Look, I know accessibility has fallen out of favor. There was a time when accessibility was a popular subject. When the best and the brightest worked hard to ensure the accessibility of their websites.

But then things got complicated. We stopped just building websites and started building web apps. The web page started to give way to the single paged app. Javascript and AJAX became dominant, and accessibility got ‘messier’.

Although it was possible to build accessible web apps, some started to challenge the need. When I talk about accessibility today, many shift uncomfortably and try and change the subject. Some even go as far as arguing that accessibility is “holding back the web” because it makes development so much harder.

I am not unsympathetic to this view if accessibility is just about those with disability. Although I believe we have a legal and moral obligation to the disabled, it can be hard balancing this with business reality.

But that is not what accessibility is about. We need to realign our thinking or risk undermining the user experience for everybody.

We Have the Wrong View of Accessibility

When we think accessibility, we tend to think about the disabled. In fact, if we are honest we tend to think of blind people.

Of course disability is about a lot more than the blind. For a start, there are lots of visual impairments beyond complete blindness. There are also other sensory disabilities such as being deaf. Then there are motor skill issues and cognitive disability.

But even that is too narrow a view of accessibility. Accessibility is not just about those registered disabled. We all have ‘disabilities’ at times. The chances are you suffer from one right now, I know I do.

Did You Know You Have Disabilities Too?

I am shortsighted, which means I need glasses for using my Apple TV. But as I have got older I have started to become long-sighted too. This means I have come to hate sites or apps with tiny text or poor contrast. My parents have just given up with some websites completely. They don’t want the hassle of getting out their reading glasses every time they use a site.

Of course, there are all kinds of symptoms of aging. Poor hearing and arthritis being the most common. Are you ready to turn away anybody over 45?

It is also not just the elderly who suffer from these kinds of minor impairments. I once severed the tendon in my right thumb. It stopped me using that hand for six weeks. Using a mouse with your left hand is no fun I can tell you. Hell, even wearing contact lenses for too long makes text on a screen hard to read!

Sporting injuries, minor operations, or accidents. At times in our lives we all suffer from disabilities.

But this isn’t just about your user’s health and fitness. It is also about the device.

Mobile Has Made Accessibility Crucial Again

The explosion of mobile devices has once again highlighted the importance of accessibility. For a start, the smaller screens have further emphasized the need for large text that is well contrasted. Then there are the issues around touch screens. Closely packed links aren’t just a challenge for somebody with motor control issues. Anybody using a touchscreen will struggle with these too.

But the biggest change mobile has brought is where we use them. We use them in noise environments which creates challenges around hearing and concentration. In effect, we end up with hearing and cognitive impairments.

We also use them outside which leads to a visual impairment as we struggle with screen glare.

I could go on, but I suspect you get the point. We all face accessibility issues at various times in our lives.

Time to Rebrand Accessibility

It is time for us to stop talking about accessibility. The word accessibility just carries too much baggage with it. It seems limited to catering to the disabled and that is like going to the gym. We all know we should do it, but somehow it is just too much effort.

Robin Christopherson, the Head of Digital Inclusion at AbilityNet uses a different word. He talks about ‘Inclusive Design’. I love this term because it gets to the heart of what we should be trying to achieve. We want as many people as possible to use our digital services. That just makes good business sense.

Don’t Turn Away Revenue

Yes, we have legal and moral obligations to make our digital services accessible. But building for those with a disability can be a tough business decision. You have to balance the extra cost of developing an accessible service with the extra revenue disabled users will bring in.

But the decision becomes a no-brainer when you realize what accessibility means. That accessibility is about building for those over 45 or those with a temporary impairment. Why wouldn’t you build with accessibility in mind? It is just bad business.

The spending power of households with a disabled person equates to over £200 billion in the UK alone. Add to that the considerable spending power of the elderly and the numbers become compelling. And that isn’t even including those with temporary impairments or those sitting in the sun on the phone!

So next time a client or colleague says they don’t have disabled customers, ask them what they mean. Because they could be turning away more than 1 in 5 of their customers.

_{Featured image: aoo3771. This article was originally published in September 2016.} 

The post Stop Talking About Accessibility. Start Talking About Inclusive Design. appeared first on Envato.

Of course one option is to specialise. You can limit your expertise to one area and turn down work outside of that specialism. Although there are a lot of advantages to this approach it is not an option for most web designers.

