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"How do I mobilize my website?" is probably a question you have already started asking. But after the initial curiosity, you have not found yet the time to think seriously about when and how you are going to convert your web site or blog into a mobile version that can be properly viewed on any iPhone, iPad or on any other modern smartphone. In this MasterNewMedia guide we have identified and reviewed all of the best tools and services out there, that can help you build or convert your blog into a full mobile site. Photo credit: Robin Good The forecasted rise in mobile data traffic and the rising usage of smartphones are statistical confirmations that the time in which web publishers like you need to embrace the opportunity to deliver content to a wider audience and across multiple devices is here. BlackBerries, iPhones, iPads, Android phones and other standard mobile phones may be already a significant part of the traffic you receive on your site, and the tools that can make your web site fully accessible on mobile devices are many, easy and inexpensive. So why not creating a better experience for your readers connecting to you via their mobile devices? Well, a web site displayed on a standard computer screen is not the same as a web site displayed on an iPhone or BlackBerry. There are design and layout issues, legibility and navigation problems, the need for things to load rapidly and efficiently. In particular:

• Screen size: Screens are smaller and content on your pages need to be arranged differently than your standard website. Mostly, you need to organize information in a vertical fashion, but avoiding as much as possible the need to scroll down.
• Images: All pictures on your pages should be correctly resized and made smaller and lighter to ensure fast page loading.
• Connection speed: Your mobile site should be optimized to have fast-loading pages and to deal with connection drops or other issues related to connection speed. This is particularly important for a mobile site that sells products as no user wants to be worried of connection drops in the middle of a transaction.
• Widgets and plugins: All extra component like widgets, plugins and add-ons may slow down your mobile site and, most importantly, may not work at all on mobile phones. For example, Apple devices do not support Flash, so if you are creating a mobile website for them, avoid all Flash-based elements and, where possible, go for HTML5 instead.
• Sensors: Last-gen phones have physical sensors like accelerometers, gyroscopes, light sensors and other bells and whistles built-in. On one hand, you should know very well if these sensors may cause extra issues for mobile navigators and, on the other hand, you should understand how to leverage these sensors to offer a superior navigation experience.

To help you identify the best tools to convert your existing site into a fully mobile one, the MasterNewMedia research team has searched, identified and collected the best tools out there to convert sites into mobile versions and to make your evaluation as effective as possible, we have prepared a tools' mindmap and a set of comparative tables illustrating side-by-side the strength and weakness of each one of these mobile website builder tools. Here the criteria that our team has used for this comparison:

• Custom domain: Create a specific URL that identifies your mobile blog site.
• Ready-made templates: Style your mobile-optimized website with readily-available templates.
• Mobile analytics: Supervise traffic, revenues, entrance keyword and other data of your mobile blog site.
• Ad integration: Integrate third-party ads in your mobile blog layout.
• Automatic redirection: Redirect your readers to a mobile-optimized page of your site when they are visiting your blog site with a mobile phone.
• Price: Cost of the mobile website builder tool.
• Pro features: Advanced features present in pro / paid accounts.

In addition to mobile website creator tools, in this guide you will find also those online services that allow you to visualize your blog as a mobile site for testing purposes or that allow you to redirect your standard web visitors to a an automatically-generated mobile version of your website or blog. If instead you are more into coding than in utilizing web-based solutions, you can leverage the power of CSS3 media queries to create a mobile version of your website. Here all of the best tools and services to mobilize your website or blog:






Best Tools To Convert Your Blog Into a Mobile Site - Comparison Tables






Best Tools to Convert Your Blog Into a Mobile Site

1. Mobify Mobify is a web-based service that you can use to convert your blog into a mobile site. Starting with the free version of Mobify, you already have the ability to optimize and design your mobile site for thousands of mobile devices. You also have the ability to choose a custom domain for your mobile site and install a plugin on your blog that automatically redirects visitors to the mobile version when using their phones to reach your site. By switching to a pricing plan (starting from $249/mo) you also get advanced support, mobile analytics and custom branding. No ad integration, nor ready-made templates are available. http://mobify.me/
   
   
   
   
   
2. MoFuse MoFuse is a an online service that lets you mobilize your website. MoFuse allows you to convert your blog into a mobile site for more than 5000 supported mobile devices while taking care of displaying your content according to screen dimensions and connection speed. With the first step of its pricing offer ($7.95/mo), the service also provides mobile SEO and analytics, automatic redirection and standard support. If you go for a professional plan (starting at $39/mo) you also receive advanced features like custom mobile CSS, Google Analytics integration, mobile sitemaps and more. No custom domain, ready-made mobile templates, nor ad integration are available. http://mofuse.com/
   
   
   
   
   
3. MobiSiteGalore MobiSiteGalore is a web-based service that allows you to create a mobile-based version of your own blog. With pricing plans starting from $7.99/mo, MobiSiteGalore offers you a custom domain, basic mobile analytics, SEO and automatic redirection. Taking one step forward, for $11.99/mo you can also remove MobiSiteGalore logo from your mobile site, integrate ads on your pages, have advanced analytics features, include web widgets and more. No ready-made mobile templates are supported. http://www.mobisitegalore.com/index.html
   
   
   
   
   
4. DotMobi Instant Mobilizer DotMobi Instant Mobilizer is an online mobile website builder that allows you to optimize your blog content for mobile viewing. For prices around €1.51 - 1.81/mo, DotMobi Instant Mobilizer promises custom branding, improved search engine discoverability, custom domain name for your mobile site, automated Google Maps directions and more. No ready-made templates, ad mobile analytics, ad integration, nor automatic redirection are available from DotMobi Instant Mobilizer. http://instantmobilizer.com/
   
   
   
   
   
5. WireNode WireNode is a free mobile website creator that allows you to turn your blog into a mobile site. You can build mobile-optimized websites for most mobile phones on the market, analyze the statistics of your blog, have mobile SEO, integrate mobile widgets and support automatic redirection without spending a dime. If you want also to have a custom domain for your mobile site, remove third-party ads from your pages and get 20 SMS credits, you must switch to the first pricing plan, available for €15/mo. No ads integration, nor ready-made templates are supported. http://www.wirenode.com/
   
   
   
   
   
6. Onbile Onbile is a free online platform for creating and managing the mobile version of your blog. With a few clicks you can customize and build the pages and sections of your mobile site using one of the ready-made templates available. Then you only have to set an automatic redirection that brings visitors to your mobile site when landing your standard website using a phone. No custom domain, mobile analytics, ads integration, nor ready-made templates are supported. http://www.onbile.com/
   
   
   
   
   
7. Mippin Mobilizer Mippin Mobilizer is a free service that allows you to mobilize your blog or website. To start building your site, you must submit the URL of your blog or RSS feed, then you can use one of the ready-made templates available to style your mobile site. You can also fine-tune your mobile layout and choose to integrate a third-party ad service like AdMob to monetize your mobile pages. No custom domain, mobile analytics, nor automatic redirection are available. http://mippin.com/web/maker/mobilize.jsp

Best Tools to Visualize Your Mobile Site

1. FeedM8 FeedM8 allows you to visualize your mobile site. Just enter the URL of your blog site and FeedM8 will automatically generate a URL that you can use to reach a mobile version of your site, free of charge. You can also receive your mobile URL via SMS by entering your phone number (only available for the US and Canada). http://www.feedm8.com/web/
   
   
   
   
   
2. Mowser Mowser is a free service by DotMobi that allows you to visualize how your blog is rendered onto a mobile phone. No custom URL is generated to reach your mobile site, since the service is only for testing purposes. http://mowser.com/
   
   
   
   
   
3. Google Mobilizer Google Mobilizer is a free service from Google that allows you to check how a standard mobile phone would display your website. You just have to enter the URL of your website and select if you want images to be hidden. http://www.google.com/gwt/n
   
   
   
   
   
4. MobileAppsAmerica MobileAppAmerica is a web-based service that allows you to visualize and convert your blog into a mobile site. You can just type the URL of your blog and the service will convert it to a mobile-optimized version that works with more than 2000 mobile devices, including iPhones, Blackberries and Android phones. If then you want to save your converted website, you will have to pay a $4.99/mo fee. http://www.webtosmartphone.com/index-already-lp.php
   
   
   
   
   
5. WPtouch Pro WPtouch Pro is a popular plugin for the WordPress blogging platform that lets you create a mobile version of your WP blog and also automatically redirect visitors to the mobile version when needed. WPtouch is highly customizable and it is priced at $29. http://www.bravenewcode.com/products/wptouch-pro/
   
   
   
   
   
6. PadPressed PadPressed is a plugin for WordPress that allows you to convert your blog for the iPad. The plugin not only optimizes your blog layout for iPad viewing but it also lets your mobile site support touch-based controls and sensors present inside Apple's new mobile device. PadPressed can even automatically redirect visitors to the mobile version of your WordPress blog for those browsing from iPad models. PadPressed is priced at $49.99 and all updates are free forever. http://padpressed.com/
   
   
   
   
   
7. Blogger Touch Blogger Touch is a free widget that allows you to generate a mobile version of your Blogger blog and takes care also of redirecting mobile visitors to the mobile-optimized version of your site. Blogger Touch even allows you to redirect vistors to a mobile domain of your choice. http://bloggertouch.sopili.net/

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on Jul 26th, 2010 as "How To Mobilize My Website: Best Tools To Convert Your Blog Into A Mobile Site".

