The Product Guy: Superfine in 09

Posted on December 28, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

The Product Guy had another superfine year in 2009, sharing and exploring products, their experiences, and many innovative startups and the founders behind them, while getting to meet and speak with many of The Product Guy’s steadily growing readership.

And, as 2009 comes to a close, as I did last year, let’s take a brief look at the top posts that made this year on The Product Guy so totally superfine….

#9 Quick-UX Credibility from Likexo to Etsy Quick-UX Credibility is a measure of the starting point, the foundation of a product’s Credibility. A look at the popular (and not so popular) examples of web product Credibility online.
#8 World’s Best Programmer is… [w/ Respect] The World’s Best Programmer wants respect. And, respect is just one of those conditions prevalent within the environment of the World’s Best Programmer. In this last post in the series The Product Guy reveals just who exactly is World’s Best Programmer, and where/how they thrive!!
#7 Converted by an Android. A short story of Gmail, in parts. Part 1 in a series exploring the eventual adoption of Gmail in one’s daily life, by one once thoroughly addicted to, dependent on, the primarily client-based solution of Microsoft’s Outlook, what brought about this conversion, why it took so long, and what should be done to encourage greater Gmail adoption.
#6 jQuery Plugin: It’s CuteTime! Many online social products, and more continue to, avoid a formal timestamp format… 2009-10-10 23:14:17 and Thu, October 29, 2004 12:14:19 PM … opting for more user friendly, "warm and fuzzy," human-readable styles… 9 days ago and 5 years ago. As a result, the time has come for the jQuery CuteTime plugin. CuteTime goes beyond similar tools and lets you easily: convert timestamps to ‘cuter’ language-styled forms (e.g. yesterday, 2 hours ago, last year, in the future!), customize the time scales and output formatting, and dynamically update the displayed CuteTime(s) upon request and/or automatically.
#5 The Future: Gmail, Social Media, and You Over the past many weeks I have explored, elaborated, and exhausted the extent of the then existent exercising of resistance. Now, with such resistance eroded, drawn out through my conversion by an Android, an exploration into the Future of Gmail and the ‘Should Do’ … Readability, Simplify, Organize, Integration and Consistency.
#4 Google: True Colors Shine Through In answering the question of Desirability, "Do I want it?" the sub-category of Color Scheme plays an important role. Google Search is an outstanding example of a Good Color Scheme demonstrating alignment of both colors and messaging. Learn from it.
#3 Stardoll: Lost and Naked When you look at a web page, the various elements of the page can often be seen coalescing into distinguishable regions and groups. Intentionally structured, or otherwise, these groups that constitute the page Layout play an important role in the web product’s Desirability. Stardoll is a great example of a web product with Poor Sequential Flow.
#2 ThreeDots: The jQuery Ellipsis Plugin Many online products employ ellipses within their products to improve various aspects of the User Experience, such as: allowing for easy summary scanning of page content, and fitting more diversity of content into a smaller space. As a result, the time has come for the jQuery ThreeDots plugin. ThreeDots goes beyond similar tools and lets you easily and smartly truncate text for when: text is too long, text doesn’t fit within the available space, you want to employ highly configurable and flexible ellipses within your web product.
#1 Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience. Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX), consisting of the core components of Usability (‘Can I use it?’), Usefulness (‘Should I use it?’), and Desirability (‘Do I want to use it?’). Quick-UX provides a sure-fire, rapid way to obtain concrete and comparable means by which to assess a single product or compare its strengths and weaknesses to other products. Growing in popularity by leaps and bounds since its original posting in 2008, this posting has earned prime placement amongst other, more recent, articles that made this year, 2009, SUPERFINE.

This year also saw the launch of The Product Group (sponsored by Balsamiq Studios) in NYC as an opportunity for Product People of all sorts and levels of experience to meet, interact, and network, in a laid-back, conversational environment. I am certain 2010 will bring many more exciting gatherings, discoveries, and opportunities; and for those reasons, this too, also helped make 2009 for both Product People and The Product Guy, superfine!

