I received an email today from the Google Analytics team alerting me to their new user interface. I immediately went to the Twelve Horses account to login. Upon login, I was offered a tour of the new features, but was disappointed to see I didn’t have access to the new UI. Apparently they are rolling it out over the next few weeks. After watching the tour, I am salivating over the new features and ease of use.

If you use Google Analytics, look forward to the new UI.

We recently launched a new website on behalf of Nevada Humanities, which has been created to serve as a repository for everything that is uniquely Nevada. You can access the site at http://onlinenevada.org/

Nevada Magazine just published an article on the subject:

Beyond Reading
Interactive Web site tells Nevada’s stories
through its articles, images, and sounds.

Now, thanks to the Online Nevada Encyclopedia (ONE), Internet users can observe the Strip’s 50-year transformation behind the “Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas” sign in a matter of seconds, spend a day with a fourth-generation ranching family in Gardnerville, and order a drink at the Old Washoe Club in Virginia City. OK, the Web site’s not interactive to that degree, but the Media Gallery allows you to get so up close and personal with the inside of the historic bar that you can view the detail in the pictures on the wall.

The virtual Web site, which incorporates the latest technology in its articles, images, and audio to tell Nevada’s story, officially launched in April. “We wanted an experience that goes beyond reading,” says graphics editor Howard Golbaum, a professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism at University of Nevada, Reno. “It’s the next best thing to being there.”

ONE was featured at the recent Rural Roundup, the Nevada Commission on Tourism’s annual conference. “From a tourism standpoint, we’ve always promoted rural Nevada, but this is a way to show it,” says Edward Estipona, a board member of Nevada Humanities, a publicly funded non-profit organization that brought the project to life. “There’s a lot of great stuff in addition to Las Vegas and Reno.” The site’s purpose is to preserve the Silver State’s history and educate the general public, but Estipona sees a less tangible benefit. “We think it can help break down some of the cultural barriers that have been created in our state,” he says. “It’s always north versus south or town versus town.”

Designed by Twelve Horses, ONE differs from other information sites of its kind, such as Wikipedia, because all of the 300-plus stories are written and edited by professionals. Nevada is one of only six states to have an online encyclopedia, according to Estipona, who says about 10 new articles appear on ONE per week.

U.S. Senator John Ensign and state Senator Dina Titus were instrumental in funding the project. Ensign helped secure a $350,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education, and Titus worked with the State Finance Committee to match the federal contribution. Several other organizations offered financial assistance. “Budget is the only challenge we see right now,” Estipona says.

If you’re interested in contributing ideas or funds to ONE, contact Judith Winzeler, executive director of Nevada Humanities, at 775-784-6587 or winzeler@unr.nevada.edu.

The strategy was to create a searchable, indexed, and available repository for cultural and historical information pertaining to Nevada. By implementing such an online system, Nevada Humanities would demonstrate their significance as a resource to residents and visitors of Nevada, as well as assist the state in demonstrating all of the unique elements of its history and culture to the public at large.

The site takes advantage of a few key technologies:

• Custom Tag-based Content Management System
• All of the ONE’s articles are stored in a web database and accessed using a tag/keyword based system. All of the directories on the site are “virtual directories” meaning content can be stored and cross-referenced faster and more efficiently. Twelve Horses developed new technology called Mod-CMS specifically for this solution.
• Custom “Wiki” Back-End
• The ONE site administrators have full access to the content management system and can add/edit/delete/categorize all of the articles, authors, links, suggested readings and media from a fully relational web database.
• The design is based on Wikipedia, however ONE’s Editors needed a method to completely control the content and it’s availability to its readership, rather than often inaccurate visitor contributed content.
• Virtual File Directories
• Because content is only a directory away from root and the URL’s are clean, the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of this site is boosted, along with search engine ranking.
• Virtual Reality Multimedia Gallery
• A media gallery was developed to store virtual reality (VR) movies, images, and is planned to also store historic audio files. The media gallery can be accessed from any site category and also from an article page.
• Full-Screen Virtual Reality
• Technology was developed to show the VR movies in their own window and can be expanded to a full-screen view.
• Flash and User-Interface
• A Flash header was incorporated and all major categories are color-coded for enhanced usability.
• Interactive Virtual Reality
• A Special Feature section was added to the homepage to exploit more feature-rich, highly interactive virtual reality movies. These movies can be controlled in their own windows with zoom, full-screen and 360 degree pan attributes.

