Make the tombstone your diploma

Exxx — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 09:12:02 +0000

I am a mentor in the Analysis Exchange and my last project with Kimmage DSC really showed me how much can be learned (not just by the student) during a project.

As I have mentioned previously, the Analysis Exchange allows students to get hands-on experience doing short-term web analysis for an organisation. So, there’s an obvious benefit for the student and the organisation, but what is in it for the mentor besides the self-satisfied knowledge that you’ve tried to help to bring the web analytics love to the world? That is where the Kimmage DSC website came in.

Kimmage DSC (KDSC) offers courses in Development Studies, and its mission is to promote critical thinking and action for justice, equality and the eradication of poverty in the world. It hopes to do this through training and educating individuals and groups working for social, economic and political change in society.

In my line of work, I don’t come across many sites built for non-profits. I see online stores, lead generation sites, information share sites. I have dealt with comparison sites and universities. I’ve analysed online shops selling shoes and those selling racy magazines. In my head, the basic principals of all these sites would apply to a non-profit – the need to build a customer base, share information, safely and securely take money from visitors etc. In short, as with any site, a non-profit site is still selling a product or service (where the product is “starving child” and the service is “feel better about yourself by donating money” – yes, this sounds cold, but it’s a logical approach if a site is to be successful, which is the desired end).

In the kick-off meeting with KDSC and subsequent conversations with the organisation, what was interesting to note was the required approach with respect to the site design and general approach. Students are typically from sub-Saharan Africa, often with limited access to the internet. KDSC develops links with other NGOs who will send KDSC students and/or spread the message about the existence of the courses. So, KDSC uses the internet to target those who sometimes have little or no internet.

Apart from the NGO partnerships, which gives them a sort of physical presence in their target region, the site itself also takes into consideration the needs of any students in the target region who may find the site themselves through internet search or prior knowledge. The site is very simple and takes into account the download speed of potential students. In addition, there is a navigational banner which has directional buttons located in an area defined by screen resolutions most commonly used in the target region. The site is built around the needs of the target student while also taking into account as many general design norms as possible (i.e. it doesn’t look like a throwback from the 90s, committing flashy-banner sins).

The KDSC site acts as an information portal not just to potential students but to NGOs in the interests of building links with organisations who will require the services of KDSC and can spread the word about the available courses. It is interesting to see the requirement to combine tracking data with usability/visitor requirements to such a degree and I feel as though Kimmage DSC and the Analysis Exchange have helped me to continue my education in the web analytics space.

I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma. ~Eartha Kitt

Moses’ Ark – Textual Fluency and Boubas

Exxx — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:03:07 +0000

My (rather dishy) other half is currently studying for a degree in psychology and issues of the magazine “The Psychologist” regularly arrive on our doorstep. The February copy arrived with an arresting yellow cover and the words “Read this issue. You will find it an engaging, informative and quality read”. I felt compelled to do as I was told and found a fascinating article by Hyunjin Song and Norbert Schwarz.

Consider the following. You’re thinking about taking a holiday this year and you want a destination that will be hot enough for lazing by the sea in May. You have a couple of brochures. You would base your decision on your own general knowledge of the countries represented in the brochures and your specific requirements for the desired holiday, right? What you would not do is base your decision on the font in which the information was provided to you. Surely not. And yet…

Recent experiments have shown that font influences the fluency with which information is processed. The amount of effort required to read can inform the choice of the reader. An experiment similar to the following was run – showing two sets of readers the same text in two different fonts:

When the readers were asked to estimate the time it would take to do this task, most of those presented with the task in the clearer font (in this case Arial) thought it would take almost half the time other group estimated. I.e. the time and effort taken to read the text influenced the readers’ feelings towards the task itself.

Similar experiments were run regarding more commercial subjects. Given two product descriptions, again taking two groups and two fonts, readers were able to make decisions about product choice more easily if they could process the text more easily.

In the internet world, we know that a clearer font means a clearer message, but think about the other risks you take if you use “difficult” fonts for stylistic reasons. You not only muddle your message, you influence the way in which your website visitors understand and view your product, your company, your website processes. Ease of understanding breeds a sense of familiarity. In a shop, this could lead to repeat purchases of a product. Online, this could mean repeat visits.

Here’s another fascinating tid-bit. In their article, Song and Schwartz refer to a study done in 2006 by Daniel Oppenheimer and Adam Alter which noted that companies with easier to pronounce ticker symbols (like KAR) performed better than companies with difficult to pronounce symbols (like RDO) on the first day of trading! The thought was that the more pronounceable symbols seemed less risky.

Moving from font into visuals, have a look at the images below.

If you were told that one was a Bouba and one was a Kiki, which one would you think was which?

Most people would decide that the image on the left was a Kiki and that one the right was a Bouba. This is true across languages and age groups and was first observed by Wolfgang Köhler in 1929. This leads to the suggestion that object naming is not random, which leads to the thought that combining names with “inappropriate” shapes online could cause a subconscious clash for the website visitor.

The majority of people will answer “two” when presented with the question “How many types of each animal did Moses take on the Ark” despite the fact that they know that the Ark was Noah’s, not Moses’. Fluency processing and visual cohesion should not be a nice-to-have in website design, but a fundamental part of ensuring that your website is engaging with people.

Crepuscular Light » website design

Make the tombstone your diploma

Moses’ Ark – Textual Fluency and Boubas