I critiqued a whole bunch of web 2.0 sites on a combination of design and usability aspects, placing more importance on the usability aspect. I tried to focus more on sites that provide a good community oriented experience, designs that encourage people to participate. After all, that’s the staple of what “web 2.0″ is.
The final result is 10 sites that I feel are the best combination of both good design and usability. The list is in no particular order.
There was a meme going around last week that suggests new web companies are only targeting an audience of 53, 651 people, which is actually the number of RSS subscribers TechCrunch had at the time.
A good review in Techcrunch can get a company their first 5-25K beta users very quickly.
I have to admit from what I’ve seen this tends to be true. A lot of these new 2.0 startups think all the need to do is launch, get TechCrunch to write about them, and they’ll spend the rest of their days sipping mai tai’s on the beach in Hawaii somewhere. Wrong!
I’m probably better off calling this a ‘dedesign’ since that’s pretty much what I did, stripped it down to nothing. But I like it this way, it’s simple, clean, and very usable. My goal for the redesign was all about focusing on making the content more accessible. Since this is a blog the content is the most important thing. I really wanted to bring it out.
So I’ve been a little slow with the posting lately, I’m sorry! I was busy trying to get this blog redesigned. I never was pleased with the old look and always had plans to change it, finding the time has been another story.
Would you rather have a little bit of traffic that you can monetize or tons of traffic that you can’t?
Seth breaks down a comparison of MySpace and Amazon in his latest post, different kinds of traffic.
Amazon users visit to buy stuff, and MySpace users visit to flirt
This is a great reason why search engine marketing works so well. You’re able to bring people to your site that are actually seeking out the exact products/services you sell. Provided all your ducks are in a row this kind of traffic is very valuable. It converts at a very high rate.
Mom, if you’re reading this I hope you’re having a great day and I want you to know I love you and think you’re the best mom in the world.
I also want to wish a happy Mother’s Day to my wife, mother-in-law, and all the other moms out there.
I’ve recently become a partner at Advantage Consulting Services where my official title will be Director, Marketing & Design. I’m very excited about working with the guys at ACS and we’re planning some great things. ACS is one of the few search engine marketing companies that truely ‘get it’.
I’ll also be blogging over at Pronet Advertising, ACS’s blog, where Neil Patel is currently holding down the fort. I’ll still be blogging here as well.
What makes MySpace and You Tube so popular?
YouTube and MySpace are runaway hits because they combine two attributes rarely found together in tech products. They’re easy to use, and they don’t tell you what to do.
The Article is a great read. It says, MySpace and You Tube are popular because…
1) Everything is one click easy.
2) They get out of the way and the let users do what they want.
3) No extra software to install.
One of the most basic rules of usability is don’t make you users think. Everything should be obvious and it just needs to work without making your users think.
Make everything one click easy.
Cameron Olthuis is the Founder of Factive Media, an action sports media network. Follow his storyline and adventures of building an Internet empire here. Find out more about Cameron...