Rambling thoughts and observations

Notes from a presentation by Natasha Lampard, at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

Look at what options are available. Contextual inquiry is a user-centered design method that happens at the beginning of the life-cycle. Live the day in the life of the users.

Usability is about removing friction and making things easier, faster, and is about obtaining a goal.

Look at the usefulness; learn-ability; efficiency; forgiveness; satisfaction of a site. If it’s too hard, the users will leave.

“Really great user experiences are not that common.”

Often there is too much emphasis on the product and too little on the end user and what they want to achieve.

Users want something credible; they want to be valued; they want to know that they have learned something; they want to come back; they want to know that it is a secure environment; that they had a satisfying experience; that they achieved something; that they felt welcome; that the site was responsive; that the user felt comfortable; that the user felt smarter; that the site was consistent; and that it was an experience “I” liked.

“It’s about being a good host - usability is courtesy, it’s about good manners.”

Let’s give people a break and give them what they want. Let’s meet and exceed user’s expectations.

User testing - set real world tasks for participants to complete. Watch and note any problems and issues.

Try “Guerrilla user testing” - this is ad hoc, informal testing, but it’s cheap, quick and it will give you results. This is better than no testing at all.

User testing stages - Prepare, test, report.

Set objectives, including up to five real world tasks. Take no longer than one hour. Aim for 45-55 minutes.

The aim is not to test the user. The testing is a test of the site and how well it meets the users needs. As the person managing the usability testing, do not take ownership of the site. This is to allow users to be open and honest about the site. Ask participants to think out aloud. You can pay people for their time, e.g. money or something as simple as a chocolate fish. It is good to reward participants for their time and energy.

Pay attention - it is what the users do, not just what they say. Use some moderation techniques - e.g. ask “what are you currently thinking?”

Performance metrics are - completion rate; time on task; page views; errors; and satisfaction rates.

Your users goals are your goals. Find out what the majority of people are doing on your website and work back from that to set usability tasks.

Read also the following report by Stephen Blyth:
“No excuses - budget usability testing”

Notes from a case study presented by Andrea Walker of Oxfam New Zealand, at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

30% of New Zealanders use social media on a weekly basis. Oxfam New Zealand use Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter to engage with people. Organisations should also consider using MyBlogLog - discover who’s visiting your site and connect with your readers; Jaiku - a microblogging site similar to Twitter. And advertise your events in Upcoming - an event calendar and social networking site.

Social media:

• allows a non-profit organisation to engage with a broader audience
• it’s personal - you can have a conversation and open up channels of communication
• you can get others to promote your work
• it’s free
• you gain visibility for your supporters.

How does an organisation know which social media portal to use? Don’t join too many and spread yourself thin. Look at what’s hot before jumping in. Also check who your target audience is. Check your site statistics and undertake some analytics work.

Tips and tricks - you must let go of control and embrace the culture of social media. Be authoritative and reflect on your organisation’s beliefs; be friendly and interactive; get involved and answer questions; keep the connection regular, but don’t overdo it. Include a link to your website in your messages. Promote yourself - people aren’t looking for you. Show your organisation to the world.

On Facebook, use a fan page rather than a group page. Facebook can show you statistics of page views, etc.

Think about Twitter as a conversation, not just as media releases. Be friendly, personal, and sometimes be mundane (e.g. tweet about what’s happening in the office at the time).

If social media is not bringing in money, what is it’s value? Brand awareness, and brand trust, sends traffic to your website. For example, the recent tsunami in Samoa saw both Twitter and Facebook as key drivers to the Oxfam NZ website, which in turn, generated donations to the cause.

“Is social media a fad?” This thought provoking video is by Eric Qualman who has also written a book on “Socialnomics”. A few points from this video - YouTube is the second largest search engine; 38% of bloggers post about brands - do you like what they are saying about your brand?; Wikipedia is more accurate than Encyclopedia Britannica.

With Twitter, plan what you want to say during the week. Set this up as part of your communication strategy. It’s about commitment - it’s no longer a 9-5 job with social media.

Governance - there is no social media policy for Oxfam NZ, which is part of an affiliate. However, Oxfam NZ monitor what people are saying online as they are representatives of the organsiation. And the main concern is around the brand.

Notes from a case study by Ros Coote at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

CommunityCentral is an online space for people in community and voluntary organisatiions. It has over 600 members and over 900 monthly visitors.

CommunityCentral builds communities of like-minded communities on the internet. It takes on the values of our community sector online.

How much collaboration do you do? Is it effective and is it efficient?

CommunityCentral is free. It has an e-newsletter which can be subscribed to, online forums, document sharing repositories, and project websites.

This is a federation of collaboration. There is often a link to a Ning webspace, or a pdf on another website, etc.

The terms and conditions of CommunityCentral says that they do not own your content - you do.

You do not have to belong to a community or voluntary organisation at the time to register.

Notes from a presentation by Terry Neal @terryneal at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

Virtual Worlds - real connections. From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3D. MUVEs - Multi User Virtual Environments.

