Work Work Play

What happens when you're busy?

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:19:43 -0700

We’ve been very busy lately and are likely booked until the end of the year. This of course makes me very happy, especially after the year many small businesses had in 2008 and 2009. But as usual, when you’re doing all of this work, it gets pretty hard to keep track of important things that are happening in your industry.

That’s why, the Jmaster and I have started putting aside some time every week to write more about craft. What would this industry be without shared knowledge? I’ve received lots of emails for intern inquiries as well as general questions about how to “handle clients” and “set boundaries”. I’ve been really happy to see so many young designers contacting us and asking for advice. I’m also really interested in how they’re finding us, since we haven’t written for any publications since 2008.

Heh.

Shopping while suspicious...

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 14:56:02 -0700

As a web professional, I struggled with writing about this because not only is the web where I work and play, it’s where I learn and teach. I’ve always tried to remain low-key and try to avoid jumping to conclusions.

In my line of work, the logical, user convention and user patterns determine what actions should be taken and how. I stray away from, “My favorite color is this so let’s use it” and fall steadily on the “Based on information, this is what I perceive to be a good action.”

You’d find very few people in my life who would describe me as emotional. I’m also generally very stoic and even when voicing heated opinions can probably sound like an automaton.

But this Saturday, June 19, 2010 at Target, I experienced something I don’t think I’ve ever experienced before. I experienced being profiled to such a degree that I wasn’t even allowed to hold the product that I wanted to purchase.

It was a sunny afternoon, I was wearing a short sleeve olive green hoodie from Old Navy with denim sailor pants. My afro was pulled back in a headband, and I was just stopping in to pickup a flat iron. In the week before, I’d bought 2 Sims 3 games and spent about $180 bucks at the same Target. I felt safe shopping there.

Once I got into the store, I was helped by a male team member who answered a question I had about the location of the flat irons. After reaching the second floor (where the flat irons are located), the friend who was shopping with me called for help.

The first team member who came over couldn’t help me because she didn’t have the authority to unlock the magnetic rack. The flat irons had alarm wrap-arounds (some people call them Spider locks) for the higher end models. I was deciding between getting a CHI and an FHI. The single deciding factor was temperature control.

I just wanted to make sure that the temperature could be controlled and in the event that I couldn’t get one of those, I was willing to settle on knowing how many degrees it reached.

The second person who came over to help unlock the product was personable. But the problem starts, when instead of allowing me to read the box myself, she read it to me.

She looked for the degrees, incorrectly asked me if the wattage was the degrees from the display models, and when she was done with the first flat iron she was comparing, she immediately affixed it back to the rack. I was not able to hold the product in my hand or read for myself.

In her way, I do think she was trying to be helpful. She read to me from the box how the FHI brand was supposed to be better for frizzier hair because it had negative ions and then she looked at me and smiled sincerely. I did mention I had an afro right. I decided to let it slide because you’ve got to pick your battles.

I was upset, but I tried not to show it visibly. I told her that I guessed I’d take the FHI one. Instead of handing me the box, she asked if I was still shopping and then took it down to the counter for me at an entrance that wasn’t near the one I came in. I’ve since asked Target employees around the country if this is their policy. The answer to that is No even though they have different policies at different store. The Manager of the store also confirmed that.

I felt sad, and I informed my friend who had been looking for a laundry basket at the time that I didn’t think I wanted to buy it anymore. But I secretly felt compelled to buy it to prove that the team member’s hunch about me stealing was incorrect. I realized early on when she wouldn’t let me hold the product that the team member saw me as a loss prevention risk.

I was upset about what happened the more I thought about it. I talked to my husband it and called my mom. I was trying to be sure that I wasn’t overreacting about the experience. I like to keep my powder dry. I told them, exactly what was written here and they all agreed that it was strange.

