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Lessons from mobile web design

Communication, Design, Ideas, Mobile, SEO, Usability

Mobile development is all the rage, and the interactive industry is in great turmoil as countless tablets and smartphones come to market.

Mobile app development gets most of the attention, while the mobile web somewhat quietly creeps along. But the mobile web is making progress every day as more and more developers launch mobile-optimized interfaces.

The great thing about the mobile web is that it is fundamentally built with all of the same tools used in traditional web design and development.

This makes it far more approachable than app development. Also, many users will want to visit a company’s website on the go, without necessarily needing a full-blown app.

Building websites optimized for mobile is so similar yet so different then designing for the desktop. Certain factors take on a far more significant role. For example, screen size variations, user attention spans and usability issues are more critical then ever.

These same issues are ever present on the desktop but are sometimes easier to overlook. Here we’ll look at some lessons to learn from the optimization that is happening on the mobile web. The lessons can directly inform how we design and how we think about traditional web design and website architecture.

Simplified navigation on mobile websites

One of the first things that becomes evident when digging into mobile websites is the extreme simplification of the navigation. Navigation not only becomes very prominent and central on a mobile website, but is also quite often trimmed down substantially to focus on only the most critical elements.

I find it amazing how top-level navigation can be boiled down to two to four items on most mobile websites. Of course, I recognize that the content on a mobile website is quite often optimized for the intended audience. For example, Truth Tabernacle Church has six options in its main navigation, only one of which has made it into the navigation for the mobile version; and the one that made it (“Contact”) is the focus of the entire home page.

The content that didn’t make it into the mobile version is, of course, still entirely relevant. The mobile interface is intended to catch people trying to find the church or check out the service times or simply contact them. These are the most likely objectives of the mobile surfer. Those hitting the full website on a desktop computer are as likely to want those things as they are to want to research the church to see whether it is the sort of place they would like to visit.

So, what is the lesson to learn? Don’t these two interfaces target totally different audiences and have totally different purposes? Perhaps, but we can learn a lot from the extreme focus of the mobile interface. Notice how everything is about the actions you can take? The church has eliminated all of the navigation elements that feel like boxes to check off.

One interesting element is the “About” navigation option on the full website. The mobile website may be optimized for people on the go, but there is no reason to assume that they wouldn’t be interested in reading about the church and its beliefs. Someone may have mentioned the church to you in passing, prompting you to look it up on your phone.

So, the navigation option for this element should be changed. What if, instead, it communicated something like, “What you should know about us”? While a bit long, it reflects a more helpful attitude. A general “About” bucket feels like a place to hold all of the information that no one reads. “A visitor’s guide to our church” feels a lot more useful and targeted.

The simplicity and focus of the mobile interface shows that everything must have a purpose to earn a slot on the website. If the same were true of the full website, we would be less inclined to fill it with seemingly important content and more inclined to make sure everything has a clear function.

This reflects a very task-oriented mentality. Every option challenges the user to take some active step. It is as though every passive option has been purged and reduced to actionable items on the mobile website. This leads us to the next lesson: be extremely task-oriented.

Mobile websites are task-oriented

With a task-oriented mindset, let’s reconsider the full website. While the home page is beautifully designed, the call to action is far less evident. The content is full of bits of information waiting for you to decide to be interested.

For example, the large banner highlighting a coming event fails to call me to some kind of action; very passive. With a task-oriented mentality, we could vastly improve on the “Read more” call to action. This could be as simple as making the call to action much more prominent; for example, a large button in a contrasting orange. Additionally, the call could be changed to “Learn more and sign up.”

Another example is the welcome message. I appreciate the intention and the message being communicated here. The message shows that real people are behind the website, and it attempts to make the page feel personal. But again, let’s dissect this with a task-oriented mentality. A great follow-up to an introduction like this would be a clear call to action encouraging visitors to take the next step. After all, the only people who will be reading this are newcomers. Current members will skip right past this to things like the event calendar. So, offer a conversion point for users, like “Ask us a hard question” or “What to expect when you visit.”

By contrast, the “Special guest” box is fantastic. It addresses key issues and drives people to dig deeper. I only wonder whether it could be a more prominent element of the page. Again, members will get to where they need to go; so focusing on those who are new to the website and the church would go a long way to maximizing the opportunity.

I know I am really beating this website up, but it is not because I dislike it or think that it doesn’t serve its function. My goal is only to challenge our thinking and our preconceived notions of what a website should look like and do. I actually commend this church for having a beautiful and functional website, with a mobile extension to boot!

