Micro content - it's the little things that matter

Well crafted web pages or great features in an app will be undermined if the micro content associated with it isn't right. The little snippets of teaser text, form labels and help text give users confidence and encourage deeper engagement.

Top tasks vary by medium - McGovern

Gerry McGovern presents an overview of his research for Cisco highlighting that your target audience is likely to have a different set of top tasks depending on how they engage with you.

Mobile in Higher Ed survey results 2013

We all know use of mobile touchscreen devices is on the rise, but little is written specifically about the university sector. Karine Joly has repeated her annual survey of US Higher Ed web managers to provide a summary of analytics data and colleges' approach to accommodating these visitors.

Collaborative user research recording

If you've ever done user testing, you'll know that one of the most onerous aspects is reporting on findings. And then getting stakeholders to read them. This collaborative recording approach - including a spreadsheet template - could well be worth a try.

Confab Content Strategy Conference write up

Gutted that I couldn't go to the London content strategy conference, Confab 2013 as it has a number of sessions with authors, thinkers and speakers I admire. Thankfully, Martin Belam has written blog posts to summarise each session.

The cost of adding

Gerry McGovern writes about the hidden costs of adding content and features. It's easier and in our nature to look to add rather than remove, but we rarely think about the implications.

Some UX myths debunked

Frank Guo explains why 3 commonly held 'rules' of usable websites aren't true for uxmatters.com

Calls to action tips

What's a call to action? It's the reason a web page exists. The thing you want your reader to do next.  This presentation provides 20 do's and don'ts, covering a range of graphical and editorial considerations.

UX Apprentice - a beginner's tutorial

A nice resource from the Basamiq people that takes you through the fundamentals of user experience design quickly and simply.

Search enhancement - invest in people

Gerry McGovern writes about search, inspired by a New York Times article. The point? No matter how smart technology gets, the best search experience needs human involvement.

UX presentation for CIM

This week I had the pleasure of presenting at a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) conference in Edinburgh. My presentation? "Marketing is dead, long live user experience!" (I didn't get lynched).

Today's top web design & UX mistakes

A couple of articles with one thing in common - mistakes being made today on websites again and again. One focusing on user experience and one on web design boo-boos.

How organisations stifle good design

An excellent opinion piece by Leisa Reichelt on the challenges faced by designers. Not tricky design problems though. Organisations, politics, ego and immovable complex processes. Sound familiar?

Customer journey mapping resources for better UX

Leisa Reichelt, a user experience consultant, sells her services and at the same time does a great job of succinctly explaining what a customer journey map is and why it should be important to you.

Boag on social media

An excellent article on how we're not making the most of social media and not providing the experience between networks and our websites that our users want. And this ultimately is to the detriment of our business.

Intro to finding your website's tone & voice

An excellent article explaining the difference between tone and voice, explaining why it's important to your website and helping you get started.

Omni channel experience management

UX consultants Webcredible released a report last year analysing the performance of ten UK high street retailers against what it calls 'omni channel' experience criteria. Many companies have strategies for particular communications and commerce channels - online, mobile, in-store etc. Webcredible class omni-channel as the customer experience across channels.

The hidden costs in devolved content management

An interesting article reporting on the annual Society of IT Management (SocITM) review of local government websites and calling into question the cost-effectiveness of devolved web publishing. Something that Gerry McGovern has been saying for a long time and a point equally valid in the higher education sector.

EuroIA conference comes to Edinburgh

The Information Architecture conference EuroIA comes to Edinburgh this year.

Responsive design strategy

Jared Spool has written a really nice article pulling together the key considerations when devising a strategy to achieve a responsive design - a site layout and content structure approach that adapts according to the device your website visitor is using.