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It’s Not About Search, It’s About Wayfinding

Over the past year, I’ve had many, many clients call and meet with Matrix Group about site search issues. Clients complain that their search isn’t pulling up enough results, or it’s pulling too many, the formatting isn’t great, it doesn’t include protected content, yada, yada.

I sat down with a client recently to discuss site search and quickly realized that it’s not really about search, it’s about wayfinding and all of our user interviews and user testing are bearing this out. Here’s what we have learned:

Site Search is a Twin to Good Navigation. Whenever we interview users or watch them during user testing sessions, we find that there are people who use navigation to find information and there are those who skip the navigation and quickly turn to search. We’re not sure why this is, but it points to the importance of having BOTH good navigation and site search on your website.

Google Has Shaped Our Expectations About Search. To be honest, most clients love Google and want their site search to be Google or work like Google. Trouble is, the Google Search Appliance is pricey and Google stopped selling the Google Mini last July 2012. So today we implement SearchBlox, the Google custom search, Zoom, Solr and MaxxCAT. If a client wants the ability to search by specific fields (e.g., date range, title, category) and allow filtering of the search results, Google doesn’t seem to be the right fit. We have found that there is no, one single search solution that works for all sites.

Visitors Don’t Often Know What They Need. More and more, we find that visitors come to a website with a problem on a specific topic. For example, a VP of Government Affairs needs to know everything possible on an issue before Congress. She goes to her trade association website. She might use the site search but she gets 500 results and she’s overwhelmed. Or she goes to the Government Affairs website and learns what the organization is doing on the topic but she needs more background. What this VP really wants to know is: background info on the topic, the organization’s position on the topic, recent news, upcoming meetings and conference calls, some publications for sale, a committee on the topic, etc. A possible solution is to create dynamic topic pages that bring together everything that an organization has to offer on a topic. This can be done with a common taxonomy, web services and RSS feeds.

Bottom line is this: good wayfinding on your site is a multi-faceted journey. It’s not just about site search, so please explore the different ways that your visitors can find the information and services they seek.

How about you? What have you done on your site to promote good wayfinding?

September 18, 2013
Answer Customer Questions On Your Website and Reap the SEO Benefits
A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of attending a powerful presentation on content marketing by Marcus Sheridan, CEO of The Sales Lion. His main message: Your customers and potential customers have thousands of questions about your product and industry. Answer those questions through your website and blog!

Here are some key takeaways from Marcus’ presentation.

What Makes Us Fall in Love with a Website?
- Good information
- Easy to find information
- Good aesthetic
- Fresh content
- Valuable information that saves time and money
It’s All About the Content
- Good content keeps visitors on your website because they are getting the information they want and need.
- Search engines love good, fresh, authentic content. Websites that get updated encourage the search engines to keep coming back.
- Quality content that gets clicked, shared and linked gives you better search engine rankings.
- Gone are the days of just talking about ourselves and our companies. Prospects and clients expect and demand rich, quality content that will answer their questions. For free, of course.
Answer the Questions People Type into Google

According to Marcus, there is usually a set of questions prospects always ask. These questions are often about price, scope, timeline, quality, comparisons with other products, etc. So why not answer those questions on your website so that prospective customers/members/partners can be educated and the search engines can get busy referring traffic to your site? Some examples:
- A florist might blog about what types of floral arrangements are appropriate for a wedding/funeral/baby shower/etc., how much one should expect to pay for flowers at a wedding/funeral/baby shower/etc., and how much in advance one needs to place an order.
- A pediatric orthodontist might have content about when a child needs braces, how much it generally costs, how long treatment takes, the different types of braces, talking to your child about braces, etc.
If You Invest in Content Marketing

According to Marcus, investing in content marketing has these benefits:
- Your company brand and voice will grow
- Sales cycles will go down
- Your prospects will solicit fewer competitive bids
- You will have stronger relationships with clients
- Certain individuals and talents within your staff will rise and shine
- Your team will grow stronger through the process of developing such great content
Marcus says “Content is the greatest sales and trust-building tool in the world. Period. End of story.” I have to agree.
September 11, 2013
American Computer Development, Inc. Website Redesign
Based in Frederick, MD, American Computer Development, Inc. (ACDi) is an electronics manufacturing services firm that prides itself on agility, quality, and a focus on doing well by its customers and staff. It serves many markets, including aerospace, defense, and medical and life sciences.

After serving the company for seven years, ACDi was ready to redesign its current website. The team at ACDi wanted a website that would support the company’s sales and marketing efforts by visually communicating who the company is and its services through imagery and storytelling.