Many of us are not able to turn away work even if we wanted. What is more our clients tend to presume we know ‘everything about the web’.

For the majority of us we have to continue being generalists. This involves expanding our knowledge into ever more diverse areas.

I believe we are seeing demand for five skills that you would not associate with the role of web design. Five skills that clients have come to expect from us. These are…

1. Marketing
2. Copywriting
3. Contextual awareness
4. Strategy
5. Psychology

Let us look at each in turn.

1. Marketing

Clients understand that their online strategy has to be about more than their website. The ‘build it and they will come’ mindset is long gone. They realise that their website is the hub for a broader strategy.

Understanding SEO

At the most basic level clients expect us to have an understanding of SEO. Unfortunately their expectations in this area are often unrealistic. They want to be number one on Google and it becomes our job to educate them about the reality.

Of course to do that we need to understand the discipline ourselves. What is best practice within SEO? What impacts does SEO have on usability, accessibility and copy?

But, SEO is not the only consideration. There is also the gorilla in the corner – social media.

Advising on Social Media

Clients know they need to engage their potential and existing customers via social media. They even use it themselves. But, they don’t understand how to use these platforms from a business perspective. Often when they try they make horrendous mistakes. Even big brands suffer from this problem. The Skittles and Nestle incidents make this obvious.

Once again they need help and so turn to us. We have to know more than how to design an attractive Facebook page or open a Buffer account. We need to be able to help with community building, social media and engaging content. We need to understand how to deal with conflict, encourage participation and inspire action.

2. Copywriting

The most important skill we need to learn as designers is copywriting. Let’s face it, most websites have terrible copy.

The majority of that copy is down to the client and so we tend to wash our hands of it. But, it is not all the client’s responsibility.

Who writes those little pieces of microcopy that appear across the websites we design? You know, the error messages, section headings, instructional text and button labels. Most of the time it is the web designer.

The problem is that the words we use can have a big impact on usability, comprehension and conversion. Take for example 404 pages. Other than web designers who the hell knows what a 404 page is?

It is not just us that needs to learn to write better copy. The client does as well. The question is who will teach them? Once again the burden falls to us.

Web designers shouldn’t be teaching copywriting. But often there is nobody else. That means we need to understand the principles of writing for the web. In fact we need an understanding of general copywriting techniques. In particular I think we need to help the client establish consistency and tone in their copy. After all we have worked hard to project the right tone in our design.

3. Contextual awareness

There was a time when you could be certain about how somebody was accessing a website. The chances were they used a desktop computer and sat at a desk.

Things have changed. Now they could be using a tablet on the sofa or a mobile phone at the bus stop. This has a profound effect on how we design websites. We need to be aware of the users context. We need to understand how both environment and device alters the way people use a website. If we do not, we cannot deliver a good service to our clients.

The impact of environment

Do you take time to consider the environment in which users encounter your website? Do you understand how these environmental differences could impact behaviour?

For example a mother with a new born baby may be accessing the web from a home computer. But, her environment could well be far from perfect. Her child could be crying. She may be sleep deprived. These things impact how well she can use your website.

The impact of the device

With a growing number of devices accessing the web we need to consider a greater number of factors. Screen size, functionality and input method are just three examples. We are good at addressing screen size. But we don’t pay as much attention to the other factors.

Take for example when a person uses a touch screen or mobile keyboard. This changes the experience a lot when compared to a full size keyboard and mouse.

In this multi-device, multi-environment age we must think a lot more about context. For example, when was the last time you visited a user in their home or office? Or do you navigate your website with just a keyboard to see how it changes the experience?

There was a time when you could ignore these things because clients didn’t care about mobile. They didn’t see it as worth the investment. But now that has changed, because each and everyone of your clients has a mobile device in their pocket. They use these devices in a variety of circumstances. They expect their website to be easy to use whether they are on the train or on their sofa.

4. Strategy

So many clients do not know why they have a website or how to measure its success. They hire you without understanding their website should be apart of a broader strategy. Often it falls to us to guide them through the process.

This means we need to brush up on our business strategy skills. We need to be able to help our clients:

• set business objectives,
• identify target audiences,
• establish success criteria,
• and decide on calls to action

It strikes me as insane that many clients do not already have these things defined. But, they do not.

The question is do you feel prepared to guide users through the process? Are you confident in talking about market segmentation or business analysis? If not then it is time to broaden your horizons.

