Kent House Design and Technology Seminar

22 June 2009The Salvin Room, Keele Hall

The Kent House Product Basket

Websites E-commerce Search Engine Optimisation Pay-Per-Click Advertising Pay-Per-Click Advertising Email Marketing Content Management – Do It Yourself Event Management

Kent House Design and Technology Seminar

Your site – Design and UsabilityKevin Holdridge

“Ten years ago, the Web was exciting to people. Today, it’s routine. It’s a tool. If it’s convenient, they will use it; if not, they won’t ... Users are getting less tolerant of difficult sites, so every getting less tolerant of difficult sites, so every design flaw means lost business. Usability has

become more important than ever.”Jakob Nielsen, 2006

When websites go bad ...

www.sharperfx.com OTT design – by designers!

www.adamobydell.com Nice site but what is it selling exactly?

www.jacksonsofpiccadilly.co.ukMystery meat navigation with a splash page!

www.msy.com.auHow much??! My nephew will do it for £50...

www.genicap.com/Site/Mystery meat navigation and what is it exactly that you do?

http://www.evangelcathedral.net/Obsessive use of flash

www.itfx.co.uk/ Splash page and a website built entirely with flash

Usability and Accessibility

“A usable website gives the visitor exactly what they are looking for as quickly as possible”they are looking for as quickly as possible”

“Every design flaw means lost business- if a user can’t find the product they can’t buy

the product”the product”

Key usability principles

Users who can’t use your site, will leave your site Users should never need to ask “where am I?” Make your navigation obvious Structure your content – taxonomy Structure your content – taxonomy Designing for usability means increased conversions Convention is convention for a reason Design for users not “robots”

“Once you discover how people interact with your design, you can make it better

than your competitors”than your competitors”

Accessibility is making your website accessible or “usable” by people with disabilities and by people

using different browsers, devices and systems.using different browsers, devices and systems.

Accessibility

Inclusive design – design for everybody DDA Website Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Accessibility standards Accessibility standards

• WAI “A”• WAI “AA”• WAI “AAA”

Accessibility

Some simple accessibility factors:• Font size• Overuse of graphics such as “text images”• Moving text• Colour• Colour• Text and background contrast• Having sound on your site

Visual impairment simulatorhttp://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/betterdesign/

Design, usability and accessibility

i-frames links that don’t change colour when visited taxonomyscrolling pop-up windows breaking the back button

putting text inside imagery pages that are too big

websites built entirely in flash splash pages websites built entirely in flash splash pages

information architecture broken design links

pages that take too long to load no search functionbad navigation frames broken forms complex URLs

cross browser compatibility privacy screen size

The 5 Biggest Causes of User Failure

Search Information Architecture Content Product Information Product Information Workflow

Kent House Design and Technology Seminar

Design, usability and search engine optimisation

Kevin Holdridge

If a user cannot find you, he cannot buy from you....

If he finds you and cannot find what he is looking for, he still cannot buy from you.looking for, he still cannot buy from you.

...If he cannot buy from you,

he will buy from your competitor

SEO – the basics

Search engine optimisation is the act of improving a website’s position in the results of a search engine query for a target set of keywords.

This includes:This includes:• Optimising your own pages by building a well designed, easily

navigated site. • Having great, frequently updated content.• Ensuring your site is easily used by human visitors. • Making the site easy for search engines to crawl or read it. • Encouraging other sites to link back to you.

Other factors influencing SEO include • The age of your site• The speed of your server• Any duplicate content• Number of visitors – importance to internet users• Number of visitors – importance to internet users• The size of your site (the number of pages)• Weighting of content <h1>’s <h2>’s

The importance of appearing top

Position on page 1 Click Through Percentage

1 89%

2 33%

4 17%

5 17%

7 6%

Study carried out by Microsoft

“We can get you to number 1 on Google”

Design “v” SEO

Everything is OK... in moderation Style and code Flash JavaScript JavaScript Using headers just for style Text images i-frames

2/3 of world’s Internet population visit a social network site

overtook personal

10% of all Internet time

the global consumer phenomenon of 2008

Social Networking

the world’s 4th mostpopular online sector

businesses examinehow SNS can help theirorganisations

advertising on SNS sites is not

greatest growth comes from people aged 35-49 years of age

overtook personal emailSocial Networking

facebook is the 5th

most popular site onthe Internet and the9th strongest brand

sites is not consummate withthe size and levels of audience

social networks onlinestarted out amongyoungsters butcurrently the age ofpeople is broadening

Types of Social Media

Social Networking Sites Blogging Microblogging Photo and Video Sharing Photo and Video Sharing Bookmarks Social News Podcasts Online Forums

The Golden Rules of Social Networking be genuine, human and upfront with your “fans”,

“customers”, “friends” and “followers”“customers”, “friends” and “followers”

Why Social Networks Matter

To listen! Your competitors, vendors, customers and prospects are talking about you, right now.

To build a presence To build a presence

To enhance search engine ranking

To communicate (but not to sell!)

Social Networking and SEO – The Benefits...

links links links...links links links...content content content...

Thank you again for taking the time to come along to our seminar

Do not hesitate to contact us with any questionsKevin Holdridge – kevin.holdridge@kenthouse.comYvonne Conway - yvonne.conway@kenthouse.com

0845 638 0700