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As a follow up to our earlier post today, we came across another good article further emphasizing the need to actively monitor and protect your brand.
Tim Lynch, senior experience design specialist at Molecular, explores the concept of brand-jacking. "If your brand is online, it's susceptible to consumer influence -- both benign and malicious. See what steps your company can take to mitigate the risks."
As a strategic marketing and communications firm providing services to the State of California, we have the privilege of working with many innovative and progressive state departments, public and local agencies, who are driving inventive strategies to meet the demand of processing business, delivering program services, responding to ongoing State and Federal legislation, adapting to election and State budget cycles, as well as supporting the rapidly increasing activity and demand to stay competitive (compatible, connected, integrated) with "sister" agencies, business partners (vendors and suppliers), citizens, and other reliant stakeholders.
Deloitte currently has an excellent report out on e-government that addresses the challenges "conventional government" is facing and will continue to face with emerging risk - Change Your World or the World Will Change You - The future of collaborative government and Web 2.0.
Premise for eGovernments in the Era of Web 2.0
Deloitte writes, "Today’s tech-savvy world demands tech-savvy government. Increasingly connected citizens and stakeholders are asking governments to deliver services more rapidly and efficiently. Yet the public service bureaucracies that form the governmental backbone often take a conservative approach to adopting the latest Internet-based technologies to accelerate service delivery.
Developing a “Government 2.0” culture is more involved than simply setting up a
wiki or a blog. It requires leadership, investments in technology,
organizational change, and risk-taking to overcome cultural, process, technology
and policy hurdles.
In the end, increased levels of collaboration will result in enhanced service delivery through all operational and policy-making functions of government. This culture will allow tomorrow’s government to do more with less."
AIGA, the professional association for design has taken the charge to "Get Out the Vote," by creating an outlet for AIGA members (to participate, you gotta join) to design around the simple message to vote on election day 2008.Through print posters and YouTube submissions, AIGA has welcomed designers to "create" around this important call to action.
Since 2000, the AIGA initiative has welcomed the design and distribution of videos, motion graphic pieces as well as print materials like Get out the Vote posters.
"AIGA invites its members to create nonpartisan videos and motion graphics pieces that inspire the American public to participate in the electoral process and vote for a presidential candidate in the 2008 general election."
This year, the Get Out the Vote 2008 posters reflect a wide variety of styles and treatments, including many familiar iconic pop culture influences.
As AIGA notes, "good design makes choices clear."
Be sure to view the rest at AIGA Get Out the Vote 2008 posters, including the set of 24 posters chosen for professional printing and national distribution. You can also download any of them available on the AIGA Web site as PDFs to save and print, like this one!
Also, be sure to view and share the video of 50 selected posters as well as the AIGA YouTube channel for more info.
AdWeek touches on User Experience this week in an article - Rethinking the User Experience, Web designers should consider how using a site reflects upon the brand. It's a great overview of how user experience (UX) is integral to the design and development of online interactions and perceptions. It is a helpful overview to see and understand how many different disciplines, from accessbility to usability play a role under UX design. Moreover, the article makes a clear connection that good user experience is equally tied to positive reinforcement of the brand. Good experience is a good reflection on the brand. Good experience design helps to establish and reinforce positive relationships, increased customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.
Gap is one of those great brands and retail experiences that has taken some blows financially over the recent years. When you think of great, inspiring lifestyle brands, building extraordinary brand loyalty, the Gap is on par with Apple, Volkswagen, IKEA and now Target (of all brands), in my opinion.
But, the Gap has struggled financially as well in its classic identity. Today, I read a great article in Business Week about "A Fashion Guy Gets Gap Back to Basics." While Design chief Patrick Robinson is taking the Gap back to the quality of the basic, classic styles the Gap is known (and loved for), he also quotes he can "design the best T-shirt,...but if we don't put it in the right stores in the right amount of sizes," then it is out of his hands. Robinson says, "It's going to take this whole company to [succeed]."
From my morning read about the Gap to an email this afternoon, I received word that the Gap and its affiliate brands, Old Navy, Banana Republic and Piperlime, have launched Shopping Made Simple an integrated online shopping experience that allows online consumers to browse and buy from all four stores adding to one shopping bag with integrated check out. Additionally, another convenience built into the online shopping experience is one seven dollar flat shipping rate* and free returns.
The Gap and its affiliate brands are aggregating to create an experience much like what many consumers have come to expect by shopping online at Amazon.
As mentioned in earlier posts, Tis the Season to Redesign, which means we will be seeing more innovation in e-commerce and enhanced user experience models to optimize convenience, increase satisaction and build loyalty for the upcoming shopping season. This new 4-in-1 shopping experience by Gap is a competitive way to streamline the shopping experience around the consumer -- making it "simple" and convenient to shop with the Gap online.
Looks like the Gap is bridging the "gaps" of past challenges and unifying the brand experience to benefit the consumer.