The new site reflects ACDi’s emphasis on people, their needs, and how it can help them fulfill those needs. The new site:
- Features large background images showing staff and markets impacted by ACDi services
- Incorporates bright, welcoming colors
- Uses simplified information architecture
Matrix Group also:
- Implemented the site in PHP-based CMS WordPress
- Implemented Google Analytics to track usage of the site
View the redesigned website at: http://www.acdi.com/
September 1, 2013
Time Lapse from TIME

Watch the world change over the course of 3 decades through satellite technology.

August 27, 2013
What’s Really Behind Those Targeted Ads on Facebook?
I’m attending my high school reunion in a few weeks and I need a fabulous dress. So I’ve been spending time on various retailer sites to find the perfect outfit. Of course I visited Nordstrom.com and found some great dresses, including a stunning, little, black dress by Ralph Lauren. Imagine my surprise when I clicked over to Facebook.com and found a Nordstrom ad that featured the very dress I was looking at. I shrugged it off as coincidence; what retailer doesn’t advertise its fabulous black dresses?

A couple of days later, I found a gorgeous, purple dress on Nordstrom.com. Again, a Nordstrom ad on Facebook featured the exact same dress. Okay, now this can’t be coincidence. Purple, really? I had read about Facebook sharing cookies with retailers but I needed more info. We Facebook users have known for a while that any information we give to the social network can be used to send us targeted advertising. For a while, I was getting ads based on my age. Then I noticed that even my posts seemed to be getting indexed; I mentioned Downtown Abbey in a post; next thing I know, I’m getting an ad for a Downton Abbey-themed trip to England. It seems that earlier this year, Facebook branched out and expanded it advertising capabilities by merging its own data with data from third parties.
- Earlier this year, Facebook announced deals with Datalogix, Epsilon and Acxiom, consumer data companies, or companies that track consumer purchasing data from rewards cards, among other things. Facebook users are matched with data from these companies so that Facebook can present targeted ads. For example, if my Giant rewards card shows that I buy a lot of diapers, Facebook might show me ads for more diapers or other baby products.
- Through a partnership with BlueKai, retailers can add code to their websites to set cookies that Facebook can read. The cookies tell Facebook what you were looking at on the retailer site, for example, and display targeted ads based on your previous viewing history. (Aha! I bet this is what Nordstrom is using.)
- Last Fall, Facebook invited retailers to submit the email addresses of its customers. Facebook matched the emails against its database and then displayed ads on behalf of the retailers.
We all know this is going to get a lot worse. Facebook already knows who our friends area, where we go, what we watch, what we eat, who we love. If you’re creeped out by all this, what can you do?
- My friend and privacy expert Shaun Dakin recommends Abine, which lets you create disposable email addresses, phone numbers, and credit cards so that Facebook and retailers can’t match you based on your personal information.
- Matrix Group Network Administrator Rich Frangiamore recommends Ghostery, which is a browser plug-in that tells you about all the tracking elements on web pages that you visit. Ghostery also lets you block specific scripts.
- I like to browse in incognito mode in Chrome. When I do this, any cookies saved in my browser are deleted when I close my windows and pages I visit aren’t recorded in my browser history.
The thing about targeted ads is this: sometimes they feel creepy and an invasion of my privacy, while other times, I am grateful for the spot-on recommendations. I guess the trick for advertisers is to find the right balance so that customers like me welcome the personalization. What do you think of all this targeted advertising?
August 21, 2013
Who Should Be In Charge Of Your Redesign Project?
So your organization has decided to redesign its website. Who should be involved? Who should be in charge? And who should make the decisions? I get these questions a lot from senior executives who want to know how to structure their web team, who should be ultimately responsible for the success of the project, and how much staff time should be allocated to the effort.

Who Should Be Involved?

Since websites represent your organization online and visitors expect to interact with all departments, it makes sense that there be involvement from throughout the company. But how to achieve this without creating committee gridlock? My recommendations are:
- Invite as many people as you can to the kickoff meeting. The kickoff tells the whole company that the project is happening, what you want to achieve, and that you need their help. If possible, the CEO or someone suitably senior should be in attendance; this will let everyone know that the project is important and they should pay attention.
- Arrange to interview at least one person from every department, functional group or constituency. These interviews will give you valuable insight AND build support for the project.
- Don’t involve a large group in the day to day workings of the project; this will only slow you down. Do, however, arrange for periodic reports to your larger web team. You don’t want someone, somewhere, bringing the project to a screeching halt because you “didn’t talk to them” or you didn’t keep them in the loop as you made decisions.
- Ask for volunteer beta testers. You will likely not get a lot of volunteers but the ones who do volunteer will be motivated and proactive, so get their help!
Who Should Be In Charge?

