Link round-up (2/28/07)
• WSJ: Using a Customer’s Journey to Tell a Compelling Story
• Even if it’s made to be viral, it’s not viral until it goes viral
• 7 Rules for Landing Page Optimization
• 2 Simple Steps to Finding Your Website’s Voice
• 83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen
• Minimizing Usability Risks in Web Applications
• The Complete Ad-Writer’s 12-Pack
• Color Me Bad? or ‘How Not to Waste Your Time’
• How to kill innovation hype
• swfIR: swf Image Replacement
- WSJ: Using a Customer’s Journey to Tell a Compelling Story
“The WSJ seems to understand that in order to broaden their audience, they have to get away from the stuffy old-boy newspaper reputation that they might have. This campaign, with its real people/real stories, makes the paper seem that much more accessible to a wider range of readers. There may be a lot of people in the world who have kept the WSJ in the money/markets/business box up until now, with no idea how much more “human interest” and cultural perspective the paper covers as well. This campaign helps to subtly change that view.”
- Even if it’s made to be viral, it’s not viral until it goes viral.
“It will never cease to amaze me what videos get picked up and go viral and what doesn’t. I’m not a viral expert, but I don’t think that there is any magic bullet for creating a viral video.”
- 7 Rules for Landing Page Optimization
“This is by no means a definitive look at what matters on landing pages. There are more than seven rules. For additional insight I would direct you to this three-part series on Landing Page Optimization. However, these seven basic elements are ones I’ve used consistently for many years now with great results.”
- 2 Simple Steps to Finding Your Website’s Voice
“Every website visit is a conversation. Think about it. The web is an interactive medium. Every time you click you ask a question. You interact with the company or brand. What kind of answers are you getting? Do you get a sense of whom you are talking to? Do you have any sense of who the company/brand is?”
- 83 Beautiful WordPress Themes You (Probably) Haven’t Seen
“Sometimes it’s just like searching for a needle in a haystack: if you’ve ever googled for free and quality WordPress Themes, you know exactly what we’re talking about. Most designers love to create WordPress themes, so they can demonstrate the quality of their work and add some fresh works to their portfolios.”
- Minimizing Usability Risks in Web Applications
“Desktop applications may seamlessly incorporate content from the Web – and use web conventions such as hyperlinks. Web-based applications provide functionality previously only found on the desktop. As these two worlds converge, new types of usability risks emerge. […] When designing interactions for web applications, think in terms of how you can make a function require less time, less physical effort, and less cognitive effort.”
- The Complete Ad-Writer’s 12-Pack
“Here, in one easy-to-open package, are twelve simple, practical, and hopefully helpful tips to make it easier for you to write better right now.”
- Color Me Bad? or ‘How Not to Waste Your Time’
“Aside from the twin factors of legibility and good taste (based on target demographic), color tests were *never* a big factor in improving conversion rates […] Websites designed to sell are conversion-oriented and task or process-conscious and don’t hide behind unnecessary visual drama. Sure, deeper in the process, some sites throw in a glitzy feature (like a rotating view of a product), but you shouldn’t rely on glitz to reach the goal.”
- How to kill innovation hype
“Today the word innovation is a common placeholder - Instead of saying “we are smart”, “we are good” or “we are willing to try new ideas”, messages that can be examined for truth, the word innovation is thrown down ambiguously, as if it were a replacement for having a message, or stating one clearly.”
- swfIR: swf Image Replacement
“swfIR (swf Image Replacement) is here to solve some of the design limitations of the standard HTML image and its widely-accepted associated CSS values, while still supporting standards-based design concepts. Using the dark arts of JavaScript and Flash, swfIR gives you the ability to apply an assortment of visual effects to any or all images on your website. Through progressive enhancement, it looks through your page and can easily add some new flavor to standard image styling.”
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