Monthly Archives: June 2008

Design beyond the home page

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I found an article in the New York Times about how Google is not improving their Google News service. You can think of Google News is a giant link list of news topics. Google News harvests news from sites around the world and lists them. But the one aspect of the article that caught my attention was how Google News is affecting “real” news web sites. The thing is when you click on a link it takes you to the source site, it doesn’t keep you in Google. So in that way Google News actually benefits these news sites because it may get them visitors that would otherwise not even know about their site.

If I was running a news site I would want my news to show up on Google News for just that fact. But then someone says something like this:

“Instead of entering a preferred news site through its front page, users are being routed to a single article, perhaps deep inside the site, and when they are done reading it, they move on.”


Now I know the home page is always the top page for almost every web site. Most of the time people hit the home page of a site and then leave right away without doing or reading anything. Companies spend piles of money at trying to design a better home page that will get people to act and click on something. But that statement just proves that companies are only spending money on the home page and not worrying about other pages (sub-pages).

In a Google world and in a time when there are countless statistics and analytics available to everyone (also thanks to Google), sites have the information that tells them where and how to improve their design to get people to click on more items. With search results not always dropping people off at your home page means you can’t neglect your sub-pages. But this just isn’t because of search results. Let’s say someone comes to my home page, clicks an article and reads it and then leaves. OK, so they read one thing…guess what, I want them to read more! So even if they come to your home page and click something, how do you get them to click again…and again..and again…

It all comes down to caring about the design of every page. Even if you are a template-based site like most news sites are, you can’t just cut a hole in your design and drop in words and then get pissed when people don’t hit your home page. If people come through back door to read and then leave right away, that’s your fault too! It’s not Google’s fault. The challenge in web design is to keep people engaged with your content, whether it be news, photos, video, games, or just trite blog entries like this one.

Fact is web sites are not linear. You can’t control how people get there, where they enter, or when they leave…so you have to treat almost every page like your home page. And as time passes you need to refine your site (and templates) to take advantage of what is happening naturally.

I use Google Analytics and Woopra on the main web sites I manage, both personally and professionally. Every month or two, I look at the data from both sources to find out how people behave and act on my site. It’s not gospel and it’s not 100% accurate, but since I can’t observe people directly it’s the best tool I have. And I can tell you that the data from both have directly effected how I designed future web pages. For example, on one site I found that people were entering through a page that was relatively buried and I was really surprised that it was such a hot landing page. But since I can’t really change that behaviour, I adapted my site to fit that behaviour. The result was putting more high brow content on that page and you know what? It got people to click on more links and take them deeper into the web site.

I learned that people weren’t coming in through the home page 100% of the time so I accounted for that and embraced it. I didn’t bitch about it. Having worked in the media business and on a (local) TV news web site, I can say for a fact that they pay very little attention to web design. I worked at a very deep pocketed station and the person designing their web site was the same person that 99% of the time designs for television. He has no usability training or really has no idea what will work on a web site. He designs it until it meets his happiness level and then hands it off to someone that chops it up and makes it “work” on-line. In short, branding and marketing took precedence over delivery the news to visitors. And maybe that’s ignorant of me and “I should know better,” but hey, that’s how it should be. If you focus on what you do and work at making that content accessible to people then everything will fall into place by itself. You’ll get more search results, more traffic, and best of all, more happy people – and that all leads to more dollars.

Home pages are important and need to grab visitors’ attention right away, but don’t short change every other page on the site. One-hundred people might knock on your front door and chat for a few minutes, but I’d rather have one or two come in through the back door and hang out for hours.

Being unmobile with Nintendo DS

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I’ve said before that I’m not a mobile person. I find it hard to justify mobile devices like iPods, PDAs, etc…although I do have an iPod, but who doesn’t these days? All that being said, I’ve never been a mobile gamer. The only mobile gaming device I had was a Gameboy, but that was a gift and I had only one game (and it sucked). I used it in college for kill some time between classes but frankly, it wasn’t very entertaining. So I skipped all the other Gameboys, Game Gears, and PSPs that have come along. I never really thought they would live up to a console experience. But all this changed last weekend.

The wife’s birthday was this month and she asked for a Nintendo DS. And believe me, fellas, when your woman asks for a Nintendo for her birthday you get her one. I’m sure I planted the seed of the DS because I learned that there is a small home brew following for the DS which gives the DS the chance of having some PDA-like options plus the possibility of be able to download games – similar to the NES Power Pak I got for the old NES last year. And I’m very convincing when it comes to video games. The DS isn’t the new kid on the block, in fact, it’s now one of the older systems still in store, but the DS demand is still high and they’re still churning out new games (and it can work together with the Wii).

tmpphpouMrjV.jpg I got her the pink DS and I must say it’s incredibly fun to play and I admit I’m a wee bit jealous, something I wasn’t entirely planning on. The DS is handy, looks good, has a great touch pad, and the games are a lot of fun. And as it turns out, with a simple memory card and cart, you can download all the home brew goodness you can find. After some research, I chose the R4 memory cart. Similar to the Power Pak, it is the size of a standard DS cart but has a slot for a Micro SD card. Thus you hook the MSD card to your computer, drag/drop whatever you want on the card, put the MSD in the cart and whala! You have tons and tons of titles, plus music, photos, movies…most of the things you’ll get on a PDA.

