Tales of a Designer

The What Next Factor

While browsing the web the other day, I suddenly thought of something that seems to be very important when design interfaces. It’s what I would like to call the “what next” factor, or otherwise known as wayfinding. When you have users visiting a website, you want to try your best to keep them on the site, by hopefully giving them options that will guide them through other parts of the site.

One of the best examples I’ve seen of this lately was in a game screen from Forza 2. Shown in the image (via Matt Brett), after you have finished a race, a screen appears asking you where you would like to go next.

Simple solution, great results. It has caused me to play the game for way more hours than planned. But this type of design thinking is very useful on the web as well, for guiding the user through the site.

This can be especially useful on blog sites, where you can give the reader options of what to do next after reading the blog post, as I try and do on this site at the end of blog posts, though it’s not too content heavy.

A nice and simple example of this is on 37signals Basecamp product page. You first arrive at the homepage, where you can read through the information, and when you get to the bottom of the page, you’re either going to be a little more curious about the product and take the tour, or you will already be sold on the product and sign up.

As designers we are supposed to guide users through the site so they take in as much useful information as possible before leaving the site. So thinking about the “what next” factor for each page can prove to be very useful, and make for a better user experience for those visiting a site.

Brand Loyalty

A few weeks ago, I was having a conversation with a friend about top brands around the world, and how they carry themselves, whether it be through a commercial, or how their sales people interact with customers in a store. The first brand that came to mind for me was Apple. Though my friend is in a completely different industry, he agreed.

In marketing, brand loyalty consists of a consumer’s commitment to repurchase the brand and can be demonstrated by repeated buying of a product or service or other positive behaviors such as word of mouth advocacy. True brand loyalty implies that the consumer is willing, at least on occasion, to put aside their own desires in the interest of the brand. via

I can’t say that I’ve ever seen more brand loyal people than Apple customers. I am one myself, and in the short year that I’ve been a customer of Apple, I’ve come to realize how strong Apple’s brand is to it’s customers. I can honestly say that I probably won’t consider any other type of brand for a computer for a long time. Not that others are bad, but just because I think Apple is that good.

I try and compare other brands to Apple, and though that might be high hopes, the results are often disappointing. Verizon is an example, who wants to be known as very reliable, however, when I was a customer, I spent too many hours in their stores fixing problems that I’ve had with their service. When I speak with their sales people, I don’t get that “reliable” vibe. I get the “I just want my paycheck” vibe. This is just one example of many that I could give.

Aside from Apple, I’ve tried to think of other brands that have that same type of loyalty, or even close, and only a few come to mind, which are Volkwagen(so I’ve heard), and Nintendo.

I’m curious to know of other big brands that have the kind of following and loyalty similar to Apple. Can you think of any?

The Client Is Not Always Right

Every person has heard the term “the customer is always right.” Before becoming a designer I believed this pretty strongly, however, after having clients and working hard to try and perfect my craft, that term seems far from correct now. Sometimes you get clients that are very receptive to new ideas, and actually like learning something about the web. But, others try and come to the table, throwing around buzzwords, like they know the web as well as designers who spend 10+ hours a day on the web.

When meeting new clients, I always like to listen to what the client has to say. I like to hear their perceptions of the web, and how they think having a website wil help their business out. After the listening part, I then chime in on things that I felt that they misunderstand about the web, and help them better understand things about the web, that could prove to be beneficial to their business.

An example of this, was a client that I had a while back who wanted an all flash site (and they actually bought a template for me to customize), yet the core audience for their site would be people ages [roughly] 40 and older. I was non-hesitant to let them know the downsides to having a flash site with that type of audience, and the types of issues that it would pose with accessibility.

The client was very receptive to my recommendations, especially because I sent articles backing up my statements so that they could further learn about why a flash site would not have been ideal for the project.

My overall point is that clients need education sometimes, and just because they approach a designer with a good price tag does not always mean we should bow down and do everything they want when it goes against the standard practices that we are used to. If they’re smart, they will find a designer looking for help to solve a problem, and not just paying to get something done.