Derek Olson - Vice President — For the past 10 years, Derek has been providing strategic advice to clients large and small—across a wide spectrum of industries and non-profit sectors. Derek is most passionate about the symbiotic relationship he observes between web usability, semantic markup, and marketing. He can often be cajoled into speaking at length on these matters.
The Ugliest iPhone You Ever Did See
Tips for paper prototyping success
As part of our application development process, we’re always trying to prove that we’ve made some bad assumptions. The best way to do this is to get someone to use your app who hasn’t been involved in the design and development process.
Read full article »Unleash the Hounds
Information scent and lessons learned from the canine world
Ever watch a dog walk through a door into an unfamiliar room? It immediately sniffs around the perimeter, sniffs each person, and sniffs any objects or dark spots on the carpet. The dog is on the lookout for the two essential communication devices of the canine world: food and excrement.
Web users act in much the same way.
Read full article »Does “Above the Fold” Matter?
(And How Do I Measure It?)
What is “the fold”?
“The fold” comes from printed newspapers (remember those?). In a printed newspaper, the prime real estate is on the front page, above the place where the paper is folded in half.
At a news stand, stories that are above the fold are visible without any manhandling on the part of the consumer. Stories that are above the fold are also typically the only ones you can see (before buying) in newspaper vending machines.
On the web,…
Read full article »Open House for a Sustainable World
We hope you’ll join us on Thursday, November 12 for an open house in honor of World Usability Day 2009: “Designing for a Sustainable World”. The open house will take place in room ECCS 128 in the Engineering Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1:00pm – 4:00pm. Following the event, everyone is invited back to the Foraker offices for appetizers, soft drinks, a tour of the space, and additional conversation from 4:30pm – 6:00 pm.
The event…
Read full article »Is Conversion Optimization the Holy Grail of eCommerce?
Exploring motivational factors beyond measurement
Conversion optimization is, loosely put, the process of making incremental changes to your website that increase the volume/pace/value of desirable actions by your users (as measured by your web analytics software). But can conversion optimization go too far? Is there ever a case where optimizing conversions at the expense of all else could be harmful?
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