even spiritual. But you have to set them to actually be able to focus clearly on them. I like to set THREE goals for the week. I will write them down on a fluorescent index card and keep it in my pocket. If I ever get confused about my priorities, I will pull out that card and reset. Just the act of writing down your BIG THREE will help bring more focus to your activities.

7. Let go. Release what you did not get done. Set goals for what you want to get done. And then give yourself an internal round of applause. You're doing the best you can. And beyond that, you just pick up the goals again, as the next week begins and do it all over again. Make sure you're not carrying resentment towards yourself or others for what has not gotten done. The attitude is up to you.

The attitude is up to you. Set yourself up for a great week.

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)
permalink: http://uber.la/2012/02/reset/

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Tags: big goals, big three, close of business, expectations, friday evening, friday reset, getting things done, goals, GTD, Inbox ZERO, leadership, let go, linkedin, monday morning, rituals, self-improvement, setting priorities

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Feb 15 2012

Do Your Slides Resonate? How Slideshare Sets a Higher Standard for Your Presentation

Category: community building,social media,social media marketing,tech opinion,tools,trust & reputation — jmacofearth @ 7:07 am

Are you sharing your presentation goodness? If you are building slide decks you should be sharing that wisdom with the social network Slideshare.net.

One of the tactics I've began using recently is to publish the "slide" of an upcoming post a day before the post actually goes live. And often by the time I put up the post on the blog the slide deck has generated 60+ views. And occasionally I will have a slide that is a runaway hit. With hundreds of views while the blog post gets less than 100.

A moment on thought leadership: It's not what you know it's how you show and tell what you know in ways that benefit others.

So do us all a favor and share your best slides with the social web. You'll get some authority and possibly some exposure for your business and blog.

Slideshare.net, it's what you do with good slides.

@jmacofearth (also seen on Google+: jmacofearth)
permalink: http://uber.la/2012/02/slideshare-love/

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