To receive the “Official Honoree” distinction for the Horse Power Podcast from the Webby Awards is admittedly flattering, and both Josk Kenzer and I are quite proud to be rewarded for the hard work.

But we definitely could not have done it without the trust of our CEO, David LaPlante, and the help of our fellow Horses - their feedback and assistance has been invaluable.

Winners were selected for recognition based on excellence in the following criteria: content, structure and navigation, visual design, functionality, interactivity and overall experience. You can read the official press release here. I definitely get a kick out of seeing us listed alongside The Associated Press, MTV Networks, and ESPN.

But whether we won an award or not, we have had so much fun doing it. I can’t tell you how enjoyable it has been to use the podcast series simply as an excuse to go out and meet new and interesting people.

There are so many dynamic, intelligent, and entertaining individuals out there doing incredible things with their minds and motivation, and it is fantastic to hear their stories and learn from their experience.

Additionally, Josh and I get to play citizen journalist and produce content that we feel is valuable and applicable to many of Twelve Horses’ clients, friends, and those that are in our blog and podcast syndicate.

I hope the show will continue to evolve, and, who knows, maybe go vodcast one of these days. Either way, it is a constant learning process, and when recording we are continuously working on getting better at improvising, following interesting tangents, and uncovering the emotion to make the podcast a more enjoyable listen.

So tune in the next time and happy listening!

tags: webby, awards, podcasts, official, honoree

I had an interesting conversation with Jeff, one of our lead developers, yesterday and wanted to share some of it. Jeff approached to ask about tag based navigation as compared to traditional hierarchal navigation. There is a tremendous opportunity for website owners to implement a new style of architechure that allows them to have more freedom to create content while making it easier for users of the site to find what they are looking for.

Traditional Web 1.0 Hierarchal Based Architecture
Most sites utilize a list of links along the left side or along the top of the design. When you click into one of these content sections, you are usually presented with some new links that are sub-content sections (we call them secondary navigation). This structure can be visually represented as an organization chart:

Web 2.0 Tag Based Architecture
Tags are all the rage in the web 2.0 world. It allows editors and readers to add meaningful context to content. For example, if I see a picture of a kid skateboarding, I might tag it “skating” and “teenager”. Someone else might tag it “park”, “skate boarding”, and “wheels”. Our individual tags have meaning to us, but they could also have meanings to others. If a third user was searching for “skate boarding” or “teenager”, the photo would come up due to us tagging it.

These tags can be used to replace traditional top level navigation. If the website is full of content, trying to lead the visitor through a hierarchy, which made sense to the webmaster at the time, may not make sense to the end user. Instead, it is easier to tag all the content with relevant keywords and provide a search box. When content is returned and viewed, the tags are prominently displayed. A visitor can then click on a tag to see all content tagged with that keyword or browse a list of related keywords. This could be visually represented more as a cloud:

This architecture doesn’t make sense for all sites. But if your site has a wealth of content, this could be a very powerful way to organize it.

Just in time for Valentines Day, the Lovelock Chamber of Commerce has launched the Lock Your Love in Lovelock E-Card. Go to Loverslock.com and click on the "Send a Love Card to Someone Special" link to send a special note.  Twelve Horses was commissioned to create this love card to help promote the Lovers Lock Plaza.  Visitors can purchase locks from local retailers and symbolically lock their love by connecting their lock to the chain links that surround the plaza. It’s a unique and romantic way to spend the day.

Rather than give you excuses why it’s been tough for me to blog this week, I thought I would share some of the excuses the f blog has found:

• "I got promoted to an officer  in my World of Warcraft guild "Trick Model" on Illidan."
• "I just don’t enjoy it as much  as I convince myself I do"
• "Mainly because I haven’t taken the time for my mental  to be at ease allowing my thoughts to flow."
• "I think a post I
  wrote a couple weeks ago was too big and clogged up one of the tubes
  leading to my "own personal internet." Fortunately I just bought some
  eDrano, so things should be fine now."
• "I feel like I haven’t posted in awhile even though my last post was only on Sunday." - Probably the best one!
• "I forgot my password…"
• "I’ve just  been so damn busy at work, and tired, and sick, and pregnant."

