In this current blog post, we will look at and examine two websites that I visit frequently. In each, we'll cover why they are effective, principles of design, what draws me back each time, and how they can be improved.
The first...
Vox - http://www.vox.com/
Vox is primarily a "general interest news site." Meaning, its focus is to deliver news, which many organizations do. What sets Vox apart from other online news sources - its claim to fame - doesn't necessarily have to do with its site design, although its pretty unique. Vox's articles always feel a little less like the run of the mill reporting that you see in many news stories found in your local newspaper or even NY Times/CNN/LA Times/etc, and ofttimes void of opinions, simple commentary, and bias present in op-eds, or Salon/Buzzfeed/etc. While it may include these things, the 'products' that it vigorously markets and sticks to are articles that "explain the news," Each article is an academic study in its own right, and are based around data which journalists use to propose interpretations of what the this data means for the subject matter they cover. With this in mind, the marketing of the site definitely lends itself to showcasing these products/articles and letting them speak for themselves.
Design
As the focus being their articles/products, the site is designed with these studies as its central theme and doesn't really have much other "fluff" than this. It goes toward a commitment to simplicity and professionalism that I really appreciate. They even provide a roll down menu for their topics so that it doesn't clutter the heading, but event he roll down menu isn't overly populated. The only thing at the top is the Vox logo. The site as a whole is organized on a grid like most well organized news sites, but at the same time is set apart. While most news sites pack article titles, blurbs, weather and other data into the 'cells' of their grid organization, many of Vox's cells only feature one article. This makes readability easier, reduces the amount of clutter on the site, and gives the impression that each article is important and has an impact in our civic discussions. Additionally, the color scheme is very simple, high contrast, and contributes toward the brands recognition. It owns that yellow, gray, white, and black scheme.
The Hook
The thing that keeps me coming back has a lot to do with how they organize their information. When I go on the site, I get the feel that they know what I'm there for. Its not just to get news or just the headlines but the deeper data and implication of why the headlines are what they are. Vox keeps this in mind and organizes their studies with the analysis of the bigger stories front and center.
Improvements
The site is doing a lot of things right so it's pretty hard to say what they could do better. I'm almost afraid to suggest that they add more elements but I suppose it would be cool to see the site play around more with the color black. There is an opportunity to do this in the breaks between sections as you scroll down the pages as to add a little more drama while you're moving though. I could also see the pros to maybe truncating the amount of articles on the home page so that there is less scrolling.
NPR - http://www.npr.org/
In continuing with displaying my enthusiasm/addiction for news, I also frequent the very popular NPR site a lot. It's site actually feels really similar to Vox in that it hinges on simplicity and their stories are the centerpiece. The difference in delivery has a lot to with their medium being radio and podcasts. Their effectiveness has to be tied in to bringing their listeners to their site to explore more content which it does pretty well. The stories featured on the site have links to further information than what you hear on the radio. Additionally, content is organized into hierarchies by topic that make it easier to expand on the information you can get beyond reporting featured in its sound bites.
Design
If you haven't gotten it before, I'll say again, that I'm a sucker for simplicity. While NPR does have a lot of articles organized into its' site, there we never get the feeling of clutter. They also utilize a neutral color scheme that has that red and blue 'pop' to it. It is also organized on a grid, and like Vox, single articles occupy the cells rather than a cluster of headlines. The theme between articles and pages vary somewhat but are very consistent about keeping to a theme in text (no more than 4 fonts on a page), color scheme, hierarchy, photos, and text blocks.
The Hook
What keeps me coming back to this site is its simplicity and organization which give the impression that the stories are what's important and reminds me that NPR is the name that is giving it to me. It is also very convenient to navigate. There's one menu roll down that connect me to all the topics, one that connects me to all the programs and podcasts, and a widget that recurs on every page where I can click play and listen to the live stream. This is all navigable from the front page.
Improvements
One improvement that I can think of also has to do with scrolling. It would be interesting to have a drop down menu on the first page that can organize the front page by date, so that I can go back to previous big stories. It may also benefit from a high contrast break line between larger sections.
From the last posts, I commented on bloggers:
Tiffany L - http://tiffanylehman365.blogspot.com/
Travis S - http://semi-there.blogspot.com/
Luellen R - http://craftingsocial.blogspot.com/
Monday, September 26, 2016
Thursday, September 22, 2016
Week 3A: Website Critique
For this blog post we will be looking at a couple websites and discussing their aesthetics, design, and branding. Specifically, we will determine what can be improved and how beneficial features of the sites impact our reactions.
