The What and the Why
I’ve been helping a business school lately with the strategy for their executive education site, and part of my background work has been to conduct one-on-one interviews with corporate learning officers (CLOs)—those who either create internal educational programs or connect individuals with development opportunities offered by third-parties like business schools. Let me please say that I love talking to people for projects like this almost as much as some have liked talking with me (I’d heard from more than one person that it’s like therapy). In our kickoff meeting, my client told me that CLOs look for program details, faculty members, timeframe, cost, and outcomes. Makes sense, but this quote from one interviewee really captured my attention:
“What every guy in my chair fears most is having an executive go away to a program for two weeks and say ‘it was a horrible experience’.”
That statement explained so much to me about my audience: why recommendations from colleagues are so important, why most general collateral ends up in their trash can, why they tend to build longstanding relationships with some institutions to the exclusion of other—perhaps more-qualified—providers, and why the ability to register online was not at the top of their wishlist.
It’s one thing to know what someone comes to your website for. It’s quite another, however, to get a glimpse into the feelings and motivations that drive expectations for information, service, and interaction. Understanding what’s happening in someone’s head and heart helps us to build a better web experience for the people we’re trying to reach. It was true more than a decade ago when we first started talking about visitor-centered design, and it’s true today. And it’s a large part of what keeps our work interesting.
Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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A Welcome, and a Change
World, I’d like to introduce you to the newest member of our mStoner team. Please meet Kylie Stanley, who joins us as a project manager. Kylie has a background in college admissions and college counseling. She earned her undergraduate degree (English and political science) from Indiana University and her master’s degree (higher education administration) from Vanderbilt University.
Good sport that Kylie is, she completed mStoner’s version of the Proust Questionnaire:
Favorite book: East of Eden
Heavy iPod rotation: Adele, The Avett Brothers, Darius Rucker
Funniest tweet you ever read: anything by @Possessionista (Dana Weiss)
Place you’d never check in on Foursquare: N/A – I check in everywhere, I’m shameless!
Greatest achievement to-date: obtaining my master’s degree in a field I truly love
What you learned best in college: I am in LOVE with higher ed
In grad school: being a nerd is trendy
Personal best: 2hr 14 minutes in the Nashville half-marathon
Your superhero: Tom Crean & IU basketball
Your nemesis: John Calipari & UK basketball
Your motto: “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” – Zora Neale Hurston
Read more about Kylie or follow Kylie on Twitter ...
And while we’re on the subject of introductions, I’d like to re-introduce you to Doug Gapinski. You may have known him as one of our creative directors or as the face of mStoner’s mobile/responsive design practice. Doug’s new role at the firm-and a well-earned promotion-is that of strategist. In that new position, Doug will apply all of his experience to developing broad, deep, and elegant communication solutions for our clients. Read more about Doug or catch up on his webinar on Device-iveness.
We’re looking forward to the best year yet at mStoner, and we’ve got an all-star team to get us there. Game on!
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Discuss this article (0)Giving Gold
Congratulations to Rebecca Bernstein and her team at the University at Buffalo for the CASE gold they recently won for their work on UB’s giving site. Susan’s already sung her praises of that site in a recent blog post about what makes a good giving site, but I can tell you a bit about the backstory.
Rebecca and her team based the information architecture and content for their giving site upon the Prideful Belonger/Active Support mental model that we helped develop a couple of years back. That model provided a great deal of insight into the motivations, priorities, feelings, and thoughts of current and prospective donors. Those insights now drive the compelling stories, clear nomenclature, specific calls to action, and educational features that you see on the resulting site.
I love the work that they’ve done and the way in which the site fits into the larger puzzle. The mental model work we did helped to form the foundation of the Digital Communications Transformation Initiative, a multiyear effort that is part of UB2020, the University’s long-range strategic plan. The WCI’s deliverables include:
- Practices and infrastructure that fit UB’s Web environment, its mission and its strategic goals, scalable for the UB enterprise
- Standards and information architecture that can be used by university programs, schools and departments
- Templates that can be shared throughout the university, geared to helping users produce what they need efficiently and effectively
- Web content, production workflow and roles
- Web Content Management System (CMS) product using existing infrastructure
- Identification of centralized resources needed for Web development support
Check out how that team’s work-to-date has unfolded at:
- The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
- The PhD program in Biomedical Sciences
- The Department of Pediatrics
- The Department of Biochemistry
- The Office of the President
- The University’s homepage that represents the integration of all of their efforts and lessons learned
Want more? Check out the complete list of launched sites under the WCI at http://ubcms.buffalo.edu/about/launched_websites.html.