[Via Boing Boing]

If you are a business with a website, you should start preparing for the release of Internet Explorer 7. It is coming very soon. 

The reason: It is very likely that your site was designed to deal with certain web design standards that IE 5 and 6 did not adopt. As a result, web designers were forced to patch or hack solutions for certain web sites. If your web site appears correctly within IE 7, then there is nothing to worry about. However, if you see pages that are broken then you will need to consult with your web design company or your in-house developers to fix the problem.

You could also wait and see if Microsoft develops a workaround to ignore these patches. It’s your choice. But in the interim, if you have pages that are not displaying properly then you have to consider how that impacts your brand and sales. I would suggest starting by devoting one office computer to IE 7 and downloading it to see whether you have any issues to contend with.

Click here to download IE 7.

There are some definite and distinct changes, and it will take a little getting used to. The tab functionality is nice, and security is improved. The Silicon Valley Sleuth feels that it is your social responsibility to download it for the improved security benefits alone.

Mozilla feels a little different about it, and they actually came up with a clever URL to convert loyal Microsoft followers. Check it out - http://ie7.com/

It does not matter whether you are a fan of IE or Firefox because you have to be prepared for all of your customers’ browser preferences. If you want some more information, visit Microsoft’s IE Blog, which provides greater detail about the new release.

Hope this helps!

 tags: internet explorer 7, ie7, web design, mozilla, firefox, microsoft

Yesterday, yes on Sunday, I gave a presentation to a small group of independent sports retailers that were having their seasonal convention at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. The presentation was on basic web 101 strategies and what these small businesses could and should do to be online. Of the fifty or so people in attendance, the usage of the Internet was across the board from those that had no site to those that were doing full ecommerce.

Five years ago this presentation would have been largely an education on what the Internet was, but I felt comfortable that kind of presentation would have been too remedial. Instead, I focused on the various types of websites available from a marketing/brochure site to full ecommerce to a blog. Not surprisingly, the most popular topic was blogging.

These business owners have made their living by having a voice. You go to Sears or Walmart if you want to buy something off the shelf. You go to one of these independent retailers if you want to talk about how to better use your fly fishing rod or which glove is going to fit your daughter best in her first year of T-ball. Blogging can give these retailers an opportunity to maintain that voice online.

And, as has been the trend of late, the conversation eventually found its way back to “The Long Tail.”

How do you create a successful website these days?

As a Reno web design firm, Twelve Horses addresses this question every single day. Many businesses often over-examine this issue and don’t realize how simple the website design process can be.

It is about developing a strategic approach focused on creating an online presence that reflects your company’s true character. Be transparent and truthful and people will trust your company and want to do business with you.

This top ten list was developed to give insight on how to make your website more appealing to your target audience, and furthermore, a benefit to the online community as a whole.

 

1. Looks aren’t everything - Have you ever visited a website that’s absolutely mesmerizing, but it lacks good content? You really want the relationship to work out, but you know you’re not getting the level of communication you need. The most important and crucial element that makes or breaks a website is content. Content can be classified as simply: the text and imagery presented in a web page. Web users have been visiting websites for over a decade now and can spot bogus content immediately. So keep it real and informative. Target your audience and make it your upmost priority to create useful and meaningful information for every page on your site; not just your homepage!

 

2. Okay, we admit. Looks do help! - The ideal online experience is the balance of both presentation and information. Once you have created  content, it’s time to add some beauty. Website aesthetics play an important role in your website and set the mood/trust factor for the website visit. Make sure your website budget allows for a good amount of website design, revisions, and polishing. A half-way completed website design is the equivilant of publically opening your brick and mortar shop without the drywall in place. An effective visual design helps ensure visitors will enjoy their visit.

 

3. Don’t be cheap, build up your budget -  Creating a website can be compared to building a home. You can do things the right way or the cheap way. The right way involves web design firm who plans, builds and tests your website with standards and future compatibility. The cheap way usually involves employing a non-professional or bargain hire to build your site. Sure, the cheap way saved you money in the short-term, but who knows how long the end result will suffice? The truth is that the cheap method usually costs more in the long run. Your website needs to complement your physical business. If waiting 6 months means your website budget will double, then wait and do it the right way.

