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Category: Topics
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Assessing a Company’s Commitment to Security
Security matters If you’re reading this close to its publication date, security breaches and vulnerabilities are everywhere in the news. From Heartbleed to the massive Target credit card breach, digital security has never been more important to the average person. Nancy, our CEO, recently wrote about how you must take responsibility for protection of your personal…
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Showing the Love with User Onboarding
A few months back, one of our Account Directors received an excellent example of an on boarding tactic and we thought it would be helpful to share it. Nordstrom made changes to their card holder site and let their card members know ahead of time with an email. They shared a few of the upcoming…
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Learning to Talk Tech
In college I took a Computer Science 101 class. For the first assignment, the professor asked us to write step-by-step instructions on how to tie a shoelace. (Stick with me here.) I thought, “No problem. Just make the bunny and run around and go through the hole. Boom.” The next day he asked for volunteers. He…
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Getting Rid of the Big Ta-da: Why We Love Sketching
Allow me to paint you a picture of every designer’s greatest fear. You’ve just finished presenting a design to the client. For the last month you’ve toiled away, pouring your heart and soul into this design, and it’s the moment of truth. The client looks at you and says, “I don’t like it.” Design is…
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Why research and planning matters
Clients come to us asking for an app, a promotion, an intranet redesign, a lifecycle management tool. This is a great starting place, but it’s starting with the solution instead of the problem. Before we start building anything, we want to understand what’s driving the need, what problem we need to solve, or what business…
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How to Combat the Brainstorming Blues
Brainstorming is hard. In theory it’s a wonderful place where creativity meets logic and something magical happens. Where Instagram and Twitter and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was born. Yet, even when we try to approach it uncontrived, it still frequently falls just short of useful. Earlier this year while managing a project that demanded a lot…
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Why Contextual Observation Is So Valuable
Understanding user needs is critical to the success of any product, and usability testing is one important tool that helps us build websites, programs, and apps that users love. But not all usability tests are created equal. I recently had the opportunity to conduct a contextual usability test with Wits, a Minnesota Public Radio show, and…
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Building Loyalty in a Card-free World
Recent articles in Inc.com and Slate have made the case against card-based loyalty programs, arguing that they are bad for business and that companies should focus their energy on creating a superior experience. They’re right that following a cookie-cutter or “me too” approach to loyalty will likely not pay off, but that doesn’t mean loyalty is dead. It just…
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What is Direct Traffic?
So you’ve got a website and you’ve installed Google Analytics. That’s a great start, but don’t stop there! With a bit of time and attention, Google Analytics (GA) can provide valuable information regarding conversions. Conversions are those key moments when visitors do something interactional or transactional on your site, e.g. complete a sale or donation, sign up for…
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When Powerball Attacks
Clockwork websites live on a cluster of redundant, load-balanced servers. On any given day, this cluster handles hundreds of requests per second, or millions per day. This is boring; it’s what we do all day, every day. I want to talk about a different kind of day. What Happens One of our clients is the Minnesota…