How can you help your readers find what they are looking for on your website? How can you facilitate their need to know what to click next or where to look when in search for something? Navigation instructions, or as someone calls them, interface design instructions for the user, are text-based and visual elements that can help your web visitors understand more easily what they need to click or where they can look to find what they are looking for. As such, these navigation signposts and visual directions can make a hell of a difference in converting temporary visitors into long term clients and fans. In this report you will learn what are the key basic elements you need to pay attention to, to design effective user-facing navigation instructions. Photo credit: António Nunes People have things they want to accomplish, whether it’s making a purchase, finding a recipe, or learning how to do something new. Inherent in many web page designs, therefore, is information to help a user perform an action. ...In addition to these types of visual cues, we often write instructions to assist users in knowing what to do next. These instructions guide the eyes and minds of the individual to look at the appropriate place and to take the appropriate action. In this report, Connie Malamed identifies and explains which are the most critical aspects to pay attention to when working to add or refine user navigation messages and instructions to help your online readers find what they are looking for or take a specific action. Specifically, some of the key aspects highlighted in this report, showcase the importance of several unique factors in designing effective user navigation instructions:

• Maximizing audience targeting
• Countering information abundance
• Writing style
• Improving accessibility
• Testing relevance

Leaving nothing to chance or luck, but planning carefully how to provide sensible navigation help to readers and customers looking to complete a specific task on your website, is a valuable investment that any professional web publisher providing content, products or services beyond the typical blog, should seriously consider paying close attention to. Here, the full report in detail:


The Small Print: Writing User Interface Instructions by Connie Malamed
User Interface Instructions: What and What For A person’s behavior on the web is highly goal-driven. People have things they want to accomplish, whether it’s making a purchase, finding a recipe, or learning how to do something new. Inherent in many web page designs, therefore, is information to help a user perform an action. For example, if you design a button that must be clicked to reach a desired goal (e.g., placing an item in a shopping cart), then shadowing the button so it appears to be raised will help your audience understand that the shape is a clickable object. In addition to these types of visual cues, we often write instructions to assist users in knowing what to do next. These instructions guide the eyes and minds of the individual to look at the appropriate place and to take the appropriate action.






The Importance of Mental Models Designing and writing the instructions that are part of the user interface is both an art and science, involving copywriting and design skills as well as an understanding of how people use mental models. A mental model is an internal representation of how things work. It’s a broad conception of causal actions and their effects. People apply their mental models to new situations so they don’t need to relearn everything from scratch. This helps to make us cognitively efficient. Through experience, users develop mental models of how different types of websites work. They learn the types of actions to take on an ecommerce site versus the types of actions that will work with a stock photo site. People apply their mental models to new situations so they don’t need to relearn everything from scratch. This means people will apply their stereotype or mental model of similar websites to how your website works.





Why Clear User Interface Instructions Are So Important This is one of the main reasons user interface instructions are so important. People have an unpleasant experience when their mental models are inaccurate or incorrect. It causes:

• frustration,
• user errors and
• a failure to accomplish a goal.

A frustrated user might look for another website that’s easier to use. Writing easy-to-understand instructions and presenting them aesthetically can ward off these types of problems. Good instructions will guide website visitors, even if their mental models are imprecise or erroneous. So here are some guidelines for writing user interface instructions that I’ve gleaned from years of designing online learning as well as gems from usability research.






Know Your Audience First When you know the characteristics of your audience, you can imagine them and direct your words to them. Unless your visitors are a savvy, homogeneous group, it’s best to assume they’ll need some guidance to achieve their goals. Think beyond the obvious audience characteristics to consider the subtleties of how readers might perceive and react to your words.

• Will they understand idioms?
• What about humor?

Notice the example above. The humorous instructions on the CAPTCHA form could only work with a sophisticated and experienced audience. Inexperienced computer users and those who are not fluent in English would have no idea that "Verify you’re human" means to type the alphanumeric characters in the box.






Counter Information Abundance Finding balance is always an issue. When writing user interface instructions, include enough detail so users know exactly what to do, but not so much detail that it becomes difficult to process the information. People can only process small amounts of information at one time. You can help the situation by writing instructions in plain and simple language, which should help visitors accomplish their tasks efficiently and quickly. Try to use short sentences when possible. For example, this sentence could easily be broken into two: "Click the Add to Cart button, then click Check Out at the top of the screen." This guideline goes along with the brevity advice above, but is often best to do at the end of the writing process. At the end, you look at your writing from a different perspective. It’s easier to see which information is irrelevant, because it adds to the confusion quotient. Deleting extraneous and superfluous details will tighten up the final copy. In the example below, the communication could be more effective with fewer words. There’s no need to sacrifice clarity for personality. With balance, you can have both.






Phrase Your Instructions Effectively The task of writing accurately involves a subtle discrimination between words with similar meanings. Usability research shows that people scan a web page rather than read it. Thus, your wording should communicate effectively while someone is on the fly and barely paying attention.

• Use words that promote clarity. "Select a date" is okay, but "Click on a date" is more accurate.
• Avoid double negatives, such as "I do not want to unsubscribe." Also,
• Stay away from jargon that some people won’t understand, like industry acronyms and technical terms.

Speaking of precision in word choice, when you look at this menu below, do you understand the difference between explore and browse? [Note: There is some disagreement over whether "select" or "click" is more appropriate for people using assistive technologies.]






Active Vs. Passive Voice The active voice is crisp and clean and will move people to take action. The passive voice makes readers yawn. Compare this sentence in both voices:

• Active - "Click the Journal link to search for an article."
• Passive - "The Journal link should be clicked when you are ready to search for an article."

How To Provide Clear Website Navigation Instructions Designing user interface instructions can be a challenge. You must determine where they belong in the visual and information hierarchy. Although they need to be noticed by users, they shouldn’t overpower the page. And as a design element, they must fit in well with the surrounding environment. Bottom line: plan for instruction text during the initial phases of design.






1) Vertical Spacing If the instructions are longer than one line, it’s important that readers know which instructions belong together. The leading (or vertical spacing) between related sentences should be large enough to enable legibility yet small enough to show the sentences are associated. When there are several steps, keep each step separate by increasing the line spacing. Number the instructions if they are complex or will be perceived as such.






2) Typeface Think hard about the type as a design element. Use a typeface and style coherent with the rest of the site design. Consider the size of the font. The user instructions must be legible by people of all ages. Avoid bitmapped text whenever possible so users can enlarge the text if necessary.






3) Graphics Yep. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to say something in words. A graphic provides support and makes text comprehensible, as in this explanation of where to find your account number on a magazine label.






4) Text Style It’s okay to add a little personality to your user interface instructions and system messages. It might help your visitors have a pleasant or humorous experience. Just ensure that your between-the-lines message can never be interpreted as a put-down. For example, the instructions below help visitors feel better. After reading the message, you don’t feel like such a loser for failing to keep passwords in a place where they can be found.






5) Accessibility It’s important that your small print instructions can be read by people who have difficulty with small print and/or use devices to read computer screens. Some basic accessibility guidelines for writing user interface instructions are to:

• Avoid using graphical text so it can be enlarged (discussed in #2 above);
• provide text alternatives to graphical content so it can be translated into other forms such as Braille; and
• clearly separate the instructions from the background so they can be easily seen.

