I find it fascinating that there’s so little information available out there on the value of taxonomy as a founding principle in Web design strategy.
Taxonomy - the study of the general principles of scientific classification - has been around for hundreds of years. In Web work, it’s generally the organization of contexts into logical groupings and hierarchies.
It’s those groupings that, in turn, help IAs determine navigation structures, metadata, even the very nomenclatures that are the foundation of Web usability best practices.
If you’ve ever been approached to help a client correct a truly horrific Web site, you’ve no doubt found that some (possibly much) of their pain points can be traced back to a poorly designed – or altogether missing – taxonomy.
Maybe it’s that those of us who build Web strategies have just come to see taxonomy as a “given” within the Information Architect’s toolset — something IAs employ but needn’t share with the rest of the creative team or [forbid!] the client.
Maybe people think taxonomy is just an issue for larger, content rich KM sites.
Maybe I’m not finding a lot out there because whoever is writing tomes on taxonomy best practices just isn’t remembering to add metadata to their articles.
Ok. That was a cheap shot. But where IS the supporting data in Taxonomy’s defense? I’m disappointed by just how little taxonomy information is out there on the Web. Do a search on your own and you’ll see examples for “Taxonomy best-practices” and rationales are few and far between.
As a creative body, IAs all too often struggle with clients who “just want to see the comps.” Client’s don’t realize how much of their bottom line rides on the contextual storylines inherent in the usability of the site.
The process of taxonomy creation is really much easier and effective than the name might imply. Yet, I’m amazed at how few IAs are given [or is it take?] the time to apply it. And I’ve [almost] never seen nor heard of a client demand a content outline as a deliverable.
I recall a previous colleague who was asked to design wireframes as the initial deliverable for a large eCommerce client. He produced very innovative wires complete with auxiliary navigations, functional buttons, web 2.0 components… the whole nine yards. The client was delighted with the results. After all, they were the pre-cursors to some beautiful graphics.
The site, however, was completely useless. By not first establishing a contextual format for the linear plots and subplots of the user experience, the navigation “buckets” we’re little more than a sloppy hodgepodge of disparate functions and features. The site’s organization lacked cohesion and the end users simply couldn’t build a mental storyline around its intended purpose.
That’s why, whether creating a new site or performing an audit on an existing one, I find reviewing the site’s taxonomics an invaluable starting point.
I begin with a literary outline based on the site’s overarching goals. Sound too old school for today’s hyper-connected world? You’d be amazed at how much mileage you can get by FIRST establishing the value of those straight pathways. It helps the client visualize those important “subplots” that will eventually become the site’s use cases. It also points out where there are potential holes or disparages in the client’s existing content sets and expectations. It also grounds them in reality that these areas of the site will need to be created AND maintained by someone in order to be successful.
More important, we’re helping rationalize and strengthen their business requirements – an important pre-visual practice before going to the expense of designing (and redesigning) wireframes or comps.
After all, isn’t the role of a good taxonomy advisor to SAVE the client some money?
The Goizueta Business School of Emory University hosted a Spring 2008 Entrepreneurial Leadership Event on Wednesday night, April 23, 2008 that featured:
Jeff Hilimire, Co-Founder and President of Engauge Digital (formerly Spunlogic)
The event drew a large (100+) and diverse crowd of mostly students and entrepreneurs. When one panelist asked how many in the room were business owners, about half of the hands were raised. The dialogue was frank and provided insights into the reasoning and drive that helped each entrepreneur endure the challenges that business owners face.
The best way to disseminate the information that the seasoned entrepreneurs shared is to list out some of my favorite highlights from the panel (paraphrased by me). David Duncan did a great job of moderating, so most of the answers did not come from him.
What is your best entrepreneurial advice? Dee Davis: You have to lead by example and take the pulse of the business frequently. Mike Landman: It is easy to take on more risk when you are young because you have less to risk. Jeff Hilimire: You have to be “all in” to start a business. There is no pressure for you to give the business a 100% chance when it is only a hobby.
How do you recommend building a team? Dee Davis: You need a relatively flat structure when the company is young. Mike Landman: We use a lot of pre-hire testing and multiple interviews. Jeff Hilimire: Promoting from within is the best practice.
