Traditionally, interface designers have viewed their work primarily as the development of tools to facilitate the performance of information tasks. Similarly, users have believed that they respond to interactive interfaces as they would to mere machines, setting aside any social or emotional concerns.
However, the technology is changing, and the theory that human-computer interaction is social and emotional is compelling more designers to consider newer viewpoints.
Online social networks have helped our real world social networks transcend time and space, making it easy (and seemingly essential) to share the triumphs, tragedies, and trite moments of life. No longer do you simply tell your best friend that you’ve broken up with your boyfriend. It feels natural to many people to tell hundreds of Twitter followers, and Facebook friends. As users let their humanity show online, frontiers of communication are opening for web designers.
The Functional, Reliable, Usable and Pleasurable
In 1943, Maslow wrote a paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation” in which he proposed his now famous hierarchy.
The basic idea here that you really need to grasp to understand Maslow’s logic is that, the lower the tier, the more basic the need. Another way to say it is that the lower level needs must be met (to a certain degree) before a person will move up the hierarchy.
By mapping Maslow’s insights into human psychology over to interface design concepts, we can get a better understanding of the way our audience works
The interfaces we design must first be functional – they need to solve a problem for us.
Next, they need to be reliable – no fail trumpets please.
Our interfaces need to be usable – easy to learn, easy to use, and easy to remember.
The piece we often overlook is the pleasure. Personality is the platform for emotion. It’s the framework we use to crack jokes, empathize, and connect with other humans. If we can bake emotion into the interfaces we design, we reap big benefits. But again, before your website or product can create an emotional relationship with the user it must get the basics right. The emotional relationship, the delight, is what you layer on top of this base usability and technical competency.
Emotion in Design
Interface designers now deftly combine usability and emotional design to create a pleasurable user experience. An interesting example given by Aarron Walter in his book “Designing for Emotion”
“Babies create bonds with their parents through an interesting feedback loop. When they cry their parents respond by soothing them, which releases calming neurotransmitters in their brains. As this cycle repeats, the baby begins to trust that their parents will respond when they need them.
A similar feedback loop happens in interface design. Positive emotional stimuli can build a sense of trust and engagement with your users. People will forgive your site or application’s shortcomings, follow your lead, and sing your praises if you reward them with positive emotion.”
Showing personality in your website, or brand can be a very powerful way for your audience to identify and empathize with you. People want to connect with real people and too often we forget that businesses are just collections of people.
]]>Emotional design has become a powerful tool in creating exceptional user experiences for websites
When we see a well organized website with a professional, “clean look and feel”, with intuitive navigation and task oriented functionality – we often encounter a perception of credibility. We begin to trust that website, and have a secure feeling that it will answer to all our needs. Truly.
What does Emotion have to do with Design?
Emotion is one of the strongest differentiators in user experience namely because it triggers an unconscious response for, a product, website, environment or interface. Our feelings strongly influence our perceptions and often frame how we think about or refer to our experiences at a later date.
User experience designer Aarron Walter, and design lead for MailChimp defines emotions as the “lingua franca of humanity,” the native tongue that every human is born with. He describes it, in his new book ‘Designing for Emotion’ that emotions make a profound imprint on our long-term memory and create “an experience for users that makes them feel like there’s a person, not a machine, at the other end of the connection”.
So, when we think of Emotion design and usability for websites, we typically think of it as ‘keeping the user happy.’
But, indulging in emotions for a website is really about unravelling a multi-layered subject. It touches psychology, interaction design, content strategy, user experience, graphic design, customer service, and so much more. This also includes deconstructing to minimize poor usability such as frustration, annoyance, anger and confusion and constructing a personality that resonates with a website’s audience.
So how can we build the right emotions into our designs?
A website usually includes several elements that can make a design more personal and that can be regarded as ‘emotion carriers’. Some of these are obvious, such as colors, images and shapes. Others are not so obvious, such as humor, recognition, tone of voice and engagement.
But before designers can apply to build emotions into their products, they need to know or address their internal design goals, identify who their users are and in what context they will use the website.
Of course, as with all of the above, the users and their context will determine how you engage them.
Internal design goals as well as the needs, expectations and context of users will determine how the designer should balance those three levels and what to emphasize in order to get the most out of the design.