Mobile websites dramatically shrink their content

Another obvious lesson related to paring down the navigation is that mobile websites invariably shrink their content. Not only are the number of options reduced to the core functionality and purpose of the website, but the copy is vastly reduced, too.

In some cases, much of the copy is eliminated entirely! This begs the question, is this content necessary on the full website if the mobile version functions well without it? Divi Aruba is a great example of this. The alluring marketing speak laid overtop the photo might seem like a must-have element for the home page, but it has been nuked on the micro mobile website.

On the mobile version, the logo is placed on top of the same image, and yet it still conveys the exact same message: if you want to go some place like this, read on. Why not use this prominent spot to drive people to the desired action? Surely the designers know what is the most critical element for converting visitors to customers. Put this information to work, and drive people there with a prominent call to action instead of fluffy marketing speak.

All the good stuff, sans fluff

This leads us to the next lesson: lose the fluff. The next example is a positive demonstration of this. Travel Tex is a travel information website for the state of Texas. It has a clear purpose and audience in mind. Fortunately, the designers have fully embraced the fluffy-less mindset.

Not only does the mini mobile website focus entirely on the topic at hand and the key actionable items, but so does the full website! What a relief to see almost no fluff at all. Including something dreary like a history of Texas would be all too tempting. If people wanted a history lesson, they wouldn’t come this website. You will be hard pressed to find content that is not relevant to this website’s singular purpose.

Get into the habit of questioning everything. This is the only way to really boil a website down to its critical elements, which is exactly what happens on a good mobile website. Tough choices are made and otherwise valuable content is cut in order to streamline the website. Call fluff for what it is and nuke it!

Branding is king on the mobile web

I am all about creativity on the web. In fact, many of the greatest changes in the industry have come about as a result of a refusal to stick to the status quo. But there is a time and place for everything. So many designers use their assignments as an excuse to release their creative juices, for no other purpose than to do something creative. This turns the website into a design for the designer, not for the client and their needs. This is one thing the mobile web warns against rather boldly.

Branding is incredibly consistent on the mobile web, and one of the most consistent parts is the placement of the logo. On mobile websites, you won’t find any crazy logos at the bottom with fixed footers. Functionality is king, and logos always appear at the top. Can you imagine hitting a mobile website and not seeing the logo right away? Yet this is commonplace on many full websites.

Here are a few websites that, while minimal and lacking in mind-blowing style, are rich in branding that can’t be missed.

The lesson here can have a profound impact on how you approach your work and on the fundamental value you pose to your clients. For every designer who figures out that the client’s needs should be their entire purpose for the project, there is another who wants to show the world how creative and original they are.

Like anyone else involved in the production of a website, the web designer should be single-minded in serving the client, helping their business and improving the bottom line. With every element you put on a mobile website, considers its role and the benefit it will bring. Apply this mentality to everything you do, and you will soon find a strong ally in your client.

The more we embrace the needs of the client and do everything we can to bring value to their website, the more we will see a fundamental shift in our work. We will go from building “cool stuff” to looking at everything from the client’s perspective. Does this feature stand to increase their profit? How can the design be changed to improve their business? If a byproduct of your work is more money for the client, then you will find opportunity everywhere.

Websites without the gimmicks

One of the greatest achievements of the mobile web is the total lack of gimmicks. To be fair, there is a time and place for gimmicks on the web. In fact, I dedicate whole sections of my books to them. But the lack of gimmicks on mobile websites demonstrates that these seemingly great ideas serve no real purpose.

Everything that goes on a mobile website should go through several filters. Is the content relevant and utterly useful? Is the content critical, and does it serve the core purpose of the website? Is the website easy to use and understand? Is the navigation unconventional? If so, is it critical to the function of the website? The answer may well be yes, but more often than not, it will be a decisive no.

Some gimmicks that are noticeably absent from mobile development are splash screens, unusual navigation, meaningless animations and interactivity, inline scrolling regions, odd layouts and fixed-width layouts. The efficiency of the mobile web is amazing.

Conclusion

As you can see, we have a number of lessons to learn from the mobile web; particularly, its ability to reveal unnecessary elements of a website. As with many things in life, a slight change in perspective often opens our eyes to the true value of things we have long taken for granted.