Happy Holidays!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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The Product Group, From December Festivities to an Exciting New Year! (Thanks for Coming!)

Posted on December 9, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

A big thank you to everyone who made it to our third meet-up of The Product Group, as well as to our sponsor, Balsamiq Studios! We all had a blast discussing Product People-oriented topics and enjoying Wonderful food.

Over the 2+ hours we discussed…

Product Positioning: from the ‘what’ to the ‘when’ and ‘why’

Event Planning Product: brainstorming solutions to the chicken-or-egg problem of a real-world startup product with the founder

Credibility Online: establishing, maintaining, and the importance of

The Product Group meet-ups are an opportunity for Product People (managers, strategies, marketers, etc.) to come together to meet, interact, and network in a roundtable setting. It’s awesome to meet fellow Product People in a laid-back, conversational gathering like this one and I am looking forward to seeing everyone, new and familiar, at our next meet-up …

Thursday, January 7th @ 7PM
@ Wonderful @ 172 8th Avenue (bet. 18th and 19th St)
NYC

If you would like to attend our next meet-up, RSVP today or visit our group webpage to learn about Holiday Drinks with the Product Group on December 17th at…

http://meetup.com/TheProductGroup

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

P.S. If you or an organization you represent would be interested in sponsoring an upcoming gathering of The Product Group please contact me.

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Quick-UX Credibility from Likexo to Etsy

Posted on August 3, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

As a brief postscript to the series exploring Quick-UX and Credibility I would like to share a back of napkin sketch that I made at the beginning of the process that helped structure the series; and that I feel would be most instructive.

This series’ exploration of Credibility has been a long one, but not an undeserving subject. Credibility, and being able to quickly assess it for an online product, is critical in the increasingly complex ‘web of apps.’

Likexo *(before / after)*
None / Average 0 / 0.75
No Obvious Typos	no / yes
General Contact Info Provided	no / yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no / yes
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	no / yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no / yes

ConvertFiles
(Barely) Low 0.325
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	no
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

IndyBudget
(Barely) Low 0.325
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	no
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

ToRSS
(Barely) Low 0.325
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	no
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

Chart.ly
(Solidly) Low 0.325
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	no
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

Pogby *(before / after)*
(Solidly) Low / Average 0.325 / 0.75
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no / yes
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	no / yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no / yes

TechCrunch
Average 0.45
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

Mashable
Average 0.575
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	yes

GigaOM
Average 0.625
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	yes
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

ThumbTack
Average 0.75
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	yes
Physical Address	yes
About Us with Team Member Bios	no
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

MakingOf
Average 0.45
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	no
About Us with Team Member Bios	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	no

Etsy
High 0.825
No Obvious Typos	yes
General Contact Info Provided	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	no
Physical Address	yes
About Us with Team Member Bios	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	yes

Quick-UX Credibility

No Obvious Typos	+0.15
General Contact Info Provided	+0.175
Telephone Contact Info Provided	+0.175
Physical Address	+0.25
About Us with Team Member Bios	+0.125
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	+0.125

Quick & Useful

Quick-UX Credibility is a measure of the starting point, the foundation of a product’s Credibility. How products, and the people behind them, strengthen, or erode, their trustworthiness through their subsequent actions governs the Credibility imparted to the product’s consumers over time, through extended exposure to the product. However, this extended exposure is only achievable after these products have successfully enticed and converted their visitors into returning readers, by way of a comprehensive User Experience, in significant part due to an initial demonstration (or lack) of Credibility.

And until next week, when the exploration and discussion of products, user experience, modular innovation, startups, or perhaps something quite new, enjoy reviewing the products and ensuing discussions of this series, and see you then.

