UX Insights - User Experience Leadership and Strategy

When it comes to writing the copy for your website, start with a users question rather than the message you wish to communicate.

We all think we understand information architecture. Yet, it is a specialist area and the things we think we know may not be correct.

If your organisation wants to be successful in its use of digital it cannot stop at rolling out a fancy new website or mobile app. It needs to address the culture of the organisation.

When we become too close to something we can miss the obvious. Web design is no exception. That is why your website may well need a second opinion.

When most of us think about design we focus on aesthetics. But as any designer will tell you, aesthetics shouldn’t be your primary concern.

The internal systems used within many organisations have shocking user interfaces. This is costing companies in productivity, training and even in customer experience. Fortunately we can fix this.

There is a lot of buzz around making better use of the digital tools at our disposal (the web, social media and mobile). That is not going to be enough to secure the future of your organisation.

Digital transformation, digital teams, digital strategy. Digital has become a buzzword. But what does it mean?

We need to spend the same time and attention on our internal systems as we do on our external facing websites. Just look at your content management system.

Do you need to hire a web agency to build you a website? Or do you need help creating a pattern library and design framework?

People often spend too much time on cutting edge technology or ‘clever’ marketing campaigns, when basic things like legibility are not in place.

If the CIA can use humour on social media then so can your organisation, no matter how seriously they take themselves.

In a recent article, Alex Breuer from the Guardian shared valuable insights into their working practices. Among other things this demonstrated some best practice in digital management.

Designing for the web can be challenging when things change so fast. Fortunately, whether it is 1994 of 2014 some principles never change.

Writing for the web has many unique challenges. Just because you can write well, does not mean you can write good web copy.

With so many ways to engage with users from social media to email and blogging, we must ensure we are communicating in a consistent way.

Social media is not a channel for broadcasting. Rather use it to engage. There is no shortages of material making that possible.

The reason many corporate social media feeds are boring is because of fear. Fear of making a mistake. But, it doesn't need to be that way.

Creating a business case for digital change is about more than outlining requirements. We need to consider the readers perspective and tailor our arguments accordingly.

If you need to convince management that digital transformation is required — map your customer journeys.

We should all have ambitious dreams about what we can do with digital. But, when it comes to taking action we need to execute small, standalone projects.

Do not base your selection of web design agency on their location. Skills and relationship matter more.

Monitoring website analytics is an important part of evolving your website. Unfortunately many of us aren't monitoring enough and look at the wrong things.

If you want to see a return on investment from your website it involves a long term commitment to optimisation.

Be careful that your tender process does not undermine the design of your website or mobile application.