Social Media Tools: A personal case study

By Emily Eaton, 4/1/11

When we help our clients with their social media strategies, we focus on how to use the right tools, at the right time, to meet our objectives. The goal is to effectively use social media (and other interactive communications) for marketing/business purposes.

This newsletter article isn’t about that.

This article is a personal case study of how John Golden (my business partner and husband) and I used CaringBridge, Facebook, and Twitter to communicate with family and friends about the sudden and tragic loss of our son, Julian Golden.

Social media (and interactive communications tools) enabled us to communicate to a huge number of people without the pain of repeating the story over and over. And ultimately, these same tools preserve Julian’s memory and continue to build his legacy through the Children’s Cancer Research Fund in memory of Julian – valued at $18,200 as of 4/1/11.

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Web Forms: 5 Keys to Success

By Tony Johnson, 3/1/11

It's 2011. We all understand that successful web-based interactions depend on good user experience by now, right? Well, not so fast…

Here at EatonGolden, we spend tons of time researching, facilitating usability tests, and trend-monitoring. One thing is clear: poorly designed user experiences are still commonplace on the web. And nowhere is this more apparent than in the design of web forms.

Let's take a closer look at why so many web forms are so bad – and what you can do to make your web forms shine.

Backend programming is needed to save the data entered into web forms and so, historically, the technical team created them – usually in a vaccuum. The overall goal for forms was purely technical: save the data.

But, just collecting data is no reason to celebrate. Web forms are a vital part of the overall user experience – in fact, a form is the part in which the user is "talking" to you. And just like in everyday interactions, being a good listener pays huge dividends.

So, how do you become a good listener? We've compiled a list of 5 things to ensure success. Once you have your form designed, the best way to know if it's working is to build a prototype – and see how it performs in a usability test.

1. APPROPRIATE LENGTH

   
   Example 1: Appropriate Length
   Ask yourself what is the purpose of your form? A signup form, for instance, should be shorter and easier to complete than an e-commerce checkout form. If you must capture lots of information, consider making it a multiple step process – users are overwhelmed by long forms and often abandon them. Lastly, be sure to display users' progress, people are less likely to give up if they can clearly see how much work is left to complete the form.
   
   
   

2. CLEAR ORGANIZATION

   
   Example 2: Clear Organization
   Grouping related questions can make your form easier to scan and complete, but try not to go overboard. Too many headings can be distracting.
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. INTUITIVE DESIGN

   
   Example 3: Intuitive Design
   
   
   Proper label alignment, spacing, colors, and icon usage are all essential elements of good form design. Forms run the risk of creating visual noise and overwhelming the user. Be consistent, and try to create a straight line toward the submit button. Be very careful about using cancel or reset buttons; at the very least, be sure to de-emphasize them compared with the submit button. Depending on your priorities, you may want to align field labels right, left, or place them above the fields – check out this presentation by Luke Wroblewski for lots more on form design best practices.
   
   

4. USER-FOCUSED RULES + HINTS

   
   Example 4: User-Focused Rules
   + Hints
   
   
   Ultimately, a primary goal of your form is to collect accurate information. "Hints", used sparingly and thoughtfully, can help improve the accuracy of users' responses and enhance their experience. We recommend validating as data is entered ("inline" or "client-side" validation), rather than after the submit button is clicked. Minimize "optional" or "required" field indicators to reduce visual noise (i.e., indicate whichever has fewer fields). Learn more about best practices in validation.
   
   
   

5. CONSISTENT VOICE

   
   Example 4: Consistent Voice
   
   
   From the user's perspective, your form is simply part of the overall experience of your site. Too often, we see forms that abandon the personality of the rest of the site. Remember, the user is talking and you are listening – respond back like a good listener. After all, would you say something like "Form submission complete" in everyday conversation?
   
   
   

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User Experience Design for Health-related Websites: 5 Do's and Don'ts

By Emily Eaton, 2/1/11

It's no secret: the Internet is a highly effective channel for health-related businesses and organizations to communicate with their key audiences. After 10 years of research with patients, physicians, and other healthcare professionals, we've seen things that work and things that really don't work when designing the User Experience (UX) of health-related websites.

Today's healthcare consumers are smarter than ever, and they tend to be confident and curious using the web to learn about their health. Ten years ago when I did usability research, the average consumer was in the early stages of learning how to find reliable information online (and learning how to judge if it was "reliable"). Today when I interview healthcare consumers, most people understand that the Internet won't replace the care of a healthcare professional – but it's a great place to start, and an effective tool for learning more about the health topics they are interested in.

Health professionals' attitudes toward the Internet are varied. Ten years ago, the physicians I interviewed for my research were often frustrated when patients did their own online research (a heart surgeon once told me, "The Internet can't tell my patients anything I couldn't tell them!"). Some of those attitudes still exist, but the majority of the newest generation of physicians recognize that the Internet can be a helpful tool for their patients, and can make doctor's jobs easier, when done right.

