Help that doesn't

Microsoft are promising a great tool in the adcenter labs web site.

One really useful functiuon is to find out what searches people did immediately before or after searching on a particular search key. When they have a decent database this is going to be very useful.

They have an option to change the search sequence. If you want to know what this means you hover over the text and get an explanation in a little yellow box for about 4 seconds before is closes itself.

As you cant possibly read this in 4 seconds here it is.

Original search sequence means the resulted search funnel is built using all original search queries in the search sessions; Consolidated search sequence means the resulted search funnel is build by consolidating all continuous and discontinuous search sequences in the search sessions. For example, the search sequence A->B->C will be consolidated into the search sequence A->C if A->B-C is far less fewer than A->C, and the resulted search funnel will be A->C. This way, we eliminate many hairy search sequences that only happen in a few search sessions.

Uh!

We need more standardisation.

In a very interesting piece of research by Snow Valley they looked at a number of ecommerce sites. They found 79 different ways in which sites asked for your credit card type, number, your name and so on. This is a very simple form on every ecommerce site with (normally) about six fields on it!

They found 28 different terms used for the card security number (the three digits on the back of the card – technically the CVC number).
For me, this points to the need for serious standardisation, and design patterns are the way to make this happen. There is a need for an industry body to create standard design patterns for the most common operations. Starting with scrolling text and finishing with the registration form.

What does this do for creativity? I tell you what. I have just started designing a car, and I am really really really bored with the arrangement of pedals…. You get the idea?

People are not visiting web sites to admire your creativity (normally – certainly not on ecommerce sites). They want from an ecommerce site:

• To be assured that the site is not run out of a garage with a site designed by someone’s brother in law who is awfully good with computers – so it needs to look good.
• To find what they need quickly – and that flash splash screen you just spent the last week on gets right in the way of that. I have heard it referred to as the skip intro screen.
• To be able to find out enough about the product to decide whether they want it or not. So that six point grey text on slightly darker grey background may look cool but is going to go down like a lead balloon to someone who just wants to see the specs of the product.
• To be able to buy it quickly and easily without having to learn a whole new set of skills.

If you lose sight of these four objectives then you customer is going to lose money and go to another designer next time.

Bob

Design patterns

The term ‘design patterns’ has been used in computer science to refer to computer techniques that can be re-used rather than having to be worked out from scratch every time. Now the term is being hijacked by the web design community to refer to design problems that can be solved once and then reused. If you design websites you need to know what this is about.

Yahoo are perhaps the most advanced uses of this technique. They have a design pattern library which you can access here. http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

Each pattern is specified with:

• An image showing how the design is presented
• A problem summary (e.g. The designer needs to call attention to where a data value or content has changed…)
• Use when - A list of places where the solution would be used.
• The solution. A specification of the solution e.g. Change the background color of the content area or data value to a light pastel color.
• Rationale. The reason for adopting this approach
• Accessibility. A discussion of the accessibility of this pattern.
  

This very formal presentation forces the designer to think through the part of the design and to make sure that every issue has been covered.

By doing this once and then pulling the pattern off the shelf when it is needed the design team:
Prevents continual reworking of ideas

• Makes sure usability and accessibility issues are thoroughly thought through
• Ensures a consistent user interface throughout the site. The customer only has to learn one way of doing things

Surgeon heal thyself

A month or so ago I received a regular email newsletter from Business Link for London. This site is big on advice to small business in London, paid for by you and me.

It had a link to a white paper 'choosing a web designer' so I put it to one side to read later. Here we are 'later' so I resurrected the mail and clicked the link to go to the white paper. Here is what happened:

1. I was asked for email and password
2. I hadn't been back for some time so the site asked me to confirm my details and add a few items of information
3. The screen then said. And I quote:

Thank you, your Contact and company details have now been updated.
Please select which details you wish to review and update.
Contact and company details
Additional contact details

etc etc

Er Um... the white paper - remember???

Form someone dishing out advice, you would think they could do better than this.

And the white paper...

Long on platitudes short on practical advice. They refer to a couple of developer directories but no web links to make the easy to find - you have to Google them yourself.

If you couldn't work out things like the following for yourself you have no business in charge of a we site:

"Look for developers with a track record and capabilities that are appropriate to the type of project you wish to undertake. "

on costs ...

"In instances where work is billed on the basis of time and materials, the key factor is usually staff day rates ... " give me a break! How about telling people to insist on a fixed price.