Charles Wiedenhoft on Interaction Design, User Experience and Brand Strategy

It’s time for Barcamp in San Diego. This will be my first time attending. I’m sure the event will fulfill my expectations as a single Chumby workshop would be enough for me.

Ask.com’s Director of Marketing pushes “immersive” microsite tactics against the ropes in an iMedia piece published today. He argues that microsites waste agency resources, typically fall short on expected returns (margin), and are often the result of broken internal process stemmed from the limited support of IT departments and misdirected strategy from the traditional ad agency side.

I’d say that microsites aren’t entirely evil if they are paired with a holistic marketing strategy (a component of a larger campaign). Fragmentation of media and consumer reach, and attention span, has resulted in campaigns with much shorter shelf life than ever before. Typically, microsites live and die with these campaigns.

It’s an interesting argument. The article concludes with a tout for rich media banners as a better investment and a solution for pacifying the “it’s about branding” sect.

Eddie Bauer unveils a site redesign and I like it. Lots of DHTML AJAX lightbox action makes for a pleasant shopping experience. The notion of a product detail page really has changed because they only exist in lightboxes on this site. First it was the Gap, then Cingular and now Eddie. Although, those sites still had traditional detail pages for individual products, Eddie Bauer has gotten rid of them entirely.

There can be usability issues with lightboxes, most notably the browsers ‘Back’ button not functionality properly; however, Fry Inc. solved this on the rebuild (as well as clicking outside the lightbox to close it). URLs can be sent as emails and printing works decently. Oh, the home page Flash Ken Burns mouseovers are also a nice surprise.

Interesting to see Core Metrics installed for analytics. I thought Omniture was running them all.

Red Door crew buys shoes on Friday at Blends.

Many good things on the Web this week. A few stand-outs below.

Avenue A Razorfish 2008 Digital Outlook Report [Guy Kawasaki:]

Guy Kawasaki has written up a summary and posted a “no registration required” download link. I haven’t had a chance to read this yet, but the 2007 report produced some good insight. Hat tip Jason Van Cleave.

37 Signals Seeks an Ad Agency [37 Signals]

I wonder what kind of client 37 Signals would be? After all, these guys got their start being an agency themselves, although one of a digital variety. After being disenfranchised by clients who didn’t see the light, they set out on their own. I guess that move paid off. I would think agencies who can deliver on both “usability” and “breakthrough creative” fronts will get a leg up. Otherwise, how could this relationship ever work out?

The adventures of Marissa [San Francisco Magazine]
“The serious power and glam passions of Marissa Mayer, the gorgeously geeky Googler who’s generating a new kind of Silicon Valley notoriety…”

Wonderful expose. What more can you say? (Note that paging links are Firefox-only)

Lack Management Support or Buy-in? Embarrass Them! [Occam’s Razor]

Avinash continues to provide solid guidance to the Web analytics community on making a business case for getting real with data.

Bar Camp San Diego 

I didn’t know about Bar Camp until this week, but will definitely attend the next event. Looks like a mix of SXSW and E-tech. Donate a keg.

Brand-Driven Traffic Converts Best For Online Retailers [Media Post]

Doesn’t seem terribly surprising. Brand aware consumers most likely have established relationships and are more qualified than general because of this. Presumably, trust and credibility barriers aren’t so dubious for this segment.

KEXP Spring Pledge Drive

You’ve got to give to receive. The best streaming radio bar none (John In the Morning Rocks).

A good Web Analyst will tell you behavioral data can only go so far. When paired with qualitative and competitive data, big improvements can happen. We’ve been looking at new ways to collect qualitative data recently. There are a lot of tools available, including: Foresee Results, OpinionLab, Island Data, and the list goes on. 

I’m a big fan of keeping things simple, so I like a custom implementation like you’ll see on Cooking.com. It’s a simple form with just a single field. It doesn’t disrupt users, but does get visibility on all pages. Evidently, it has been working well.

After shutting down yesterday to get baristas on-board with fixing what has become a broken commodity experience, I didn’t really expect to see any changes during my routine coffee run this morning, nor did I experience any.

I don’t remember when Starbucks entered my life. I suppose it was through mid-morning coffee runs with co-workers back in Cincinnati, when the first location opened its doors downtown on 4th St. It was a novelty back then, something new and different, seemingly high-end. As more and more Starbucks locations were opened, and I after I moved to San Diego, I began to realize that no two stores were really all that different. Just like a McDonald’s hamburger, you could expect the same consistent quality of service from one location to another, and that was fine with me.

The popularity of Starbucks is probably what changed my perception of the good old morning coffee run. Something that I enjoyed, to some degree, had now become a chore because of crowded stores with long lines - all for a grande cup of coffee (black and nothing fancy). My fellow customers were changing too. Mothers with crying babies, city construction crews, a herd of cattle. Things had definitely changed, and not for the better.

When the breakfast sandwiches rolled out things only got worse. The lines got longer and the stores smelled like burnt hair. Still, I showed up at least once a day. It’s probably because of what is now required caffeine intake, convenience, a habit.

Starbucks probably won’t go back to what I once felt was a unique experience, something valuable. It’s simply too big for that now; however, subtle changes might get Starbucks closer to its former self. Getting rid of the convection egg sandwich ovens is a good first step. A meaningful brand would be another.

Bring a check list of design trends and start checking them off at Intuit’s 2008 Turbo Tax Web site. As usual, design features and functionality are implemented very well and provide a great user experience. Customer reviews, ratings, lightboxes, home page “hero shot” demographic product segmentation, DHTML right-column sliders for promos, product comparison tools, calculators - and the list goes on. I think that 8K + customer reviews are the most I’ve ever seen for a single product. Well done.

I stumbled across Getsatisfaction.com several weeks ago after seeing a link on Rosenfeld Media. Today, a story featuring the site, founded by Lane Becker emeritus Adaptive Path, appeared in the New York Times. At first glance Get Satisfaction seemed like a better Epinions.com, but it’s actually quite different.  

 Get Satisfaction is focused on consumers’ post-purchase support needs. It’s a one-stop-shop for getting help with all the products you own and companies you do business with. So, instead of having to visit Sony.com for help with your new Blu-ray DVD player, or Apple.com for iPod support, you would instead visit Get Satisfaction’s Web site. A unified experience seems like a good idea, but I don’t see the quality of information surpassing what would be found on a corporate Web site. In the case of a smaller company Get Satisfaction might be a good substitute for an on-site knowledge-base or discussion forum. We’ll have to wait and see.

Get Satisfaction promises marketers an effective weapon against the fragmentation of brand messaging  at the hands of consumers, their blogs and social networks. It’s pitched as a customer insight engine, although one that must be closely monitored and maintained. If a company fails to respond to a customer complaint or question, it makes the situation worse than pretending to participate in the conversation in the first place.

A customer’s experience after a sale will determine long-term loyalty and advocacy. For Americans, it’s more important than the quality of product in the first place (read Culture Codeby Clotaire Rapaille). Get Satisfaction is a tool for cultivating these relationships by participating in the conversation.

Visit Get Satisfaction and share your voice.