In addition, use hyperlinks contextually so that they make sense if the person can’t see the screen. For example, a link that states, "Instructions for using this form" is better than a "Click here" link.






6) Testing Test instructions with sample audience members, people outside of your office and with no prior knowledge of what it is you are doing.

1. Observe one or more people performing the task for which you’ve written instructions.
2. Note any difficulties they have and revise the instructions.
3. Repeat the process until people accomplish the task without problems.

Conclusion You may be surprised at the time and effort it takes to write effective user interface instructions. Yet it might be one of the most valuable endeavors you pursue in designing a successful user interface. Through the simplicity of comprehensible instructions, you can achieve so much - user assistance, appropriate tone and personality, and showing that you care.

Originally written by Connie Malamed for Understanding Graphics, and first published on February 1st, 2010 as The Small Print: Writing User Interface Instructions.

About Connie Malamed Connie Malamed is the author of Visual Language For Designers: Creating Graphics That People Understand. She writes regularly at Understanding Graphics and is the principal of Connie Malamed Consulting. Connie consults, presents and writes at the intersection of cognitive psychology, visual communication and learning.

Photo credits: The Importance of Mental Models In User Interface Design Instructions - Ktsdesign User Interface Design Instructions: Know Your Audience First - SiliconValleyWatcher User Interface Design Instructions: Active Vs. Passive Voice - Ronen How To Design User Interface Instructions - Jesper Noer Typeface - Wichita State University Examples - Connie Malamed Other Images - Clipart

Did you know that if you already have a personal profile Facebook page and want to create another one for your company you can't? Businesses on Facebook are supposed to have a Fan Page, not a Personal Page! Yeah, and it is official: go check out the Facebook terms of service, and read carefully what they say: if you do create a personal profile for your business, Facebook will shut it down and trash all your shared content and fans. So, how do you go about creating an effective Facebook presence strategy for your coompany by utilizing a Fan Page? Photo credit: Marc Dietrich In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find a passionately curated selection of the best online reports and articles explaining which are the best strategies to create a Facebook Fan Page, along with a uniquely hand-picked selection of valuable examples to get you inspired. The issue is this. To effectively engage with your online audience while strengthening your ability to listen and learn from it, your social media presence, including your active use and management of a Facebook Fan Page, has become increasingly crucial in the achievement of such results. The importance of having a Facebook Fan Page has indeed become a tangible business requirement for any competitive company wanting to extend its online presence, reach as well as its ability to leverage customers insight for sales, marketing, customer service, product R&D and more. To put things into perspective and to understand the benefits of creating a Facebook Fan Page to promote your content, here is some interesting data:

• Facebook has more than 400 million active users.
• 50% of active Facebook users log in every day.
• More than five billion pieces of content are shared each week on Facebook.
• More than 1.5 million local business have an active Facebook Fan Page.
• More than 20 million people become fans of a Facebook Fan Page every day.

(You can find more specific data on Facebook reach and popularity right on this infographic on "Facebook Facts and Figures" - March 2010). But how can you create a Facebook Fan Page that is compelling, beautiful to look at and that boosts your visibility? What are the best strategies to follow? Are there examples of successful Facebook Fan Pages that you can use to inspire yourself? In this in-depth MasterNewMedia guide you will discover what you need to know to create a Facebook Fan Page that is as effective as you want it to be. Specifically, this guide focuses on:

• Which are the best Facebook Fan Page marketing strategies
• How can you personalize your Facebook Fan Page
• Real-world examples:: Facebook Fan Pages showcases and case studies

Here, the MasterNewMedia Facebook Fan Page guide in full detail:


Facebook Fan Page Marketing Strategies
Facebook Fan Page Marketing Guide What are the very first steps you should take to promote your Facebook Fan Page? In this guide by SEOmoz you will find an overview of the basic strategies to run and leverage your Facebook Fan Page to increase your number of fans. by timsoulo - SEOmoz




Facebook Fan Page: Successful Marketing Strategies What is the real potential of Facebook? How can you use your Facebook Fan Page to get more visibility and authority for your brand? Here you will find the key tactics to start a successful Facebook marketing campaign using your Fan Page. by Tamar Weinberg - Techipedia




How To Promote Your Facebook Fan Page Do you have a Facebook Fan Page, but want to know how to increase the number of your fans? In this article you will find the most effective, non-technical tactics to promote the content you share on your Facebook Fan Page. by Ann Smarty - Search Engine Journal




SEO Strategies Every Fan Page Owner Should Know A comprehensive SEO strategy can play a vital role in boosting the growth rate of your Facebook Fan Page and in distributing your content more effectively. Here are ten strategies to boost your Fan Page rankings inside search engines results. by Justin Smith - Inside Facebook







How To Personalize Your Facebook Fan Page
How To Customize Your Facebook Fan Page Using FBML How can you use Facebook programming language (static FBML) to improve and personalize your Facebook Fan Page? In this guide you will find all the basic steps to enable static FBML on your page and start engaging with it. by Nick Shin - Social Media Examiner




How To Build an Engaging Facebook Fan Page If you want to create an engaging Facebook Fan Page, you should know how to use the tools that Facebook itself provides you. Here are the best Facebook tools and how to use them if you want to create a unique and engaging Fan Page. by Orli Yakuel - TechCrunch




Must-Have Elements of a Successful Facebook Fan Page Getting your Facebook Fan Page to work well takes time, dedication and some planning. Don’t expect to create a page and then have a huge following instantaneously. Here are the basic elements your Facebook fan page must have to be really successful. by Samir Balwani - Mashable




How To Make Your Fan Page Visible Inside Facebook Why is it so important to make your Facebook Fan Page easily reachable for other Facebook users? Here you will understand why visibility is key on Facebook and how to customize your Fan Page to get more visibility. by Greg Finn - Search Engine Land







Real-World Examples: Facebook Fan Pages Showcase and Case Studies
Designing a Facebook Fan Page: Showcases, Tutorials, Resources Are you designing your Facebook Fan Page and need some examples of other successful Fan Pages? Find out the best practices to customize your Facebook Fan Page design, with various approaches to creating an attractive, descriptive and engaging ">Facebook business page. by Julia May - Smashing Magazine




FacebookShowcase FacebookShowcase is a collection of the best Fan Pages on Facebook that you can use to inspire yourself to design your own Fan Page or to have clear design guidelines you want to share with your own web designer. by Orli Yakuel - FacebookShowcase




Killer Facebook Fan Pages: Inspiring Case Studies How should you engage with your fans on your Facebook Fan Page? Here are five case studies of brands that are doing a great job on their Facebook Fan Pages. by Callan Green - Mashable




The California State Parks Foundation Facebook Fan Page Case Study Ever wondered how some big brands build and monetize their presence on Facebook? In this case study, you will learn how the California State Parks Foundation Fan Page grew its fans from 517 to 33,000 in just two weeks. by Daniel Burstein - Marketing Experiments




Facebook Fan Pages: An Analysis of Common Usage Patterns How do effective Facebook Fan Pages are built? Is there some kind of pattern you may replicate to know you are doing right? In this report you will find an analysis conducted on a number of top-notch Facebook Fan Pages that shows a common pattern in the amount of content posted, number of fans, and categories that you need to follow to be successful. by Sysomos Inc.

Originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 19th, 2010 as "How To Create A Facebook Fan Page: Guide To The Best Strategies And Examples".