Critique:
The first issue with this site is that there is nothing introducing me to what exactly the Riverside Art Center is, what it does, who it serves, where it is located, etc. Some things I can infer, such as there's perhaps art there to be viewed. However, I don't really know if it is a gallery, a strictly event space, open to the public...Any relevant information I would want to know if, for nothing else, I even was interested in visiting. The reason I may not be so quite to explore it involved the next issue.
The color scheme of the site also has some issues that could be tamed. By clicking through some of the links, each page has a different and often busy motley of color. On the one hand, the site does well with keeping the text high in contrast which does a lot for readability but also makes it irritating to look art for too long. The big problem with this as a branding issue has to do with the expectation that as an "art center" it speak better toward the organizers artistic expertise if the website had a more appealing, and especially consistent color scheme.
Lastly, the most egregious issue is that there are no pictures, especially on the front page. Circling back to the first problem, it misses the opportunity to represent the art center with any visuals that would make it appealing to visit or know anything about.
Critique:
The first issue with this site is that there is nothing introducing me to what exactly the Riverside Art Center is, what it does, who it serves, where it is located, etc. Some things I can infer, such as there's perhaps art there to be viewed. However, I don't really know if it is a gallery, a strictly event space, open to the public...Any relevant information I would want to know if, for nothing else, I even was interested in visiting. The reason I may not be so quite to explore it involved the next issue.
The color scheme of the site also has some issues that could be tamed. By clicking through some of the links, each page has a different and often busy motley of color. On the one hand, the site does well with keeping the text high in contrast which does a lot for readability but also makes it irritating to look art for too long. The big problem with this as a branding issue has to do with the expectation that as an "art center" it speak better toward the organizers artistic expertise if the website had a more appealing, and especially consistent color scheme.
Lastly, the most egregious issue is that there are no pictures, especially on the front page. Circling back to the first problem, it misses the opportunity to represent the art center with any visuals that would make it appealing to visit or know anything about.
Firstly, this site is pleasantly more explicit about what this business offers which appears to be a supplier specializing in parts for a particular car model. Having said that, there are some issues. The culprit of design folly has to do with the text formatted over the pictures which occurs a lot in this site. I understand the intention to add intrigue to the different links and directories but it actually works to decrease the readability of the words as there is not enough contrast despite occasionally laying over filtering upon images behind the word.
Another issue is that some of the pictures have resolutions that are way too low for web use. Interestingly, the resolution doesn't need to be that high for web in order to avoid the choppy look of some of the photos. More care should be taken to get higher quality images, especially when providing a service that relies heavily on viewing the finished product.
On top of these things, there may actually be too many pictures, to a point where it seems cluttered. The layout may also contribute this. The site may do better by cutting down on some of the pictures around the site where they aren't necessary and then maybe including a gallery where all of the pictures can reside.
Praise:
Apple
The Apple site, as can be expected from such a big company, has a very appealing website. The really big thing that makes it really appealing is how simple, yet elegant the design is. The organization has a lot to do with this. A virtue of being such a big company has the benefit of letting the brand images and logo do the work it, such as the case with the Apply logo being the home page button. The organization also relies heavily upon and is designed around the visuals which are flashy but not so much as to seem cluttered, but gives just the right amount of information.
Headhunter Hairstyling
This was another site that I really like. The color scheme was simple, consistent, light, and seemed to compliment the theme of the site overall. There were pictures and visuals but they weren't all over the place, and were clearly curated with attention to detail and quality. I was also able to glean a lot about the business right away, it being a unisex hair shop. There wasn't an over-abundance of menu items or disparate amount of links and everything was easy to find. This wasn't a site from a company as big as Apple but the design of the site was quite comparable.
Monday, September 19, 2016
Week 2C: Businesses Employing Social Media
The sort of business that I am interested in and want to get in to has to do with big data or data management so the business websites that I looked at have to do with these field in some form or another.