No Credibility	Unbelievable Likexo
Barely Low Credibility	Skeptical Convert Unforward ToRSS IndyBudget’s Deficit
Solidly Low Credibility	Puzzling Pogby Chart.ly Off Course
Average Credibility & Tech News	Trusting TechCrunch Credibly Mashable Convincing GigaOM
More Average Credibility	MakingOf Credibility ThumbTack Color Update: Renewed Pogby Update: Likexo
High Credibility	Upfront: Etsy

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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Upfront: Etsy

Posted on July 27, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

The Credibility of a product is absolutely critical, whether it is coming from a brand-new startup, or an established corporation. There is a great deal that goes into the Credibility of a product, from the people that hype it, to its visual presentation. However, there are a few basic elements that go directly to the foundational aspects of product Credibility upon which the rest of the product’s truthfulness is built.

Quick-UX provides for the rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX). In answering the question of Usefulness, "Should I use it?" the sub-category of Credibility is one in the frequent discussion of cautious engagement, especially in the ever increasing, in both frequency and size, waves of introductions of online products.

Establishing and maintaining Credibility is the removal, or minimization of concerns arising from these types of questions. Many elements (design, accuracy, usability, timeliness, advertising, etc.) contribute to the positive, or negative, perception of overall product Credibility, but for Quick-UX’s evaluation we assess only the most elemental. For a refresher of the Quick-UX Credibility Rubric visit: Quick-UX & Credibility: Do you believe?

Today, we will look at an example of a product with Strong Credibility, with a value above 0.8.

Strong Credibility

Etsy, the handmade maketplace, performed the best out of all of the products in this series, being the only product to achieve a value within the range of Strong Credibility, 0.825.

This product is a strong example of how to correctly lay the foundation of Credibility. For this article, I am going to walk through each specific line of the Quick-UX Credibility rubric and show how this product addressed each one.

No Obvious Typos

If no obvious typos are found throughout the product, the Credibility variable (whose value starts at zero) is incremented by 0.15, as it was in this case for this product. The obviousness of typos I have addressed throughout this series. Basically, if you cannot find either…

multiple typos located on a single page or scattered throughout the product, or
typo(s) occurring on keywords, like market terms, or, more significantly, the punctuation or formatting of the product’s name…

…within 5-10 minutes of looking then it is typically good to assess that there are No Obvious, Credibility-damaging Typos.

Contact Information Provided

Visitors to a product should always have at least a generic means by which to reach out to the product; whether it be for support, sharing ideas, reporting problems, or other reasons that the product’s users need to communicate with the product’s maintainers / creators that may not have been thought of. A generic means of contact can be such things like a…

simple contact form, or
a generic email address (e.g. support @ product.com ).

And, when at least one of these items occurs, as it did here, the Credibility variable is incremented by 0.175.

Etsy provides a plethora of channels by which users can reach out to the people behind the product. Beyond the exhaustive list of departmental email address, this product allows people to communicate ‘On Etsy’ through forums and the blog…

…as well as ‘Elsewhere on the Web’…

Physical Address

A physical address, whether it be for a brand new startup or an established organization, bolsters the consumer confidence through a demonstration of resolute tenacity to survive, to thrive, to keep this product going, as well as commitment to the product (and, in turn, its consumers).

In the online world, where products come and go, where some pop-up one day, and are never looked at by their creators again, a physical address is a valued component of Credibility. While showing a physical address, like many of the other line items in this rubric, does not provide a guarantee, it does lay the groundwork for and extend the air of trust between the consumer and the product the consumer is inspecting.

This product, in addition to the other contact information already provided, presents a clearly visible, easy to find address (where they often hold workshops), resulting in the incrementing of the Credibility variable by another 0.25.

Team & Background

Real products have real people behind them. Showing the individuals, the team, that makes this product what it is, demonstrates they are proud of what they created and are confident to stand behind it. Putting your name and reputation on the line for your latest endeavor always engenders increased trust and faith in your commitment to making the product the best it can be, and work for your consumers.

Showing the people behind the product by providing a name alongside a bio (names with bios are less likely to be imaginary and are more verifiable, should one wish to take the initiative) results in the incrementing the Credibility variable by 0.125.