Photo credits: Facebook Fan Page Marketing Guide - Helder Almeida Facebook Fan Page: Successful Marketing Strategies - Pablo631 How To Promote Your Facebook Fan Page - sgursozlu SEO Strategies Every Fan Page Owner Should Know - (c) e-mind How To Customize Your Facebook Fan Page Using FBML - norebbo How To Build an Engaging Facebook Fan Page - Pedro Nogueira Designing a Facebook Fan Page: Showcases, Tutorials, Resources - Lammeyer Facebook Fan Pages: An Analysis of Common Usage Patterns - golloween

What is viral marketing? What are the characteristics of an effective viral marketing campaign? What does it take to produce content that flies on the wings of spontaneous word-of-mouth promotion? In this MasterNewMedia guide on viral marketing you can learn and understand the basic principles, foundations and strategies at the heart of effective online viral marketing. Photo credit: Delion and Alberto Perez Veiga, mashed up by Robin Good Viral marketing is a form of promotion based on the free circulation of ideas via a word of mouth process. When you like something, it feels second nature to share your discovery with someone you like. Be it friends, relatives or colleagues, you get a kick out of sharing with someone else something cool that you have discovered. And in turn, those people you share something with, will do the same with their network of friends. That is what "going viral" is all about. From a marketing standpoint, "going viral" is fascinating for a number of reasons:

• Distribution: Viral content spreads like virus, in an ever expanding loop which may never end. For an online marketer, spreading content endlessly from person to person represents a superior strategy to promote content at a fraction of the effort and costs required by traditional marketing techniques.
• Reach: A successful viral marketing campaign may exponentially increase the reach of your communications by placing you in touch with thousands of prospects which, with your traditional communication approach, you might not have ever intercepted.
• Awareness: The more people will see your content, the more people will know who you are, what you do, what can you offer customers. Not only: by sharing content on a specific topic you will make yourself an authority in that field and people will start naturally coming to you asking for advice and recommendations.
• Cost: Viral marketing is relatively inexpensive as you do not have to plan a huge budget to promote your products or start campaigns that meet the needs of all your potential customers. Once your content starts to go viral, your fans become your best marketing agents.

To help you make sense of what are the key traits and components that create the conditions for a successful viral marketing campaign, this MasterNewMedia guide shares a highly curated selection of the best analysis, reports and published research on the web on the topic of viral marketing. This guide is organized in three sections:

• What is viral marketing
• The key principles of viral marketing
• Viral marketing best strategies and tactics.

What Is Viral Marketing
What Is Viral Marketing: Seth Godin Explains Viral marketing is an idea that spreads and that while it is spreading actually helps market your business or cause. In this article Seth Godin shares his definition of viral marketing, with particular emphasis of differentiating “viral” from “marketing”. by Seth Godin - Seth Godin's Blog




Unleashing The Ideavirus: The PDF Manifesto In this PDF Manifesto, Seth Godin outlines what viral marketing is about: “Establish a foundation and process where interested people can market to each other. Ignite consumer networks and then get out of the way and let them talk.” by Seth Godin - Seth Godin's Blog




The Dynamics of Viral Marketing (PDF Study) This study, conducted by three academic researchers in 2007 demonstrates how viral marketing proves to be more effective than traditional person-to-person recommendation networks when it comes to reach customers in the long run. by Jure Leskovec, Lada A. Adamic and Bernardo A. Huberman - University of Michigan




Viral Marketing Is Not Word of Mouth Why if you create a video and upload it to Youtube, the view counter doesn't go anywhere? Jennifer Laycock explains to you why you should focus on viral marketing - and not word of mouth - to create contagious content. by Jennifer Laycock - Search Engine Guide




Common Characteristics of a Viral Content You create packaged content with social hooks that comprise the story you wish to tell and the action you hope to spark. What are the common characteristics your content should have to be a viral content? by Brian Solis - BrianSolis




Viral Marketing Definitions What is viral marketing? A collection of relevant definitions from multiple sources that will help you to make sense once and for all of what viral marketing really is. by Google







Viral Marketing Key Principles
How To Create a Successful Viral Marketing Campaign What is viral marketing? How do you get your message to spread across the web like a “virus”? In this article you will learn why everyone wants to understand the "how" of a successful viral marketing campaign and what benefits a viral marketing campaigns can generate for your website content. by SubmitEra Editors - SubmitEra




Viral Marketing: Universal Principles of a Viral Content What are the common characteristics of a viral content? What does it take for a blog post, an ebook, a video, an audio file and any other type of content to spread on the web like a virus and become popular? by Ian Spector - Mashable




Viral Marketing Principles: Six Key Rules To Get Everyone To Talk About Your Idea If you want to market, promote or advertise your product or service in ways that will cost you nothing compared to traditional campaigns, you should check out the viral marketing advice shared by David Meerman Scott, the author "World Wide Rave", in this video interview recorded with me, Robin Good. by Robin Good - MasterNewMedia




Viral Marketing: The Six Basic Principles In this article, Ralph F. Wilson outlines the six basic elements of a successful viral marketing strategy. While an effective viral marketing strategy may not contain all six elements, the more it embraces, the more powerful the results are likely to be. by Ralph F. Wilson - Web Marketing Today




Are Viral Markting Principles Good For Advertising? Learn how “viral” principles can be applied to advertising by planning a series of marketing efforts directed towards creating a piece of content that self-replicates on the web while promoting your product or service at zero cost. by Dina - Realvirtuality







Viral Marketing Strategies and Tactics
The New Rules of Viral Marketing (PDF) David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, shares his formula for viral marketing success: a combination of web content (a video, blog entry, interactive tool, or e-book) that provides valuable or compelling information plus a network of people to light the fire and links that make your content very easy to share. by David Meerman Scott - DavidMeermanScott




The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos How can people manage to get millions of views on YouTube just by posting their kittens yawning? The truth behind the popularity of many video sensations is a well-prepared marketing strategy which has nothing or little to do with the ability of content to self-replicate on the web. by Dan Ackerman Greenberg - TechCrunch




Viral Marketing: How To Trasform Content Into a Meme That Spreads Like a Virus Online How and what makes your content "viral"? Why everyday reality of communication is important for your viral marketing strategy? In this highly comprehensive and in-depth guide, MIT Professor Henry Jenkins and his team explain the dynamics that govern the social redistribution of your content across the web. by Henry Jenkins, Xiaochang Li, Ana Domb Krauskopf with Joshua Green - MasterNewMedia




How To Engage Customers For The Long-Term: Viral Marketing Loops What is exactly a viral "loop"? How do you keep a high level of interest on a product and suggest other people to do the same? Understand how so-called "viral marketing loops" allow you to acquire new customers in such unobtrusive ways that it doesn't look like marketing to others. by Eric Ries - MasterNewMedia




Viral Marketing: Viral Content Traits and Characteristics What traits characterize "viral" content? What are the key strategies to create a successful viral marketing campaign by leveraging high-value content? Here are 10 tactics to follow. by Adam Singer - The Future Buzz

Originally prepared by Robin Good, Daniele Bazzano and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on July 13th, 2010 as What Is Viral Marketing: Key Principles And Strategies.

Photo credits: What Is Viral Marketing: Seth Godin Explains - Seth Godin Unleashing The Ideavirus: The PDF Manifesto - Seth Godin The Dynamics of Viral Marketing (PDF Study) - Ivan Proskuryakov Viral Marketing Definitions - Dejan Jovanovic Common Characteristics of a Viral Content - Anton Vakhlachev How To Create a Successful Viral Marketing Campaign - Arthur Matkowskyy Viral Marketing Principles: Six Key Rules To Get Everyone To Talk About Your Ide - IreneK Viral Marketing: The Six Basic Principles - Andy Dean Are Viral Markting Principles Good For Advertising? - Xiao Fang Hu The New Rules of Viral Marketing (PDF) - Alessandro Viti The Secret Strategies Behind Many "Viral" Videos - Charis Tsevis Viral Marketing: How To Trasform Content Into A Meme That Spreads Like A Virus Online - Kheng Ho Toh How To Engage Customers For The Long-Term: Viral Marketing Loops - arrow Viral Marketing: Viral Content Traits And Characteristics - janaka Dharmasena Other images - Clipart

Colleges and universities in North America continue to increase their adoption and large scale use of social media technologies, outpacing both Fortune and Inc 500 on the blogging front. Besides using these to augment and extend their overall communication, learning and student support services, educational institutions have found a key use of social media inside their marketing and student recruiting strategies. Photo credit: Clipart This is the interesting result emerging out of the last research report authored by Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson and entitled: "Social Media and College Admissions: Higher-Ed Beats Business in Adoption of New Tools for Third Year". As a matter of fact, the use of social media technologies inside academic institutions has increased significantly, especially if you look at the time period between 2007 to 2009. In fact, if you compare the results of this new report with the 2007 research paper on social media usage in academia, authored by the same authors and using the same metrics, you will see by yourself how significant the adoption of social media inside educational institutions has been. In the last few years, academic institutions have indeed become more familiar with social media technologies like blogging, video blogging, social networks or podcasting, while effectively leveraging them to carry out highly-targeted marketing and student recruiting campaigns. In particular, two findings inside this report highlight clearly this growing trend:

• When asked which types of social media did admission departments use, only 5% replied "Don't use any". In 2007 it was a much higher 39%.
• Colleges and universities continue to embrace social media as their adoption of blogging outpaces both the Fortune 500 (22% have a corporate blog) and the Inc. 500 (42% have a corporate blog).