My friend called the Target to make a complaint that Saturday. What we received on Monday from the manager was this:

Hi,

I followed up with the team member that assisted you with your purchase on 6-19-10. I asked her if she recalled the situation. She did remember the interaction. I informed her that the guest is allowed to view the product. I also went on emphasize the importance of providing a fast, fun and friendly experience for our guests.

The team member that you had the interaction with is a new team member. We will continue to work hard to ensure that all of our guests get a fast, fun and friendly experience in our store.

Thank you for the feedback and look forward to seeing you shop at Target in the future.

Max Bornstein
ETL-GE
T-1419 -Portland, OR

I told Max that this response was unacceptable and it didn’t seem that he understood the importance of what I’d just written him. That one of his workers, that on the basis of nothing more than how I looked, decided I was a loss prevention risk.

I explained this in a detailed email to guest relations and they wrote this back to me:

Dear Seven Boyd,

On behalf of Target, please accept my apology for your dissatisfaction with your recent experience at the Portland East location.

Target respects individual diversity and strives to create an environment in which each Target team member treats every guest with respect and courtesy. I regret that you felt your experience did not meet our expectations.

I'm making your concerns available to the regional and district offices to ensure that Target team member training sufficiently addresses the issues you raised. I do hope our response restores your confidence in our service commitment to you and that you'll provide us another opportunity to serve you.

We appreciate the time you've taken to share your concerns.

Thank you,
Amanda Ervien 
Guest Relations
(800)440-0680
[THREAD ID:1-7GCE69]

At first, I didn't want to talk about the experience because honestly it's painful. She made a deliberate decision based on perceptions of race and class that I was a loss prevention risk. I found it shameful to discuss. I felt the onus was on myself, maybe I looked, did or was dressed incorrectly. I also thought no one would take it seriously.

I was really fired up and I had created artwork to show what I felt like when I was treated this way. I was going to create a whole campaign about how it. Now, I feel nothing. I feel no fight.

In a week and a half period, I'd spent over $300 at that Target on 2 The Sims 3 games, the Flat Iron, a blender, and some other things. Now, I am going to take them all back. I can't really justify using them to myself.

I don't believe that the person who helped me was trying to be malicious. I believe she was trying to protect her company and her job. She just did it in the wrong way, which made me wonder about what they teach in Target's Loss Prevention classes.

I said that I wasn't looking for heads to roll. I just wanted to make sure that no one was ever treated the way I was again. I also believe things will be better next week. I'll smile again, I'll work as I usually do. I will look at collateral and user interfaces and feel happy again.

I'll be able to see the amazing things that all of the companies I've admired and worked with have done and find subtle brilliance in them like I used to. I dream that I won't find myself wondering if they would let me hold the box if I went into the store, or if they'd follow me around (like what used to happen when I was younger) or if they'd ever hire me.

I preferred to shop online before, and I think that's how I'll be doing it from now on. It probably won't be with target, my edge case experience has soured that for me.

Talent is never enough

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 15:27:54 -0800

Q:When is being naturally talented a hindrance rather than an asset?

A: When you are afraid of rejection.

I know five incredibly talented brilliant people. They come up with the sort of ideas that you wish you’d come up with first. They are insightful, creative, inquisitive and you’ll probably never ever hear of them.

Even though they have the kind of talent that “less talented” people wish they had, they also have a soul crushing fear of rejection. What the “less talented” lack in talent, they make up for in determination. They (the less talented) have already learned at some point or another to adapt, because they recognize their strengths lie in the connections they make with people.

The “less talented” know that, if given the choice, most people don’t want the perfect you’re holding out for. They want the “good” that you can do. Instead of the perfect dream, most clients are willing to “settle” for tangible results.

My friends are always in complete agreement with me when I tell them that it’s not that other people are better than them, but rather that “less talented” people have talent at one thing they do not: handling rejection.

When you’re paralyzed by the fear of trying because you see “less qualified” people in positions that you wish that you could get, it is safe to assume that they are at least better than you at one thing, trying to get the job. (This doesn’t go for “they underpriced me into the poorhouse” type of competition.)