Etsy is unique in their approach to providing information about the real team members. They are unique in both the …

…breadth and depth in the presentation of individuals on each team (you really feel like you are seeing and learning about everyone in every department that makes this product what it is)…

…and the "flavor" and variety of background biographical information.

A quick scan of this ‘About’ page resulted in finding…

17 handwritten questionnaires,
21 more detailed bios, and
many more bios findable via the blog.

The handmade, handwritten questionnaires, and the diversity of biography, present a welcomed and uniquely human touch (also very much inline with their target market of all things handmade) further reinforcing and strengthening this product’s Credibility.

Direct Contact

The Credibility variable is incremented another 0.125 if, beyond the listed individuals and bio’s, direct contact information is also presented along the biographical information, as it is for the members of Etsy, including the CEO.

While the method of direct contact does not exist for all members, can be somewhat difficult to find for others, and a user must be logged in to avail themselves of this level of contact, the information and functionality is present alongside the bio’s of the listed employees.

Calling Etsy

Almost a perfect example of Credibility. Almost. Typically, a product is more likely to show a phone number than a physical address; and if a physical address is displayed, you are almost guaranteed to see a phone number. Almost, because while providing a physical address, no phone number for Etsy was able to be found. If there is one, it is buried so deep, and obscured so much as to not come up in a Quick-UX evaluation whose fundamental goals are to…

"provide a rapid, simple and quantifiable assessment of a product’s User Experience (UX)."

Maybe a phone number is just not logistically possible for Etsy. They do already have a very strong foundation of Credibility upon which to further their reputation and their buyer / seller communities. Should Etsy desire to achieve a 1.0, incrementing their Credibility value another 0.175, it would serve to cement an already present, firmly solid, air of Credibility.

Should Do

Beyond the issues that can be addressed surrounding the telephone number, there exists room for improvement of the means and methods of direct contact.

The vigorous and very lively community would benefit from…

making the direct contact information more accessible, through easier access on the ‘About’ page, and
enabling individuals without accounts, without the need for logging into the product, to take advantage of the direct messaging capabilities.

Short of these improvements, this product, Etsy, is already on a very solid foundation of Strong Credibility, with a final value of 0.825.

Quick & Useful

Over the next few weeks I will be exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility…

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don’t miss any part of this series exploring the Usefulness and Credibility components of Quick-UX, the quick and easy method of generating quantifiable and comparable metrics representing the understanding of the overall User Experience of a product, as well as other insightful posts from The Product Guy.

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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ThumbTack Color

Posted on July 20, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

Today, we will look at the second of two general examples of products with Average Credibility values, from 0.45 – 0.75.

Average Credibility

Example 2: ThumbTack

The skimpy homepage of ThumbTack, an online marketplace for local services, does little in contributing to the establishment of this Credible product earning a Quick-UX Credibility value of 0.75.

For whatever paucity of information that is emblematic of the homepage, the movie tour of the product is more than able to compensate.

This product impressively presents a humanly warm and comprehensive Contact page consisting of…

Email contact information,
Telephone contact information, and
Even the often elusive corporate physical address.

Really

When it comes to a web product and Credibility, a basic concept that I keep repeating over and over, is presenting an accurate sense of the "real." Show that there are real people behind the product, that there is a real place that these people go to work. ThumbTack gives no sense of the real people behind it, within it, etc. While there is a lot of talk about being "happy to answer your questions," via a broad range of communication channels, there is no establishment anywhere throughout this product as to who exactly this "us" really is.

Should Do

On yet another product in this series we can see an ‘About’ page that does very well in explaining the product, one part of the multi-part user expectation when ‘About’ is presented.

This product would greatly benefit from expanding the ‘About’ page to also include the ‘Us’ components of…

Team member names,
Member bios, and
Team member contact information.