If you want to know how colleges and universities are using social media technologies in their marketing admission activities and how academia is trying to best integrate and leverage the potential of these new media communication technologies, you will find some valuable facts and information in this report. N.B.: This research has been carried out by utilizing relevant data from the admission departments of some of the most important American institutions in higher education.


Social Media and College Admissions: Higher-Ed Beats Business in Adoption of New Tools for Third Year by Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson
How Social Media Has Changed Young People Information Consumption The youth of today, the “Millennial” generation, represents a tremendous communication challenge for everyone from parents and politicians to colleges and companies. Millennials thrive in an always “on” world filled with:

• Digital music devices,
• cell phones,
• the Internet,
• instant messenger and
• social networks.

They are in constant touch, updating their friends with texts (80 per day on average according to Nielsen), tweets and messages on the “walls” of their Facebook profiles. This world of interactivity and hyper-communication has fundamentally changed how teenagers and young adults receive, process and act on information.






Do College and Universities Use Social Media? And Businesses? In 2007, fascinated by the dynamic created by all the new tools and habits of Millennials, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research conducted one of the first statistically-significant studies on the usage of social media by college admission offices. The study explored this fundamental question: How does a college or university recruits in this new, highly networked, constantly “on” world? The first study of the schools and their use of social media revealed that institutions of higher education were outpacing the more traditional Fortune 500 companies as well as the fast-growing Inc. 500 companies in their use of social media to communicate with their customers (i.e., students). For example, at that time, 8% of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared with 19% of the Inc. 500 while 32% of colleges and universities were using this tool. In 2008, in a follow-up on the original study, The Center gathered the data again in order to conduct one of the first statistically significant, longitudinal studies on the usage of social media by college admission offices. That study compared two years of data, 2007 and 2008. Given that a detailed wiki and a longitudinal University of Massachusetts study showed that in 2008, 13% of the Fortune 500 and 39% of the Inc. 500 had a public blog, it was interesting to see that college admission departments continued to lead the organizational pack with blogs at 41% of US colleges and universities.






Colleges, Universities and Social Media: Facts and Figures How familiar are you with the following forms of social media? (% very familiar) To begin, respondents were asked to rank their familiarity with:

• Blogging,
• podcasting,
• social networking,
• message boards,
• wikis and
• Twitter from “very familiar” to “very unfamiliar”.

Social networking, the social media that was most familiar to college admissions officers in 2007 and 2008 is still the most familiar. Familiarity with social networking has jumped from 55% reporting they were very familiar with it in 2007, to 63% in 2008 and now to 83%. Admissions officers have clearly embraced Facebook and other social networking sites as viable forms of communication with their constituency. The micro-blogging site Twitter was included in this study for the first time since its use among colleges and universities (as well as businesses and non-profits) has skyrocketed. Fifty-five percent of admissions officers report they are very familiar with Twitter. Traditional blogging also continues to be a tool that many admission offices are already “very familiar” with and many more are learning about - though not quite as quickly as social networking. Those admission officers reporting they are very familiar with blogging rose from 44% in 2008 to 55% in 2009. In fact, as the graph above shows, a significant percentage of admissions departments are very familiar with most of the technologies studied. Even wikis - the technology least familiar to admissions officers - is very familiar to 19% of those surveyed. Familiarity is up strongly over the past year for social networking and blogging. It is slightly down for video blogging and wikis, while message boards and podcasting remain about the same. Notably, Twitter already has a familiarity second only to social networking. This high level of familiarity with social media tools is, as you will see in the next section, translating into usage. The bottom line is that admissions officers are moving in the direction of becoming familiar with new tools of communication at a rapid rate, often through or in preparation for actual usage.






Blog, Podcast, Twitter... Which Social Media Is Mostly Used? Which of the following types of social media does your Admission Office currently have? (% yes) From familiarity the survey moved into examining actual usage of social media by the admissions offices. Sixty-one percent of the respondents in 2007 reported they used at least one form of social media. One year later, 85% of college admissions offices were using at least one form of social media. In 2009 a record breaking 95% of college admissions offices use at least one form of social media. Usage is up for almost every tool studied. Social networking is the most common form with 87% of admissions departments using it. Fifty-nine percent have a school Twitter account and 51% have a blog. Almost all of those using a blog are using other forms of social media as well. Thirty-eight percent use message boards, 22% use podcasts and 13% use wikis. Many respondents report faculty often set up wikis for research projects and sometimes students do for group projects, but it was not one of the tools that admissions departments commonly used. (In addition to these tools, schools reported using chat rooms, instant messaging and email to reach prospective students or alumni.) The use of social networking sites and blogging has increased dramatically. At the same time, video is still being used to deliver virtual tours of campuses, virtual visits to the dorms and sample lectures from the faculty. Twitter has stormed onto the scene to have a strong presence in the social media toolbox for admissions officers. No significant differences were found between the use of blogs by public or private schools, or by size of undergraduate population. Fourteen percent of schools with blogs are using some internally developed applications (up 6% from 2008). Others cite WordPress (19%) and Blogger (7%) as platforms. It is not uncommon for the admissions professional to be unfamiliar with the applications being used to host a blog (27%). At most schools, the IT department sets up the blog and the admissions office manages it. When asked who manages their blog, the most popular answers were the:

• Admissions office,
• marketing and
• public relations.

Blogging continues to grow across sectors. The Fortune 500, Inc. 500, and higher education have all shown increases every year since 2007. The most recent data (2009) for the top 200 charities as identified by Forbes Magazine will be released soon. Blogging adoption among different sectors 2007 - 2009 (% of organization with a blog)






How Social Media Is Used For Recruiting Purposes How important do you think these kinds of social media technologies are for your recruiting strategy? The adoption of social media by admissions departments is being driven by familiarity and their recognition of the increasingly important role of social media in today’s world. Interestingly, more admissions departments feel that social media is “very important” to their future strategy than Inc. 500 businesses (50% compared to 43%). Even more powerfully, it is worth noting that 91% of admissions departments feel that social media is at least “somewhat important” to their future strategy. A significant proportion of schools continue to research students via search engines (16%) and social networks (17%). While these numbers are the same for social networking as they were last year, fewer schools are reporting the use of search engines in their recruiting strategy. In 2007, 26% reported using Google or Yahoo, in 2008 that number dropped to 23%. There seems to be a preference for information from social networking sites. The admissions officers interviewed for this study reported using search engines and social networking sites to verify information or research students who were candidates for scholarships or entry into high-demand programs with limited spaces. In all these cases the intent was to protect the school from potential embarrassment. No school wants to announce the winner of a prestigious scholarship only to have compromising pictures be discovered on the Internet the next day. There were no reports of checking every applicant to an institution, no matter how small the school. Online research appears to be more of a precaution at this point or a source of additional information for critical decision making. The search engines used most often are Google and Yahoo while the social networking sites include Facebook and MySpace. The value of these social networking sites for college admissions offices cannot be underestimated. As more and more young people spend increased amounts of time on these online networks, an institutional presence will be mandatory. Do you research potential students via search engines and / or social networking sites? (% yes)






How Social Media Usage Inside College and Universities Has Evolved At first glance, college admissions’ usage of social media appears to be a case study in the timely adoption of new technology. A closer look shows consistent improvement over the past three years in critical aspects of the technology necessary to maximize the effectiveness of these tools. Comparing the 2007, 2008 and 2009 data, it becomes clear that there has been significant improvement as we look at the implementation of one popular tool, blogging. The survey asked about blog logistics like:

• Accepting comments,
• promoting the blog and
• planning for the future of the blog.

The answers to these and other questions from schools with blogs are interesting in that they demonstrate how schools are learning about and using social media more effectively each year.