When you work in competitive creative industries or any industry at all, it probably helps to try. Even if you don’t have the connections, try to make them. In trying to learn to make them, you’ll learn something even more valuable, how not to make them. Even if you think you’ll never use that skill, try to at least learn it. In life, you are not given the answers and then expected to pass the test. That’s school. In life you are given the test, first.

Every day is a pop quiz. And every day you can pass or fail simply on the sheer willingness to try.

Losing Friends, Gaining Perspective

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:17:00 -0800

Here’s an honest snapshot of someone I loved warts and all.

Charity died Jan. 26, 2010. She was 32 years old. Charity was a radical. She believed very strongly in animal and women’s rights and racial and economic justice. She was firmly anti-capitalist and anti-corporatist. But, she loved the show Charmed, for which we teased her mercilessly.

She was hopeful and pessimistic. A natural born cynic, but an optimist at heart. She wished that things were for the best, knew they would turn out worse, but hoped for a way to change it once she got the outcome. She was curious and was always willing to learn more about any cause.

Even when I found myself agreeing with her, it was always more pragmatist and less idealist. I’d have to walk her back to what I considered, “the reality of where we are now,” not living in what we wished could be. Charity was an idealist. I realize now, that’s not a bug. It was a feature.

Charity provided us with something aspirational. We did not let ourselves think of the world that she envisioned because it never existed and we didn’t have a template for how it could. We needed to stay firmly grounded in our realities so that our souls were not crushed by the disappointment of daring to dream.

In 2009, I started a blog on healthcare disinformation. One of the first things I did was dismantle a healthcare letter to show how to write effective propaganda. I cataloged a few techniques to writing the kind of propaganda that goes viral. The other thing I did, was catalog disinformation quotes on health care. I dedicated that blog to my friend Charity.

Charity lived alone, had healthcare, but couldn’t afford much else because of that healthcare. Her only companions were her 3 cats. She struggled to afford the heart, cholesterol, and other medications that she was taking. So, she took advantage of a sampling program at her local hospital. She was ashamed of that and felt it was cheating. The doctors/hospitals got medicine to pass out for sampling (so it wasn’t a guarantee she’d have all the medicine she’d need), and she did this at a couple of different places so she could keep a supply.

Charity had health insurance through her job, and it was probably considered good health insurance. She was also able to take advantage of a therapist. She owed medical bills, for which she tried to declare bankruptcy. She had Fibromyalgia and her fingers were giving her problems. She had to take cortisone shots. She also lived in constant fear that she was going to lose her job. She’d had her schedule changed to try and accommodate her health problems, but eventually had to go back to working full 40 hours.

She didn’t have have and couldn’t afford cable, or the internet. She shopped at the Winco, sometimes used a foodbank just to be able to afford her health insurance, cat food and rent.

In the email we received confirming Charity’s death, we were told that she made the decision to end her life. She called us earlier, and I kept meaning to call her back. I kept wondering about Charity. I wondered if she’d heard a certain song or seen a certain show. Or I’d watch a documentary on something that reminded me of her and also be intending to get back to her.

In losing this friend, I’ve gained the perspective. I’ve gone months without talking to relatives, contacting friends, or even seeing daylight. When I was little, I’d want to talk to my mom before bed, and she’d say, “There’s a time for everything. Now is not the time for talking.” I learned there was a time for everything, but living. A time for working, no time for playing, a time for sternness, discipline and stoicness, but I think what Charity has reminded me to do, is live. And I hope the rest of you will remember to take the time to think about why we’re making this money, why we do the jobs we do, and why we pour ourselves into our work (even when we genuinely love it) and remember to live.

I found the short documentary Lemonade on Hulu. When I watched...

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 17:04:42 -0800

I found the short documentary Lemonade on Hulu. When I watched it, I got that achey, “I wish that I had made this feeling.” Eric Proulx does a fine job, but I definitely wish this film had been made earlier.

