Strategy Blog: Viget Labs

M. Jackson Wilkinson - Strategist :

For the most part, we act as a User-Centric Design (UCD) shop for our clients. In its most basic sense, this means that when we're wireframing an e-commerce site, prototyping a new web application, or putting together a page description document for a client's about page, our foremost concern revolves around the needs and wants of the users. Usually, that means we go about shaping our client's business goals in the context of user goals, and ideally the client recognizes that achieving the latter helps achieve the former. But if they don't get it...

Continue reading "User-Centric Design is About User Goals AND Business Goals, if the Client Gets It"

Stephanie Hay - Project Manager :

Coming up with words to pitch services or products can be tough.  When you have so much to offer but so little time to explain before users potentially lose interest, finding the right words is imperative.

More often than not, clients choose to tackle writing content for their sites in order to save time and money; however, because they’re so close to their messages, this approach sometimes can be counter-productive.  What comes back can range from text that’s too cumbersome for making a quick impact to ambiguous content that’s jargon-heavy.

My best advice to clients—aside from hiring an objective (but informed) copywriter—is to not think too much.  Well, at first, anyway. 

Continue reading "Who Are You?"

M. Jackson Wilkinson - Strategist :

Here’s a simple postulate to consider: active moderation is a bad idea for anyone who wants a dynamic discussion on their site. 

Base your practice on the 80/20 rule.  Hopefully 80% of your content is good, in which case you should give new posts the benefit of the doubt, and not actively moderate.  If more than 20% of your content is something you’d want moderated away, then you have bigger problems.

Continue reading "You’re Moderating Your Site to Death"

Brian Wynne Williams - CEO & Co-Founder :

This past weekend, I was in Home Depot looking for a somewhat uncommon electronics device. I figured it was a long-shot that they'd have it, but it was worth asking the young guy with the orange apron who happened to wander by aimlessly. Once he understood what I was asking for, he looked both ways (slyly), leaned closer to me, and whispered:

You should go to RadioShack."

I squinted and nodded knowingly -- as if I'd just been given an insider tip -- and thanked him.

But why the whisper?

If you don't have a product that I'm looking for, why would your co-workers or employer be upset with you for sending a loyal customer (I was in that dang Home Depot three separate times this weekend) to a semi-(at best)-competitor who might have exactly what I'm looking for?  You might be missing out on a couple of bucks (assuming I bought the not-quite-what-I-want alternative) but you're solidifying your position as the first place to go for knowledgeable advice and information.  You're sacrificing (just barely) short-term gains in exchange for strengthening the long-term relationship of trust with the customer.  Shouldn't that be behavior be rewarded, not frowned upon?

Maybe it is rewarded and this young guy just slept through that part of training.

Emily Bloom - Regional Director :

Andy Rutledge describes “the client factors” that designers should consider when calculating project price estimates. I’m not a designer, and I don’t do a lot of estimates; but, I loved his post.

He confesses that the pat answer of “I need more information” before estimating costs, while usually true, is sometimes another way of saying, “What I really need is to spend more time talking with this person, getting to know her; her communication skills, her attitude, and her personality.” Getting to know the person is at the core of making a realistic price estimate.

He goes on to describe the “ideal client” and how to estimate the cost of working with someone who lacks these traits. His list of an ideal client’s characteristics jumped out at me because the constellation of traits seems ideal not just for a client, but for a coworker, boss, or job applicant. (Heck, maybe even a spouse? Just a thought.)

I had three immediate questions: What’s the essence of these “ideal” personality traits? Am I like this? (I want to be ideal; who doesn’t?) Ok, so maybe I’m not; but, what should I do?

Continue reading "Effective Teams: Ideal Traits for Creative Partners"