Do College and Universities Join The Conversation? Do you accept comments on your blog? The mantra of the blogosphere is “conversation.” Blogs that do not facilitate engagement and conversation tend to lose their audience. In the 2007 study 37% of those schools with blogs did not accept comments. By any measure, this is a problem if the goal is to connect with prospective students through ongoing conversation with the school. In 2008 that figure dropped to 22%. The 2009 data shows another drop to 18%. Schools are mastering the tool and embracing its true spirit of two-way conversation. For students or their parents looking to have a conversation online about particular aspects of university life, this increased interaction through comments can be significant. With more and more schools moving into multiple channels of social media, schools that don’t allow for conversation will quickly be passed by. Schools are clearly learning to use social media more effectively.






Using Social Media: What The Future Holds If you are not using social media(s) do you plan to use it in the future? (%yes) Another blog characteristic that allows ease of conversation and increases participation is the use of “RSS” feeds and other notification methods like email or text message. This simplifies the blogosphere for readers who may want to keep up with a certain conversation or be informed of new information without having to check the blog of interest every day to see if there is something new.

• In the 2007 study, 46% of schools had an RSS feed available and 31% allowed email subscriptions.
• In 2008, those numbers rose to 49% and 48% respectively.
• In 2009, 65% were taking RSS subscriptions and 43% enabled email sign-ups for their blogs.

Again, the increased use of RSS would indicate an increased sophistication in the use of blogging as a recruitment strategy. When asked what the future plans are for the school’s blog in 2007, the most popular answer was that there are no future plans for the blog. This was disconcerting considering the swift movement and evolution of blog technology. In the 2008 study, the most popular response was to expand the blog. Many schools began to include audio podcasts, video and live chats as part of their blog. In 2009, the most popular plan is to incorporate social media sites into blogs. When asked if they felt their blogs were successful, 86% of schools with blogs said yes. This percentage was fairly consistent across all three studies (86%, 80%, 86%). This finding is also consistent with studies in business that have shown those using social media are satisfied with it and feel it provides positive results. One cautionary note has to do with having a blogging or social media policy that defines what is acceptable via the institutions’ online communications. Thirty-two percent of schools have such a policy in place for their employees or students who engage in online conversations as it relates to the school. Social media policies are now seen as important elements as an institution develops their social media strategy. Less than 25% of the Fortune 500 companies currently have social media policies in place even though many companies have hundreds of employees that utilize blogging, Twitter or Facebook on a regular basis. Those schools not currently using social media, or a particular tool, were asked if they planned to in the future.

• Fifty-nine percent plan to add social networking to their current media channels.
• Fifty-two percent plan to make increased use of video on their blogs and
• Fifty percent of those without blogs, plan to add them.

Do College and Universities Use Social Media To Monitor The Buzz? Do you monitor social media for buzz, posts, conversations and news about your school and admissions? It is clear that admissions offices are now communicating in new ways. The next question is: Are they listening to what’s being said about their school online? Fifty-three percent in 2007 and 54% in 2008 report they monitored the Internet for:

• Buzz,
• posts,
• conversations and
• news about their institution.

Our latest research shows an increase of close to 20% with 73% of schools now monitoring their school name. Given the ease with which monitoring can be done, it is not surprising that so many institutions studied are now doing it. Over half of the institutions monitoring social media reported doing so manually. Most were using simple Google searches using the name of their school. Those schools that monitor online activity as it relates to them tend to be schools with higher tuitions, private rather than public. They tend to be users of all forms of social media including blogs, podcasting and video. These schools are also more likely to research students online via social networking sites. Perceived importance of social media to the school does translate into monitoring behavior. Those schools with a culture where online communications are respected as having value are more likely to fully embrace that activity. They are gathering critical strategic information by listening to what is being said about their institutions and their competitors in the social media world.






Methodology This year, the Center’s first longitudinal study has been extended by adding 2009 data. This new study analyzes the most recent trending of social media adoption by the admission offices of all the four-year accredited institutions in the United States. As in all of the studies, the colleges and universities were identified using a directory compiled by the University of Texas. The newly-extended longitudinal analysis shows that colleges and universities continue to embrace social media as their adoption of blogging again outpaces both the Fortune 500 (22% have a corporate blog) and the fast-growing Inc. 500 (42% have a corporate blog). The latest research shows 51% of colleges and universities have an admissions blog for their school. Like the 2007 and 2008 studies, the 2009 study is the result of a nationwide telephone survey of those four-year accredited institutions on the University of Texas list, under the direction of researchers Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson. All interviews took place with Admissions Directors / Deans or other admissions officers in November and December 2009. Schools in all 50 states are represented and include public (30%) and private institutions (70%) ranging in size from 10 to over 41,000 undergraduates. Tuition (without fees) ranged from $1,000 to over $56,000. Admissions officers at well-known schools like:

• Brigham Young University,
• Carnegie Mellon,
• George Mason,
• Ohio State and
• Howard University were interviewed as well as
• smaller lesser-known institutions in the US.

All three studies examined the familiarity with, usage of, and attitude towards social media by the admission offices at US colleges and universities. The findings presented here from the 2009 study are based on 478 interviews and are valid within the range of +/- 4%.






Conclusion To date, this is the most comprehensive study done of American institutions of higher education and their use of social media in their admission activities. The results are fascinating and continue to support what the 2007 study documented for the first time: Colleges and universities are using social media to recruit and research prospective students. It is clear that online behavior can have important consequences for young people and that social networking sites can, and will, be utilized by others to make decisions about them. There is continued evidence of enthusiasm and eagerness to embrace these new communication tools and there is also evidence that these powerful tools are being utilized more effectively each year. Schools using social media are clearly studying the “rules of engagement” in the online world in order to maximize their effectiveness at recruiting prospective students.

Originally written by Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, and first published on May 1st, 2010 as Social Media and College Admissions: Higher-Ed Beats Business in Adoption of New Tools for Third Year

About Nora Ganim Barnes Nora Ganim Barnes earned a Ph.D. in Consumer Behavior from the University of Connecticut and is a Chancellor Professor of Marketing and Director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Nora has worked as a consultant for many national and international firms including the National Pharmaceutical Council, the National Court Reporters Association, and the Board of Inquiry of the British Parliament, Scotts Lawn Care Co, Distilled Spirits Council of the US and others. She has been named a Senior Research Fellow and Research Chair by the Society for New Communications Research.

About Eric Mattson Eric Mattison is the CEO of Financial Insite Inc., an independent social media scholar whose research has appeared in BusinessWeek, Inc. Magazine and a number of other publications. Prior to his current endeavors, Eric ran direct marketing, market research and marketing analytics for SanMar. Eric is a graduate of the University of Washington where he earned dual degrees in business administration and mathematics as a Washington Scholar.

Photo credits: Do College and Universities Use Social Media? And Businesses? - Stephen VanHorn Social Media Changed How Young People Consume Information - Acumenfund.org Graphs - Elia Lombardi

Professional wireframing and web design prototyping tools take a step forward compared with free wireframing tools and commercial website prototyping tools, by allowing you to draw highly-realistic mockups of websites. In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find the best professional wireframing and website prototyping tools that you can use to create compelling visual web design projects. Photo credit: Designer Break Wireframe mockups have the unique advantage of providing an immediate visual output of what your web site layout, content organization and navigation will look like. Without spending precious time and resources to design every single detail of your interface, you can produce a fully-functional visual mockup to communicate to your clients and team members your idea and also to highlight potential ambiguities and pitfalls in your design choices. Though MasterNewMedia has already published two in-depth guides on free wireframing tools and on commercial website prototyping tools, this third one highlights and focuses exclusively on professional wireframing and web design mockup tools. Here, what sets professional web design prototyping tools from their commercial and free counterparts?

• Computing power: All professional wireframing tools are available only as a downloadable software. None of them is offered as a web-based option.
• Comprehensiveness: In most of the tools present in this guide, the ability to create wireframes is only one of the options you have at your disposal. You can also draw flowcharts, Venn diagrams, mindmaps, landscape plans and other type of visual projects that help you communicate more effectively your idea when associated to a wireframe.
• GUI system library: All professional wireframing tools have an impressive library of ready-made widgets and design elements that you can drag and drop to your wireframes. Having readily-available design components to build your web site mockups not only is a great time saver, but it also allows you to draw your prototypes with clinic precision and to achieve a highly-realistic effect.
• Design annotations: Professional wireframing tools let you create annotations and comments to add to your wireframe designs. By using annotations, you can easily share feedback, ideas, suggestions and revisions without having to rely on another third-party communication-collaboration tool..