There are times in every creative’s life when they spend way too much time working, thinking about work, talking about work, wishing for work and wondering if they’ll ever work again. Work and money dominate what seems like every waking thought.

Lemonade is about creative executives who were laid off. And like the title suggests, when life hands you lemons… Well, they make lemonade. There are several inspiring stories of being able to find not only who you are, but what you love again. And how to utilize those skills, once you realize that it’s really over.

Last year, I was pretty sure that I was done with marketing and design. I went through many of the thought processes in the film. You definitely wonder who you are and what that means without your job which has defined you.

I wish that it was longer and that it focused on a more diverse group of people, but it felt good to know that we weren’t alone.

Becoming a company you'd like to shop with-Part 4

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

4 and 5 are so closely tied together: actively misleading customers to turn a profit and forsaking a good user experience because you’ve misunderstood the usefulness of a certain technology.

We usually get these problems because of the incorrect assumption that more traffic correlates to more sales. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t.

You’ve likely read about the power of good SEO to build more web traffic, been curious about how to get ranked first on Google, or just wanted to be seen. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it’s certainly good for you to not ignore web standards, well written content, and backlinks.

However, there are certain businesses that this tactic will work really well for. And when I say tactic, I don’t mean just any SEO, I mean sloppy haphazard gray hat SEO techniques that are commonly used by small and mid-sized businesses to reach the front page of Google at all costs. But, on the whole it takes a lot more than just getting found first to create a sale.

Even if that weren’t true, this only works well with certain products, and is dependent on a lot of different variables. Think about shopping online, the same way that people shop offline. When customers are looking for the best version of a product and price is not a matter, they may just be looking for a convincing presentation.

When you call a bunch of different stores and then decide to visit them, you’re doing exactly what people do on the web when shopping. It’s a lot easier to comparison shop online too, because it doesn’t actually involve going anywhere. Unless you feel absolutely comfortable with what you’ve seen at the first store (and even when you do), you’re still going to comparison shop.

Let’s say we have 10 potential customers. And there are 10 different local companies to choose from. For every 1 person that chooses the first store they’ve settled on, there are at least 8 more that continue the search. And there will be at least 1 of those that pays above market value for the same product at the 4th place they check.

How do you decide on the quality of those stores? It depends any one of these things can effect your decision: general atmosphere and layout, word of mouth from a trusted source, impulse buy, sales people, etc. If the first store AAA Widgets rubs you the wrong way, their number 1 listing in the phone book or on Google means very little. Maybe you just like Zed’s Zoolicious Widgets, better. .

Sometimes people make the leap that more traffic equals more potential customers. But, the question we should be asking is, ‘What does it matter if 1 million customers visit Bob’s Widgets? And 1,000 customers buy it, if 810 customers return the product because it’s not exactly what they thought it was.’

Becoming a company you'd like to shop with-Part 3

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

The ‘Everyone is me’ approach:

This approach relies on one thing: You don’t need to tell anyone about your company because everyone already knows what it is you do.

When everyone is you, you leave out key components that can help potential customers make decisions about your company. It’s an extension of the blank website. It stems from the idea that because someone found your company, they were obviously looking for your company.

Every piece of information you put out about your company should be a carefully crafted letter. I want to read an introduction, body and conclusion. There should never be an assumption on your part that customers ever know all the benefits, products, or features of any products you carry.

Think about the last time you visited the website for a company or read the brochure thought to yourself, “So it does what again?”, “What time do they open?” or “I wonder if it does this..” The company left out some of the dots that could have helped you connect the product to its benefits.

Becoming a company you'd like to shop with-Part 2

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 13:00:00 -0800

Customer traps:

The blank website filled with nothing useful except for possibly the physical address of the business and very cliché stock photography.

Someone told you that you just needed to get on the web. They forgot to tell you the other part about websites serving specific purposes. Many brochure websites do absolutely nothing to put the client or give you enough credibility to assuage fears of buying from you.