While not directly impacting the Quick-UX Credibility value, there are aesthetic qualities of the homepage that could be tweaked to advance a more Credible User Experience. For example, moving the movie tour to the homepage would better establish and convey, within the new visitor’s first instant, upon arrival, the answers to the product’s how’s and what’s and why’s, and be a stronger element in laying the groundwork for a believable product.

Quick & Useful

Over the next few weeks I will be exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility…

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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MakingOf Credibility

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

Today, we will look at the first of two general examples of products with Average Credibility values, from 0.45 – 0.75.

Average Credibility

Example 1: MakingOf

On the low end of the Average Credibility range is MakingOf, founded, in-part, by Natalie Portman, as a social network for people interested in the movie making industry.

As previously highlighted, a contact form is an acceptable, credible means by which a company can be contacted.

And, while I was able to find very few obscure typos, none would rise to the occasion of being considered to be of the Obvious variety.

Celebrity

Celebrity founders confer valuable Credibility-boosting cachet upon the projects that they touch. Typically, with celebrity backed products, it is understood that the celebrity will be quite busy (with all their celebrity ‘duties’) and are expected to have little time to work directly on the product. As a result, beyond the positive impact on the Quick-UX Credibility value, the presentation of a comprehensive team, accompanied by individual biographies, contributes greatly to nurturing an atmosphere of trust and shared confidence.

Should Do

Having a celebrity on the founding team is a major shot in the arm, especially when it comes to Credibility. However, having…

A physical address, and
More direct means of contacting important members of the company…

… would go a long way in establishing this product’s Credibility and raising its Average Credibility value of 0.45.

New users are more comfortable participating in an online community if it is clear that the community is not a momentary whim (of a celebrity), but a real product, with a real address, with real ways to reach out to team members, that is also intended to last.

Quick & Useful

Over the next few weeks I will be exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility…

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

UPDATE: Refreshed Likexo

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

Quick-UX is a method that I have developed and refined over time and frequently utilize when quick assessments are best suited to the task.

Quick Indeed

In this latest series on Credibility, 2 products were chosen as worthy representatives of specific Credibility values, and explored in the articles…

Unbelievable Likexo, and

Puzzling Pogby.

And, shortly, excitingly, after these articles were posted I received appreciative comments from their respective CEO’s, as well as an invitation to take a look at the rapid improvements to their products that these articles spawned. This week, I decided to revisit Likexo.

Real Progress

The earlier state of the Likexo product resulted in an assessment of No Credibility and a Quick-UX Credibility value of0 (zero).

I received heartfelt email from Cristian Venture, CEO at Likexo.com…

"Hello Jeremy,

I’m Cristian Ventura, from Likexo (yes, i am a real person! 😉) and i have read your blog post about Credibility (that one in that you kill us 😉), and I wanna thank you about that.

Reading your post was very hard, but as any member of the Likexo team, I really appreciate all the feedback that help us to grow (at least) any little step.

We are a really early Start Up, and we know that we have a lot of work to do to improve our site, but we are really passionate about our job! 🙂

In this week (with other features) we improved the "about us" of our site, and we like to show you the new info about us.

Thanks for get the time to inspect Likexo and give us our feedback. If you got more things to comment about Likexo or how can we improve some things, are you free to contact us. 🙂

Regards,

Cristian Ventura

CEO @ Likexo.com "

… to which I could do nothing short of taking an eager look at the latest improvements. The results of the evaluation and side-by-side, before and after, comparison follows.

Rule	Value	Before Changes	After Changes
No Obvious Typos	+0.15	no	yes
General Contact Info Provided	+0.175	no	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	+0.175	no	yes
Physical Address	+0.25	no	no
About Us w/ Team Member Bios	+0.125	no	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	+0.125	no	yes

Total		0	0.75
Credibility		None	Average

The before and after results are as different as night and day. Likexo went from a product presenting an air of dubiousness to one emanating solid credibility.

Not only do all the previously found typos appear to be eliminated, but…

…general and telephone contact information is readily accessible on the ‘About us’ page, and…

…background and direct contact information for the Likexo team is provided.