To help you select and identify the best professional wireframing solution for your needs, I have compared all of the best tools available out there and through an interactive mindmap, a set of comparative tables and mini-reviews, I have attempted to make your analysis and evaluation as effective as possible. Here the criteria that I have used for this comparison:

• OS supported: Operating system needed to install the wireframing software tool.
• Interactive wireframes: Clickable mockups that simulate the navigation between web pages.
• Mobile design: Simulation of wireframed mobile websites and web apps.
• Collaboration: Interaction with customers and collaborators to receive live feedback.
• Export formats: Supported formats to export wireframe projects.
• Price: Cost of the wireframing and website prototyping tool.

Here is the full guide in detail:






Professional Wireframing and Website Prototyping Tools - Comparison Tables






Professional Wireframing and Website Prototyping Tools

1. Axure RP Axure RP is a professional website prototyping tool that allows you to create a wireframe to pre-design your website. Axure RP is available for both Windows and Mac platforms. You can draw both static and interactive wireframes that simulate a real user navigation experience. A comprehensive GUI system library is also available to provide you with readily-available web elements and widgets like menu bars, scrollbars, headers that you may include inside your website mockups. The collaboration feature lets you share your website mockups with other people and receive real-time feedback and comments on your work. You can save / export your wireframes to HTML, JPEG, PNG, BMP and GIF file formats. Axure RP costs $589. No mobile design is supported. http://www.axure.com/






2. Justinmind Prototyper Justinmind Prototyper is a professional software tool to prototype websites, software applications and mobile applications. Justinmind Prototyper is available for both Windows and Mac. By drawing interactive website mockups using wireframes you can sketch out your new web project and also simulate user navigation to prevent pitfalls and ambiguities in your design. An extensive GUI symbol library allows you to add readily-available design objects and web elements to your mockups. You can also collaboratively work on your wireframes to exchange real-time feedback and comments. When done, you can export your wireframes to HTML, PNG and JS file formats. Justinmind Prototyper costs $459. http://www.justinmind.com/






3. ConceptDraw PRO ConceptDraw PRO is a technical diagramming tool for Windows and Mac that you can use to create mockups of websites and software applications. ConceptDraw PRO has a large GUI library of pre-drawn widgets and design objects that make it easier to draw your wireframe mockups. The exporting feature lets you save your finished website prototypes to several file formats like: PDF, JPG, EMF, SVG, PPT and many more. The integrated presentation facility lets you present your visual projects without the need for an external software or application. ConceptDraw PRO price is set at $199. No mobile design, collaboration features, nor interactive wireframes are supported. http://www.conceptdraw.com/en/






4. Lucid Spec Lucid Spec is a professional wireframing software tool for Windows. Lucid Spec allows you to create website and software mockups and provide your clients with clear GUI specifications embedded right inside your prototypes. You can sketch out both static and interactive wireframes that simulate the navigation flow between web pages. To draw your wireframe, you can access a large set of pre-drawn widgets and design elements that you can drag and drop io your mockups. When your prototype is ready, you can export it to the RTF format. Lucid Spec costs $499. No mobile design, nor collaboration features are present. http://www.elegancetech.com/ls/ls.aspx






5. Adobe Illustrator CS5 Illustrator CS5 is the latest version of the graphic design and illustration software tool from Adobe, available for Windows and Mac. Among its several design features, Illustrator CS5 lets you draw both static and interactive wireframes of your website. Interactive wireframes allow you to simulate navigation between web pages (but require Adobe Flash Catalyst installed on your machine). An extensive GUI symbol library allows you to add readily-available design objects and widgets to your website mockups. You can also collaborate with other people to receive real-time feedback and comments on your work right from the interface of Illustrator CS5. When done, you can export your wireframes to a plethora of different file formats like SVG, JPEG, GIF, PDF and many more. Illustrator CS5 costs $599. No mobile design is supported. http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/






6. Visio Professional 2010 Visio Professional 2010 is the latest update of the diagramming software tool of the Microsoft Office suite. Visio 2010 is only available for Windows machines. With Visio Professional 2010, you can create several types of visual projects like flowcharts, Venn diagrams, maps and also mockups of websites (standard and mobile) as well as software applications prototypes. Visio Professional 2010 also offers you the ability to collaborate on design projects to receive feedback and comments as you work. Once finished, your projects can be exported to several different file formats like SVG, EMF, GIF, JPEG, PNG and more. Visio Professional 2010 is priced at $559,99 and you can purchase Visio independently from other Microsoft office components. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/visio/






7. SmartDraw SmartDraw is a professional desktop app for Windows that allows you to communicate your ideas visually. You can use SmartDraw to draw mindmaps, flowcharts, wireframes, graphs, maps, crime scenes, and much more. SmartDraw is fully integrated with Microsoft Office and has a large GUI symbol library with ready-to-use buttons, scrollbars and other objects that you can use to add design elements to your visual project. The collaboration feature also lets you share every project you create and receive real-time feedback. When done, you can export your visual project to HTML, JPEG, EMF, SVG and many other file formats. SmartDraw is priced at $279. No mobile design, nor interactive wireframes are available. http://www.smartdraw.com/






8. iRise Professional iRise Professional is a high-profile wireframing software tool aimed at pro designers and web developers. Available only for Windows machines, iRise Professional allows you to design either standard and mobile website mockups and simulate every aspect of the user experience like navigation between pages, clicks, mouse roll-overs and more. A comprehensive set of widgets and design objects that you can drag and drop right into your prototypes allows you to personalize your project. To exchange your projects with others, you can export your wireframes to PDF, XML and HTML file formats. iRise Professional costs $6995. No collaboration features are available. http://www.irise.com/

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on Jul 5th, 2010 as "Wireframing And Website Prototyping: Best Professional Tools To Design Your Website".

How slow is your website when accessed by a typical reader with an average Internet connection? Find out now: Check out Google Webmaster Tools, or go to Alexa.com and type your website URL, or do a test on GTMetrix and see where your page load times stand compared to your top competitors. If you are getting Ds and Fs on GTMetrix and if Alexa and GWT say your site is slower than 90% of the other websites, you are positively in trouble. Why? Two reasons stand out:

1. Google now ranks your website depending on the speed that your pages take to load inside a web browser.
2. Response times of your website determine whether online readers are going to dive into your snappy content or whether they will get so frustrated by waiting for it, that they will leave even before having seen it.

Photo credit: Clipart Though the research data has been around for quite a while now, web publishers tend to forget that beyond a five seconds wait an online reader will get impatient and after ten, he / she will likely decide to go somewhere else. "Slowness makes such an impact that it can become one of the brand values customers associate with a site". A website that is responsive and fast-loading makes the user feel empowered and in-control, whereas long page load times make readers impatient, frustrated and increasingly resistant to your brand or proposition. These are the key reasons why any serious web publisher today should devote time and resources to check, verify, test and optimize the performance, speed and responsiveness of its online content, no matter what the format. To appreciate in greater depth and detail the impact and consequences that slow loading web pages cause on your online readers, usability expert Jakob Nielsen has granted MasterNewMedia official permission to share in full his latest research update on this very topic. Here it is:


Website Response Times by Jakob Nielsen
Website Speed and Page Load Times: Before / After Slow page rendering today is typically caused by server delays or overly fancy page widgets, not by big images. Users still hate slow sites and don't hesitate telling us. Users really care about speed in interaction design. 13 years ago, I wrote a column called "The Need for Speed," pointing out how much users hated slow-loading web pages. Back then, big images were the main cause of response-time delays, and our guideline recommended that you keep images small. Today, most people have broadband, so you might think that download times are no longer a usability concern. And yes, actual image download is rarely an issue for today's wireline users (though images can still cause delays on mobile devices). Still, response times are as relevant as ever. That's because responsiveness is a basic user interface design rule that's dictated by human needs, not by individual technologies. In a client usability study we just completed, for example, users complained that "it's being a little slow."






Why Website Speed and Page Load Times Do Matter Responsiveness matters for two reasons:

1. Human limitations, especially in the areas of memory and attention (as further discussed in our seminar on the human mind and usability). We simply don't perform as well if we have to wait and suffer the inevitable decay of information stored in short-term memory.