]]>While time spent and activity on Google+ is dropping, these stats may not be as meaningful as they seem.
Google needs user data.
It is less concerned about people posting status updates every five minutes than they are about making sure people are ‘signed in’ as they move across Google properties. As users register for Google+, they are bringing together their various profiles and user information from Gmail, YouTube, Picasa and other Google properties.
Then, by staying signed in (as they hop from one property to another), users are providing the basics of what Google needs to target search and ads. Any added commenting, +1s and participation are just ‘icing on the cake’.
Google+ and its Users 
Google+ has seen million of users sign up for the site since its July 2011 launch. However, engagement and participation aren’t up to speed with other social networks, and that has become a major obstacle for turning Google+ into a relevant social network. Even though enough consumers are signing up for Google+, many admit to not using it actively.
Some detractors say that users and marketers do not want another social network to add to their plates; while others tout the consumers’ online habits are different now compared to the early years of FB and Twitter. Users are more comfortable with social media and more open to sharing their lives via networks online than when they were when FB and Twitter were introduced.
Additionally, the average time spent on Google+ has been dropping, according to comScore. The average time US internet users spent on Google+ was 5.1 minutes in November 2011, dropping to 4.8 minutes in December 2011 and 3.3 minutes in Jan 2012. In Jan, the time spent on Google+ worldwide was far behind Twitter (21 minutes), Pinterest and Tumblr (89), and Facebook (405 minutes).
In March 2012, eMarketer collected information about the top featured that brands can use on Google+, including Circles, Hangouts and Direct Connect.
Despite the naysayers, the truth remains that there are consumers actively using Google+. Not as many as on FB and Twitter, but tech-savvy and social media-inclined users have taken to the site because it allows for longer conversations and has a visual layout. This audience, for some tech companies, is seen as a positive element of Google+.
Google+ and its Marketers
Just as the public’s participation in Google+ ebbs and glows, marketers’ interest in Google+ has been fluctuating since its launch. After the inclusion of Brand pages, scores of companies such as Macy’s, H&M, Intel and Samsung have started pages and now have thousands of fans following them, as well as commenting on, sharing and +1ing their content. Google has since announced an update to Google Analytics that focuses on measuring the value and impact of social media.
However, not all marketers are keen to jump into Google+. “It’s hard to justify putting in a ton of resources into it today until the benefits are clear,” noted 360i’s Berkowitz.
Despite the challenges related to marketing on Google+, Google is putting intense effort into making Google+ work, and marketers must determine the best way for their companies to participate. Some may see it as a place to interact with tech-savvy influencers. Others may use Google+ as they currently use Face and Twitter, to connect with consumers. And even more may just join Google+ for search marketing purposes.
It’s easy to look at Google+ and say, ‘Oh, (the users spend only) 3 minutes a month. It’s failed. But Google’s playing a long game here. They’re not just trying to pull the rug out from under Facebook, they’re going to unify the user experience and make it easier to interact with all the sites. It’s this value proposition, with the biggest ‘data’ that Google can provide is what will eventually make both its users and advertisers hooked on to it.
Part 4/4
Tactic # 16
Request your Readers to take a Survey
Web surveys are easy to run, often produce high engagement and are great topics of conversation. Online tools such as SurveyMonkey or PollDaddy are survey tools that are totally free, and provide a good way to evaluate the online experience of your visitors, measure satisfactions and suggest website improvements based on feedback.
Tactic # 17
Add value to a Popular Blogo-Conversation
Numerous niches in the blogosphere have a few blog sites where key issues arise and get discussed. Figure out a way to add value to those conversations. You needn’t always have to agree with the peoples point (in fact the best discussions get going when the disagreeing happens). Getting into the fray by sharing your thoughts and opinions of the subject can earn you the attention and the potential links and traffic from the industry leaders as part of the process.
Tactic # 18
Connect your Web Profiles and Content to your Blog
Whatever you’re producing on the web and wherever you’re doing it, tie it back to your blog. You may be active in uploading content to Flickr, Facebook, or Picasa or you might have profiles on services like YouTube, Slideshare, Yahoo! etc; including your blog’s link at the start or end of the video, or a watermark text with your domain name on photos shared will have those interested users find you with ease.