Somewhat Direct

The downside to the direct contact information is that you have to be logged-in to see and avail oneself of it. Such a direct means of contact is borderline acceptable in meeting the requirement for ‘team member bios with direct contact information’ (It would be much better to always see the ‘Contact’ button, even if the non-logged-in user, upon clicking this button, is immediately prompted to log-in. Even better — let people, logged-in and not, be able to directly contact team members.)

Awesome!

This outstanding improvement is a great demonstration of just how easy, with passionate and eager people behind a real product, it is for products to create that sound foundation of Credibility upon which to build a company and a brand. I am, for one, looking forward to many new and exciting developments coming out of Likexo as they evolve and grow.

And perhaps best summed up in the words of Cristian Ventura, Likexo’s CEO,

“Quick-UX in particular is very quick and simple, and can serve as a guide to improve many products."

"Likexo is an early stage start-up, and we know that we have many things to improve every day, but we are making a great effort to create an application in which people can find useful information and express all the things that they like."

Quick & Useful

Throughout this series I have been exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility …

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Subscribe now (click here) to make sure you don’t miss any part of this series exploring the Usefulness and Credibility components of Quick-UX, the quick and easy method of generating quantifiable and comparable metrics representing the understanding of the overall User Experience of a product, as well as other insightful posts from The Product Guy.

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn

The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

UPDATE: Pogby Renewed

Posted on June 29, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

Quick-UX is a method that I have developed and refined over time and frequently utilize when quick assessments are best suited to the task.

Quick Indeed

In this latest series on Credibility, 2 products were chosen as worthy representatives of specific Credibility values, and explored in the articles…

Unbelievable Likexo, and
Puzzling Pogby.

And, shortly, excitingly, after these articles were posted, I received appreciative comments from their respective CEO’s, as well as an invitation to take a look at the rapid improvements to their products that these articles spawned. This week, I decided to revisit Pogby.

Stepping Forward

The earlier state of the Pogby product resulted in an assessment of Low Credibility and a Quick-UX Credibility value of0.325.

Spurred onward by Pogby CEO, Josh Gooch’s message…

"We made some rapid changes last night. Please check it out when you have a chance. Appreciate the feedback – josh"

… I decided to see how these changes stacked up and look at their impact on the product’s overall Credibility (if any). The results of the evaluation and side-by-side, before and after, comparison follows.

Rule	Value	Before Changes	After Changes
No Obvious Typos	+0.15	yes	yes
General Contact Info Provided	+0.175	yes	yes
Telephone Contact Info Provided	+0.175	no	yes
Physical Address	+0.25	no	no
About Us w/ Team Member Bios	+0.125	no	yes
Team Member Bios have Direct Contact Information	+0.125	no	yes

Total		0.325	0.75
Credibility		Solidly Low	Average

Kudos to the Pogby team in addressing the issues that the Quick-UX analysis along the variable of Credibility was able to provide.

Special Note

Particularly well executed is the new ‘Who We Are’ page, with background information for the team, and direct contact email address provided to both the CEO and Chief Architect.

In the previous article I took particular note of the awkward content and structure of the header region.

But, now users are presented with a very much welcomed and improved header region for this product, negating the previous confusion of ownership, sponsorship, advertising, etc.,

Labeling, prominently, the ‘Featured Venue’, and
Providing clear separation between venue and the product’s name / logo.

Broadly Speaking

Recently, I caught up with Josh Gooch, CEO of Pogby, and we discussed the broader impact of, and his thoughts about, Quick-UX. Out of this exchange there were some important points that Josh sought to make, and I am flattered to share…

“All the evaluation was terrific! I am thankful you are out there taking the time to provide guidance. You have a solid methodology and are trying to provide guidance to companies that may not fully understand how to best relate to customers of their site. It was honestly an honor that you did this for our site. It was great direction that you provided and we rapidly worked to improve things. Your points were all accurate and supported gaining Credibility. All of the content you’ve written has been a great guide for us.”

