ROI for Websites

There are many ways to track a website's ROI. From the business/website owner's perspective this is actually an important topic.
First of all if the design of the website is poor, then answers to the customers questions will be very hard to find on the site and this is not good as customers tend to like to find answers on their own rather than contacting customer service. It's a simple rule-if customers are happy, they will return and therefore ROI will increase. Here are a few ways to track ROI for a website:

1-Track leads. Ask customers how they found the site
2-Track advertising. Measure through click-through rates. Cookies can be installed so you can track and see which ads are bringing the customers so credit can be given.

3-Track traffic. Track traffic to see how many of the visitors coming to the site turn into repeat users.

Coffe Cup!

I had personally never heard of the Coffeecup website... My overall impression of the website was that they maintain a collection of website design applications that are very easy to use in order to make website creation as simple as possible for people of all levels of experience. CoffeeCup is a great solution for people who simply want to make good websites in an effective manner.The site also has popular software such as HTML editor and WebForm builder and alot more. The neat thing I liked from the site is that all the titles are available for a free trial so anyone can test them out before they actually purchase it.This is very important as a lot of time we end up purchasing a software just based on reviews-and this is not sufficient as people have different skill sets and reviews might indicate something is easy to use however that might be from the average users perspective so it is always good to test out personally.

Webform Podcast

I listened to the Webform design and beyond podcast and Luke a guy that used to work for Yahoo was being interviewed.
Luke's business card had "all the good stuff and none of the bad" ...I thought that was funny.
The main topic of conversation was about the new google feature-google instant. This is when the moment you type something, it pulls up in the search. This is googles new way to use servers. According to Luke, in 2005 yahoo already had came up with this and decided not to implement due to server load and system capacity issues of the live search. It did have a wow factor at the time though. But nowadays since people have higher expectations, the wow factor would obviously be a whole lot less compared to 2005. Now with google, instead of a single search, it is 10 searches. People are obviously used to instantaneous feedback. I personally actually did agree with Luke on his thoughts regarding the distraction that the instant live search creates. As the interviewer mentioned, its like talking to someone that I'm trying to finish my sentence without knowing what I am trying to say. There is a fine line between relevance and distraction.
According to Luke the search assist for yahoo was better than googles as it would go and scan the query and would come back with a more concise list based on what the user input and the results were a lot more relevant. Nowadays a lot of the real time search features are not being designed properly.

Another topic of conversation was about senior managers getting excited once they see a feature like google instant and they say it's so cool and should we do that or not? Ideas are always easy but when implementation time comes its a whole lot harder than what we think. According to Luke, for the yahoo search assist-the project lead went and hired a few engineers so they did a prototype. They had to modify it a few times before the idea got attraction. Again it looks easy but in reality its hard to implement. The Context that you try to implement this live search is another factor as well. In a e-commerce environment its different for example. However we can see the general pattern in multiple sites. Apple website search was an example that was brought up that was the same as googles model. Its the same design pattern however different context based on real data that is being interacted with. With all of these instant searches we still get instant result while typing.

Web Usability

Is web usability and web accessibility the same? Well I thought it was but apparently not! They do overlap to a certain degree however there are some differences that we need to be aware of. Web accessibility directly impacts the disabled users. Web usability affects everyone and it measures the level of easiness of how a regular website visitor completes an web related task such as buying a product. And this is all directly derived from the usability incorporated in the website design. The components that make up web usability are Learnability, Effectivity, Memorability,Reliability and Enjoyability. One thing I like seeing on a website is the content being short and sweet and to the point. Developers need to keep in mind that users don't actually read the content line by line. They scan the information and look at the headings for keywords. Content should be solid enough to grab the visitors attentions before they move to a different site. Its a no brainer- the clearer the content is, the easier it is for people to absorb!

Web Accessability

According to W3C: "Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging."

This is actually an important topic as nowadays the web is something that all ages would need to have access to. And not only age-but not all the web users are in perfect health condition. Some have disabilities so the web needs to be catered to their needs as well. Some groups that may have a hard time using the web include the deaf,blind, physically handicapped,cognitive disabled and even someone with a broken arm! I was specifically interested in the web accessibility topic for the deaf and there was plenty of information out there all related to the web based audio and video resources.
One thing that needs to be kept in mind that English is not the first language for the deaf population, their first language is sign language. So the best solution for these individuals is to provide a sign language version of the material of the site. Of course this is going to be very expensive so an alternative is to have virtual humans delivering the sign language version of whatever the content of the site.

WEB TYPOGRAPHY

As Wikipedia states: Web typography refers to the use of fonts on the Web.

It's funny how I personally did not pay attention to this until I actually read all about it and how important web typography really is. Typography is an important factor in creating a great web design. Good typography will lead the reader across the page according to the level of importance of the different text and images. It can also help readers to connect text with images, and headlines with content. For an effective design, a designer needs to make good artistic choices that are complimentary. Another thing I noticed based on the readings was the bigger the Type, the better! Large type will draw the attention of readers to it. It will also place emphasis on the hierarchy of the contentdue to the contrast when comparing it to the smaller text around it. Of course not to use the largest font size and take over the entire page with one word-but rather getting creative with the big typography. Here is a good example:

http://www.brucemaudesign.com/ie6.php

Another point was the importance of managing the white space as this is a form of visual relief.

Here is an example:

http://www.nest-living.com/

Designing with Web Standards

What are web standards?

According to http://webstandardsgroup.org/standards/ , “The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), along with other groups and standards bodies, has established technologies for creating and interpreting web-based content. These technologies, which we call “web standards,” are carefully designed to deliver the greatest benefits to the greatest number of web users while ensuring the long-term viability of any document published on the Web.”

If sites are built and designed with web standards, the cost of production is simplified and lowered when delivering sites that are accessible to more people and more types of Internet devices. The sites built under these standards will maintain functioning appropriately as traditional desktop browsers advance, and as new Internet devices are brought into the market.


Benefits of using web standards?

There are many advantages to utilizing Web Standards when designing websites. I came across a website that had some pretty interesting information regarding Web Standards. “Did you know that websites designed around CSS and XHTML use as much as 60% less markup and code per page on average? Did you know that your sites run better, faster, smoother and are more usable overall? These are just a few of the advantages. By using Web Standards and the practices behind them, you can greatly improve the overall quality of your web sites over time.”
A site that has been built to web standards has many benefits that include:

• Better Accessibility
• Better SEO (Search Engine Optimization and Ranking)
• Less bandwidth intense
• Future-proof
• Run better, faster, smoother and are more usable
• Extensibility
• Maintenance - easier
• Compatibility with newer browsers