I am not suggesting that we have lost sight of the purpose of the web. Rather, I am proposing that we adopt a far more strategic mentality.

by martin

Things done by video

SEO

Creating detailed and actionable client reports has become a vitally important skill for any agency SEO to hone. Often we’ll spend 20-30 hours composing a veritable treat of a read for our clients, a hand crafted sluice for a torrent of brilliant ideas, delegations, and requests that will certainly lead to a better performance in the SERPs once put into practice… but, as we’re all painfully aware, sending over these floods of text and screenshots often fails to get stuff done. It seems that often these reports get stuck in the quagmire of uncompleted items lurking at the bottom of our clients inboxes for weeks; to end up competing with a perpetual inundation of other requests, constantly clamouring for attention and requiring immediate action. And it’s no surprise that these reports often fail to make the impact we have in mind for them.

Consider a typical reading list for a web marketing type on a Monday morning. It’s probably going to look something like this:

Emails
Blog feeds
Google Reader – News & Articles.
Twitter
Facebook

If you’re anything like me, this list is going to feature well in excess of a hundred items, the vast majority of which you will only skim read and deal with quickly. As technology thunders on, accelerating global connectivity and productivity on an exponential scale, this brevity and superficiality of attention span is likely only to expand; threatening the practical viability of our beautifully crafted and detailed client reports.

How Can We Communicate Detailed Concepts and Suggestions to our Clients More Effectively?

The obvious answer is to do more phone-calls, lunches, video-conferences and direct face to face communication with the client so you can explain things and answer questions when you have their full attention available. However, most clients are typically busy and over-loaded people like us, sometimes based in different time-zones, making this approach rarely feasible.

At Distilled, client reports were taken to the shearers a while back. It’s now company-wide policy to send out succinct, simple, bare-bones reports a maximum of 3-4 pages long, which focus purely on the actionable and achievable aspects of all the findings from our 20-30 hours of research.

But just recently, we’ve also started trying out a more creative method of communicating complicated tasks and ideas to our clients and colleagues – demonstrating our thoughts and suggestions through recorded video.

Written reports – 20-30 pages = very little shit gets done

Distilled reports – 3-4 pages of actions = lots of shit gets done

Video report – video(s) + 1 page summary w/checklist = masses of shit gets completely annihilated

Why Go To The Effort?

There are some unique benefits of using video to communicate with clients as a supplement to email and telephone calls….

1. It’s different and fun

Video doesn’t feel like as much of a chore to plough through as emails or reports and this helps it to stick out from the remaining mass of inbox clutter and generate interest.

2. It’s a great teaching environment

If you’re client is not particularly SEO savvy, video is an efficient and easy way to practically explain some of the basic principles driving the ranking factors.

3. Clients can’t skim read a video

You cannot skip through a video as innocuously as you can skim through an email or document; it requires conscious effort to avoid.

4. It’s easy and quick to make

If you become practiced and efficient at making videos, it can be an extremely fast process and take less time than composing a long email.

5. You can demonstrate complicated technical issues as if explaining them in person

It can be easier to explain complicated design and technical considerations with screencasts and diagrams, rather than through extensive writing and annotated screenshots. Problems with UI and design are often better looked at than talked about.

6. It can be edited

As with an email, but unlike a phone-call or video conferencing; a video allows you time to consider your response and suggestions before sending it.

7. It lives on after it’s been created

Unlike a phone-call or VC, videos can be watched back by multiple people at their leisure. This can be a great way to help clients and as can keep the video for future reference, as well as showing it quickly to colleagues.

8. It can be rapport building

Videos can also be a fantastic tool for building rapport with your client. If they happen to live a long way away and are on different time zones, so you’ve never met, allowing them to see your face and hear your voice on a regular basis is a great way of building trust and mutual understanding. You can also convey emotion through video where you would struggle in formalised written word.

9. It’s not Rocket Science

While is fantastic to have a top-of-the-range camera and microphone to work with, you can still create relatively high quality videos with modest resources.

Common Pitfalls When Making Videos

Although videos can be an incredibly useful resource when integrated into a holistic approach to communication, it is incredibly easy to undo the potential benefits videos offer…

1. Thinking Video Can Work for Everything

I’m not suggesting here that video is an all an out solution for all communication, but rather that it works when included in a holistic approach encompassing email, phone-calls and traditional reports. Video is particularly valuable when you don’t have the opportunity to meet with your client and explain things to them in the flesh, such as with International SEO, but it doesn’t replace traditional methods of communication.

2. Lack of Clarity

The best thing about email and reports is that they can be edited down to succinct actions points, which cut out the prognostication and deliberation populating everyday phone-calls and conversations. To make effective instructional and informational videos – always stick to the point at hand and avoid meandering tangents. Videos are only valuable in as much as they maintain an audience’s interest.