Arcadia Data Inc https://www.arcadiadata.com/
Post Replies:
To hear more about business to consumer communication through social media, be sure to check out these perspectives:
Luellen: https://craftingsocial.blogspot.com/
Yudith: http://firstblogbyyl.blogspot.com/
Tiffany: http://tiffanylehman365.blogspot.com/
Arcadia Data Inc https://www.arcadiadata.com/
- Latest Posts -
- LinkedIn: 9/13/16 - for podcast updates, product demos, relevant articles awards, and features
- Twitter: 9/19/16 (~3 hours before this posts) - more broad, events, promotes different pages, posts articles, developments in research, but repetitive
Alpine Data http://alpinedata.com/
- Latest Posts -
- LinkedIn: 9/09/16The link to their LinkedIn actually doesn't work but they do have an account, market their projects with clients they've acquired, webinars, thought pieces they produce
- Twitter: 9/19/16 The same as above but with more frequent updates, reminders, and follow-ups,
Cloudera http://www.cloudera.com/
- Latest Posts -
- LinkedIn: 9/19/16 Same as above, but centered on articles, research/develop updates, recognition, strategy; markedly more participation with likes and comments
- Twitter: 9/19/16 Synced with LinkedIn
- Facebook: 9/19/16 Somewhat similar to above but more focused on events, and marketing for them
Sqrrl https://sqrrl.com/
- Latest Posts -
- LinkedIn: 9/17/16 Marketing its services and solutions, highlighting prominent professionals, including shout-outs
- Twitter: 9/19/16 Same as above, also makes plugs for relevant blogs marketing its stakeholders, and re-tweeting posts from clients - twitter feed also displayed on website
- Facebook: 9/17/16 much the same as above, less participation in terms of reviews (virtually nonexistent) but seemingly accessible nonetheless
- Google+: 9/16/16Same as above but much less cultivated
Mevoked http://www.mevoked.com/
- Latest Posts -
- Twitter: 7/29/16 Appears to be much more broad than the others, covers info relevant to any modern professional, such as mental health, relevant articles from various sources, and does a lot of re-tweeting but the company isn't very well followed
- Facebook: 9/01/16 It is a much less attended to than the Twitter page and it looks like receives much less investment but much of the same posts found here are found on the Twitter page with
As a note not to be neglected, many of the companies are located in Silicone Valley/San Francisco Bay Area
Post Replies:
To hear more about business to consumer communication through social media, be sure to check out these perspectives:
Luellen: https://craftingsocial.blogspot.com/
Yudith: http://firstblogbyyl.blogspot.com/
Tiffany: http://tiffanylehman365.blogspot.com/
Thursday, September 15, 2016
Week 2A: Business to Customer Relations
As an individual who finds himself easy to please most times I do find myself in situations where communicating with businesses as a willing consumer turns difficult. One such situation had to do with a vendor for custom embroidered and print clothing that's typical of what people look for when getting uniforms for a club, team, or any organized group. So as not to preserve any suspense the issue that arose was eventually resolved but in no way for the lack of effort it took to reach the customer service people responsible for remedying the problem. Further, the problem wasn't that complicated: a couple of shirts were missing some lettering. It was a puzzling mistake considering all the other ones were correct but I'm a reasonable guy, these things happen. And it's here that I would humbly accept fault for my lack of due diligence...I focused a lot more on the price and flashy pictures than further researching the company. It turned out that they have a reputation for being unresponsive when issue come up. They have a customer service number but it goes straight to their voicemail, an email that is not promptly replied, and a chat feature that is not often attended. Eventually, they decided to email me back with a tracker number for the extra shirts but it was definitely quite the trial.
Taking the above account as an example, when I finally got the sense to look at the reviews on their Facebook page, they did teach me that I should have perhaps done more research into other companies. This tells me a couple things about the utility of social media: on the one hand, it is easy to get a problem noticed but to actually get it resolved is sort of another monster. This company had many complaints about the timeliness and completeness of orders that looked to have spanned quite a long time. This leads me to believe that they were not paying very much attention to these reviews. However, many companies do vary in their responsiveness to certain platforms that likely depends on where their target market actually resides; they may not get a lot of the patrons from solid Facebook users. Additionally, the choice to invest in solving the problems that arise from complaints is also a consideration. Would the company lose too much money investing in more reliable processes or hiring more customer service representatives? If they had to increase prices to do these things, would the better service offset the loss of what lured me in the first place: low prices?
My more positive communications with businesses over social media have been more subtle. Since most of my investment of social media is reserved for casual use, I tend not to leave reviews for products on platforms not specifically aligned toward that end. For instance, I do like to leave Yelp reviews for places that I really like. This encourages the business and customers who are in agreement to support the reviews with likes and I become a more reputable reviewer and the business is more popular for it. Subtly still, I often times add location markers to my tweets and may plug the business that I'm at with a positive quip, usually at coffee shops.