Tactic #19
Uncover the Links of your Competition
Conducting competitive link research can show you what content from your competition has performed well and the strategies they may be using to market their work. It is through the exhaustive research of looking through hundreds of links that you can identify patterns and strategies. Use them to your advantage; Chances are you’re also likely to find a lot of guest blogging opportunities and other chances of outreach.
Tactic # 20
NEVER Give Up!
I believe that’s the mantra to all of your blogging efforts. I continually run across individuals who advocate blogging for at least two years in order to realise its greatest potential. Earning traffic isn’t rocket science, but it does take the time, perseverance and consistency.
So do not give up and Stick to your schedule. Every now and then there are those dull days, or some sucky posts that better go down the drain, but the effort and persistence will eventually transform your blog into something remarkable.
Good Luck and Happy Blogging! 
Part 3/4
Moving on to Part 3 of this blog, we uncover another set of 5 tactics to improve your blogs tactics and visibility –
Tactic # 11
Interact on other Blogs
As bloggers, a good way to acquire internal links is by participation on other high quality blogs. By adding and leaving quality comments, you can achieve great things for your own site’s visibility. But do be conscious of the name you use when commenting and the URL(s) you point back to. Consistency matters, particularly on naming and linking to internal pages.
Tactic # 12
Participate in Forums and Q n Sites
Everyday thousands of people ask questions on the web through popular services like Yahoo! Answers, Answers.com, Quora, Formspring etc. You can find great value in answering a few questions here which provide in-depth insight for those hungry for information, better still prepare a blog post to tackle the Q while linking back. If people are interested in the answer on a Q+A site, chances are good they would want to read it on your blog too.
Answering and participating on forums related to your blog/site is also an interesting way to link back authentically.
Tactic # 13
Enable RSS feeds
In order to pull back your readers, I highly recommend creating an RSS feed using feedburner and putting visible buttons on the sidebar, top or bottom of the blog posts encouraging those who enjoy your content to sign up (either via feed, or via email, both of which are popular options).
Tactic # 14
Attend and Host Events
We always remember a face. Isn’t it. Despite the immense power of the web, a personal connect or in-person meetings are still remarkably useful for bloggers seeking to grow traffic and influence. The more people you meet and connect with in real-world settings, the more likely you sway naturally to discuss about your blog and ways to help each other. This yields guest posts, links, tweets, shares, blogroll inclusion and general business development like nothing else.
Tactic #15
Add your Blogroll address to your Email Signature
The email-channel should not be ignored as it has a great power to help spread your work. You’re likely to be sending a lot of email out to others and the inclusion of your blog signature at the bottom will help generate interest amongst your acquaintances. Feel free to bring up your blog, a specific post or topic you’ve written about and see how many clicks email footers really can earn .
…Catch up with the last of the series soon…
]]>Part 2/4
If you’ve come here to find more juice ….we’re happy
If you haven’t propelled through our previous article, fret not, you can do so simply by clicking here…
We take this post further as we continue to unshackle more of the 20 odd tactics to increase your blog traffic. Without further ado here’s —-
Tactic # 5
Install Google Analytics – Create a Customized Dashboard
You don’t need to be an Analysis Ninja to create a customized dashboard on Google Analytics. It’s quite a blow to realize that a very small tiny number of people who have access to web analytics tools actually use them (and for those not knowing, Google Analytics is a free tool).
When it comes to data analysis, you can squeeze and discover all the exotic delights built in in its hidden crevices. From Advanced segmentation to custom reports, from social metrics to competitive intelligence, there are infinite paths to leverage the tool’s built-in features for filtering/visualizing your blogs data.
Percentage, Performance, Comparison, Term Cloud and Pivot. All exist here to make your life easy. As you can see, there are all sorts of great insights available, and you can focus on the high quality and high traffic sources while putting in less effort into marketing paths that may not be effective.
Tactic # 6
Add Images, Graphics, Illustrations..Clipart Videos…All to Make your Blog Appealing!
The human mind, after all, has the creative impulse built into its operating system. It’s hard-wired to enjoy and appreciate anything that it finds creatively appealing or beautiful. So let’s do it!!
