The worst enemy a smart Internet Magician can have is a  Deadeye. A deadeye  customer or client either comes from the now defunct dead print paradigm, or is someone that bases their information architecture ideas based solely on aesthetics. They forever think that the Web is about visual appeal, and not interaction, by which we mean  enabling customer action. Purchase, adview, whatever you want the customer to do.

Getting your customer to act in your system is usually more valuable than just a “deadview”. This is why facebook, that gets customers to submit their information willingly, finds their customer interaction so much more valuable than, say, google.

If the customer does not perform a specific action based on a visit to your website, the website is a failure. The action can be anything from giving a bit mindspace to your product to an actual purchase.

As any person swayed by emotions as opposed to goals, they will insist on discussing fonts, color schemes, background music and overall “cool factor”.

It is amazing how many smart people elect to make decisions based on emotions, reverting to their inner child when faced with the scary complexity of the Internet. Unfortunately, even though they will never insist on repainting their car along with swapping out the engine every six months, the perceived “ease” of internet development makes the analogy of such activity all too often in relation to web design.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with “cool factor”, it’s just that so many people get it wrong with cool. Yes, Apple has a rabid fanboy base and overall status sway that turns almost any product release by Apple into a mass-media phenomenon.

But don’t forget that before Apple announced that product, a lot of time and research went into finding a niche and a killer product for that niche.

So many times, customers try to compensate for lack of understanding of their own product and their user base by concentrating on presentation. But today there is only interaction.

Amazon doubled conversions by simplifying their customer sign-up form. You  hear this story all the time. Remove obstacle from customer. Profit.

Nobody ever writes about how a tweaked graphic or font made them new 30 000 customers overnight. Simply because it does not happen.

Here we have a great example of somebody finally standing up and saying – “Excuse me, is it not our goal to help the customer make purchases? As in give us money and get something in return?”

So before you make the classic mistake of pitching for a customer by throwing a wireframe website together, try to understand the customer first.

What are they looking to achieve? Inform, Sway, Sell, Enable, Solve, Provide Cool? What is their main goal?  Amazon makes shopping online easy. Ebay lets you bid on things cheaper than you can buy at any store.  Craigslist used to let people get laid and find a job and apartment at the same time.  Facebook lets you stay in touch. (Don’t forget the strong aspect of social interaction and network forming these website provide) What defines your customer as a company?  What do they want to achieve with the website , but most importantly,  with their product? Without understanding the company (and believe me, a lot of times companies don’t understand themselves), you will never make a truly great website.

Go into the field. Ask for a product demo. See a salesman’s pitch if you can.  Observe the customer in the wild.  Find the formula of success on the web for this client. It will be unique.

You can compete against bitter former graphic designers recreating dead tree layouts on the web, or you can make magic.

The choice is yours.

The Internet Saves Consumers Money! Who Knew!

Consumers doing their research online are smarter and more sofisticated, simply because they have more data available to them and they are empowered to use this data. This is a challenge to old-school corporate mentality.
But think about it this way – the enabled consumer is also the ready-to-shop consumer. Once they see you have the best product, they will make a decision to buy quickly. The challenge is to help them do so!

This makes us all the prouder to have contributed early testing and strategic planning for IfWeRantheWorld.com;

Some think that raised awareness of sustainability, social issues and taking an active stance are merely a consumer fad.

We see it as a continuing shift in global human consciousness from the consumer to the creator and provider model.

In fact, Obama, who has won over the young voter demographic with appeal to exactly the above hope for change and a brilliant online campaign strategy, is now providing a rude awakening : hoping for Change is not enough.

One must be an active facilitator and participant of change.

The informatization of society has allready facilitated better self-organization, and many young people today are using cellphones and social networking sites to organize and unite, the G-20 protests being a good latest example.

However, achieving goals and making them quantifiable for the average human, without turning them into a bureacrat remains a daunting tasks.

Nathan Shedroff , with his book Design is the problem, sums it up.

What we think makes IfWeRantheWorld.com stand out is that it is the Getting Things Done of social improvement- there is a specific next step, a “liquidity of goodness”.

And improvement you can assess and measure is improvement you can keep.

Much has been said about Drupal vs WordPress in the past, see references at end of article.
This post is geared towards the end user and project manager that wants to select the best system for their needs.

I am going to talk about our direct experience only, so all following statemets have “In Our Humble Experience” preceding, please take that into account.

Also, drupal 7 has set out to improve usability in the default install, so this article will become irrelevant in several months time.

Ladies and germs, without further ado

Drupal vs WordPress – who wins?

1) Blogging – WordPress wins with a K.O.

WordPress is wonderful for a simple blogging solution. The user interface

Blogging and CMS are very much a gray area as far as people’s definitions go.
After all, WordPress allows for static page creation, comments, and user submitted content. Just like Drupal.

2) Ease of install and Administration – WordPress wins on points

Timewise, WordPress takes much less to install out-of-the box.
End-users find it easier to use.

However, advanced modifications take less time in Drupal. Drupal has allowed us an easier shopping cart integration with Ubercart and the multitude of Drupal modules is inspiring. If you were to create dynamic content with multiple fields (price,location, size, etc),

Drupal is Uncontested Winner in Heavy Content Supremacy

If you have the money to customize, Drupal is the way to go.

Resources
Gradual change article