If this were my own business, I think it would be important to first establish what are the best avenues to solve issues and be prompt in doing so. All the while, it is important that I remain transparent and completely sincere which customers tend to appreciate. This way if there are positive comments I can continue the good service that led to them and honor it with a repost or throwing in something extra for that consumer. On the other hand, if its negative than I would be encouraged to figure out where the miscommunication or mistake was, remedy it, and make it known that I have done so. I feel like through this process you can also get a feel for when I business is doing what it can and when a customer is being unreasonable.
Taking the above account as an example, when I finally got the sense to look at the reviews on their Facebook page, they did teach me that I should have perhaps done more research into other companies. This tells me a couple things about the utility of social media: on the one hand, it is easy to get a problem noticed but to actually get it resolved is sort of another monster. This company had many complaints about the timeliness and completeness of orders that looked to have spanned quite a long time. This leads me to believe that they were not paying very much attention to these reviews. However, many companies do vary in their responsiveness to certain platforms that likely depends on where their target market actually resides; they may not get a lot of the patrons from solid Facebook users. Additionally, the choice to invest in solving the problems that arise from complaints is also a consideration. Would the company lose too much money investing in more reliable processes or hiring more customer service representatives? If they had to increase prices to do these things, would the better service offset the loss of what lured me in the first place: low prices?
My more positive communications with businesses over social media have been more subtle. Since most of my investment of social media is reserved for casual use, I tend not to leave reviews for products on platforms not specifically aligned toward that end. For instance, I do like to leave Yelp reviews for places that I really like. This encourages the business and customers who are in agreement to support the reviews with likes and I become a more reputable reviewer and the business is more popular for it. Subtly still, I often times add location markers to my tweets and may plug the business that I'm at with a positive quip, usually at coffee shops.
If this were my own business, I think it would be important to first establish what are the best avenues to solve issues and be prompt in doing so. All the while, it is important that I remain transparent and completely sincere which customers tend to appreciate. This way if there are positive comments I can continue the good service that led to them and honor it with a repost or throwing in something extra for that consumer. On the other hand, if its negative than I would be encouraged to figure out where the miscommunication or mistake was, remedy it, and make it known that I have done so. I feel like through this process you can also get a feel for when I business is doing what it can and when a customer is being unreasonable.
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Week 1: Post Replies
I really enjoyed viewing all the blogs. Blogs I replied to:
Bartley, Teressa
Hernandez, Isabel
Stehmeier, Travis
Bartley, Teressa
Hernandez, Isabel
Stehmeier, Travis
Monday, September 12, 2016
Week1: Social Media - Personal Vs. Business Use
Persoanl Use
I believe that the current standard for social media platforms geared toward personal use is Facebook. Although not my personal favorite, it has built a strong reputation of creating environments where people create and maintain relationships all over the world. Additionally, posts by friends, popular personalities, news, updates, events, groups, and a myriad of other outlets are customized for the individuals personal use. I mainly use Facebook to keep up with friends I meet from high school, college, some colleagues I've worked with, and news updates, so my 'feed' (the stream of posts from these different people and organizations) has become fairly casual. However, Facebook as a marketing tool is pretty versatile and can be used to promote businesses, organize clubs, professional networking, and many endeavors. What may be the most beneficial to Facebook is that it has so many users. As reported by the company itself there are over one billion people active on Facebook.
There are many platforms that are able to do everything or at least most of what Facebook does, as well as companies that approach social media through a different niche. Mt favorite is actually Reddit. It is perhaps not as flashy as Facebook; it's essential a message board that doesn't necessarily demand the kind of overt self representation that Facebook does. I also appreciate how Reddit's utility is tied to particular decorum that motivates participation from its separate communities, or 'sub-Reddits.' The posts you see on its feed are driven by a voting system that users participate, and in my experience, the posts on the top are always the most fascinating, relevant, and accurate which are really important attributes.
Aside from those two, there's also Twitter, of which I have an account. The only reason I use Twitter and it's biggest claim to fame is because it is probably the fastest way to get news and updates on major events or even minor, more local ones. And in addition to this, you have other personal use social media such as Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Myspace (still there), Soundcloud (audio based), and many others.
