User Research Basics User research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies. Mike Kuniaysky further notes that it is “the process of understanding the impact of design on an audience.” The types of user research you can or should perform will depend on the type of site, system or app you are developing, your timeline, and your environment. When to Perform User Research Methods Guided by the user-centered design (UCD) process, we have provided examples of the types of research could perform at each phase of your project. Best Practices During Project Planning you should: Consult the UCD Guide for a step-by-step visual map to guide you through the user-centered design process. References Observing the User Experience: A Practitioner's Guide for User Research by Mike Kuniavsky
Commenting Platform Disqus Introduces Sponsored Comments Disqus, which says it powers the comment sections on almost 3 million websites, is announcing a new type of ad unit today — Sponsored Comments. Since Disqus already runs ads through its Promoted Discovery program, the idea of a Sponsored Comment seems like a pretty natural addition. However, in a company blog post, General Manager David Fleck said this actually stems from the launch of Featured Comments a month ago, with the Disqus team asking, “Can we use the concept of Featured Comments in order to make more money for publishers and allow brands to reach specific audiences?” It sounds like a Sponsored Comment is basically a Featured Comment that advertisers pay for, occupying the same spot at the top of the thread. Not only should it bring in money for Disqus and the publisher, but Fleck suggested that it’s good for marketers, too, because it helps them advertise on “passion blogs around specific topics,” which might not be large enough to employ their own sales team.
Scaling Quality Content The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz. As someone who is fortunate enough to get invited to speak at numerous conferences I pride myself in not reusing presentations unless someone specifically requests it. However, for the SEO audience, there has always been a huge disconnect between the concepts of quality and scale when it comes to content. Fortunately, we're now in a post-Panda era where Google has effectively killed the "SEO" page through a combination of FUD and algorithm improvements. Here's the deck. Everybody's talking about content The Content Marketing conversation has reached a deafening pitch within the past two years. And why not? It's simply because the idea of Content Marketing has been sold very well. These are the types of expectations that have been set by the marketing of Content Marketing. Your content launches. It's pretty simple. There's no excuse for bad content in 2014
A Five-Step Process For Conducting User Research Advertisement Imagine that this is what you know about me: I am a college-educated male between the ages of 35 and 45. I own a MacBook Pro and an iPhone 5, on which I browse the Internet via the Google Chrome browser. I tweet and blog publicly, where you can discover that I like chocolate and corgis. I’m married. If your financial services client provided you with this data, could you tell them why I’ve just decided to move my checking and savings accounts from it to a new bank? We can discern plenty of valuable information about a customer from this data, based on what they do and when they do it. User research helps us to understand how other people live their lives, so that we can respond more effectively to their needs with informed and inspired design solutions. So, how does one do user research? “The spiral is based on a process of learning and need-finding,” Sanders says. Objectives These are the questions we are trying to answer. 1. “Who?” “Who would share program clips?” 2. 3.
Harvard Library Is Hiring a 'Wikipedian in Residence' The school's Houghton Library is seeking someone to help make its collections as accessible as possible. WIkimedia Commons The Houghton Library on the Harvard campus holds the university's collection of rare books. Inside its walls—in addition to objects culled from the old "Treasure Room" of Widener, the school's principal library—you'll find Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts; information about the creation of books; and collections of papers from, among many others, Louisa May Alcott, e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, T.S. The Houghton Library on the Harvard campus is awesome, is what I'm saying. Yesterday, John Overholt, Houghton's Curator of Early Modern Books & Manuscripts, posted a job listing. The Wikipedian in Residence will, according to the job announcement, help to "expand coverage on Wikipedia of topics relevant to Houghton collections." Overholt explained the reasons for the creation of the Harvard version of the job over email:
Don't Be a Content Marketing Dinosaur -- 5 Must-Haves to Stay Current Join Entrepreneur in a free, live webinar event to master SEO strategies that can grow your business. Register to Attend 3/16 » “It's hard to stay ahead of the curve. Every time I write a scene that I think is the sickest thing I have ever dreamed up, it is surpassed by something that happens in real life.” -- Carl Hiaasen Hiaasen, a longtime journalist and novelist, knows a thing or two about telling stories. And he is right to point out that novelists, like content marketers, must stay current to be competitive. In 2014, staying current means keeping up to date on how the content-marketing scene shifts on an almost month-to-month basis. Related: 5 Extremely Effective Content Marketing Formats According to Content Institute, content marketing may be in for some big changes in 2014. 1. “Short-form, mobile-friendly micro content will be the new strategic darling.” -- Jay Baer, president at Convince & Convert 2. The solution? 3. 4. “Content as a means of brand personalization will be key. 5.