Add images, illustrations, info graphics…or videos …all this is so full of promise and hype and possible awesomeness than drives out the ‘big boring data’ in front of you. In short, you should leverage the talent of creativity in your blog.
(my limited creativity abilities …I’m sure you can do better! )
By uploading and hosting images (or using third party service like Flick), you create another traffic source for yourself via Image Search and uncover new sources of traffic.
Tactic # 7
Research your Keywords before writing your Posts
Ordinarily, an inexperienced marketer will write whatever he or she finds interesting without taking into consideration the important aspects of SEO or Search Engine Optimization. This is perfectly fine if you just wanna blog, however, if you want to earn off your blog then you have to know how to keyword research – and luckily, there’s a free tool from Google to help called the Adwords Keyword Tool.
As with Google Analytics, there is a lot to play around here, but watch out in particular for the “match types” options to get that exact phrase to work upon.
The keyword/s determines is best utilized for the title and headline of the post. As hard as it sounds, 80 % of the value comes from merely using the phrase effectively in the title, and of course writing high-quality content about the subject.
Tactic # 8
Participate in Social Sharing Communities
Social Networking sites are not alone to grab the power of millions. Social community sites such as Reddit, StumbleUpon, Pinterest, Tumblr etc. also attract millions of views each day. As with participation in blog or forum communities, you need to add value to these communities to see value back.
Tactic #9
Blog as a Guest and Accept Guest posts of Others
Guest blogging is a fantastic way to spread your brand to new folks, who’ve never seen your work before, and it can be useful in earning early links and references back to your site.
Tactic # 10
Incorporate a Great Design into your Blog
Again, creativity does play a role in how your blog looks and feels. A beautiful, usable and professional design wins more trust from a design and UX perspective. Those that feature stunning design clearly indicates quality work, a higher time-on-page, more pages per visit and a greater likelihood of being shared.
Watch out this space for more innovative tactics..coming soon…
]]>Part I/4
As we know it – writing a blog is really not about crafting luminous stories sentence by sentence, nor is it totally about grabbing the reader’s brain.
Worse, as bloggers from big and small dot coms, we often perpetuate the notion that if we learn to write grand ‘keyword inserted’ sentences, and string enough of them together, somehow – by magic – we’d have written a perfectly-scooped, top selling SEO story.
Well, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
As we unravel in this part of the series – a love of words and a dance on exquisite sentences is not the ideal gravy to build a successful blog with significant traffic. Incorporating certain Blog-tactics can help pave a path for its significant rise. Of course, not all of its tactics will work for everyone, but a permutation of it should be useful and applicable for most.
So before we try to get a shot on this prominence, please note, this post is intended to be useful to all forms of bloggers – those from tiny start-ups to worthy companies; and for anyone who seeks to monetize his or her blog or is looking to market their blog/s in new ways.
Tactic #1
Place your Content Where the Audience can Recommend or Share Further
The degree to which someone has a propensity to share is an important factor in determining his or her role in other’s people path to recommend further. Those deemed as ‘High Sharers’** are particularly valuable to bloggers while placing their content, as they act as advocates and amplifiers of the blog’s or article’s message.
Furthermore there are particular communities, topics, writing styles and content types that regularly play better than others on the web. When strategizing about the audience’s ability to spread the word, you could identify with what works as a positive amp and engages audience with shareable content. For example, it could be a great infographic that strike the chord, or beautiful videos that tell a story, or witty humour that challenge common assumptions.
If you can identify groups that have high fuselage, your blog is surely to make a meteoric rise.
Tactic # 2
Dive in your Audiences Community – Participate, Engage, Build Trust
This is not too difficult; in fact you probably already know where a few blogs, forums, websites and social media communities around your content exist on the web. Once you’ve identified relevant communities based on common interests, you can nose-dive into it by….creating an account and being a good fish in it.
Now remember, your aim to become the ‘star-fish’ of the community will only be rewarded when you have first patiently read what others have written, been a good listener, and tweaked in appropriate conversations and comments. Be a good fish-citizen, test the waters, swim with the currents and then associate with others. Soon you’ll be rewarded with traffic, trust and fans. (and fins!)