5. Psychology

My final skill may well be the most important of all (yes I know I said that about copywriting). It is the skill you will use more than any of the others.

To be an effective web designer these days, we need a good understanding of psychology.

For a long time psychology has been a part of our job. Designing usable websites requires an understanding of how users think and complete tasks. But, it is no longer enough to create websites that are just usable. Clients want the sites we create to make users passionate and engaged. That takes a deeper understanding of what makes people tick.

A good grasp of psychology goes further than just design and usability. If you understand how people think it can also help build an engaged community. It allows you to write better copy, promote your services and win more pitches.

Our role is to understand and engage with people. Whether users, clients or colleagues, we must understand how they think. This will allow us to motivate them into action. We can convince and persuade, nudging them in the direction we wish to go.

To survive in the modern world of web design we need to understand the human condition.

How do I learn all this stuff?

By this point you are most likely feeling somewhat overwhelmed. How the hell do you get your head around all this new stuff on top of everything else.

It’s a fair question and I have no easy answer. But, I would suggest one thing. Do you need to read yet another CSS article or watch another Photoshop tutorial? Do you need to attend a conference about the latest jQuery techniques? Would your time be better spent broadening your horizons.

I rarely read anything about HTML, CSS or Javascript anymore. I do enough to keep up-to-date but other than that my reading is not web design related.

I read books on business theory and follow blogs on customer service. I listen to audiobooks about marketing.

The problem is that the web design industry has become isolated. We only talk to one another and regurgitate the same old stuff. If we want to meet the needs of our clients, we must start looking further afield for our education.

Is this unreasonable?

You may suggest it is unreasonable to expect one individual to learn all this. The answer is yes it is. But, that does not change the reality that this is what our clients want and expect.

Clients are looking for a one-stop-shop. They are not looking to deal with different suppliers. There is too much work associated with managing different companies. Sure, this is a generalisation and I am not arguing against specialising. I am just saying that we all need a broad knowledge in todays marketplace.

Does that mean we need a deep knowledge of marketing or copywriting? No it does not. But, it does mean we need to know enough to point our clients in the right direction. Sometimes that might be us suggesting solutions. Sometimes it might be us recommending an expert. But, without some knowledge on our part we cannot make those judgements.

If you want to delight your clients and deliver more than the competition, it is time to broaden your knowledge.

The post 5 Extra Skills Clients Expect From Their Web Designers Today appeared first on Envato.

But, let’s be honest, design sign-off can be painful. This is especially true considering the idea of a single, de-facto design is misleading.

What exactly are you asking clients to approve?

Take a moment to answer this question: What exactly are you asking clients to sign-off? Is it a Photoshop document? Is that actually the design? After all no single static comp can show animation, browser versions or mobile adaptions. You can end up producing a huge number of mockups to cover every eventuality, which lets be honest we rarely do.

You might think that getting a client to sign-off on an in-browser design might make more sense. But does it really? Is the client going to check that design in every browser or even on different devices?

This means even if the client does sign-off there is still room for ambiguity. Ample room for the client to complain later.

And anyway, has design sign-off ever actually stopped a client asking for changes? Sure it gives you some leverage, but if you want to keep their business you are always on the back foot.

Not only is design sign-off ineffective, it can also be damaging.

The problems with sign-off

For a start design sign-off carries with it an implication. An implication that the client has to ‘like’ the design. But do they really? Do they not want a design that performs, a design that meets the needs of users? Why then do they need to approve it? Isn’t that what testing is for?

Of course, clients want a say in the design and there are good reasons for giving them that say. They know their business better than us. They may well know their users better too. They also have to live with our design long after we move on to the next project.

But design sign-off is a binary way of involving them. They only get to say yes or no. That isn’t helpful. We don’t get their full insights. They don’t get to learn what makes a good design, making it hard for them to give informed feedback.

Then of course there is the pressure of design sign-off. When the client gets one chance to comment on the design they feel a lot of pressure. They have to get things right. That makes them hyper critical. They will also consult with lots of colleagues in the hope of sharing the pressure. But this does nothing but muddy the waters.

Finally, design sign-off prevents iteration. Once the client approves the design, nobody can change it and that includes us. That means no matter what we learn after that point there is nothing we can do. Discover a new user need… too late. Find out the developer can’t build what we have designed… we will have to find a way.

This is out of step with modern web design practices. Practices that rely on continual iteration based on increasing understanding.