3. Inability to hone in on specific points

If you’re going to end up putting your video on YouTube, then an interactive transcript can be used to allow your client to skip to relevant points within the video. If not, then creating a contents list with corresponding time-codes for your video can be a great aid for efficient viewing.

4. Low Quality

Having good picture quality and clear audio is essential when producing a video. Especially when discussing complicated technical processes, there cannot be any compromise on this. Ensure you record all content at high resolution and avoid microphone interference.

5. Difficult to work out actionable tips

Clients aren’t going to want to watch through your videos multiple times and transcribe the point you make in order to ascertain appropriate action points. Whenever you send a video, ensure it comes complete with a list of jobs to be undertaken, which you’re client can study while watching your presentation. This will focus their mind to the practical essentials of what you are trying to say and ensure stuff gets done.

How to Convert a Written Report into a Video Report

Decide the form appropriate form the different parts of your report should take – which bits are best shown through a screencast and which bits would work best with a whiteboard Friday style talking head presentation?
Convert your report into a script, removing any descriptive passages which can be displayed visually – If it makes sense within the context of your report; write a script for multiple videos covering a single subject on each one. Six 5-minute long videos are easier to digest than one 30-minute video.
Practice speaking through your script in time with your screencast a couple of times before recording, ensuring you cut out any “umms” or “likes” opting for pauses any time you are unsure what to say.
When recording, always talk slightly slower than you would in everyday conversation, as the nuances of corporeal expression are inevitably lost through the cables of a microphone — Speak at the speed where it just starts to feel uncomfortably slow. In most cases, when you listen back to your recording, you’ll be surprised how slow it doesn’t feel.
For any talking head passages of your recording, always look straight into the lens of the camera.
After recording, trim out any sections which lag or feel unnecessary to make the overall points.
Add zooms, markers and annotations where necessary.
Export your content to video and upload to a cloud hosting service if necessary.
Creative an executive summary of the key points in text and create a contents checklist for your client to use to navigate to relevant points in the video(s).

by martin

SEO copywriting tips for link building

Google, SEO

Compare the two posts below, both written by the exact same SEO expert and each containing around the same number of words. Without knowing the subject, can you guess which post earned more links?

Try 378 to 6. In addition to its visual appeal, the left post was more timely, useful and informative – all hallmarks of copywriting grace.

The “secrets” of copywriting have existed since before the ancient Greeks. Generations of Don Drapers have perfected the craft. Today we use computer analysis and data mining to uncover the most effective SEO practices. Rand’s early peek at the Ranking Factors hints at some of these factors. My colleague Casey Henry conducted a study of link-worthy material that included elements such as title length and word frequency. Fantastic stuff and I hope he does another such study soon.

So why don’t more authors take advantage? Why all the cardboard looking blog posts?

Here’s the takeaway. To earn links, use copywriting to organize your content.

1. Write for Power Skimmers

Steve Krug’s words of wisdom for website usability in his book Don’t Make Me Think ring true for all elements of SEO copywriting.

“We don’t read pages. We scan them.”
-Steve Krug

Krug advocates for a billboard style of design. This means using language, images, layout and color to make your material stand out and shine. Think of motorcycle riders speeding past billboards. Which one will they remember?

To be fair, prettying up mediocre content won’t make it any better. But does your best work look like it belongs in an encyclopedia?

Unless you are Wikipedia, don’t look like Wikipedia.

2. Why Headline Formulas Work

Headlines organize your content by making a promise to the reader. The body of your content delivers on that promise.

Check out this recent cover for Wired Magazine.

Using the “who-what-why” formula isn’t the only way to format your headlines, but it works. Another technique I like is to ask a question, e.g., “Have You Been Secretly Penalized by Google?“

Don’t be scared of headline formulas. Instead of “gimmicky,” think of them as a framework for the promise you make. When I’m stuck for headline inspiration, I surf the fantastic resources over at Copyblogger.

There are literally dozens of effective headline formulas out there, so you need never worry about repeating yourself.

3. Get 20% More with Numbers

I made that number up. Why?

Numbers grab our attention. Look at the titles to some of the most linked-to posts on SEOmoz.

It makes you want to click one of those links right now…

Whether in a headline or a list, numbers light up the ordered, mathematical part of our brain to make content more attractive. It also provides you with a way to structure your material in a way that makes sense.