Business Use
Many of the aforementioned platforms can and most often are also used for promoting businesses. In fact, if one desires to spend the resources on marketing at all, I would say it's almost necessary to attack that endeavor from lots of different platforms, as to reach a wider audience (not everyone is like me and just keep it to Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook). Having said that, there are platforms that do specifically market for the patronage of businesses as well as single individuals marketing themselves. I should mention that I'm not much of an expert in this area but have invested some time in to one or two of them.
One such company, and I would assume the most popular, is LinkedIn. It's much like Facebook in that you create a profile, adding a picture behooves of you so others know who you are, you identify your interests, and you opt to 'connect' (rather than Facebook's 'follow') with people within your network. The key difference here is that the intent behind LinkedIn is specific to developing one's professional network, thereby opening up opportunities for people and organizations in any industry, and not so much in the pursuit of self. With that mission in mind, it's basically a universally accessible resume which I really like about it.
Other than this big company, I would venture to say that in terms of business marketing, the platforms I mentioned earlier may be the next best environments given their popularity. Although, many job search engines like Indeed, Monster, Glassdoor, etc. also have the option of having people and business add profiles and can be considered another tactic in marketing for business use.
I believe that the current standard for social media platforms geared toward personal use is Facebook. Although not my personal favorite, it has built a strong reputation of creating environments where people create and maintain relationships all over the world. Additionally, posts by friends, popular personalities, news, updates, events, groups, and a myriad of other outlets are customized for the individuals personal use. I mainly use Facebook to keep up with friends I meet from high school, college, some colleagues I've worked with, and news updates, so my 'feed' (the stream of posts from these different people and organizations) has become fairly casual. However, Facebook as a marketing tool is pretty versatile and can be used to promote businesses, organize clubs, professional networking, and many endeavors. What may be the most beneficial to Facebook is that it has so many users. As reported by the company itself there are over one billion people active on Facebook.
There are many platforms that are able to do everything or at least most of what Facebook does, as well as companies that approach social media through a different niche. Mt favorite is actually Reddit. It is perhaps not as flashy as Facebook; it's essential a message board that doesn't necessarily demand the kind of overt self representation that Facebook does. I also appreciate how Reddit's utility is tied to particular decorum that motivates participation from its separate communities, or 'sub-Reddits.' The posts you see on its feed are driven by a voting system that users participate, and in my experience, the posts on the top are always the most fascinating, relevant, and accurate which are really important attributes.
Aside from those two, there's also Twitter, of which I have an account. The only reason I use Twitter and it's biggest claim to fame is because it is probably the fastest way to get news and updates on major events or even minor, more local ones. And in addition to this, you have other personal use social media such as Instagram, Pinterest, Google+, Myspace (still there), Soundcloud (audio based), and many others.
Business Use
Many of the aforementioned platforms can and most often are also used for promoting businesses. In fact, if one desires to spend the resources on marketing at all, I would say it's almost necessary to attack that endeavor from lots of different platforms, as to reach a wider audience (not everyone is like me and just keep it to Reddit, Twitter, and Facebook). Having said that, there are platforms that do specifically market for the patronage of businesses as well as single individuals marketing themselves. I should mention that I'm not much of an expert in this area but have invested some time in to one or two of them.
One such company, and I would assume the most popular, is LinkedIn. It's much like Facebook in that you create a profile, adding a picture behooves of you so others know who you are, you identify your interests, and you opt to 'connect' (rather than Facebook's 'follow') with people within your network. The key difference here is that the intent behind LinkedIn is specific to developing one's professional network, thereby opening up opportunities for people and organizations in any industry, and not so much in the pursuit of self. With that mission in mind, it's basically a universally accessible resume which I really like about it.
Other than this big company, I would venture to say that in terms of business marketing, the platforms I mentioned earlier may be the next best environments given their popularity. Although, many job search engines like Indeed, Monster, Glassdoor, etc. also have the option of having people and business add profiles and can be considered another tactic in marketing for business use.
Sunday, September 11, 2016
Week 1: Blog Template
Hello viewers! This initial blog post addresses the template that I have used for the blog account/accuracy. The template that I chose was watermark which certainly appealed to me more than the other options. There is this undertone of having to do with history that makes it rich to the content that will later populate the blog.
The scripts and graphics go s lot way to invoke that exhilaration.
The scripts and graphics go s lot way to invoke that exhilaration.
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