(Oh, and if you’re looking for a good place to get your R4 or other DS hardware, I’ve found Jandaman’s Import Hut a good spot. Affordable, quick, and inside the US.)

So why not just get a real PDA? Well, here’s the thing – we’re gamers. We like our video games. We’d rather have games that tools. So far all the “real” PDAs, like the iPhone/iTouch, Palms, smart phones, whatever…they’re built to be phones and organizers, not to play games. I think things like the DS is smart because Nintendo didn’t start with a PDA, they started with games. Instead of having a PDA play games, we have a game machine be a PDA. Being a gaming good machine isn’t easy so start with what’s hard and move into easy…makes sense.

tmpphp83zUFH.jpgNow the wife has her own gaming system. I can no longer claim a monopoly on video games in the house. And since it’s pink, you probably won’t see me with it much – although I’ve been playing in the house and it’s the most addictive thing in the house (next to the Flav-R-Ice). Oddly enough, a hospital game has been one of the best ones yet. Trauma Center has you performing surgery or patients with your stylus…and it’s very challenging. Space Invaders Extreme is the one I’ve been hitting most recently, but the New Super Mario Bros, and the DS version of Bomberman have proven fun as well. They even ported PuzzleQuest to the DS. And of course, all the standard make-you-smart games like Brain Age, Big Brain, and more sudoku than you can shake a stick at.

But one of the more promising downloads has been DSOrganize, a non-game set of apps like a to-do list, scribble pad, calendar, etc. It’s far from perfect but does the job. And the DS also was wi-fi support, so at any hot spot you can not only play games on-line, but you can browse the web too. DSOrganize has a basic web browser included. It’s actually pretty bad, but in a pinch it’d be perfect for looking up an address or phone number. I’ve been trying to find a decent DS browser but haven’t found any that work well yet. And if browsers and free games wasn’t enough, I even found an NES emulator. So we can play classic NES games on the DS — and we all know my library of NES games is extensive.

I’ve worked long and hard and now it’s finally paid off because we’re a video game household. She’ll be on the couch playing DS while I’m jamming at Guitar Hero, playing pinball, or racing the kart. I’m still not a mobile person and a DS won’t make you a mobile person. The DS is just as good on the couch as it is at the coffee shop. And I must admit, I now want a DS too – but not pink.

Interactive TV contests that work

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I’m watching Monday night wrestling, which is not unusual, but this is the first time I’ve watched in a few weeks due to alternate programming. And it seems wrestling is reaching for viewers (for some reason) because I’m watching a cash giveaway game on the show. It’s a simple concept: you sign-up on the web site with your phone number and if your number is picked you win money. Pretty straight forward and it wouldn’t really get your attention, except for the fact that wrestling is a live show.

The gimmick with the giveaway is that your number could get called live on TV and you could win cash just like that. It’s old school, if you think about it, but I think it’s the way “interactive” television is meant to be done. We live in a time where every other show has a text message game, but you never really know if anyone really wins those contests. Sure, you’ll find out that “Robert S.” has won…but did he really? Is Robert S. real? You never know. But when someone is called on live television, the chances of it being a “real” person on the other end greatly increase.

Now you might be saying, “well, they can just rig the phone call.” Sure, they can, but watching tonight my thinking is that this is all legit for two reasons. First, the phone equipment didn’t work right away. Vince McMahon dialed the number and the phone call didn’t work. This is not something that would happen in a rigged contest and it you’d have to do some extra thinking to plan for a fake failure. Second, one call made tonight got a busy signal and another got a call-back song…two things that very real world. And lastly, the contest is not run by the WWE – they outsourced it, which gives it a little more credibility.

But why is it better than text message contests? Because this contest response is immediate. Watching the show I’ve now heard the phone call, I’ve heard the person on the other end…and they were real. The fact that they’ve put the winner on live TV instantly makes me want to enter because I out right know that I seemingly have a chance to win.

I will give credit to WWE for taking advantage of being a live program. Few other shows and games can take advantage and thus have to rely on text message games. Maybe it’s just because I’m not a texter, but I still think this type of direct contesting is far more effective. It’s nice to see that the simplest and most basic concepts still work when executed properly.