Tactic # 3
Let Search Find your Blog – Make it SEO Friendly
We often find that much of the business side of blogging, from inquiries for advertising to guest posting opportunities to press and discovery by major media entities comes via search.
SEO for blogs is both simple and easy to set up, particularly if you’re using an SEO-friendly platform like Wordpress, Drupal or Joomla. Don’t Ignore. Take advantage of it. For Search Engines is a massive opportunity for traffic.
Tactic #4
Get Social – Post and Share on Major Networking Sites
Social networking giants, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ together attract more than 1700 million active users, and those who participate on these services fit into the ‘High Sharers’ category above, meaning they’re likely to help spread the word about your blog.
Leveraging these networks to attract traffic thus requires patience, study, and attention to changes in consideration to what content to share and how to do it. Again, consistency is the key here, you need to employ a strategy of participation, share great stuff and make a positive impression on those you are interacting with.
If done consistently, and with patience, this is a great way to drive traffic back to your blog, esp. when SEO is a less consistent driver.
** High Sharers – People with characteristically a wide social network, seeking entertainment, information or social interaction, young, web-savvy and influential in some ways.
]]>A rich end-user experience is what search marketing always strives for.
From results that include instant, real-time, and personalized information to pages that include blue links, video, images, news, press releases and real-time social media content – marketers are now envisaging a growing shift to inbound marketing to achieve good organic rankings.
According to the 2010 MarketingSherpa Search Engine Marketing Report, marketers are valuing content creation as the most difficult (yet most effective) SEO tactic. For its products and services to be found across all formats and venues, organizations need to be strategic with their content planning and processes; and ever-savvy with the creation and optimization of all digital content assets. As a result, it comes as no surprise, when they say that the role of content, including optimized content sits at the top intersection of what is search and social.
Needless to say, Internet marketers need new content to enforce and build upon keyword strategies, acquire links, and attract attention in social media. Simply put, good content makes for a better end-user experience.
Content Creation Stands Apart
As per the report, “Content Creation works best, but takes the most work”. When done well, good content can create the right hubbub, attract links and improve their SEO positions. But at the same time the effort required in creating quality content is immense.
So what is effective SEO-centric content? In our experience, many SEO landing pages are synonymous to company’s home page. If the pages have strong customer-oriented language good layouts and clear call-to-actions, there is a greater likelihood of “click through” than “click back”.
Slideshare, Whitepapers and webinars are other leading examples of good content, with marketers rating these as very effective content products.
Further SEO-centric content requires minute attention to detail and a certain planning on both its short and long term impact. With a myriad of concerns on top of the marketer’s mind, it is thus not uncommon to see negligence of best practices and oversight to details.
Some of the SEO-Content Centric best practices a marketer should always follow are:
- Optimization of Keyword phrase in Page Title, URL, Description and H1 tag.
- Cross-links between relevant content assets
- Share-friendly icons and functionality
- Social media buttons and traditional link building outreach
Content Communication with Products
Delivering Link Communication through Social Media Assets
Social media buttons for popular social networking websites at the bottom of the page
Organizations that routinely follow a formal process and thorough guidelines for their SEO-Content Centric practices and programs real the biggest bottom-line benefits.
]]>If you are an entrepreneur who has built or wants to put together a website based on a monetization strategy, then it is a diffusing target where you always need to keep your eyes on the horizon. For Google and its search results aren’t what they used to be.
If you look at Google’s search results you will notice a much deeper switch towards user engagement. A far cry from the traditional, organic site matches; Google now encompasses local maps, videos, images and social cues as well – and it’s affecting on how we need to re-imagine our typical SEO practices.
Instead of spending your marketing time and dollars finding prospects the world over, take into account the following three – more targeted approaches.
Local SEO
Claim your Google Places Listing. With the growth of new localized search results – Specify a local address, business name, and local contact phone numbers. By filling up this you come to realize how much potential there is right in your backyard. Consumers, local to your business, are taking notice and results show that they heavily gravitate towards such Place’s listings.
Some of the localized results not only appear for things like Vancouver pizza but also for single word searches in some cases, like pizza or flowers.
If your business relies on local listing, you can score a card by using –
- Citations: When ever your business name, address and phone number appear together on a webpage then this counts as a citation. Ensure that you get it correctly listed in local directories and in as many reputable sources possible around the net. Needless to say, consistency is king. If you write “St.” instead of Street on your Googles Places Page, make sure your other listings reflect the same.