What is the best advice you have been given? Dee Davis: “Energy and persistence conquer all things” – Ben Franklin
“Get out of your comfort zone!” – Bob Parsons Mike Landman: “Fight through the brick walls that are everywhere.” - Randy Pausch (Carnegie Mellon Professor) Jeff Hilimire: “Lead by example” and “Passion, Intelligence, and Hard Work are the three most important traits of an entrepreneur.”
What is the one thing that you wish you knew when you started your business? Dee Davis: I am not the smartest guy in the room, so try to fill the room with smart guys. Mike Landman: Marketing and managing cash flow. Jeff Hilimire: How to hire the right person.
What is your best marketing advice? Dee Davis: Think in different ways from your competitors. Get out there and meet people. Mike Landman: Pick a small enough niche to become an expert in that space. Jeff Hilimire: Become a thought leader and host private events that show off this leadership.
How do you go about finding the best sales person for your team? Dee Davis: Incent your sales people REALLY well. Some may make more than the CEO. Mike Landman: Be your company’s best salesperson. Jeff Hilimire: Find someone with skills, but who you are also really comfortable with, as they will be representing you!
Jeff also gave a plug to yours truly, which was an unexpected bonus…
Everyone who attended the event was highly engaged, and they seemed very appreciative of the wisdom that the panel imparted.
(Panelists: S. Dee Davis, Mike Landman, and Jeff Hilimire)
As I was eating my spaghetti leftovers yesterday for lunch at my desk (sad, I know), I came across news that Arby’s is merging with Wendy’s.
Suddenly a vision came to me and I thought I’d begin the process of voicing what awesome combinations of lunch could come forth from such a melding of quick service restaurant chains (this would make Arbys + Wendy’s into #3 behind the other two - you know who they are).
Combo #1 - Beef ‘n Cheddar + Vanilla Frosty
And for the marketing spin, how’s this for a new tagline: “I’m thinking this is WAAAAY better than McD and BK” (it’s awful, I know, but it’s all I could conjure up on leftover lunch).
Happy Lunch Hour to all - would love to hear other visions of combos.
I don’t often watch South Park, but when a friend sent me this clip I had to share it with everyone. As I watched, it dawned on me how much we rely on the internet these days, and nothing can illustrate it better than this clip.
Somewhere (I can’t remember where) pointed me to a marketing campaign posted on Ads of the World that is insanely brilliant. It was done in Germany - which should be no surprise, this would never be passable in the US - to promote an action and suspense channel called “13th Street.”
I get the impression you either love or hate this idea. Obviously I think it’s awesome, and so does Jeff Hilimire. But, one of my friends/coworkers pointed out that she would likely have a panic attack if she was exposed to this campaign unknowingly.
They placed a substance that would luminesce in black light on the walls, sink and mirror in a nightclub bathroom in Hamburg. The manner it was applied mimicked that of a crime scene.
Then they timed the traditional lighting in the room to replace with blacklight after a subject entered the room; exposing the “bloodbath” as well as the logo, tagline - See What Others Don’t See - and the web address of the television station.
Check out more pictures here. Talk about thinking outside the box; this is experiential marketing at its best. Maybe not passable in the US, but it definitely makes you think about what’s possible.
Ok, so maybe that title is a little dramatic, but I still feel like I’ve seen something that today is so foreign to most everyone but in 5 years will be completely commonplace.
For my recent birthday my mother, who I thought I had taught never to buy me any electronics for fear of reliving the “Mapping Software incident of 2003”, on her own judgment went and bought me the new Amazon Kindle.
The Kindle, if you aren’t up to speed on it, is Amazon’s answer to the digital book. Instead of buying paper books, you download them to your Kindle and read them on the device. It uses a new “inking” technology that basically makes the pages look as if they were printed in a book. Here’s a quick CNET video on it (or you can read a great Newsweek article on the Kindle):
I was pretty skeptical about it at first but having used this for a few days, it really is very easy to read on the device. I subscribed to the Atlanta Journal & Constitution as well as the Wall Street Journal and both arrive on the Kindle before I wake up, and when I read them I don’t get that ink all over my hands like you would with a newspaper. Plus I can highlight sections on it, look up the definition of words (for the WSJ, I’m not sure the AJC knows any big words) and save content for later. It’s been a blast using it so far.
So why do I think this is something that will be commonplace in a few years? Think about going to the beach for a week and having to pack 2 or 3 books. Think about kids in school having to carry big backpacks with all their books in them. If there was a device that was easy to read on and easy to download books, why wouldn’t we all shift over to this?
