In my column today, I talked about Web 2.0, collective intelligence, and the recent Google OpenSocial. Unplanned, that was a quick follow-up to a piece I wrote last month as well about Facebook. The nice thing about competition is that these providers are exerting the best effort as possible to make things easier for users.
I am researching about Web 2.0 these days but more on the hands-on side with the book Programming Collective Intelligence written by Toby Segaran as a guide. In preparation for the Web 2.0 workshop session on November 13, I tried Google OpenSocial earlier today and created a modified version of its Feed in Tabs. Installing in any website will look like this.
I also installed the application in my Orkut page, after getting approval for Orkut sandbox access, and the same feed now appears in my site. Those who try to install the same will be able to edit the rss feed address to show their blogs or of others if they like. Just state this url (copy the url link) as the application source in your applications page. I can't wait until all sites who are part of the Google OpenSocial alliance or partners will start allowing users to install applications.
There is much you can do on the Internet today and web developers do not necessarily have to be confine in just building the website using codes of their own, they can also tap in "social" codes to engage more users - if done well. Other references that can be tapped includes:
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Sharing RSS feeds in your Orkut profile
Friday, November 02, 2007
Improving Website Navigation
On the afternoon of November 12, I'll be having a session on Web Navigation. This topic was heavily inspired by the book Designing Web Navigation by James Kalbach. The main premise for the workshop is whether you are planning a new website or revising an existing one, it is important that we keep ourselves focused on what we want to achieve that includes why are we doing it, how can we meet the needs of our target users, among others.
We need to do an information search process that tends to reflect the action, thoughts, and feelings of the site visitor and what can we do to meet them. An example can be like in the case of DigitalFilipino users.
1. Initiation: Recognize need to look for e-commerce information.
2. Selection: Choose appropriate resources.
3. Searching: Locate relevant articles.
4. Differentiation: Prioritize search results.
5. Deciding: Determine which article is most relevant.
6. Monitor: Check site over time for additional articles.
7. Action: Join the mailing list or subscribe to the RSS feed or join the club.
Each item above requires understanding on the actions, thoughts, and feelings of the user (and their persona) which will also compel site owners like me to provide features and that will arrive on the kind of business return that I want to get from it such as awareness, referrals, gaining trust or relationship, potential book buyers or club members later on.
In addition, this also forces me to review my site navigation, labels, menu, among others whether I'm leading users to the things that they need and what I want to achieve.
If the e-business operates in a cut throat market such as those selling various gift products, evaluating the competitor's web navigation and labeling methods versus yours will be helpful as well.
Improving this will also require doing interviews and task analysis. One method that can help in this process is card sorting. This is where you write one item or content in your website per card. This gets shuffled and given to users. They then sort the card and create piles or groups. Afterwards, they give a meaningful name that represent each pile or group of cards. This process gives you a perspective on how prospective users classify the information that gets presented to them and may help you in developing your site's content structure. There are several online version of this that you can use such as as CardSword, CardSort, CardZort, among others.
There are several tools that can be used to have an initial check up on your website navigation. This includes:
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Improving Website Performance
This November 12, I will be holding a technical session on Improving Website Performance that was heavily inspired by Steve Souders' book, High Performance Web Sites. His book is known for sharing 14 rules that can contribute to the improvement of websites and make it faster. Here's a video that runs us through it. You can also start learning this ahead today.
I'm currently tinkering with the performance analysis tool, YSlow, an extension to the Firebug web development tool and encourage club members attending the session to download it as well. Other tools you can check includes:
What makes me excited about this session is that I'm in the process of finetuning my site (and of clients) and look forward in sharing what I learned during this session.
YSlow analyzes web pages and tells you why they're slow. Listen to Steve Souders to know more about it.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Forthcoming changes in the club
As the DigitalFilipino.com Club turns 4 years old this Christmas, I must say that its time has come to be properly upgraded that shall include the following changes and will be seen in the last quarter:
- Creation of specialized content section
As our content has grown in time, I will be creating sections on various interest topics where materials shall be filled in on a regular basis that ranges from marketing, project management, outsourcing, product management, research, writing, traffic analytics, among others. - Post live projects in the innovation forum
I've converted our forums to an innovation section to discuss possible project opportunities. This time, I'll be citing projects that can be explored for collaboration and revenue sharing.
On another note, I'm helping one of our club members promote this HDB. I'm sure there'll be a lot of opportunities here.