I’m so impressed with what they’ve accomplished so far:
- A body of mental model research that guides decisions about content, site structure, and navigation aimed at prospective students, faculty, staff, and donors
- A visual vocabulary that simultaneously supports the University’s brand and the specific needs of each unit
- A collection of technology tools and components that are coded once and available to every group that comes under the WCI
- A sensible rollout plan that ensures proper support and successful launches
People who haven’t been through a campuswide effort like this tend to underestimate the amount of work, time, and expertise necessary either through internal resources or external help. Many mistake this sort of initiative as a design project or an exercise in programming. Many think that one IA will suit all or that content will magically appear. Some will try to cheat the process by imposing arbitrary dates and deadlines, and some will fail to anticipate the long-term resources, policies, and training necessary to sustain their efforts. Rebecca and her team know better, and I think their work serves as a wonderful model to which we should all aspire.
Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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ISO a PM for LTR
From time to time I talk with friends and colleagues about why I made the switch to consulting more than a decade ago. My reasons were simple: I wanted to stay in higher education, but I didn’t want be running the same cycle of events and campaigns year after year for the same institution. Consulting provided me the promise of variety, the challenge of new issues to tackle, and the opportunity to work with some of the brightest and most interesting people in education. More than 10 years later, I’m very proud of the team we’ve built at mStoner—from our designers to our senior strategists, we’re problem solvers and relationship builders who are versatile, multitalented, and personable.
Take our project managers, for instance. For clients, their job is to ensure we deliver high-quality projects, on time and budget, with great communication and partnership along the way. For us as a firm, they play a huge part in running a healthy, growing and profitable business.
But the range of work for our project managers doesn’t stop there. As the primary contacts for our clients, our PMs offer the first line of support and clear obstacles that might otherwise derail an engagement. If that isn’t enough, on any given day our PMs may also lead usability tests, analyze qualitative and quantitative data, provide feedback on creative, step in to QA our technical work, or contribute to a strategy. In the milliseconds that remain, they also unearth the most interesting tidbits from the Interwebs or educate our team on the differences between pale ale and lager.
Sound like the kind of job you’ve been dreaming of? Just so happens we have a project manager opening. If you’re ready for this jelly, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Game on!
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Discuss this article (0)Indi Young in DC on 8 September
If I weren’t going to be in Barcelona, I’d be there myself. Check out the details on her upcoming mental models workshop: http://www.rosenfeldmedia.com/workshops/.
And if you go, say hello for me!
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Mobile Musings
I wanted to share a few links and stories about developments in the mobile world. I’m a huge geek for new toys and tools, and the mobile sector is advancing at a pace where there’s always something new and exciting happening. Here are a few stories that caught my eye over the past week, and please share any others you may have in the comments.
News
Mobile web use for college students is the new norm
We all know that the mobile sector is growing rapidly, but the rate of growth on campus by students is staggering. The “ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology” by Shannon D. Smith and Judith Borreson Caruso for the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied Research, showed that ownership of mobile web enabled devices within current college students has risen 11% from spring of 2009 to spring 2010, with 62.7% of all students owning such a device. Even more interesting, the study was completed just before the iPad was released, so expect that number to rise even more dramatically next year.
The study also reported that in 2009, less than half of students surveyed said they used their web enabled mobile device to access the internet weekly. A year later, over two-thirds of students now access the web via these devices at least once a week, with 42.6% accessing daily.
While none of these numbers should be surprising, the rate of growth that is being seen shows that the mobile web is no longer something to prepare for, but something that is here now. Click here to read more.
iOS devices now support TrueType Font embedding
The new iOS 4.2 upgrade came with a lot of fun, new, highly publicized features for iPhones and iPads. One that snuck under the radar, and will have a huge impact in the mobile web development community, is the support of True Type fonts within mobile Safari. TrueType fonts both have a better rendering quality on screen, and have a smaller file sizes compared to the SVG standard, which was the lone supported font standard previously. This will also offer designers greater levels of control in how their typography appears on the iOS mobile devices. Read more about this from Zeldman.com.
Android Wireless Sync
doubleTwist has just released an app to allow Android users to wirelessly sync their iTunes playlists, videos, and photos with their computers using only the wireless network. No wires involved. As an iPhone owner, this is a feature that fills me with envy. Click here for more information.
Spotlight
Hotseat from Purdue University
Branded as a micro-discussion platform, Hotseat was created as a tool to create a collaborative classroom environment, specifically targeting larger lecture halls. Leveraging browser based discussion with Facebook or Twitter updates, and accessible from computers or mobile devices, professors can curate conversation organically within their lessons, and students are also able to ask questions or provide feedback during class. The professor can pose questions for the students, and there is also a function that allows students to submit questions of their own to the professor and the class at large. Other students can then vote for that question, letting the professor know there is interest, or respond themselves. It creates a more open, collaborative approach to learning, and can allow for more interaction between the instructor and the students, especially in larger class settings.