These pages tell us (your customers) about your company. They tell us how your company operates, what its track record is, your philosophy, etc. It is a narrative for your company. This is one of the few chances you get to show your business as it is and even translate for the user what they should be thinking of your business.

The ‘About’ page should actually have something about you or the humans in your company. It should not be another page of sales pitches. If I’m looking for any information on you, chances are I want to find valuable information on you. For every customer that buys your dummy information replete with jargon, there are 5 others who will look at your competitors.

Becoming a company you'd like to shop with

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

In an effort to be everything to everyone and to profit we can sometimes do things that can harm our businesses. This is especially true on the web because it’s a newer medium.

Your bottom line is positively affected when you create good user experiences.

For some reason we understand these things suck when we experience them, but we sometimes inflict them on our customers anyway.

1.The haphazard sales pitch: I just want a customer which means I have to appeal to everyone.

The alternative: Instead of trying to reach just anybody, aim to reach somebody.

I used to have a client that had about a 55%-75% click-through rate on email campaigns. His Campaign Monitor stats are what email marketers dream about.

His secret: He wasn’t afraid to scale down.

He avoided the problem where companies entirely miss any audience, because they cast their nets so wide.

Solution:
We created segmented lists of users he hadn’t heard from in over 6 years, 5 years, etc. We also had a segmented list of the most commonly interested users. We removed every user that he hadn’t heard from or that expressed little to no interest in his product in over 24 months.

This action resulted in fewer sent emails, less money spent, targeted click-throughs of interested customers and fewer users who unsubscribed. A happy and culled customer list is a productive and profitable customer list.

Getting the best out of your designer

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0800

On many of the bids I see placed on freelance sites, the most affordable and the most qualified are at completely opposite ends of the spectrum. This is another reason, I think we find seriously great designers forgoing these sites and meeting clients the more traditional way.

I think most of the established companies with show stopping design, even if they were quoting low would never be chosen for these jobs.

Why?

Because there’s a level of mediocrity that exists on these sites that makes even an average design site look out of place.

A company should not be able to say before understanding all specifications that they can build a site for you. However, companies and individual freelances alike do say just that.

Andy Rutledge outlines really well what should happen in the first design interview. Instead of talking about design and how to accomplish these things through design, we (designers) should be talking about:

how the website fits into your business plan
what you hope to accomplish
your goals and your aims.

There’s no other way to measure the success of the site other than through setting goals. Also, there’s no other way to measure your own satisfaction without goals. If all it takes is 18 simple questions to build a beautiful site that serves it’s purpose and is profitable, there’s no reason not to answer them.

Understanding the function of a website does far more than simply talking about the design of the website. Like Andy says, clients often make horrible design choices, from cliché stock photography (smiling blond woman with headset, anyone?), color palettes, and menus that give web professionals pause. It can be very hard to tell a client, “no,” when you want a paycheck.

Start by telling the designers you’re working with your business aims and goals. Tell them how you operate. If they’re not receptive to that, then they’re not receptive to a successful website for your business. They’re receptive to adding another piece to their portfolio and getting paid, and chances are, the two objectives will never meet.

Yeah... but what about when they skip the sign-page..

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:36:00 -0800

Of the projects that I’ve worked on recently (and in the past), I’m amazed at how much people are willing to spend on “superficial” design, but forget about the little they spend on “functional” design. The two aren’t mutually exclusive, but rarely do people get both.

Generally, when I’m called in, I’m called in for ideas. This is a big part of our job. Clients bounce ideas off of us:

“Would this be possible?
“Why would we do it this way”
“Take a look at this and tell me what you think?”
“How can I increase sign ups?”

When I was asked my opinion on an auction project (in October 2007), I was very surprised that while over 40% of the site was forms, there had been no importance placed on actually designing forms for accessibility or ease of use. The same thing happened on an auction project I looked over in December 2008.