Go Gap!
*Exception: Piperlime orders ship free.
Accessibility is important to user experience design
Let me say this up front... making your Web site accessible adds another layer of optimization to your user experience design. Making your website accessible not only removes the barriers of access to certain groups of individuals, but by design, it has inherent benefits and techniques to improve usability and interaction overall.
Good user-centered design means accessible design
Often in our consultation, we see fear, confusion and sometimes even indifference ("Our website doesn't necessitate accessibility compliance. Our users want more, not less.") when it comes to Web accessibility compliance. Such resistance is easily overcome when "compliance" can be understood first as a fundamental commitment embedded within your website strategy and secondly, as a continuous process improvement, thereafter.
What you resist, persists.
I am a true believer that if you create a holistic user experience, your website will include accessibility methods in design and development to maximize your functionality, features, design and content. I also believe, and have seen it time and time again, if the design and development does not facilitate varying degrees of accessibility compliance (based upon user expectations and interaction design) the Web experience will remain compromised and reveal itself in user satisfaction ratings, traffic metrics, online reputation, etc.
Most Web strategies get teams excited when measurable tactics are taken in SEO or even multivariate testing, for example. But, today, with "engagement" as the key metric, we challenge our client teams to include accessibility as part of the equation. If everyone can use a website more efficiently (minimizing barriers), can you imagine how all measurements will improve!?
Often, the biggest challenge we see our client teams face regarding compliance starts with the questions, like:
For years, the W3C has worked to define important guidelines to establish a structure for compliance. Unfortunately, the Web Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), while comprehensive, have tended to be complex and quite frankly, a little overwhelming to most business users who are trying to guide Web initiatives that include accessibility.
Today, Andrea Hill, Social Interaction Designer/Developer and blogger, explores the WCAG and addresses the question What’s the deal with… Web Accessibility and WCAG? It's a great post noting the basis for WCAG and the evolving improvements in WCAG 2.0. Her post inspired me today to add to this conversation.
Related Sources:
I just came across a really refreshing blog by Alexander van Elsas on new media and technologies and their effect on social behavior. He has a ton of really insightful posts, including a recent post where he states some great points on why "the conversation" needs to be kept open and free. In fact, van Elsas asks - Can we have more fragmentation, please! While some argue that "comment fragmentation" is hurting the the ability to keep a coherent conversation alive, van Elsas and others point out that the true essence of conversation cannot be restricted by time, place or community. It's open and once published should have a life of its own.
The fundamental argument over comment fragmentation needs to go back to the original concepts of social media and how "creating conversation" was key. Where it starts to get tricky though, is how do publishers keep the conversation going "attached" to the originator who started the thread. This can be a big issue for "brands" trying to use blogs and social networks to connect with their customers and create conversation in new ways a la Social Media Marketing and PR 2.0.
van Elsas writes:
"While the idea of being able to track and follow a conversation that you might have started sounds good, I personally believe that centralising discussion is not a good thing. Conversations are by definition not bounded by time or space. They happen here and there, now and then. It is an illusion to think we can centralize discussions...
Social media technology and services have ensured that the conversation can take place anywhere. That’s the power of social media. It isn’t about media, content or distribution. It is about being able to interact anywhere we want.
It helps us to move away from destinations. It helps the user and the conversation to be set free. It enables what I call the user centric web. The web where the user, and not the destination is important."
It may be a hard pill to swallow, but any time any one tries to "control" a conversation, it is always doomed to fail. I think van Elsas point on the large scale really show that as we talk about "creating conversation," we also have to be ready for it to change, spread, disconnect and take a life of its own.
At that point, the publisher, then has the opportunity (and perhaps) obligation if wanting to stay connected to the conversation to particpate and co-contribute to the conversations lifespan thereafter.
Related Posts:
Related Tools & Services:
BtoB Magazine reveals the emergence of “chief blogger” as a corporate job title and the mixed feelings about CEO blogs.
Read the article: Businesses embrace blogging :: BtoB Magazine.
This is a video filmed from a 2003 TED Conference, but as I was doing research today, I wanted to bring this back up to the surface as a good reminder of the core principles of how to effectively reach and connect with people/consumers today.
In a world of too many options and too little time, our obvious choice is to ignore the ordinary stuff. Marketing guru Seth Godin spells out why, when it comes getting our attention, bad or bizarre ideas are more successful than boring ones. And early adopters, not the mainstream's bell curve, are the new sweet spot of the market.
Clay Shirky: Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Gottfried Vossen: Unleashing Web 2.0: From Concepts to Creativity
Robert Brunner: Do You Matter?: How Great Design Will Make People Love Your Company
Bryan Eisenberg: Always Be Testing: The Complete Guide to Google Website Optimizer
Albert-Laszlo Barabasi: Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means
Duncan J. Watts: Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age (Open Market Edition)
Mark Buchanan: Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Theory of Networks