The use of technology and social media to enhance the classroom learning experience always seems like something that would be easy to implement, but harnessing the power of the different tools has always presented a challenge. By creating a platform that uses existing social media outlets while creating worthwhile native applications, Hotseat has the potential to give instructors and students access to each other without distraction, within the flow of the class. Raising hands, your time is up.
Click here to learn more about Hotseat. And as a proud Purdue graduate, it’s even more exciting to see that this product was developed by Kyle Bowen, a teacher’s assistant I had for a number of classes years ago. Yep, I’m a homer, and I’m fine with that.
Design Tips
Designing for the retina display of the iPhone 4
Smashing Magazine has a nice overview on how to alter your design methods for the higher resolution screen of the new iPhone. While this is great for specific design criteria for one device, it’s true value is how it demonstrates a number of design habits that mobile developers should incorporate earlier than later. As mobile devices continue to evolve, having a design in place to support as many screen sizes, resolutions, and formats as possible is going to be a must, especially in a market which is constantly evolving. Read more at Smashing Magazine.
Review App
Piggybacking on the previous article, I have been using the Review App for my UI development. This is an app that provides a quick, painless way to transfer PSD and PNG files straight to your iPhone for review. An interface designers dream. Click here for more info: http://getreviewapp.com/
mStoner Mobile Webinar
If you’re interested in mobile use for your .edu site, be sure to join mStoner Creative Director Doug Gapinski and Susan Evans, director of creative services at the College of William & Mary, for a free session about exploring the trends and challenges associated with mobile delivery for education institutions today. Register today!
Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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I’d Buy That For A Dollar
The announcement of the new Apple TV model two weeks ago brought with it a revised media rental pricing tier, with the ability to watch a TV show for a specific period of time for $.99. Interestingly, most of the conversations that I heard were not about who would buy in to this new model and pay for individual shows, but rather which system was the best way to replace your cable box. Focusing the debate on the literal content and devices playing digital media made it more clear than ever that we’ve moved into an entirely new era of how we interact online. People are now willing to spend money to make the internet work for them.
The idea that people won’t pay for anything online has always been a fallacy. The truth is that people won’t pay for something they’re unsure of, that they don’t understand or trust. The internet was new when those arguments rang from every annual corporate meeting. It was easy then to see online consumption of media in black and white: stolen or given away at no cost (and for no profit). While that was true at the time, it was perhaps a necessary part of the process that has brought us to our current state, where users trust that their money was going towards something that they could get value from. The perfect example of how this will play out has always been right in front of us on a daily basis. TV.
For the first 50 years of television, you bought a set, put up rabbit ears, and the signal was free. It was a one time purchase, but you had limited choice of what to watch. When cable TV was initially offered, there was an uproar. Surely no one would pay for more channels. Why pay for something you could get for free? How much TV does a viewer need? Turns out, a lot. People “needed” much, much more. But it took a while to get there. For the first ten years of my life, I only watched cable at my “rich” friends’ houses. It was a luxury, and one I felt lucky to have when my folks finally got it. By the time I went to college, cable was a given. Today, I pay extra each month for HD and HBO without a second thought, because I feel I get true value from each dollar I spend (assuming Boardwalk Empire is as great as it looks). Thirty five years ago, that would have been a crazy notion, yet here we are, and here we go to the next phase of digital consumption.
That’s what the past few years of Web 2.0 has been, creating the free networks that instill users’ trust in the internet, enough to pay for added value. Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube. These are the ABC, CBS and NBC of the internet generation. They got people using the web in a personal manner, trusting it, and now they’re willing to pay to make it more personalized. Buying a song in iTunes to put on my laptop, my iPhone, and my iPad is a one-click convenience that gets me my music as I want it, the way I once felt when listening to a band’s song on their MySpace page. Renting a TV episode for a flight home is no longer a question of how I can download it, do I have the hard drive space and how do I transfer it. It just arrives on my chosen device, just like my Twitter feed, or my Facebook updates. The trust transfers.
These ideas are now being translated into the next steps of buying apps to help bolster my productivity with free tools that I use daily. I’ll spend $2 to use a better Twitter aggregator instead of the free website. I’ll pay $3 for an iPhone version of a Flash based game I can play for free in my browser. I’ll pay $10 for a complimentary toolset on my iPad for my office productivity set. I know these apps and tools, if used correctly, will make my life easier and therefore better. As an end user, I (like many of you) have cleared the hurdle of trust, and now it’s just a question of priorities: what will I choose to enhance my online and digital experiences. It’s no longer a question of IF I’ll use them, HOW I’ll use them, or WILL they work. It’s now just a question of how I choose to enhance my online and digital experiences.