So if design sign-off is no longer working, what are our options?

A better way?

There is no perfect solution. But a better starting point is to include the client more often in the design and development process. This allows us to get a better understanding of their requirements. But it also educates them about the decisions we are making together.

Finally, it gives them a greater sense of investment in the design. This reduces the chance of them rejecting the design later. It also encourages them to defend it when talking to colleagues.

So instead of a major design sign-off point, we have a series of smaller steps. Informal discussions and decisions together with the client to shape the design.

By working with you on the design they are more invested and better educated. They don’t feel the pressure of a set in stone decision. Instead they get to observe user responses to a design through testing and iteration. They become a team member, shaping the design.

This approach does take more work in educating and engaging the client. But it should reduce the number of iterations required to get approval. In the end it should reduce your workload.

But the approach doesn’t always work. What if the client changes their minds late in the development process?

But what if they change their minds?

Clients do change their mind and design sign-off does provide some protection against this. They change their mind for a couple of reasons.

First, a colleague or manager changes it for them. But this happens even with design sign-off. A manager who swoops in and poops all over the project is something that nobody can avoid. But a client who is an active participant in the design process is more likely to defend it. Not only that but they are better equipped too.

They will understand the design decisions well enough to explain them. But they will also feel invested in the design and so its rejection would reflect on them.

The second reason clients change their mind is that they think of something after sign-off. Things they had not considered earlier. They think of a new piece of functionality or have second thoughts about how users will react.

This happens because they just don’t give the project enough thought. But if you work with them throughout the design process they will have spent more time thinking about it. This reduces the chance of them thinking of something new late in the project.

Pilot the approach

I am not suggesting you dump design sign-off on all new projects. Instead I am suggesting piloting it on a single project. See what happens. See if you actually miss that signature on the dotted line.

Also keep a careful eye on projects that do include design sign-off. Are they really better? Does design sign-off actually protect you from design changes? Or are they just a barrier between you and the client? A barrier that leads to endless iterations and a less informed client.

The post Is Getting Clients to Sign Off Design a Bad Idea? appeared first on Envato.

More recently we have seen an explosion of mobile applications. Again, each of these apps as their own graphic user interface.

But things have gone even further. Everything from our TV to our refrigerator now seems to have a graphic user interface built in.

Unfortunately, the graphic user interface does have its limitations.

The limitations of the graphic user interface

For a start the idea of a graphic user interface is not particularly natural. Sure, things have become more intuitive since the arrival of touch screens. But much of the time we are still using the graphical user interface with a mouse or trackpad. These are at best a compromise and at worst downright awkward.

Even when using a touchscreen the average graphic user interface can feel awkward. Especially in comparison with the natural flow of a conversation or using physical objects.

Then there is the fact that we use so many different graphic user interfaces. Every website we visit and every app we launch presents us with different systems we have to learn.

Mobile device manufacturers such as Apple and Google have recognised this problem. They attempt to mitigate it by establishing design standards but these can only go so far. The graphic user interface is often complex and specific to the application or site you are using. It is never going to match the simplicity and consistency of something like reading a book.

Finally, the graphic user interface demands full attention. You have to be both looking at it and using your hands to interact with it. This limits what else you can be doing at the same time. For example a graphic user interface is far from ideal when driving a car or exercising.

But as I said at the beginning of this article, the world is changing. We are seeing new methods of interacting with applications beyond the graphic user interface.

Beyond the graphic user interface

The most obvious evolution of the user interface is voice interaction. Services such as Siri, Cortona and Google allow us to control apps with voice command.

Although still in their infancy they have a lot of potential to revolutionise how we use apps. Voice driven interfaces do not need us to either see or touch them. At least not in principle. In reality much of the information they return is still in visual format. But that is changing and you can expect voice commands to become far more widespread before long.

Of course speaking out loud is not always appropriate. This means we will never be able to rely on speech command as our primary interface. But there is a related technology that is a real alternative.

Since Facebook messenger started supporting chatbots there’s been a lot of buzz around them. The idea that we can interact with apps as if we were having a conversation with a person is appealing. It is more natural than a graphic user interface. But creating a natural feeling conversation is hard, and the current chat bots fail.

That said, in time this will change. In some situations the chatbots will become an alternative to the graphic user interface. In particular I see them having a lot of potential in helping users find a specific fact. All without the need to navigate through pages of information.