 

4. Think about your target audience -  Will your target audience feel comfortable at your website and trust it? This should be your main concern when creating the design, navigation structure and content for a website. The homepage should make visitors feel welcome and engage them in some way. Take that old phrase, "first impressions last a lifetime" to heart. Forcing visitors to subscribe to email newsletters, bombarding them with promotions, and giving them more options than is bearable is not always the best solution. In fact, overwhelming visitors will often detract your inquisitive audience and drive them to your competition. Give them the information they need and kindly lead them to additional information or products on sub-page of your website.

 

5. KISS, and you’ll have a great website -  The acronym KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid, is a great rule to live by. When you think your website design and content is dialed in, take a step back, put yourself in the shoes of the website visitor and determine if you truly hit your target. Chances are you can add to or simplify the design or content to help the visitor understand your product or services. Think of each webpage like a book page. Just because you might be able to cram the table of content, preface and first chapter into a single page doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Readers need space and the freedom to find information on their own.

 

6. Research, research, research! -  If you are not competing for business, chances are you are losing it! Know your competition and know yourself. If your competition is emphasizing products or services, research their logic before you "borrow" their ideas. Too often businesses steal their competition’s ideas without determining if they are beneficial solutions. Over time, copying the competition’s idea will diminish your originality, and your indolence will become apparent to your audience. Come to a conclusion about your competition’s ideas and see if you can create a better solution. Doing so will create a truly competitive edge and distinguish your website from the rest.

 

7. Stay up on technology - Time waits for no man, and the Internet is no exception. Updating your tools to keep your website fresh and relative is very important. If your business relies on social networking, you’ll most likely need a Blog, RSS Feed and highly visible contact information. If your business is geared towards ecommerce you need a professional shopping cart, payment processing system and merchant account. If your goal is to win over a customer with valuable information, you may need a CMS (Content Management System) to allow website updates on a regular basis. Neglecting these powerful solutions gives the appearance that your business is falling behind. You will most likely need to update these tool every couple of years.

 

8. Don’t be afraid to be different - I found an article where Google said that the reason they are successful is because they don’t accept yesterday’s solutions for today. In essence, they approach every problem with a fresh mind. When building a website, do not accept a rehash of your competition’s website. There are certain elements that are proven, and there’s no need to re-invent the wheel; however you need to set your business apart from the rest. The goal of a website is to complement your brick and mortar presence. So, if you have processes or procedures that are proven, transfer them over to your online presence. If you have to create a new budget for a Flash demonstation, accomodate that budget.

 

9. Be a part of the community - One of the most effective and cheapest (I’d say it’s free, but you actually have to spend time making this work) methods of advertising and marketing on the web is simply to be social. Get involved in other colleagues’ Blogs and Forums. Start a Del.icio.us account and start tagging your favorite websites. Post useful articles or links to Digg.com. Be a part of an online community and people will start to recognize you. The idea you want to demonstrate is that your business is very approachable and social. By remaining active in online communities you demonstrate this character and open the portal for communication. Additionally, the benifits of being social helps your search engine rankings, drives traffic to your website, and is a PR plus.

 

10. Study your website statistics and accommodate the trends - I’ve run into this scenario too many times: Company W thinks they need to re-design their site and add X navigation buttons, Y promotional advertisements, and Z extra webpages in order to increase product or service awareness. I ask, Do your website statistics show these additions are needed? They usually reply with, "I’m not sure, we’ve never looked at or had access to our online statistics." Not having website statistics is like not having financial reports for your business. How can you focus on tomorrow when you don’t know where you were yesterday? Website statistics give you information about what web pages and search phrases are most popular on your website, where people enter your website and where they exit. Using this information can help you forecast trends and help you understand what people are most interested with on your website.

Web site redesigns are for much more than looks.  If your website was created prior to 2001 - only 5 short years ago - your web audience was entirely different then it is today.  Jeff Jarvis over at the Buzz Machine has a graph showing Internet adoption year over year.  As you can see, only around 40% of U.S. Adults were online at the beginning of 2001.  One could say they were probably more technical than the average adult and probably had very different Internet usage patterns.

But look at the current usage.  Around 72% of all U.S. Adults are using the Internet - 3 out of 4 people.  If you haven’t thought about your website in years, its time to do so again.  Combine this with the huge adoption of broadband connections and usage patterns are no where near the same.

Would your business run a TV advertisement from five years ago?  How about a print ad from back then?