Ok, maybe not the end of the mouse, but certainly the end of the remote control.
I don’t know a lot about this technology yet - I don’t even know if this is a concept video or what - but this is one hell of an impressive demo for a touchless gesture-based UI.
I used to argue that tactile feedback was an important (almost essential) part of a successful HCI user experience, but the iPhone proved me utterly wrong there. So I think at the right price point, something like this could really get some traction.
It’s accurate, small, elegant and doesn’t require finger sensors like some of the other touchless solutions out there.
My friend and Director of Search Marketing, Adam, sent me a link the other day that warmed my heart.
Not only does Adam handle all of our PPC work, he also does our SEO.
We recently redesigned our article pages for our newsletter companion site and there was a bit of a debate throughout the process over the design of the page.
Some of us argued from the basis of creating a page that spoke more to the Direct Response marketing principles we’ve built our business upon - in other words, “Eliminate this visual element because it distracts and doesn’t speak to the single primary goal of the page” (and yes, I believe there should be a single, primary goal of every single page you design…more on that another time).
Others argued from the, “Well, this is how everyone else’s articles look…and there really isn’t a “conversion goal” for an article page like there would be for say a lead capture page” perspective. I fucking hate this argument…even though I’ll use it myself from time to time (the hypocrite that I am).
EVERY SINGLE PAGE SHOULD HAVE A GOAL — and that goal MUST be measurable. Otherwise, how the hell do you know if changes you’re making are actually improving shit?
So I obviously pitched a tent when Adam broke out this article: Conversion Optimization for Content: Publishing site decreases bounce rate 43%
It’s a great article for a bunch of reasons, but it’s even better when our marketing guys are helping to inform design decisions that our design team would normally have control over!
Why Upgrade? How to Convert More Free Users to Premium -
I know the “freemium” model has been getting a ton of play for the last few years - and in fact, it’s been around for longer than that within the desktop software community (first paid app I ever launched on Windows was freemium) - but the data I’ve seen shows that you’re likely to get a higher ROI in a shorter period of time by pushing people directly into your paid product.
The folks at 37 Signals have said that was why they “hid” their free option on their pricing page a couple of years ago — most of their current paying customers, started out as paying customers.
This article talks about how to do freemium “better”, but if you read between the lines you’ll see that it still advocates for pushing people into a premium offering from the get go.
"Sign up in seconds" ... and then what? - -
This is where pitching the BENEFITS of the product come into play (e.g. “Sign-up in seconds and immediately start saving money!”)
Designing Effective Pricing Tables -
Great article (with additional links) on designing your pricing page…FWIW, for B2B or SaaS offerings specifically, the Pricing page is more visited than the homepage!
Ecommerce Checkout Optimization [Slideshow]
Everyone needs inspiration…everyone stands on the shoulders of those who came before them…1960s Braun Products Hold the Secrets to Apple’s Future »
Pretty pictures: Can images stop data overload?
Not sure how I feel about this company (link at bottom). They create website walk-through assistants for “complicated web pages” (think Microsoft Office’s little paper-clip assistant).
I’m sure there are applications out there that are extremely complex and very difficult to figure out…but shouldn’t that be a challenge for the design team? Isn’t it there job to make the complex seem simpler? Isn’t that what great designers get paid to do?
And taking this to another level…what if there’s a web app that’s difficult to use, but only because the UI sucks? Does this site give those apps a pass? Do they now get to shirk the responsibility to build elegant interfaces for their users?
Thoughts?
Help Gratefully Received: On-Screen Web Guidance System WalkMe Picks Up $1M+ From Mangrove
What do you do when you have a lot of things to display to the user, far more than can possibly fit on the screen? Paginate, naturally…