4. Free and Easy Power Words

My writing life changed when I read Robert W. Bly’s seminal work, The Copywriter’s Handbook. He introduced me to the power of choosing the right language for successful communication.

Although some of his “power” words belong in the back of a Sunday newspaper advertisement, their effectiveness can’t be denied. These include words like quick, easy, guarantee and free.

“Free is the most powerful word in the copywriter’s vocabulary. Everybody wants to get something for free.”
-Robert W. Bly

Words are magic. The opposite of power words includes language like try, maybe, might, possibly and perhaps. These “halfway” words kill your writing.

The point is not to use a rote list of words like a checklist in your copy, but rather be conscious of the power (or lack of) your language. Don’t hedge your bets with weak prose.

5. A Picture is Worth 1000 Clicks

Rethink your visuals. Visuals are essential to any story and include:

Photographs
Artwork
Charts and Graphs
Slidedecks
Video
Infographics

The wrong way to add images is to buy stock or steal them off of the web. Instead, make every effort to include original media in your content. A simple, 100% original hand drawing attracts more interesting any day of the week than using Parked Domain Girl.

Original Pineapple Artwork by Dawn Shepard Graphic Design

It doesn’t matter what you use, just make it original.

6. Use Sub-Headlines or Die Trying

This is a no-brainer. Imagine the front page of a newspaper with just one headline. All other text is equal. You wouldn’t read it, or you would tire quickly if you did. Our brains don’t work that way.

We want things broken up and organized.

If your text is longer than 250-400 words, you must use sub-headlines. No exceptions.

7. When in Doubt, List it Out

This entire post is a list. Try these numbers on for size:

75% of the top 20 post on SEOmoz contain a bulleted list
60% feature a numbered list

Why do lists work so well? Why is David Letterman’s Top Ten the most anticipated part of his show, even if it’s not as funny as the rest of the show?

Lists are the building blocks of ideas. When we go to the grocery store, we don’t write a story – that’s ineffective. To communicate your thoughts quickly and effectively, nothing gets to the root of the matter like a list can.

Humans crave order. Use lists to create structure and build your content from the ground up.

8. Quotes

My all-time favorite use of effective quoting comes from Michael Crichton’s science fiction work Timeline. He juxtaposes two ideas against each other to explain a single concept about quantum theory.

“Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory does not understand it.”
NEILS BOHR, 1927

“Nobody understands quantum theory.”
RICHARD FEYNMAN, 1967

Utilize quotes to set your ideas apart.

9. The Bold and the Italic

Along the same lines, use bold to emphasize important points. If you don’t have important points, you have bigger problems.

Italics do the same job but sound more European, like this guy.

10. Be Honest

Effective SEO copywriting should never alter or misrepresent your work. Indeed, its purpose is to help you communicate your core ideas more clearly and effectively.

“All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.”
— Ernest Hemingway

Writing from the heart is always the best copywriting technique.

by martin

Stop obsessing over HTML5 and CSS3

Business, Design, Development, SEO

As web designers, we all seem obsessed by HTML5 and CSS3 at the moment. Endless posts, tutorials and discussion about them dominate the blogosphere. But how much are we learning that can be applied today?

Don’t get me wrong. We all need to understand HTML5 and CSS3. And a lot of it can be used today.

My point is that we seem to be spending a disproportionate about of time reading up on the subject when so many other areas deserve our attention.

While others are reading yet another tutorial on CSS animation, why not broaden your horizons by researching subjects that will allow you to offer an even better service to clients?

I’ll share with you five areas that I believe are much neglected and that we need to learn more about.

Do you really need to know how to create a 3-D sphere in CSS3? (Image: Paul Hayes)

1. Customer service

“Customer service?!” you cry. “I don’t work at Starbucks!”

If that’s your attitude, think again. Customer service lies at the heart of everything we do as web designers, and yet we rarely think about it, let alone read anything on the subject.

You may not work at Starbucks, but customer service is intrinsic to our role as web designers. (Image: ChiBart)

We need a good grounding in customer service for a couple of reasons. First, we are in the service business. We like to think that we build stuff, but actually we are offering a service to our clients. We don’t just build websites: we guide clients through an unfamiliar process and provide a lot of advice and support along the way.

Secondly, the majority of websites that we build have a strong element of customer service. We provide a service to end users in the form of either an application or, more often than not, information.

Whether we want to offer a better service to clients or end users, the message is the same: we need to brush up on our customer service skills.

My recommendation is to start by subscribing to a few customer service blogs. Customer Experience Matters a good starting point.