Finally, when looking beyond the graphic user interface we have to mention sensors. Chatbots and speech apps seek to replace the graphic user interface. But sensors have the potential to reduce our need to interact with any user interface.

For example you can now unlock your car with a mobile app. But it would be possible for your car to unlock itself when it senses your mobile device nearby. This does away the need for any form of interaction.

So we can expect the role of the graphic user interface to become less over the coming years. But that does not mean it will ever go away. What we can expect is that it will change as new technology enhances its capability.

The graphic user interface will change

The best example of the evolution of the graphic user interface is virtual reality. Unless you have used VR on something like the HTC Vive, it is hard to appreciate how powerful it is. Its immersive nature provides unparalleled opportunities for improving our interaction with technology. The potential for gaming alone is immense. But there are also some interesting uses in medical and creative professions. For example architects are beginning to use it in their work.

That said, virtual reality is never going to be our primary graphic user interface. It doesn’t matter how small and light the glasses become. At the end of the day virtual reality prevents you from seeing or hearing your surroundings. This is going to limit its use.

Augmented reality has a lot more potential for widespread use. It is easy to imagine a world where technology layers information over the top of what we see. This will present some unique design challenges. We will need to balance the need for legibility with unobstructed vision.

HYPER-REALITY from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

For the public to adopt augmented reality there are going to have to be improvements in the hardware. The majority wouldn’t wear something like Google glasses. Even Bluetooth headsets are only acceptable while driving for most people. This shows that technology has to be hidden or fashionable to receive widespread adoption. But with companies such as Apple working on augmented reality we can expect improvements. It will be the graphic user interface challenges that will be more difficult.

But the most significant evolutions in the graphic user interface will be invisible. Big data and artificial intelligence will have a huge impact on the graphic user interface.

These technologies will allow the interfaces we design to be more intelligent and adaptive. I expect interfaces that customise themselves around the behaviour of individual users.

We will see functionality that users often engage with float to the top. Meanwhile less used functionality will fade into the background. We will also see interfaces adapting themselves to the users personalise data. In fact, the potential to customise the user interface is almost endless.

All this challenges our perception of what a user interface designer is.

Redefine the role of designer

If the user interface adapts to user needs, what does the designer actually design? If there is no graphic user interface is there still a need for a designer?

I am convinced that the role of designer will still be essential. There will still be a need for people who focus on the point of interaction between a user and technology. But this role will change in two fundamental ways.

First, the nature of these interfaces will change. As designers we will no longer be pushing pixels. Rather we will be considering all kinds of interactions from voice to text.

Second, we will no longer be able to work alone. Our working relationship with developers will become evermore integrated. We will need to work with them to craft these complex interactions. We won’t be able to throws design comps over the wall to developers any longer.

You can respond to this in one of two ways. You can see this as the end of your role as a user interface designer. This might lead you to bury your head in the sand and pretend these changes will not happening or to run away screaming! Or you can see it as an exciting opportunity. That as we try and integrate these new technologies into our lives we will need the help of designers. I believe that we live in an exciting time to be designers, if only we are willing to broaden our view of what that means.

The post How the Future of the User Interface Will Redefine Your Job appeared first on Envato.

The frontier is wild, lawless and at times downright mean. People get hurt and only the fittest survive. It can feel like that at times when you work in digital.

There is no regulation, and more than one unscrupulous competitor has sunk a business. We are a sector that lacks diversity, equality and based on some Twitter conversations, even basic decency!

But this isn’t a post on our need for a professional body or governing standards. An interesting discussion though that is, I am more interested in our personal integrity. How does morality, ethics and integrity play a part in our professional lives? Why does integrity even matter in the business world?

Why Integrity Matters

It is the fact that we have no governing body or standards that makes our personal integrity so important. There is no way potential employers or clients can judge our suitability. Instead we live or die on our reputation and that is defined by how we handle ourselves in our professional lives.

The fact that we work in a digital world makes our integrity even more important. Others can share or lookup opinions on us in an instant. Where once it was politicians and celebrities that lived in the spotlight, now we all do.

Prospective employers and clients will Google us and put weight on what they read. They won’t just focus on our own promotional material and sanitised testimonials. They will read what others say and also look at how we conduct ourselves online. They will read those arguments we had on Twitter and the snide comments we make on other people’s blogs.

For better or worse, what others say about us online shapes our career. But what we say and do ourselves has a huge impact too. In the end it comes down to two things, likability and trust. Somebody without integrity is neither, and both are essential to business success.