- Keywords: As with traditional SEO, having your keywords in the right places is important for ranking. Don’t keyword stuff, but word your description carefully and use your primary keyword phrases.
- Google Places Page Optimization: Include categories that match exactly, and point your places page back to a city-specific landing page if applicable.
- Reviews: Reviews are one of the best ways to increase your local search rankings, but getting reviews from aggregators like Yelp, Superpages or Trip Advisor will help increase your presence.
Social Media as a Quality Signal in Search Rankings
Social media sharing has become more than just an expletive icon on a websites profile. All the relevant Likes, Posts, Tweets, Retweets, +1’s and Pins(Pinterest) determine the quality of a webpage and ultimately where they would rank in search engines. With any SEO campaign you put into motion, include a social aspect to it to facilitate information sharing.
Drench in Good Content Links, Literally Soak in Them
Just building a reputation focussing on great content can drive people to your site. An effective long-term SEO strategy would be to get involved in the community around your topic, both on your website and across other sites. Interact and contribute on forums and blogs, rather than spamming or soliciting for your site. Guest blogging is also great, for instance, but to gain precedence on competition, target blogs that aren’t direct matched to your industry.
For example, a client of our company sells weight loss services, so we wrote a blog post about how to maintain a workout regimen and stay motivated, and the link we got back was one their competitors didn’t already have.
Finally, consider making linking to your site easier for less tech savvy users. Similar to the way we do it on YouTube, offering bookmarking services for social sites like Twitter or Facebook can help spread the word about the great content on your site and draw users’ attention.
]]>The search for meaningful distinction is a central part of any internet marketing effort. If marketing is seminally about anything, it is about achieving customer-getting distinction by differentiating what you do or how you operate.
An iconic figure in the world of marketing once said “Nothing drives progress like the imagination”. The idea that precedes the deed – starts with an imaginative mind. And the work itself works best when fuelled, again, by the imagination (and coffee). Of course, this does not mean imagination is more important than knowledge. Information does hold the currency of modern online business, but it is the creative ideas that provide the seeds for its growth and prosperity.
What’s more, such overwhelming brain-storming can certainly leave you to desire an aromatic cuppa Coffee!!
Well, come to think of it …there is really nothing funny about coffee and ideas. In fact, Coffee is a serious business the world over. 90 % of Americans and Canadians depend on it when it comes to waking them up and putting them in a better mood. The society in general and Italians in particular drink their espresso with sugar, the Germans and Swiss- with equal parts of hot chocolate, the Mexicans – with cinnamon, the Belgians – with chocolate. More than just the ideas, it also opens a flood gate of adrenalin that pushes those ideas.
But really for me — I enjoy my creative lighter fluid to adorn the wings of a butterfly – yes just like the one right there in the center.
Coffee, an established product — consumed world over — -but, creatively differentiated here with an alluring look certainly tricked the treat for me. By means of introducing this ingenious concept, the coffee store’s growth rate soared from 12% prior to the campaign to 30% following it, without the least disrupting its marketing budget.
Getting Coffee Creative with SEO
At the peak of today’s commercial renaissance, profitability of online companies is affected greatly by the extent to which they are meaningfully differentiated from competing alternatives. Businesses that strive to consistently bring in new and novel ideas to the market (such as above) enjoy the rewards of significant growth and long-term profits.
While every website represents new and interesting optimization challenges — getting creative with SEO is about thinking how a marketing program can encompass a “fresh” twist of imagination on its social, graphic design, link building, content generation, and PR to drive toward a common goal. All such require at least some amount of experimentation.
Should we write a blog post twice a week? How to best handle a press release? How must to get creative in determining the best keywords to target for our website. Or, how about a video?
Infographic? Which method of link-building or content generation gives us the best chance at gaining a presence in the search engines?
Getting imaginative in SEO is making an inspired leap into the process. Artistic creativity here also means re-imagining a website’s design or code so as to improve its overall usability and accessibility, yet improving SEO.
Recognizing this, businesses are more fully embracing creativity and innovation at the core of all their internet marketing strategies.
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