This is a tricky issue. Some organization put IT in charge, while others put Communications, Marketing, Customer Service or Membership in charge. I think it’s a mistake to put IT in charge. Yes, IT will have the most facility with the technologies, but putting IT in charge of a redesign is like putting IT in charge of your membership marketing or print materials because they involve databases and computers.

At Matrix Group, our most successful projects have been ones where:
- There was a trio in charge, each representing an important constituency: subject matter experts, IT and senior leadership.
- or IT was in charge of the process but subject matter experts were heavily involved and made the final decisions.
- and the project manager on the client side was well connected in the organization, well liked, ran a great meeting, and able to help groups achieve consensus.
- and there was high level senior sponsorship of the project. These senior staff members kept the senior leadership team informed and paved the way for resources from throughout the organization to be made available to develop content, test the website, etc.
Who Should Make the Decisions?

Another tricky issue. The answer is usually “it depends on the decision to be made.” In our experience:
- It works well to get buy-in from a larger group when discussing navigation and content elements.
- It works well to have the larger web team review and approve the overall design direction, copy writing style and content strategy. It’s really, really important that the *entire* organization be on the same page here.
- The CEO or Chief Marketing Officer (or equivalent) should make the decision on the design and copy writing direction. And it’s always a good idea to brief the CEO and senior leadership team at regular intervals during the project.
- The smaller web team should make the hundreds of decisions about layout, content placement, search, etc. Getting a committee to agree on these minute details will make the site build process torture.
- Give each department the final say on their portion of the website, as long as their changes fall within the overall design parameters of the project. Which means GR or Convention can’t decide to use a different font or color palette.
How about you? Who do YOU think should be in charge? What has worked for your organization?
August 7, 2013
Maryland Food System Map

This map/project takes a look at Maryland food data geographically in hopes of spurring change. With a few clicks, you can plot supermarkets, restaurants, farms, convenience stores, and more!

August 5, 2013
How Long Does It Take to Design a Website?
When I’m presenting to prospects and clients, I almost always get the question “How long will it take to design my website?” As you can imagine, the answer is usually “It depends.” Depends on what?

In my experience, a design timeline will depend on the scale of the project, the amount of content to migrate, the complexity of the navigation and design, the turnaround time needed to provide feedback, the number of integrations with third party systems, and testing resources and availability.

When pressed, however, here are the guidelines I usually share with clients:

Blogs are usually the fastest to get online. Why? Because blogs usually have a simple structure, they usually follow the style of the main organization website, and they have predictable elements: recent posts, blog archive, about the blogger, RSS feed, tag cloud, and social media feeds. Using a blog platform like Blogger, you can get a blog up in about an hour. But if you’re looking to create a blog with a custom theme, it usually takes 2-4 weeks. If it’s urgent, we can get a blog up in a matter of days, assuming the content is ready, the client provides quick feedback, and there is agreement about the blog strategy.

Website facelifts can be fast or they can take time. At Matrix Group, a website facelift involves updating the site’s design elements, but you’re making minimal changes to the navigation and structure and you’re not changing the content management system (CMS). Facelifts can take week or two, or they can take a couple of months. Facelifts get derailed when the decision is made to drastically change the navigation, change CMS platforms, add significant new functionality, and update a lot of the content. Since clients generally need facelifts done fast, we try to never let the timeline go past two or three months.

A standard redesign for us is one that involves updating the navigation based on user feedback, giving the site a new look and feel, migrating to a new CMS, migrating content from the old site to the new site, and adding new functionality. Since most of our clients also have or want to have member or customer portals, we usually integrate with some type of CRM system. These redesigns tend to take between 6-9 months. The most time-consuming tasks are often: creating an inventory of the entire site, migrating content, updating content, and ironing out all of the details of the integrations. Not having all the content ready is the number one reason these design projects get delayed.

Design projects with lots of integrations and/or custom programming take the most time. Matrix Group recently completed a redesign project that involved a rebranding effort, migration of close to 10,000 pages, a move to a new CMS, and integrations with several vendors. This project took about a year. In general, I recommend to clients that projects never have a timeline of longer than 12 months. After 12 months, project staff get burned out, they start doubting that the project will ever launch, and they get sick of the design. If your project will legitimately take more than 12 months because of the scope of the work, I recommend breaking up the project into phases and launching functionality over time.