After many many interviews with patients, physicians, and other healthcare professionals over the years, we've identified a few key do's and don'ts:

1. HEALTH INFORMATION FOR PATIENTS
   • DO provide detailed health information so a curious healthcare consumer can feel like he or she is really learning something new. Be sure to follow best practices in usability and web writing.
   • DON'T assume patients just want the dumbed-down version of information. These days, they can sense when content has been over-simplified. If they don't find the information they need on sites that are tailored to patients, they will seek out information targeted to professionals – which is likely to result in a less-than-ideal user experience.
2. HEALTH INFORMATION FOR PHYSICIANS
   • DO provide detailed information, with a focus on data and efficacy. Content must follow best practices in web writing, and include visual content (charts and graphs) whenever possible. Anticipate that patients will also read information labeled "for doctors" (some patients will actually seek this out to get the "inside scoop," especially when researching a new treatment for a condition).
   • DON'T provide content for health professionals that could be perceived as "marketing." Physicians don't want to be sold to, and are easily turned off by content that seems to be promoting a new treatment or product.
3. SOCIAL MEDIA AND COMMUNITIES
   • DO use social media tools, but use them sparingly and in conjunction with a thoughtful social media strategy. A surprising number of health-related sites have calls-to-action like, "follow us on Twitter!" and "Share this Article on Facebook!" Yet, most people who are researching their health are doing so for a personal reason, and they rarely want to advertise what they are researching. Instead, health-related sites should focus on adding value to users through community-oriented features and discussions – but there must be a way for users to browse and comment anonymously, or they are less likely to participate.
   • DON'T bombard users with social media calls-to-action that don't resonate with them. Even the most active Facebook user is probably not going to "friend" the latest medicine their doctor prescribed to them, or tweet a link to the treatment for snoring they just learned about.
4. PAGE LAYOUT
   • DO follow best practices in page layout. When it comes to scanning pages and clicking links, people seeking healthcare information are like seekers of other types of information. They want scannable content with a clear visual hierarchy to help them navigate – bold sub-heads and bullet lists are especially helpful in creating a user-friendly page structure. Also, confirm that the pages print well, especially websites targeted to patients. If the site does its job, the patient will print out pages to show their doctor or family members.
   • DON'T use the right column for important information. Generally speaking, users ignore areas of the page that typically contain ads, such as the right column. Also, don't write health-related content pages with dead-ends. When patients are in research mode, they are more likely to read in a specific linear order than other types of users. To avoid dead-ends on content pages, seek opportunities to place links at the bottom of the body copy, such as "NEXT: Treatment Options for [Condition]."
5. VISUAL ELEMENTS
   • DO design pages with an emphasis on informational visuals (such as anatomical illustrations), and use video and animation whenever possible. Keep in mind that patients remember just a fraction of what they are told in a doctor's office. Animation and video can go a long way in helping a patient understand a condition or treatment.
   • DON'T mix images and calls-to-action. Most people will completely overlook "ad-like" content – and it is hard to pair up a thumbnail image with a call-to-action without it looking like an ad. Also, don't fill the pages with photos of smiling "healthy" people. One or two are fine, but too much emphasis makes users suspicious.

Curious about a specific topic or industry? Contact us to let us know what you'd like us to write about in our future newsletters.

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New year, new website!

By Emily Eaton, 1/1/11

Believe it or not, one of the hardest things for a User Experience Consulting firm to do is redesign our own website. The reasons are numerous: we are busy with client work, we have too many good ideas, our past website wasn't bad to start with, etc.

But from time to time, we recognize that we have to practice what we preach. We have to keep our site fresh. We have to make sure we're experimenting with technology, before we apply it to client projects.

So we set a goal to have a new website for the New Year. When we kicked off the project, we followed the process we take our clients through when we create a User Experience Strategy. One of the most important parts of this process was to define our ideal site, and be clear about what we wanted to accomplish:

1. Update the visual interface: We redesigned our business cards and other offline materials in 2010. Even though the clean design of our previous website still worked with the new-and-improved EG brand, we knew it would be fun to bring more color and energy to the redesigned website.
   
   
2. Optimize the site for search engines: Here’s where we suffered from the “Shoemaker’s Children” proverb. We have been doing great work optimizing our clients’ sites for search engines, but we realized we hadn’t been applying SEO best practices to our own site. SEO on our previous site was adequate, but not as good as the SEO of the sites we design for our clients. We wanted to fix that.
   
   
3. Retain the strengths of the current site: One of the coolest things about our previous website was the use of animation without using Flash. We wanted to make sure that our new website was equally technically advanced – and didn’t require plug-ins.
   
   
4. Design with mobile and devices in mind: Just like when working on our clients’ sites, we always have mobile in mind. And, since each EG staff member received an iPad as a holiday gift, we were particularly excited to design something that would be fun and interesting on a tablet. (Have you visited this site on an iPad yet? Be sure to check it out.)

As you can see, the resulting website is a colorful and informative expression of who we are and what we do. And we're always looking for feedback, so if you have any suggestions for our next redesign – or if you want us to help you with your own website – let us know.

Happy New Year, and welcome to our new website!

- Emily

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