If the most important elements of your sites require form usage you have to, or at least have your developer/interfacer/grandma look at this article and pdf by Luke W about Best Practices and Web Form Design. At the blog UX Matters (UX stands for user experience), Matteo Penzo talks about (and bases his test around Luke’s presentation) results of unstyled, raw data as it relates to form performance.

Research shows we have a lot of hits on our ____ page, but for whatever reason they’re not making it through the sign-up.

I love looking at problems like this because it gives me a chance to play Sherlock Holmes, but the culprit 80% of the time is simply that users don’t understand how to sign up even when there’s a huge button there that says, “I agree”.

Why?

Because occasionally, users don’t register “I agree” as sign up button, or the button requires one to click a check box before it (the answer isn’t to get rid of the check box, it’s to present the check box in a way that user can recognize it).

Sometimes, users don’t even get that far because the form is too taxing. The form is intimidating. They look at the form, they scroll down the form, and then they leave. Basically, the more information the form asks for, the less likely the user is to complete it and that’s in conjunction with the best form practices.

So one of the things, that we must do(designers… even if you’re not a UX or UI designer) is make the sign-up process as painless as possible. We can do this with:

styling
using best web form practices
negotiate with clients to cut down on the collection of redundant or un-needed data.

For a second imagine that these aren’t established websites that already have a wide enough user-base, that they’re new kids on the block and they all do basically the same thing (allow users to share videos). Which would you be more likely to sign up at Vimeo,Youtube or Ourmedia (now changed since I wrote this article, but still not a good sign up form)? Chances are you (and many users) would have signed up for Youtube and Vimeo, but Our media might have lost you.

Staying Grounded: Writing for the web

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 11:09:00 -0800

There are no secrets for good or adequate writing on the web. However, there are definitely tips that can improve your writing. One of the problems that people get into on the web is trying to make their product/organization/service “sound” professional. That attitude often yields awkward sentences like this one:

We facilitate discussions on issues of import to us all including impending legislation on our common values.

There are many problems with this sentence, but one that sticks out is the phrase “of import to us all”. Always remember your audience when writing. Try to keep in mind that not everyone is a native English speaker.

It is estimated that about 13% of Americans (30 million) are below basic level reading, and about 63 million of them are at basic level. Chances are that these people are your customers, too.

The key to good copy:

Figure out what your company does. Then, say what it does. Do not try to be poetic or using words that are not in popular usage. Do not speak jargon. Well written copy is like perfect prose, it doesn’t need embellishments.

Bad copy:

Company XYZ leverages it’s resources to facilitate habitats for the economically disadvantaged. Our program helps the economically disadvantaged sustain domiciles. Our primary economic funding is granted by government, but we also accept relief from the local community. This strategy is effective because we bridge networks with local businesses (from your local fish-keep to the merry haberdasher) and organize vocational opportunities.

This copy is full of jargon. It might give customers the idea that you have an inflated view of yourself. One of the main things you want to try to communicate within the first moments that someone visits your site is that you know what you’re doing and you’re a legitimate business. This copy says that you might be a legitimate business, but that you’re also full of hot air.

Better copy:

Company XYZ provides homes for low-income people. Our program not only puts people in homes, but makes sure that they are able to keep them. We network with local businesses to arrange job opportunities. The majority of our funding comes from government grants and donations made by the local community.

This copy tells people what you do, how you do it, and why it needs to be done. No self-importance, easy readability, and it doesn’t alienate it’s reader.

Even Better:

What we do:
Company XYZ provides homes for low-income people and helps with employment.

Who funds us:
The majority of our funding comes from government grants and donations from the public.

How it works:
We network with local businesses to arrange jobs opportunities.

Why it works:
Our program not only puts people in homes, but makes sure that they are able to keep them.

If you clarify your message, you come off as genuine, establish trust, and sound “natural”. Instead of filling up with hot air, let your product/services/ideas elevate you to the heights that you’re trying to reach.