September 17, 2007
Content Is a Science, Not an Art
Senior managers don't take content seriously because people who write content don't come across as being serious. If content professionals want more respect, they need to present content as a science, not an art.
July 26, 2007
The Best Web Sites Are Useful and Ugly
Functionality and usefulness are far more important to the success of your Web site than how nice and elegant it looks.
July 5, 2007
Web Sites: Designed by Dogs, Managed by Cats
A key danger in Web site design is over-ambition. We need to design a Web site we can professionally manage.
June 18, 2007
7 Main Principles of the Web
There are few better websites than the BBC, and there are few organizations that truly get what the Web is about better than the BBC. I came across a set of 15 BBC Web Principles some time ago, and thought, "These should be the principles of the Web."
May 14, 2007
How to Professionally Manage Search
The following are the steps involved in professionally managing search...
May 7, 2007
Google Changes Everything
Imagine you are very rich and you have a big house. One evening you have guests over. One of the guests asks you where the toilet is. You give them instructions and off they go.
April 30, 2007
Five Key Characteristics of Web Brands
The Web brand is useful, clear, simple, interactive, and most importantly, customer-centric.
April 23, 2007
The Problem of Dirty Data
More than 25 percent of critical data in Fortune 1,000 companies is poor quality because organizations have little experience in managing content. Gartner Research believes that very few organizations are making progress towards professionally managing their most important data. Research Vice-President Andreas Bitterer said that "dirty data" is often overlooked as a business imperative.
April 16, 2007
Why Simplicity Is Essential to Web Design
Simplicity is highly overrated, according to Donald Norman, a design thinker I very much admire.
March 26, 2007
The 'Intention Economy': Customer Power That's Driven by the Web
The shift from organization power to customer power continues, as customers use the Web to organize themselves like never before.
March 12, 2007
The Future Is Collaborative
If the Web were a film, its plot would be much more like that of Lord of the Rings and much less like Terminator, Dirty Harry or Die Hard. It would be much more about a cooperative group of friends striving together to achieve a shared goal. It would disdain the idea of one man (or machine) saving the world against all odds.
March 5, 2007
Links Are the Grammar of the Web
Linking is the foundation of every quality website. Everything starts with the link. You build from the link, not from the sentence.
February 27, 2007
The Twilight of Print
When the tool changes, so too should the skill and the technique. More and more, hypertext is replacing text... and the Web is replacing print.
February 20, 2007
Don't Stereotype Your Customers
Even if you're serving the same group of customers, their needs may have changed. This may mean having to change some deep-rooted beliefs.
February 12, 2007
Don't Let Your Blog Come Back to Haunt You
In an age of instant messaging, you should take a lot more than an instant to consider what exactly it is you're communicating. Recent news reports tell us that controversial bloggers, Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, hired by the John Edwards US presidential campaign, are in trouble. Their previous blog posts are being used to claim that they are "anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots," among other things....
February 6, 2007
PDFs Are Evil, Lazy, Slothful and Sinful
PowerPoints are the curse of the intranet, and PDFs the curse of the Web. PDFs reflect print thinking. On the Web, we need Web thinking....
January 29, 2007
Cheap At Heart, Part 2
If there's one thing that we hold in common as a human race it's that, when we're on the Web, we're cheap. (Even the Swiss are cheap)....
January 22, 2007
Words That Work
Do people search using basic, simple, old words? But when they arrive at a Web site, are they moved to action by more emotive, sophisticated words...?
January 8, 2007
The Web At 15
Who would have thought that the emergence of the Web would have initiated a text revolution? Never before have so many people read and written so much....
December 18, 2006
Content That Drives Sales and Productivity
Most organizations do not properly understand or manage content. They fail to realize that quality content is now key to productivity, cost effectiveness, sales, and customer satisfaction....
November 22, 2006
Recovering from Organization-Centricity
Admit you have a problem: The first step to recovery is to admit that you are organization-centric. Say it: "We're
organization-centric"....
November 6, 2006
Focused on the Small Screen, Missing the Bigger Picture?
Too often we are managed by the technology. Endlessly busy, it's easy to forget just exactly why we are doing all this work....
October 24, 2006
What Your Web Site Can Learn from Starbucks
Like all great self-service organizations, Starbucks knows that you should never keep the customer waiting....
October 18, 2006
Why Award-Winning Web Sites Are So Awful
Practical and functional Web sites rarely win prizes for design, but they do win sales and make profits....
October 5, 2006
The Most Irritating Web Site in the World
Scandinavian Airlines(SAS) may be in love with itself. But it shouldn't advertise this self-love on its site....
September 18, 2006
Signs You Are Too Inward-Focused
Technology can act as a wall or a door between the organization and the customer. Too often it is becoming a wall....
September 4, 2006
The Culture of Free
The Web has encouraged a belief that things can be free, or at least very cheap. It seems everyone is looking for a deal on the Web....
August 1, 2006
Truth Sells
It has rarely made sense for a business to advertise its weaknesses. Until the Web, that is....
June 19, 2006
The Greatest Skill of the 21st Century
In an age when technology is everywhere, those who understand how technology works are easy to find....
June 12, 2006
Making the Customer Your CEO
The key revolution of the Web is customer empowerment and engagement....
May 29, 2006
The Web Is Still a Thrilling Place
When you get frustrated by the pressures of managing a website, look back five years. You've achieved a lot....
May 19, 2006
Are You Measuring Failure?
Do you base success on measuring the volume of visitors and page impressions...?
Are You Measuring Failure?
Do you base success on measuring the volume of visitors and page impressions...?
May 7, 2006
Do You Really Need Search on Your Site?
You need to decide whether the value of having search on your Web site is greater than the cost of making sure that you do it well....
April 19, 2006
Are You Tapping the Collective Intelligence?
Collective intelligence will be a key competitive advantage in the 21st Century....
Are You Tapping the Collective Intelligence?
Collective intelligence will be a key competitive advantage in the 21st Century....
April 7, 2006
Web Navigation Is About Moving Forward
The primary purpose of Web navigation is to help people to move forward. It is not to tell them where they have been, or where they could have gone....
March 29, 2006
Heart Surgery for Dummies
One of Amazon's biggest sellers in recent months is Heart Surgery for Dummies. The world is now full of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) heart surgeons.
Heart Surgery for Dummies
One of Amazon's biggest sellers in recent months is Heart Surgery for Dummies. The world is now full of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) heart surgeons.
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