Are there things vendors and clients can do to speed up timelines? Absolutely! My top tips:
- Establish a deadline and give the project a sense of urgency.
- Start working on your content from day one.
- Start integration discussions early in the project.
- Schedule design presentations and check-ins with senior staff ahead of time so that you don’t waste time on scheduling meetings and to keep the project moving.
- Have a clear decision-making process.
- Line up testing resources close to the time of launch.
How long did your last redesign project take and what lessons did you learn?
July 17, 2013
How Designing a Home is Like Designing a Website
Colleen brought her dogs, Charli and Anya, to the Friday Forum. These cutie pies are on the Stone House Board of Directors

I had the pleasure of welcoming Colleen Stone, Principal at Stone House , to Matrix Group last week. I invited Colleen to come in and do a Friday Forum (lunch and learn) for my staff because while my team was working with Colleen on her website, I was struck by how similar her process is to ours. She designs homes, we design websites. We both make it a priority to get to know our customers and create something beautiful and extremely user-friendly. I called Colleen an Information Architect for home design. Here were my key takeaways from Colleen’s presentation.

Renovating a home is a big decision
- Most people don’t renovate to sell. They renovate to make it better.
- Renovations usually involve pain and suffering so do what you can to make the process less stressful
- Renovating a home is intimate. You need to know the who, why, what and when of the home.
When gathering requirements

Gathering requirements is critical element of every design job. Here’s her formula for success:
- Set the tone for the first meeting by making the client comfortable. She brings dogs and instead of doing an interview, she has a conversation.
- You need to gather data, i.e., how many bedrooms, bathrooms, etc. but most importantly, you need to develop a communication pattern with the client. This is the most important aspect of the project because this sets the foundation for getting to where the client wants to be.
- Listen really hard, don’t do so much talking.
- Ask questions in a random order. People give more honest answers if they don’t just go down the checklist. They will answer from their heart.
- Walk the home with your client and talk about what works and what is not working.
Each family has a culture and a style

Colleen says that some designers develop a signature style; their customers want that signature style in their homes. Other designers strive to create something that is unique for each client. Colleen is part of the latter group. She believes:
- Each family has a cultural and style. Some families are formal, some are more casual.
- Your job as a designer is to figure out the elements of your client’s culture and identify what they don’t know and see.
- The design part of the job means translating that culture into the design of a home.
Good designers educate their clients

Colleen believes that good designers devote 50% of their time with clients to education. Clients have to make umpteen million decisions and they can’t make umpteen million good decisions unless they are educated. When a client asks for something that, in your opinion, isn’t a good idea:
- Sometimes, you educate them on why it’s bad.
- Sometimes, you take their bad idea and turn it into a good idea.
- Sometimes, you just flat out tell them it’s a bad idea.
- Sometimes, clients surprise you and you learn something in the process.
Putting yourself in your clients’ shoes

I asked Colleen about techniques she uses to really get to know here clients. My favorite tidbits:
- When designing a kitchen, Colleen asks her clients to cook for her so she can see the flow of the cooking, especially if there are multiple people cooking together.
- Colleen strives to create beautiful, graceful living spaces so that you can see elegant views from every vantage point, as you move through a house. Colleen asks clients how they move through the house, when the kids get home, where the traffic jams happen, etc.
- In apartments, the biggest issue is always storage. She looks for practical and pretty storage solutions since most apartments usually don’t provide adequate storage.
I’m looking at the work of architects and interior designers in a whole, new light thanks to Colleen. Be sure to check out samples of Colleen’s work on her website.
July 11, 2013
No Mobile Strategy? Your Website Could Face a Google Demotion!
Psst, want to know a secret? The world isn’t going mobile, it’s already mobile. Check out just a few statistics. In India, mobile traffic has surpassed desktop traffic. Google reports that 25% of paid search clicks are coming from mobile devices. The Pew Research Center reported this month that 34% of Americans aged 18 and older own a tablet computer.

So it came as no surprise to many of us when Google announced “Changes in rankings of smartphone search results.” In describing the most common configuration mistakes that companies make, Google let the world know that if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’ll get a demotion in search rankings. When you consider that mobile searches are an increasing percentage of total Google searches, and Google stays at the top of the search food chain by presenting good results, it makes sense that Google would demote sites that have faulty redirects, show blank mobile pages, aren’t optimized for a mobile device, etc.

In this article, Google describes the 3 ways to build smartphone-optimized websites: responsive design, serving different CSS based on the use agent (desktop, smartphone, etc.) and separate, mobile sites. It’s important to note that Google’s recommended configuration is responsive design. Why?
- Using a single URL for all content makes it easy for Google’s search algorithm to assign proper indexing properties for the content
- No redirects are needed
- Google crawlers need only visit a website once to index the content
Here at Matrix Group, nearly all of our designs and redesigns are responsive. We think it just make sense to change the user experience based on the visitor’s device. And because users never have to remember multiple URLs, visits across all types of devices are encouraged. In fact, across the board, we’ve seen mobile traffic to our client sites soar after the sites were redesigned and made responsive.

So, what’s your mobile strategy in 2013? And what are your plans for making your website responsive?
June 27, 2013