All posts by nomensa

4th August 2009 by nomensa | Web Design

Choosing a CMS is a long-term commitment. You are choosing how your site will be driven and how it will be updated. What your CMS can do affects what you can do. When selecting a CMS, you are committing your content to be stored within this specific system; your data is then manipulated (‘normalised’) into formats suitable for the system’s storage mechanism. From this point onwards, any future decision to switch CMS providers will now need to include the laborious (and often expensive) task of data migration. It is clear to see that choosing a CMS is a commitment and needs to be carefully considered.

30th January 2009 by nomensa | User Experience

The current economic climate is a difficult time for any business, and for any individual. So why is it that while one time high rolling retailers such as Zavvi and Woolworths have both gone into administration, web-based retailers such as Play.com and Amazon have both just seen some of their best figures to date. Although it is certain that there are many reasons for this, this article will delve into the e-commerce world to look at website usability as a factor in the success or failure of a business.

Against the background of poor sales and failing retailers you might wonder whether companies can afford to focus on the usability of e-commerce. After all if large retailers with an established web presence can go to the wall, shouldn’t companies be merely focusing their efforts on staying in business?

1st October 2008 by nomensa | User Experience

With the success of social websites being so widely reported in the media, more and more companies are feeling pressured to jump on the Web 2.0 bandwagon.

But will mashups, tagging and blogs really lead to a good experience for your users? Will you see a return on your investment? And if you are implementing Web 2.0 features in your website, how can you encourage users to participate?

23rd July 2008 by nomensa | User Experience

Metaphors are used in human-computer interaction to describe unfamiliar concepts or systems, like a computer, in terms of familiar elements, like files and folders.

In the realm of e-commerce, many retailers employ aspects of physical stores to describe the user’s interaction. One popular metaphor is the “shopping cart” – a space for users to store items for later purchase. “Shopping cart” is only one of many terms used to describe this feature, along with bags, baskets, selections, orders and lists… even the top online retailers have not come near to a universal standard.

How does the terminology we use reflect the metaphor we’ve chosen? How appropriate is the metaphor to the user’s task? And is it appropriate to use a metaphor at all?

3rd July 2008 by nomensa | User Experience

Despite websites coming in many varied shapes and sizes, managers and editors often require a solution to a very common problem. They want their customers to trust their website, navigate fluently and come away having achieved whatever they set out to do. The difficulty is that the solution will inevitably come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes.

Managing an existing website can often mean that you are tasked with frequent requests for new content, features and functionality. What’s more; it is likely that your website now needs to stay even more in tune with other communications policies and channels. Over time, you may have integrated online forms, podcasts, videos, RSS, online payments or email updates. These additions will either tie your website in more closely with other things that you do or enable yet further lines of communication with your customers.

29th January 2008 by nomensa | User Experience

‘Web 3.0.’ ‘Content aggregation.’ ‘Mashups.’ Another day of technology news, another chance to jump on the latest website bandwagon. But for many companies, a more successful strategy lies much closer to home. Improve the usability of your website’s core offerings and you can dramatically increase website traffic, and ultimately revenue.

Whether you are at the stage of thinking about creating a new website, or have an existing website that has been in operation for many years, usability is crucial to providing your users with an engaging and enjoyable user experience.

6th August 2007 by nomensa | Web Accessibility

The United Nations recently commissioned the world’s first global audit on web accessibility. The study evaluated 100 websites from 20 different countries across five sectors of industry (media, finance, travel, politics, and retail). Only three sites passed basic accessibility checkpoints outlined in the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 1.0), and not a single site passed all checkpoints.

28th February 2007 by nomensa | User Experience

Everyone has had a frustrating experience online. Having a website that is easy to use is more important than ever. Consumers are demanding an intuitive and rewarding online experience and voting with their feet when it’s poor. Offline Brands that have taken decades to build loyalty and trust can be dismissed online in an instant by a failing to provide an in increasingly improving standard of user experience.

Price and availability may still be high on the consumer agenda must as the gap between pureplay and clicks and mortar business closes the battle for customers is switching to the science of usability and consumer behaviour.