2. Psychology

Understanding of psychology should be woven into every aspect of our job, from sales to project management to user interface design to design aesthetics. Everything we do as web designers should be informed by knowledge of how people think.

Unfortunately, few of us have taken Psychology 101. What we do know we have learned instinctively rather than through any formal training. We design based on gut reaction rather than informed knowledge.

Being able to get inside the heads of others is crucial, whether it’s users or clients. Whoever it is, we have to know our stuff.

A great introduction to the field of human psychology, curated by Stephen Anderson. (Image: Mental Notes)

Thankfully, Stephen Anderson has pulled together a great set of resources to introduce the field of human psychology. If his extensive list is a little intimidating, I recommend starting with “Made to Stick” or “Nudge.” “Neuro Web Design” is very good, too.

3. Context

There was a time when you could make an educated guess at the user’s context. Surfing the web was done at a desktop computer in relative quiet. Unfortunately, despite those days being long gone, many of us still assume that context when designing websites.

The reality is very different. For starters, we rarely have the user’s full attention. They are surrounded by distraction, both offline and on. The computer is now as likely to be in the family room with kids running amok as in a quiet study. While looking at your website, the user is probably also checking email, catching up with friends on Facebook and tweeting.

The problem doesn’t end there. We no longer just surf the web on a desktop computer. There are netbooks, tablets, televisions and mobile devices of all shapes and sizes.

We can no longer assume that people access the web from a desktop computer. (Image: Shutterstock)

Unfortunately, not a huge amount has been written on the subject, beyond my own rambling thoughts. But I am convinced this will be a defining factor in web design over the coming years.

If we want to continue creating cutting-edge websites, then we need to take context seriously. Ultimately, good web design is more about context and content than HTML5 and CSS3.

4. Content strategy

How did we ever decide that content was the client’s problem? Why should we expect them to know about writing for the web when we, as self-proclaimed web experts, do not?

Content is the foundation of every website. This includes content in all its forms: images, text, video, audio and functionality.

How a website is built and what it looks like pales in comparison to the content. Still, many of us regard it as the client’s problem.

Clients will be demanding a lot more help to get their content right, and if you don’t offer it, then they will turn to your competitors. I would be willing to bet my company on it.

Don’t get me wrong. You don’t need to become an expert content strategist. As McCoy would say, “Damn it, Jim! I’m a web designer, not a copywriter.” (Okay, he was a doctor, but you get the point.)

But just because you are not a content strategist doesn’t mean you can ignore the basics of writing for the web. You should know what a content audit is, how to make copy more scannable, and what goes into a style guide.

If you can’t answer these (and many other similar questions), then it is time to upgrade your skills. A good starting point is anything by Relly Annett-Baker, or get your hands on Kristina Halvorson’s book Content Strategy for the Web.

Kristina Halvorson’s book Content Strategy for the Web is great for learning the basics of content strategy.

5. Strategy

Things used to be so simple for the average client. They came to you, and you built a website that sold whatever service they were selling. Now we ask them complicated questions about business objectives, success criteria and calls to action. Compounding their worries, they have to think about Facebook, SEO, Twitter, user engagement and endless buzzwords.

In short, the average client is no longer looking for someone to just build a website. They are looking for a consultant to guide them through the confusing online world. They need someone who can look at their business and answer one simple question: how can the web best help them?

The problem is that most web designers are either frustrated artists or code monkeys (okay, maybe that’s a stretch). But we are not business advisers.

How much do we really know? (Image: Shutterstock)

We like to think that we know how the web can benefit a business. But we really don’t know that much. We are not schooled in business theory, marketing or economics.

Again, we don’t need to pretend to be something we’re not. But we do need to improve our basic understanding of these topics so that we are at least capable of having a discussion with business folk about how the web can help them.

When was the last time you read an article on direct marketing or corporate restructuring?

The problem

Herein lies the problem. We are so busy reading HTML5 tutorials and looking at CSS3 demos that we miss these other areas.

We are scared by what we do not know, and so we tether ourselves to subjects that we have a handle on. But as the web becomes more complex, we will need to broaden our horizons.

I am not suggesting that we all become generalists. I am saying that our skill set should be T-shaped. We need broad superficial knowledge of a lot of subjects and then deep insight into one area. The problem is that most of us don’t look beyond that one area of expertise.

If you don’t broaden your outlook, clients will look elsewhere.

Written exclusive for WDD by Paul Boag.

by martin