But the real reason I think this is the future is because of the greenness of it. Think of all the trees that would be saved if we didn’t have to print millions of books each year. Once Al Gore gets behind this thing, it’ll be as popular as when he invented the Internet.
Bree posted a link to Starbucks’ online coffee promotion - free brew-at-home coffee samples with the completion of a little flavor preference quiz.
While I definitely appreciated the nifty interactive interface for this promotion (Bree called it brilliant - I mean, who doesn’t want free coffee?), it’s actually a symptom of a much larger problem at Starbucks.
A BusinessWeek article published yesterday stated “Starbucks (SBUX) stock dropped 42.8% in 2007 and is down 14.7% since the start of 2008.” That’s cause for concern.
A result, many consumers are beginning to witness a massive re-branding exercise, aimed at improving Starbucks’ bottom line. This exercise began as far back as January when Starbucks re-elected company founder Howard Schulz as CEO. Immediately, Howard whipped up a “Transformation Agenda,” communicated to the public on their website as numbered announcements.
Here’s What’s Up.
Over a period of several years, Starbucks grew to become an Arcadia to coffee lovers. But, over the past couple of years, this paradise has begun to slip away from them.
Even though the company still maintains a loyal following (I know at least one person who goes their 2x per day every day), less loyal people are flocking to cheaper vendors who are now offering “premium” blends, such as McDonalds and Dunkin’ Donuts. A recent article even pointed out that McDonalds plans to launch espressos and mochas nationwide this year.
How Does Starbucks Plan to Regain Their Position?
Watching this Transformation Agenda come to fruition has been fascinating to watch. It’s a truly massive business, sales, and marketing initiative from top to bottom. The Agenda outlines the following courses of action:
Slow the pace of U.S. store openings and accelerate internationally
Discontinue warmed breakfast sandwiches at our North American stores (the smell interferes with the aroma of their coffee … Um, k.)
Going forward, they will not report same store sales comps
Reinvent partner training
Reinstating regularly scheduled open forums in the field
Bring back the Leadership Conference
Through the numbered announcements and other research, I was also able to identify the following.
Adding Wi-Fi to all US stores (rolling out this service market-by-market to more than 7,000 Starbucks stores)
In-store training for their more than more than 135,000 store partners in the US. (which included closing stores during this training)
A reorganization that will eliminate 600 positions (mostly non-retail support folks)
Introduction of the Park Place blend (the everyday Joe’s blend - smoother than most Starbucks blends that’s receiving very mixed reviews)
Ask the Customer
Throughout nearly every Agenda announcement written by Howard he stresses the importance to have a “laser focus” on the customer. This left me saying “but, are you talking to them yet??” Well, today I just discovered that the company is now soliciting feedback from customers through a CRM portal called “My Starbucks Idea.”
I’m not sure when it launched, but it is a pretty serious endeavor. Interestingly, the portal is powered by Salesforce.com - a sign of their commitment for this venture to be truly built around the customer relationship. Many ideas are very creative. Others are just painfully obvious - like frequent buyer cards. I suppose it never dawned on me, but Starbucks has never offered a buy 9 get one free card before!
Now, of course, what’s most important is what they do with this feedback. If they’re really “laser focused” on the customer, then the most important changes they make will stem from a consensus of pain points and ideas generated from My Starbucks Idea, in addition to the important business and organizational changes.
Going Back to Their Roots.
Another decision was made to - if only temporarily - bring back the store’s original logo, used on the coffee cup and sleeves.
It’s a strange double-finned mermaid thing (I should probably have known what this was, but I’m not up on my maritime mythical lore. Here’s what it is, if you’re curious. Funny, but I guess even the “new” logo is also this double-finned creature, you just see mostly her face). Anyway …. it’s not really the logo that matters. It’s symbolic of their commitment to bring Starbucks back to its roots - before they tried to be all things to all people. CDs, sandwiches, a shop on every corner…
What’s probably most promising is that this is clearly not a slapdash program. Howard and the rest of Starbucks’ leadership are executing on careful planning, and communicating to shareholders, the public, and their partners in a very systematic fashion.
What Do You Think?
So what does everyone out there think? What would you tell Tomer (our Director of Development) who has stock in Starbucks? Hang in there, or cash it in?