With that trust in place, specifically within the younger demographic, who never really had to question online transactions, it’ll be very interesting to see how that mindset transfers into higher education. Everyone has come to accept that the era of the digital textbook and online exams will be here to stay soon, but what of the customization tools? Sure, the student has a textbook, but will they pay $2 to hear a visiting professor explain the chapter in more detail? Will that $10 collaborative notes program for their tablet, allowing users to collect and sort the notes of the entire class, be worth it for all of the students? Not only will our comfort level with customizing existing technology change the way students learn and faculty teach, it will also change the way that institutions of higher learning realize revenue. At least until the next digital revolution comes our way.
Posted by Voltaire Santos Miran
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UB: Looking Back and Forward Fondly on Mental Models
A little earlier today I got a note from a user experience peer in Germany—she was asking for some advice about developing mental models in Omnigraffle. Her query made me realize that I hadn’t yet closed the loop on my UB chronicles.
Part of the reason is, honestly, we’re not quite done yet. The final stretch of the project involves mapping out a faceted search function for support and solutions section of the UB Information Technology site. If we get our way, it’s going to be seriously tricked out and cool and highly usable for IT solution seekers. More on that, in a little bit.
Since we started this project, I’ve been trying to find new stuff to bring Indi and Eric in on. They recently completed an intranet information architecture project with us for the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, and I’ve recommended that we use the mental model framework for creating a new alumni and development site for a prospective client.
Why? Because I love the systematic method by which mental models collect, parse, and group data points with targeted audiences at the center of the work. I love the visual representation of the research that really helps people to grasp not only our audiences’ mental spaces, but also the information and services that exist to meet their needs within those spaces. Sometimes, the sheer gap between audience expectations and existing content jumps out at you from the diagrams—a picture can be worth a thousand words (or, come budget time, contract hours for necessary resources). Finally, I love the headstart that the models give in developing content—mental models show not only what’s necessary, what exists, and what’s missing … they also provide details what people think and feel and believe in each mental space.
Once we get the IT site more fully mapped out, I’ll follow up one last time. Meanwhile, links to my previous entries, in case you, like me, dislike even limited commercial interruptions:
- UB Mental Models Unveiled
- The Race to Place a Mental Space
- Oh, My Kingdom for a Finely Tuned Comb
- Unlearning My Cocktail Conversation
- Report from the Front, Week Nine
- Report from the Front, Week Five
- All the Pretty Little Rows and Columns
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Opening at Kellogg for a Web Design/Content Management/Content Editor
Our friends at Kellogg just passed this job opening on to us, check it out:
http://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/web/1539932196.html
Challenging job responsibilities, top-notch institution, and best yet, you’d be working with some really good folks!
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UB: mental models, unveiled!
Last week we unveiled our mental models to the University at Buffalo community—silent sigh of relief, big yay for all of us!
Four models in total:
1. Matchseekers: people evaluating whether an institution, job, or working relationship is a good fit for them.
2. IT Solution seekers: people looking for answers to IT-related questions or issues.
3. Health Solution seekers: people looking for answers to health-related questions or issues.
4. Active Supporters/Prideful Belongers/Pulsetakers: people who want to support the institution, as well as people who track specific issues of interest within the institution.
The work to-date represented over 1,000 collective hours of research and analysis. In our prep for presentations, Rebecca and I asked each other “So, what we learn, and was it worth it?”
First, the learning. My key takeaways:
1. We learned how to listen differently. The process of having these conversations talk us how to listen intently without leading or constraining. One person on Rebecca’s team told her that, as a result of this project, she’d never do interviews in the same way.
2. We confirmed some of what we thought we knew. Having done this for awhile, we thought he had a good sense of our audiences’ needs and expectations. In many cases, we affirmed that sense.
3. We filled in the blanks. We knew, for instance, that prospectives evaluated both the institution and the city in making their decisions. Now we know that they evaluate the city and institution by different criteria, and that criteria changes from mental space to mental space.
So was it worth it? Yes, indeed. Particularly for developing content-the mental models give us a good deal of information about framing and delivering information to better meet the needs and expectations of our target audiences. The models also help in developing detailed architecture-knowing more about the what, when, wheres, and whys helps us to create link sets and information clusters more effectively.
And the models scale. We’re applying the matchseeker model to sites for the medical school and to university communications as a start. That same model can be used by the rest of the schools at UB as the Web Content Initiative rolls out through the institution over time. And that model can be expanded, with additional research being combed into the model to continue to enhance our understanding.
My favorite moment came when a faculty member from the medical school commented to me that the information he saw in the models confirmed his experience—not only as a doctor and researcher, but also as an individual. That affirmation, priceless.
The next few weeks, another bit of a race: baseline testing, information architecture development, usability, and wireframes…
