2 / 3 – Researching, when to use common sense instead – SEO?
Allright, before you read this, make sure you have read the first part of this article here.
So, we already talked about how you can simply check your design and usability to meet current standards. Another major problem with websites today is that people simply can’t find it. People try and search it via google or any other search engine, and they don’t get your website as a first result, but the one that belongs to one of your competitors. So, how can you check that this is the case?
1 / 3 – Researching, when to use common sense instead – It’s the design isn’t it?
So, we have all heard this question before, “what the heck are we doing wrong with our website”. It’s not getting much views. Immediately, a couple of questions come to mind. When the wondering starts, a couple of things usually spring to mind.
“We need a social media” –> heard that one from my teachers (it has been said out loud, and, not the once)- It’s the design isn’t is? We need a new website!
- The content is badly written isn’t it? We need a new website!
- Something about SEO? I don’t get it?!
First things first you “big corporate boss-people”, there is no such thing as “a social media”. Second, most of the time the answer does not need to be that you need a new website.
I’m going to answer all of the questions above with a small little guideline on how you can save money by not doing research, this is part one.
What is up
Couple of things that need attention..
- Upcoming post. Been thinking a lot about the (a) next one. It’s about when to hire researchers to optimize your website, and when to use the internet and your brain. It will be called: “Researching, when to use common sense instead”. I wrote about something related (wireframe prototype testing) earlier.
- Why I’ve been so darn busy I couldn’t post. Couple of things. First, I moved into a new place. Took me a week to pack up my things and move to my new place (which blocked my brain of clear thinking for weeks). Second, I started a new course in school, in which they ask me to make stuff that I can’t do without actually paying attention to it. It (researching) is very time consuming, and they are letting us research improvements for websites (http://www.kasteel-ammersoyen.nl/), which I could probably specify of in a couple of minutes, but they are letting us spend hours and hours. It might a good way to learn researching, but it is boring as f*ck.
- I bought myself a new mug. “Stay up all fucking night”. Be sure to check these guys out. Some valuable design lessons. Mug can’t be bought here (can’t find the version I bought, but they do have others).
- Why don’t people shut the f*ck up in classes when they aren’t doing anything. Show some respect. If you don’t, please leave.. You don’t have to be there if you don’t want to..
- I kind of promised before, but I’ll try to post more.. Hehe..
- If something goes wrong with a client, discuss it (immediately). Don’t ignore your gut feeling! (I had to learn that the hard way..).
- Merry Christmas!
Macbook Pro on Lion overheating? Here’s the fix!
Hi there,
I too recently installed Mac OSX Lion, and found myself with a macbook pro that was overheating badly. When using premiere to render some movie’s it topped 110c.. Which is waaayyy to hot for me.. Now, I was checking my activity monitor just now, and found out that my “Dock” process was using more (yes, more?) than 100% CPU..
Damn, need to post more..
First of all, one big ass apology to my readers (how little or how many there may be)..
BUT(1)
I’ve been absolutely cramped with stuff for my study, marketing plans, websites (http://devcenter.rolandpeelen.com/nasim/), web hops.. Etc. So I really haven’t had much time to post here…
BUT(2)
I’ve had some brilliant idea’s and my perfect web shop is now finished. I’ll be posting on both of these things soon, in the meanwhile, check out these things..
http://www.peppr.nl –> We build a new website for our company, and it kicks ass..
http://www.thefancy.com/ –> If you are like me and you like gadgety useless but super expensive stuff, you gotta like this!
http://www.chiefsformen.com/ –> I just bought some of their face wash, and it wakes you up like a kick in the face, I felt like crying the first time, soooo fresh!
So, hang in there for more..
Wireframe prototype testing useless or useful?
Some people (among them are my teachers) say that wireframe prototype testing is useful. I on the other hand think the “wireframe” part doesn’t work.
Information architecture, why is everything different?
So, you are inside of a web shop and found two products you like and want to compare easily. After you found a way to put both product properties next to each other, you find the info doesn’t match up and you need to cross referencing two completely different product descriptions. How do we solve this?
Fine-tuning searches.. The better way!
So. You are making a search and you don’t get the results you want, next to that, if you want to fine-tune them so you do get the results you want and you can’t do it in such a way that is user-friendly and easy. How come?
Webshop pictures; the alternatives that don’t suck!
As I described in our previous article (WebBarf Webshops) I talked about webshops, how they currently suck and how I’m going to offer a lot of breaktrough thinking!
The first thing I wanted to improve was the following:
Better way to show products than just small crappy pictures
First of all, I want to show you were this annoyance is coming from.
So, my sister asked me to buy a MP3-player for her birthday, so I started searching the website of a company called “Media Markt“. It’s a company like (correct me if I’m wrong) the radioshack and they weren’t situated within 30 min of travel from my house, so I started searching their website for some products.
WebBarf: Webshops..
My current study has given me the assignment to design a web shop (at least, a theoretical one that doesn’t exist). And as with everything I do, I try to do this right. Since I’ve already spend a lot of time browsing through web shops being annoyed by a lot of things, I decided not to search for reference material, but to jump right in and try to find out just what is it that annoys me.