So what does your online footprint say about you? Does it project somebody who is trustworthy and fair? Do you come across as an opinionated troublemaker or a reliable, considered person?

Of course what people say might not always be true. But we cannot control what others say. We can only control our own words and actions. So when and where do we need to ensure we hold ourselves to the highest possible standards?

Where Integrity Matters

This is not about posting drunken photos on Facebook. If you don’t know that is a bad idea by now there is no helping you. No, this is about how we handle ourselves professionally.

For example, who do you choose to work for? The companies and clients you work for reflect on you and so you need to think before accepting a job. If you accept a job working for a petrochemical company, don’t expect an environmental charity to work with you. People will make judgements about you by your choice of client.

If you are an employer then you also need to consider what you ask your employees to work on. Just because you feel comfortable working on porn sites, doesn’t mean all your employees will.

But you responsibility towards your employees goes further. Remember each of them have an audience online and the last thing your reputation needs is them bad mouthing you when they leave.

Of course the same is also true for clients. It is easy to think our job is to deliver digital projects. But that is not the whole story. We also provide a service, and so treating our clients with respect is an important part of that. I encounter too many digital professionals who are dismissive of clients because they “don’t get it”.

I see people doing the same things with colleagues as well. It is not unusual to hear comments such as “they don’t have a clue what they are talking about” or “they don’t know anything about design”. It is worth remembering that they know a lot about subjects of which you are ignorant. Successful digital projects need people from a broad range of backgrounds.

In fact, I would go as far as saying that I see a general lack of respect for others within the digital community. I see flame wars over which technology is the best and people dismissed because of their gender or age. I see personal attacks and professional jealousy.

This is not the hallmarks of a mature professional community. They damage our individual reputation, but also the reputation of the whole industry. It makes us look like petulant teenagers squabbling among ourselves. We then have the audacity to complain that we are not included in executive decision making! We must appear like children complaining we aren’t allowed to drive our parents car.

I am sure many of you are nodding along in agreement at this point. It is something that is all too obvious. But are you sure you are not part of the problem? I know I am sometimes.

The Integrity Trap

Here is the problem with focusing on ethics and integrity; it is subjective. What I consider ethical might not be the same as somebody else. This makes it easy to become judgemental, if others do not live up to my standards.

Even if we share a belief that ethics are important, we may disagree over emphasis. You may get frustrated that I don’t talk more about diversity, but that is because I am focusing on keeping the web open.

But it gets worse. Even if we place the same emphasis on the same things we can disagree about how to solve the problem. I have seen speakers boycott conferences because they didn’t have a code of conduct. It wasn’t that the conference organiser didn’t care about creating a safe environment. They just chose to address the problem in a different way.

My point is that we must be careful not to turn into zealots. It is great to feel passionate about an issue. But we cannot get angry if others don’t share our passion. That will damage our reputation, not build it.

Integrity is important in our industry. There are a lot of issues to address and we need to put our house in order. But we need to do so in a tolerant and mature manner if we are to gain the respect of our peers and clients.

The post Do you have a professional reputation that screams integrity? appeared first on Envato.

Where Does Our Fear of Failure Come From?

If you consider most of the projects people undertake, failing is not something they would seek to embrace.

If you are constructing a building and it collapsed your failure would cost lives. The cost of failure can be high in reputation, money or even lives. Mistakes can sink companies and even bring down governments. One mistake can make all the difference.

It is not surprising that companies plan projects in excruciating detail. That before work ever begins they produce detailed specifications and gantt charts. Or that once work starts, deviation from those plans is not an option.

Agreeing on that plan can be a painful process too. Let’s imagine you are manufacturing a new car. Until the car goes to market you have little idea of whether it will be a success. Will people like the design? Will it get favourable reviews? That is not even considering the risk of a manufacturing error that could force you to recall vehicles. Sure, you can do some market research. But you don’t know whether people will buy the car until it goes to market. You are working with limited information.

No wonder planning such projects involves endless committee meetings. After all, no one individual is going to want the responsibility if things go wrong. Everybody has to agree to proceed.

If failure is so damaging in most scenarios, why would digital be any different?

Why Failure Has Its Place

Running a digital project is not like constructing a building or launching a new car model. In fact digital is not like any physical goods. It differs in three significant ways.