Full Disclosure - I’m not sure if you’ll believe me, but I started this blog BEFORE Stan Rapp and Rick Milenthal each gave separate presentations on the future of the Collaborative Model, of Engauage, to us here at Engauge Digital (formerly Spunlogic).
I’m certainly not anything special. And certainly not as visionary as the leaders of this new Engauge agency model. In retrospect, what I think happened is that in the past three months that I have been here, I have observed how Spunlogic sets itself apart by its level of effective collaboration. AND, that is exactly why Stan, Rick and the other leaders of Engauge thought we were such a great fit to this new agency model. It was synchronicity!
Wiki, Basecamp, Video Conference, GoTo Meeting, Sosius, Joyent, etc. are tools that help us collaborate. But, can tools make collaboration successful in and of themselves? Absolutely not.
Effective collaboration is impossible without the existence of important human factors. Teams made of members, equal in their contribution, all offering a unique skill set and points of view, come together to form an effective and efficient organism. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, sometimes. Stan Rapp made a great point by saying that true collaboration occurs when “specialists voluntarily join together to provide amazing results.”
That’s the power of collaboration. While tools can facilitate the communication and organization of the team, there is no substitute for true passion, skill, and camaraderie.
One of the wonderful things about Wiki is that everyone can contribute. It provides equalization of information, democracy in action, freedom of speech. This is what everyone finds so liberating about these tools. But we all know what speech can be like if collaboration breaks down. Silence, probably the best option, or worse, hurtful, discriminating and demoralizing speech impacting the entire group. What the best tools can do is to aid in the access and ease of information and knowledge sharing. What we humans have to do is the hard part.
So what makes human collaboration effective?
+ Atmosphere of trust & respect
+ Creativity
+ Open, regular and organized communication
+ Understanding everyone’s roles & responsibilities
+ Highlighting everyone’s strengths
+ Have fun: laugh and play
+ Learning from each other
+ Everyone feels empowered to make decisions
+ Everyone is after a common goal
When does collaboration breakdown?
+ CYA: paranoia amongst team members
+ Process for the sake of process
+ No fun! It’s all work, work, work
+ Meeting for the sake of meeting
+ Silos of communication
+ Decisions can only be made top-down
+ Everyone has their own goals they are trying to achieve through the group
No tools can prevent or promote these things. This has to come from us. If we don’t protect these things then the door is wide open for breakdown to creep in.
So the next time you are meeting with a colleague, thinking about how to solve a problem, constructing a project plan, remember the power of effective collaboration and amazing results will ensue!
Everyone involved in digital marketing is well aware that every year — since, what, 2000? — has been named “The Year of Mobile.”
Without surprise, yet another year is coming up short.
AdAge came out with an interesting article (Why ‘08 Isn’t Mobile’s Year — Again [requires subscription to read]) that tackles the reasons why we have been prematurely forecasting every new year as THE year, along with fixes that make 2009 more probable.
AdAge’s outlined mobile’s challenges as:
CHALLENGE NO. 1: REACH (OR LACK THEREOF)
CHALLENGE NO. 2: MEASUREMENT
CHALLENGE NO. 3: COMPLEXITY
CHALLENGE NO. 4: THE MISNOMER OF MOBILE AS AD MEDIUM
CHALLENGE NO 5: THERE’S BEEN NO HALLELUJAH MOMENT
I think Ad Age did a really decent job of identifying the pieces of the puzzle that must fit together before THE year can happen. The biggest point is that the technology need to reach the masses is still not widely adopted.
“Of the 219 million U.S. wireless subscribers, just over 30 million are on data plans, according to M:Metrics. That means more than 86.1% still use mobile devices primarily for talk, which isn’t optimal for mobile marketing.”
Clearly, there is progress that needs to be made before mobile takes off. As AdAge suggests, beginning to define the elements that will create success now will serve us well when the audience is ready for it.
What better motivation to divulge some personal information than a promise of a little custom tailored Starbucks in your cup? That’s right, visit starbuckscoffeeathome.com, answer a few questions to figure out what sort of coffee best suits your tastes, fill out a form, and get some free coffee.
At Spunlogic, we have a lot of great experience and unique ideas to share. From work with clients to new approaches and trends, in this award winning blog you'll find Spunlogic experts sharing their opinions and ideas on all aspects of interactive marketing.
Bree posted a link to 