There are 579 Million users of virtual environments as at June 2009 - 57% are children. This is 37% more users worldwide than June 2008. Club Penguin has 28 million users. Second Life has just 18 million users.

Second Life is free and has an existing global community. There may be issues with institution access to Second Life as a tool, e.g. the voice option. Users can meet in Second Life for team meetings.

The SLENZ project utilises Second Life as a virtual site for practising job interview skills. In this environment, students can progress their career paths and achieve their life goals. It took 400 developer hours to build the Skill Mastery Hyperdome (where the interviews are held).

The Hyperdome was built for Foundation Studies (Bridging Education) as part of the Second Life Education New Zealand Project http://slenz.wordpress.com.

Activities enhance communication skills, specifically the skills needed in an interview situation, including going to the clothing store where students will select appropriate clothing for an interview.

This environment allows students to take on the roles of both interviewer and interviewee, thereby developing confidence in answering and asking questions in a professional manner. Students can rehearse many variations of the interview, which impacts on their own behaviour and action.

Foundation Studies in Second Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tIufh6x5Fc

Visit the Hyperdome in Second Life
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Kowhai/86/176/35

Notes from a presentation by Chris Brown at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

The Internet has made tactical changes to communication. Without emotion communication is just noise. All communication begins with an emotional connection. It’s about intimacy and creating a connection. “Kissing without emotion is just two faces banging together”.

Great communication stirs people to action. Great communication gives an emotional kickback.

Ensure you have a good communications strategy.

Chris wrote a book with Jill Cardwell called “8 Tribes: The Hidden Classes of New Zealand”, which is available for loan from the Wellington Public Library (“If no one takes you seriously, write a book”). In this book Chris describes the eight tribes of New Zealand - note that there can be multiple tribes within yourself.

Know your tribe (audience). Most are multi-tribal mongrels. There is no one typical New Zealander. Many great brands are mono-tribal. Make sure you appeal to your tribes - status tribes, community tribes, radical tribes, etc.

Have emotional appeal involving action which will ensure you get an emotional kickback.

Notes from a presentation by Nathalie Hofsteede (@nathalierose) of Give at Little at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

Embrace your organisation’s niche - get real about how relevant your organisation is. Challenge what is not important.

Communities and charity organisations should be looking at having social media site, e.g. Facebook. Commodify your service to attract donors. A charity brand is needed to attract purchases. A user will feel generous for supporting a charity, e.g purchasing the soap Dove which supports the New Zealand Breast Cancer Foundation.

Nathalie discussed “Blockbuster charity” and “Kitchen Table community groups”:

Blockbuster charities have a huge mandate and geographical reach; you are able to make people cry with your subject matter; have an iconic image (e.g Red Puppy for the Foundation for the Blind); celebrity endorsement; enough budget for a TV campaign.

Kitchen table community groups have a niche purpose with a local/community focus; are hobby or volunteer driven; with a printing budget.

Organisations need to balance resources with relevance. There is a continual need to stay relevant. Support is largely reactive and can suffer from donor fatigue and have a disproportionate profile.

The title of this presentation is taken from Chris Anderson’s “The long tail” book. The Internet gives us infinite choice. It has given us a lens to find other communities like us out there.

Get on to Facebook - use this to find blockbuster friends. An organisation doesn’t have the scarce resource of time, to spend actual time with users, but it can be used successfully to keep in touch.

Create news - use Scoop.

Social media is a platform for small organisations. It uses new channels and has new audiences. It is the virtual bricks and mortar. Cause content has a shorter lifespan and must be relevant for a small amount of time to attract the community.

The organisation “Give a little” is a good starting point for short causes.

For direct cause, make your own website, e.g. Jen Lucas’s breast cancer appeal website.

Make time to consider how these changes affect your organisation and engage in ways we haven’t before. Take back control. Strive for engagement not ownership. Embrace existing platforms - don’t reinvent the wheel. go to where the community already is. Put real people and real life in the spotlight - don’t use agencies to twitter for your organisation, for example.

Get everywhere you can online, fast. Blog, tweet, get fans, show yourself, introduce supporters to each other (e.g. Ning.com). Use video too.

Crowds draw crowds.

Notes from a presentation by Colin Jackson (@ColinJacksonNZ) at “Engage your community” Conference at Massey University, Wellington on 12 November 2009.

The Internet empowers us to do many things. It builds communities of like-minded people. It builds community and engages community. It seduces people into communicating with others. The Internet is about people.

The Internet is really good at letting people communicate in new ways. It values openness. The Internet is like a post office pushing postcards from one place to another. The Internet doesn’t try to understand the information.

The internet is a co-op. Nobody owns it. We are participants in the internet. The ‘net neutrality debate is crucial. It is important that the ‘net remains neutral.

Users need to embrace free software. It’s all about freedom! Community groups should investigate the use of the Creative Commons licence for community use.

Love your geeks! Celebrate them and get them to help your community group.

It’s important to keep the Internet free for all to use. The great firewall of China is an example of how the Internet can be controlled.

Google Wave is a useful collaborative community tool. It could be especially useful for community groups to lobby government.