…and on companies, from big to small, and whether or not they should use Quick-UX…

“Absolutely. We are a startup, so the feedback is key … especially when you don’t have a full-time staff focused on the website. But, bigger companies seem to struggle with this (too) … it is whether or not the company has an interest (or feels the value) in making changes …”

Great Work!

Resulting from an analysis that took minutes, Pogby was able to take focused, quick action, and implement changes with a significant impact on this product and its Credibility.

Quick & Useful

Throughout this series I have been exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility …

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

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Convincing GigaOM

Posted on June 22, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

Tech Blogs

One field, in particular, stands out when talking about Credibility. That field is the news. How better to have a discussion on Quick-UX and Credibility than to see it in action, applied to products that deliver the, hopefully trustworthy, news.

Today, we will take an interesting look at the third of a set of three Technology and Web Blogs with Average Credibility values, from 0.45 – 0.625.

Example 3: GigaOM

Just eking out the claim to the strongest foundation of Credibility within this sub-series set of tech blogs is GigaOM, with Average Credibility and a value of 0.625.

Let’s start by taking a look at each of the touch points that GigaOM executed well, starting with contact information.

This product’s ‘Contact’ page contains contact information for…

Key individuals by name and department,
Departmental email addresses, and (+0.175)
Telephone numbers. (+0.175)

It should be noted, at this point, that the department heads are listed alongside the department emails and, in some cases, the associated phone numbers. However, due to the impersonal and generic nature of the provided contact information, none of methods of email contact would be considered an example of ‘direct contact information for team members,’ as valued within the Quick-UX Credibility framework at +0.125.

On the ‘About Us’ page, this product, like the other products in this tech news group, provides a…

Good history of the organization,
Sense of breadth and scope of the GigaOM Network, and
List of key team members, with accompanying biographies. (+0.125)

Should Do

While GigaOM may have the strongest foundation amongst the tech blogs reviewed, addressing many of the core elements of Credibility, there is always room for improvement. Some such simple examples are…

Supply clear direct contact information for the members of the GigaOM team, (+0.125)
Present real pictures of these real team members, and
Demonstrate this real organization exists in the real world, let the readers know where it is located, e.g. the physical address of HQ. (+0.125)

Quick Note: On Typos

Seeing as this is the last post in this sub-series I thought I would take a moment to discuss a Credibility value component that could be seen of unique import within the market space of online News and Content products.

Quick-UX is a constant and consistent measuring stick for both internal decision making as well as inter-product comparison, within and among industries. Its value is in its ability to minimize the subjectivity of User Experience evaluation and to provide a more structured way of thinking about the User Experience, from its parts to the whole.

Quick-UX heuristics do not vary from market to market. This, in turn, provides a commonality of quantitative features for simple learning, and quick assessment and comparison. However, you could also argue, in these circumstances, that should one of these news products have had a typo, or a systemic problem with typos, such an occurrence could have a much larger overall impact on the product’s Credibility.

This perceived supplemental level of impact represents a secondary order of analysis, beyond Quick-UX. Quick-UX, in a scenario where typos were a problem, would have quickly highlighted the issue, distinguishing key characteristics (or lack thereof) of Credibility, focused the attention, and provided direction as to one possible avenue of deeper analysis, market and strategy specific analysis.

Quick & Useful

Over the next few weeks I will be exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility …

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

Credibly Mashable

Posted on June 15, 2009 by Jeremy Horn

Tech Blogs

Today, we will take an interesting look at the second of a set of three Technology and Web Blogs with Average Credibility values, from 0.45 – 0.625.

Example 2: Mashable

Founded by Pete Cashmore, Mashable, the tech blog "focused exclusively on Web 2.0 and Social Media news," provides an experience that achieves a Quick-UX Credibility value of 0.575.

Mashable demonstrates both common and unique approaches in addressing the key touchpoints of Credibility. The general product contact methodology is handled cleanly; even with quick access to some of the most commonly desired reasons for contacting Mashable.