How GoPro and Tesla Hacked Digital Marketing Dominic Smith is a senior writer and content strategist for Rackspace Digital, the digital marketing infrastructure specialists. Digital marketing, like the “analog” marketing that came before it, relies on word of mouth. Clicks, shares, pins and retweets are all part of the conversation. Even in the age of BuzzFeed and go-viral formulas (online quizzes involving yesteryear celebrities apparently back in style), many brands still engage traditional ad agencies and marketing consultants to craft their message. Two companies that have broken away from the pack for their unconventional use of digital marketing channels are GoPro Camera and Tesla, the electric car manufacturer. Its secret sauce? GoPro camera: A window onto the world At its most basic level, a camera is a lens, a window onto the world. Even though it’s mostly invisible in this video, it’s the camera and the GoPro brand that get most of the credit. Tesla: A carmaker without a dealer network The power of “free” advertising
Idea Curation: How to Get More Ideas for Great Content 105 Flares Filament.io 105 Flares × Where do blog post ideas come from? This one came from someone else’s headline. We are constantly inspired by the amazing work of others, and we owe a lot to the deep thinking and amazing resources that are readily available within the industry. How can we get more ideas more consistently? Copyblogger gave us the inspiration for this post. So here it is. How we curate ideas at Buffer “I write only when inspiration strikes. This quote about writing and inspiration could work just as easily for idea curating and inspiration. Our infrastructure for ideas depends on a couple of key points. We aren’t shy about taking inspiration from others.We spend a lot of time reading, thinking, and sharing the stories and ideas we love.We save all our ideas—no matter how small Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these. Taking inspiration from others Our cofounder Leo has been fond of a particular phrase when it comes to creating content: Copy the hell out of others. P.S.
7 Tips for Igniting Your Content With Social Media Angie Pascale | March 5, 2014 | 7 Comments inShare62 You can't just create a video, post it on Facebook, and expect it to generate tons of awareness, engagement, and sales. You need to put thought and structure behind the content you create and share on social media profiles. "Content is fire. Jay Baer uses this analogy to explain the idea that content is the main substance in any digital marketing campaign; social media channels ignite that content and help it to spread. But you can't just create a video, post it on Facebook, and expect it to generate tons of awareness, engagement, and sales. 1. In addition to the standard methods of audience discovery - industry research, focus groups, and brand surveys - you can also use social media data to build audience personas. 2. Take Charmin's Sit or Squat app, for example. Charmin isn't selling anything with Sit or Squat. 3. To broaden the conversation and take the spotlight off your brand, you should create content pillars.
Feeling Uncomfortable: The Way to Create Amazing Content 83 Flares Filament.io 83 Flares × We have dozens of ways to measure a successful blog post or social media update, and I’d imagine you’re familiar with all of them. You can track blog traffic by digging into analytics. You can view engagement data on every update you send. The measurable aspects of an ideal blog post and social update are substantial. What about the immeasurable elements? These are the elements that you can’t really quantify, which might be why they don’t receive the same emphasis. This line of thinking extends to our social updates, too. Is this the right way to create amazing content? Let’s examine another dimension. The immeasurable elements of an ideal blog post There are lots of specifics and numbers that go into creating the perfect post, from idea to creation to publishing to tracking. Is the content so good that you’d bring a coworker over to see it? HubSpot shared a similar list of immeasurable qualities of a good piece of content. It might mean the post isn’t ready.
Yahoo’s 18-year-old Prodigy Nick D’Aloisio on the Future of News Yesterday, Yahoo announced that its “atomized” news digest was being made available on Android, and in virtually every market in which Yahoo is active. It’s a bold move for a product that has only been available for less than six months. Behind the ambitious project is Nick D’Aloisio, the 18-year-old who sold his company Summly to Yahoo a little over a year ago for a reported $30 million. Since then, he’s been working within Yahoo to integrate the technology, and bring his nugget-sized take on news to the masses. Following the launch of Canadian and International editions of the resulting Yahoo News Digest, TNW caught up with D’Aloisio to talk about the next steps for the service and how the humble newspaper will still inform our news consumption in the future. It’s been quite a journey already to get this far, can you fill us in on a bit of that journey? Nick D’Aloisio: For a bit of context, the journey basically began when I joined Yahoo, about this time last year. It is.
How To Write Content that Converts: A Content Strategy 9 out of 10 marketers place content marketing as the top priority in reaching their consumers. Yet interestingly, one-third of the marketers do no have a strategy to guide them. To emerge from all the marketing noise, you have got to do the “Content Marketing” right. According to a study by Salesforce, 77% of the buyers are now requesting content at each stage of their research. They predicted that in marketers be starting to create content specifically for each stage of their funnel.What is then surprising, is that one-third of the marketers do not have a strategy to guide them. Without a sound content strategy, your content will get lost in the clutter. Forming Your Content Strategy Blindly producing content in hopes for raising awareness will only leave data trails and enrich your competition. Three Business Core Objectives – Sales, Awareness & Advocacy Knowing the business objectives are important, but the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach would not perform as effectively. tl;dr