• Pixels are cheap. You can build something and discard it at little cost compared to physical goods.
• You can make corrections. You cannot make changes to a car after launch without recalling every car you have sold. But with digital services you can update it many times a day if you so wish.
• Information is abundant. Digital services provide a wealth of date on how people are using them. This makes it easy to see what is working and what is not, allowing you to adapt.

These key characteristics of digital encourage a culture of experimentation. This is much like you see in scientific research. You form a hypothesis about what will work. You build an experiment to test that hypothesis and gather data on the result. Whether the hypothesis is correct or not is secondary. It is the data that matters. Data that moves you towards success.

Winston Churchill once said:

Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.

Nowhere is this more true than in the digital field. Building something that fails in someway provides valuable information. This will inform your next version.

In someways we do this concept a disservice by referring to it as ‘failing fast’. What we are talking about is a culture of experimentation. That sounds much more palatable to colleagues and management unfamiliar with digital.

But ‘failing fast’ does have some merits. Scientific experimentation is a slow and meticulous process. But in the commercial world, speed is everything.

An iterative approach lets you get a minimum viable product (MVP) to market fast. This allows you to start grabbing market share. You can then iterate on that MVP overtime based on the feedback from real users.

The chances are that this isn’t a particular revelation to you. But it will be to your non-digital colleagues. This is the reason you struggle with committees, detailed specifications and unrealistic project plans. Your colleagues and managers have been trying to run digital projects like physical ones. It falls to you to show them that there is a better way to work.

How to Make Failure Acceptable

As I have already said, you may wish to stop talking about failure at all. It is just too big a mental shift for most. Or you could use the wording of the Government Digital Service in the UK and talk about ‘only make new mistakes‘. This sounds more palatable.

But semantics aside, what we are talking about here is a different way of working. One that moves away from specification, project plans and finite projects.

Instead we are seeking to create a culture of iteration. We build, test and iterate based on what we learn. It is an approach based on the ideas of prototyping and usability testing.

Don’t expect colleagues to embrace this overnight. Instead begin with a single pilot project. A place where you can test this approach. Pick something that is relatively high profile. Something people care about, but not something business critical. If it is too important people will get nervous about trying new things.

I often find an internal project works well. Something where your colleagues are the people you are testing with because they are the users. This engages them in the process and lets them see the benefits.

Intranet projects are great for this. As are backend systems like booking a holiday or claiming expenses.

Not that you shouldn’t choose an external facing project. The key will be to include stakeholders in the project as much as possible, to expose them to the different way of working.

You will also want to share the process with the rest of the organisation. Write blog posts, give presentations and share results. Invite people to the usability sessions and make your prototypes available for colleagues to see.

When running a pilot project to introduce this new way of working there is an important thing to remember. Your job is more about education than it is delivery. Yes, the pilot needs to be a success. But people need to see it as a success and understand why.

So failure has a place and we should be ‘failing fast’. But getting our colleagues and management to embrace this kind of thinking is going to take time. We will need to think long and hard about how we are going to communicate the benefits to them.

The post Should We Really Embrace Failure? appeared first on Envato.

It was not that they were all bad. There was a place for each. We just used them in the wrong way and with too heavy a hand. Less is more, as the saying goes.

Yet despite watching all these mistakes come and go, we are still making them. The latest is the newsletter sign-up form.

Getting people to sign-up to our newsletter is important. An email newsletter provides the opportunity to keep our brand in people’s minds. They also give us a chance to encourage repeat purchases or to up-sell. It is just that we seem to have become somewhat obsessed.

Maybe it is because we feel on safer ground with email than social media. Email feels more like traditional direct mail. It is a broadcast medium where we can control the message. It is not messy like social media where you have to engage with customers and they might say bad things about you.

But whatever the case, we have taken our desire to get people’s email addresses to the extreme. We have started damaging the user experience.

You’re Damaging the User Experience

I am sorry to break it to you, but nobody comes to your website wanting to sign-up to your newsletter. They have a different agenda and when we push the newsletter sign-up so hard it makes it more difficult for the user to get their task done.

Take for example checking out on an eCommerce site. If ever there was a moment to streamline the user experience, this was it. Yet, the entire experience can get slowed down as users have to read every checkbox. All to check that you are not signing them up to a newsletter by default!

But it gets worse. Sometimes we can prevent people from doing anything until we deal with the newsletter sign-up request. I am sure you have been to sites that overlay a newsletter sign-up form across the entire site. Until you dismiss that form you can no longer use the site. This is madness!