The drop-down menu provides access to both the contact form (and associated email addresses) for the various product departments, along with the somewhat awkwardly located ‘About Us’ option (also found within the page footer — the location where I initially spotted it).

Further buttressing the positive Credibility, the Mashable product’s ‘About Us’ page does a very good job of presenting the product’s history and origins alongside the team’s biographies …

…complemented by pictures and other social profile information (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, etc.).

Direct Contact

Mashable clearly believes in robustly leveraging as many of the social media channels of communication as possible, thereby allowing their consumers to use whichever methods are most comfortable and familiar.

Within news products the user will typically see an image associated with the article or the article’s title before seeing the author’s image or name, in a left-to-right content prioritization.

Mashable, through their site design, places a greater emphasis on the authors, the real people creating the content. The emphasis is even more striking when compared with other online news and content-oriented products. This Credibility enhancing approach, uniquely differentiates this product and acts as a conduit to further author-consumer social interaction.

Uniquely, on the homepage, users can (for those who happen to stumble upon this functionality) access supplemental author communication channels through a simple mouse-over of the author’s image — similar to the functionality found on the ‘About Us’ page.

On the whole, a positive, while being somewhat mixed in the implementation, is the method of direct communication. While individual’s emails are not provided, anyone who signs up for a Mashable account (a slightly inconvenient hurdle) can directly message many of the key members of the Mashable team by way of their profile pages, linked from the ‘About Us’ page. This goes a long way in establishing honest dialogue, between those that create/maintain the product and those it serves, and, in turn, the product’s Credibility.

Should Do

The Mashable product has a slight edge over TechCrunch on the foundational elements of Credibility. It is what they do upon that foundation that determines their long-term, overall credibility as judged by their, as well as their competitor’s, user bases. In the meantime, some steps Mashable can take to build upon their Credibility success, as evidenced through this Quick-UX assessment, have to do with establishing Mashable, the product, as coming from a real organization within the real world, for example, by…

expanding the methods of contact to include telephone (e.g. for tips, suggestions, etc.), and
showing where Mashable HQ is located, the real address at which this real product resides.

Quick & Useful

Over the next few weeks I will be exploring and ins-and-outs of Credibility, walking through real-world examples of the Quick-UX evaluation of Credibility …

No Credibility
Barely Low Credibility (part 1, 2, 3)
Solidly Low Credibility (part 1, 2)
Average Credibility & Tech News (part 1, 2, 3)
More Average Credibility (part 1, 2)
High Credibility

Update: Renewed Pogby
Update: Likexo

Quick-UX Credibility, In Conclusion

Enjoy!

Jeremy Horn
The Product Guy

Add to Social Bookmarks:

#9 Quick-UX Credibility from Likexo to Etsy

#8 World’s Best Programmer is… [w/ Respect]

#7 Converted by an Android. A short story of Gmail, in parts.

#6 jQuery Plugin: It’s CuteTime!

#5 The Future: Gmail, Social Media, and You

#4 Google: True Colors Shine Through

#3 Stardoll: Lost and Naked

#2 ThreeDots: The jQuery Ellipsis Plugin

#1 Quick-UX. Quick Heuristics for User eXperience.

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Strong Credibility

No Obvious Typos

Contact Information Provided

Physical Address

Team & Background

Direct Contact

Calling Etsy

Should Do

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Average Credibility

Example 2: ThumbTack

Really

Should Do

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Average Credibility

Example 1: MakingOf

Celebrity

Should Do

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Quick Indeed

Real Progress

Somewhat Direct

Awesome!

Quick & Useful

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Quick Indeed

Stepping Forward

Special Note

Broadly Speaking

Great Work!

Quick & Useful

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Tech Blogs

Example 3: GigaOM

Should Do

Quick Note: On Typos

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Tech Blogs

Example 2: Mashable

Direct Contact

Should Do

Quick & Useful

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