In a world of sophisticated search engines and machine learning (ML), it might seem like investing in a taxonomy is overkill. After all, can’t those ML-enabled search engines find everything? Sometimes even technology needs an assist. Let’s look at why you might want a taxonomy. What Taxonomies Are Good For Taxonomies enable three main digital … Read more A Good Taxonomy Can Make the Difference
World Usability Day was established in 2005 by the Usability Professionals Association. Each year, design professionals come together to discuss how to “develop technologies in a way that serves people first.” On November 8, 2018, professionals met at almost 100 locations around the world to discuss the how to “Make Life Easy.” I attended World Usability … Read more What Can Usability Teach Us About Working Together?
Let’s face it: Content governance is hard. It requires a great commitment to long-term strategy and a willingness to insulate your content from the vagaries of corporate pressure. But it is worth it. Your content is a key corporate asset. Your content strategy establishes the direction to ensure that your key corporate asset will meet … Read more Content Governance: 8 Things to Know When Planning for Success
You’ve heard about bots. You’ve even chatted with a bot—even if you didn’t know it. But do you know how to make a bot work for you? Bots, algorithms, machine learning, AI… whatever you call it, these are driving how you sell to and engage with customers. These are the “people” you chat with in … Read more 5 Suggestions + a Warning: Make Bot Content Do Your Heavy Lifting
What makes a good story? More specifically, does a good story require a specific format? I’m intrigued by some experimental storytelling formats I’ve discovered recently. I’m not convinced they entirely work, but I applaud the attempts. Try out the following: Phone Stories Check out Popup Magazine’s Phone Stories. Call 415.452.6057 to hear someone tell you … Read more Once Upon a Time: Experiments in Storytelling
At the Detroit Content Strategy Meet-up, I joined the awesome Michele Linn (VP of Content at Content Marketing Institute) and equally awesome Ashok Sharma (VP Associate Director, Content Strategy at MRM//McCann) to discuss trends and challenges in content strategy for 2016. The panel was moderated by Meet-up founder and Associate Director, Customer Experience Strategy, MRM//McCANN, Chris Moritz. Fun … Read more Content Strategy Trends
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what content strategy is – to me, to clients and employers, and in the larger XD ecosystem. We all know the Halverson-approved definition: “Content strategy is the practice of planning for the creation, delivery, and governance of useful, usable content.” The definition is both excellent and not that … Read more Content Strategy: What Are You Being Hired to Do?
In August A Book Apart released On Web Typography by Jason Santa Maria. This is an excellent introduction to typography and well-timed, since most of the predictions for hot design trends in 2014 include something about fonts. Forbes: large fonts. The Next Web: Non-boring typography. Moveable Online: More experimental type. Web Marketing Today: custom fonts. But … Read more Fun with Type (But Keep It Functional)
Recently I’ve been working with clients that want to encourage some kind of political or social action from their users. Nonprofit organizations, in particular, often want to encourage some type of action from users: write you congressman, sign a petition, donate to end poverty. I’ve been a little horrified at the poor approach many of … Read more Designing for Empathy–and Action
I got a chance to play with Google Glass recently. I was not one of the many people instantly attracted to it when I first heard about it, so I was amazed to discover that I really liked it! The display is not distracting (or not as distracting as I feared) and it is … Read more Google Glass: Unexpectedly Fun