Unfortunately, we are not just damaging the user experience. We are also crippling our own credibility.

You’re Crippling Your Credibility

Have you ever seen one of those newsletter sign-up boxes where they have designed the cancel link to make you feel bad for not signing up. They have worded it in such a way that clicking on the link is tantamount to insanity.

Sure, these kinds of techniques might work on one in a thousand. But to the rest of us it just looks manipulative. Worst of all you are treating your users like they are idiots who you can trick with some manipulative copy. No wonder our opinions of such sites plummet.

Unfortunately we don’t just look manipulative. We can also look desperate. A common practice at the moment is to offer customers a discount if they sign-up for a newsletter. On face value this sounds a reasonable transaction. In return for somebody’s email address you give them a discount. But consider for a moment what you are saying about the newsletter itself. You are saying that the content of your newsletter is so worthless that you have to bribe people to sign-up for it.

You are also relying on people’s laziness to stop them unsubscribing once they have had the discount. Not exactly an inspiring start.

Of course you could make it hard to unsubscribe. This seems to be the course many have chosen. But this further undermines your credibility by making subscribers frustrated. Not to mention getting your newsletter consigned to the spam folder.

Perhaps you don’t care about your reputation or brand. But what about the bottom line?

You’re Destroying your Conversion Rate

We have already established that newsletter sign-up forms can distract users from their main task. But they also distract them from completing your primary call to action.

On most sites newsletter sign-up is a secondary call to action. You want people to do something else like buy a product, give a donation or complete a contact us form. You have a newsletter to catch those people who aren’t ready to complete the primary call to action.

But when you make the newsletter sign-up so prominent you can distract people from these primary calls to action.

You can end up in a bizarre situation where a user comes to your website to buy something and in effect you say – “Stop! Don’t buy that. Instead sign-up for our newsletter so we can remind you later to comeback and buy.”

There must be a better way.

Four Steps to Better Newsletter Sign-up

Look, despite how this article sounds I have nothing against newsletter sign-ups. We just need to become more sophisticated in how we handle them. At the moment we are so desperate for people to subscribe we are screaming at them every time they visit our site.

Instead of ending on a negative note, let me share with you four steps to improve your newsletter sign-ups. All without damaging your business.

1. Get the Content Right

You have to provide value to the subscriber and that has to be more than discounts. If your newsletter isn’t full of rich, engaging content then people will unsubscribe faster than you can sign them up.

I recommend making your newsletter about more than you and your products. Write about your sector and provide lots of advice to your audience.

2. Tell People What They Will Get

I am amazed how many newsletter sign-up forms neglect to tell the user why they should sign-up! Make sure you provide compelling reasons. Let the user know what the newsletter will include and what benefit it will provide.

Also provide practical information like how often they can expect to receive emails. Everybody gets too much email these days, so let people know you won’t be overwhelming them.

Don’t just tell people what they will get from the newsletter. Show them as well. Always have a link where they can see previous newsletters online.

3. Make it Easy to Unsubscribe

Nothing will damage your brand and your newsletter more than making it hard for people to unsubscribe. It makes people frustrated, but that is just one of the problems.

If people cannot unsubscribe they do one of two things.

They may choose to ignore your email. This can make it hard to judge the success of your newsletter. You will appear to have a lot of subscribers, but your open and click rates will be low. The problem is you won’t know why. Is it the content of the newsletter or is it that people couldn’t unsubscribe? By making it hard to unsubscribe you are just obscuring your metrics.

Even worse, they could choose to mark your newsletter as spam. This creates the same problems as above, but with the added bonus of black listing you. If enough people mark your emails as spam then they will stop reaching legitimate subscribers. This is the worst of scenarios as you may never know what is happening.

4. Pick Your Moment

My final piece of advice is to pick your moment before asking people to subscribe. Don’t leap on users the minute they hit your site. Let them complete their primary task first.

Consider displaying a newsletter sign-up when they are about to exit, or at the end of a checkout process. Give people a chance to look around your site so they can judge if a newsletter is something they might want to receive.

Of course all this is common sense. Unfortunately in our desperation to get more subscribers, common sense often goes out the window. Don’t make that mistake. If you do, you risk damaging the user experience and your business.

Featured Image: michaklootwijk.

The post Stop Pressuring Me to Sign Up to Your Newsletter! appeared first on Envato.