2. Human aspirations. We like to feel in control of our destiny rather than subjugated to a computer's whims. Also, when companies make us wait instead of providing responsive service, they seem either arrogant or incompetent.

A snappy user experience beats a glamorous one, for the simple reason that people engage more with a site when they can move freely and focus on the content instead of on their endless wait. In a recent study for our seminar on brand as experience, we asked users what they thought about various websites they had used in the past. So, their responses were based not on immediate use (as in normal usability studies), but on whatever past experiences were strong enough to form memories. Under these conditions, it was striking to hear users complain about the slowness of certain sites. Slowness (or speed) makes such an impact that it can become one of the brand values customers associate with a site. (Obviously, "sluggish" is not a brand value that any marketing VP would actively aim for, but the actual experience of using a site is more important than slogans or advertising in forming customer impressions of a brand.) Indeed, we get findings related to website speed almost every time we run a study. When sites shave as little as 0.1 seconds off response time, the outcome is a juicy lift in conversion rates. Today or the 1990s? Same effect.






How Online Readers React To Page Load Times The three response-time limits are the same today as when I wrote about them in 1993 (based on 40-year-old research by human factors pioneers):

1. 0.1 seconds gives the feeling of instantaneous response - that is, the outcome feels like it was caused by the user, not the computer. This level of responsiveness is essential to support the feeling of direct manipulation (direct manipulation is one of the key GUI techniques to increase user engagement and control - for more about it, see our principles of interface design seminar).


2. One second keeps the user's flow of thought seamless. Users can sense a delay, and thus know the computer is generating the outcome, but they still feel in control of the overall experience and that they're moving freely rather than waiting on the computer. This degree of responsiveness is needed for good navigation.


3. Ten seconds keeps the user's attention. From one to ten seconds, users definitely feel at the mercy of the computer and wish it was faster, but they can handle it. After ten seconds, they start thinking about other things, making it harder to get their brains back on track once the computer finally does respond.

A ten-second delay will often make users leave a site immediately. And even if they stay, it's harder for them to understand what's going on, making it less likely that they'll succeed in any difficult tasks. Even a few seconds' delay is enough to create an unpleasant user experience. Users are no longer in control, and they're consciously annoyed by having to wait for the computer. Thus, with repeated short delays, users will give up unless they're extremely committed to completing the task. The result? You can easily lose half your sales (to those less-committed customers) simply because your site is a few seconds too slow for each page.






How Web Widgets Affect Website Speed: An Example Instead of big images, today's big response-time sinners are typically overly complex data processing on the server or overly fancy widgets on the page (or too many fancy widgets). Here's an example from a recent eyetracking study we conducted to generate new material for our seminar on fundamental guidelines for web usability. The following gaze plots show two different users' behavior on the same page, which contained a slideshow widget in the top yellow box that required eight seconds to download: Gaze plots from two different users: The blue dots indicate where users looked (one fixation per dot).

• The test participant in the top gaze plot fixated a few times within the big empty color block before the content downloaded, then spent the remaining time looking at the rest of the page. This user never looked at the big promotional space after it had rendered.
• The second user (bottom gaze plot) happened to be looking away from the screen during the eight seconds when the promotional content downloaded. Thus, the first time he looked at the page he saw it as intended, complete with the entire promo.

The slideshow occupies 23% of the page, not counting a footer that's not shown here. The user who had to endure the download delay spent only 1% of her total viewing time within this space. In contrast, the user who in effect received instantaneous page rendering (because he didn't look until it was done), spent 20% of his viewing time within the slideshow area. Although eight seconds might not seem like a big delay, it's enough to kill this big promo that the company's web team probably spent weeks designing. If they had allocated the space to something that rendered in one second instead of eight, they would have achieved much better results.






Website Speed Matters More To You Than To Your Online Readers Response times are a matter of user experience: How much time does it take before the computer is ready to serve the user? The reasons behind delays don't matter to users. All they know is that they're getting poor service, which is annoying. Big images in 1997. Slow servers or overly fancy widgets in 2010. Same effect. Make it snappy, and you'll have a big leg up on the competition and their slow sites.






Additional Resources On Website Speed and Page Load Times Responsiveness, flow, and responsible widget design are all topics covered in the full day seminars at the annual Usability Week conference:

• Application Design One: Page-Level Building Blocks for Feature Design
• Application Usability Two: Dialogue and Workflow Design

For more information on how you can speed up the performance of your website, please check these comprehensive MasterNewMedia guides:

• How To Speed Up Your Website - Part 1
• How To Speed Up Your Website - Part 2
• Improve web Pages Load Times: Practical Advice On How To Speed Up Your Site - The Pingdom Report

Originally written by Jakob Nielsen for Useit, and first published on June 21st, 2010 as Website Response Times.

About Jakob Nielsen Jakob Nielsen, Ph.D., is a user advocate and principal of the Nielsen Norman Group which he co-founded with Dr. Donald A. Norman (former VP of research at Apple Computer). Until 1998 Jakob was a Sun Microsystems distinguished engineer. Dr. Nielsen founded the "discount usability engineering" movement for fast and cheap improvements of user interfaces and has invented several usability methods, including heuristic evaluation.

Photo credits: Website Speed and Page Load Times: Before / After - Facebook I-Skey-Piz-Uhm and ZCars Selected Additional Resources On Website Speed and Page Load Times - Erkin Sahin How Web Widgets Affect Website Speed: An Example - Mipan Why Website Speed and Page Load Times Do Matter - Pubmatic Other Images - Clipart

A nice, gorgeous-looking web site which has no design or navigation intelligence is a like handsome man with no brains. It may be nice to look at him but anyone would rapidly get bored with such a partner. Same thing happens on the web. While many strive to build super-good-looking web sites, only few really understand the strategic value of building highly navigable and easy to understand web sites. Why? Because we have not yet learned to think with the eyes and heart of our future readers and fans, and we unconsciously keep pushing things, as if such readers could be molded to appreciate, like and read what we want. Photo credit: Stockphoto4u Happily for us, as me and you are also readers and users of other people's sites, this is a good thing. A web site is not like a television channel and you, the web publisher, cannot shove down your readers' throat whatever you think is great. I, the reader, am now the one in control. One stupid move from you, the web publisher, and in a fraction of a second I can be out of your site. In this user-centered light, how can you build a website that really meets your readers where they are and allows them to easily and rapidly discover all of the value you have to offer? It goes without saying that the number one key strategy to make your web site communicate effectively its focus and key offerings, is to make its home and internal pages strategically designed to offer such unobstructed access with the minimum effort. Achieving this goal involves two basic steps:

1. Navigation: Designing content navigation in a way that allows readers to navigate and discover your high-value content in the easiest way possible, by always having relevant key content suggestions options available in front of their eyes.
2. Search: Making the ability to search and FIND specific content a key requirement on your site. This involves a correct use of tags and categories, a savvy placement, a bit of SEO and an intelligent use of search engines.

In the in-depth analysis that follows, Stijn Debrouwere explores in great detail how to leverage the content search and navigation potential to best serve the needs of your audience. Though this report was originally conceived with news sites in mind, the points it makes and the strategies it suggest are applicable to most any web site wanting to provide high value to its readers.


Findability and Exploration: The Future of Search by Stijn Debrouwere
Content Navigation: What News Websites Must Consider The majority of people visiting a news website don't care about the front page.

• They might have reached your site from Google while searching for a very specific topic,
• they might just be wandering around, or
• they're visiting your site because they're interested in one specific event that you cover.

This is big. It changes the way we should think about news websites. We need ambient findability.

• We need smart ways of guiding people towards the content they'd like to see - with categorization and search playing complementary goals.
• And we need smart ways to keep readers on our site, especially if they're just following a link from Google or Facebook, by prickling their sense of exploration.

Pete Bell recently opined that search is the enemy of information architecture. That's too bad, because we're really going to need great search if we're to beat Wikipedia at its own game: Providing readers with timely information about topics they care about. First, we need to understand a bit more about search. What is search?






Content Search: Relevance Vs. Occurrence Rack your brain for a minute. You're searching for a document in a repository. That repository might be the web, it might be an intranet or it might be content from your local news outlet. You're using the search box we're all familiar with. I now ask you if you're looking for results that contain the words that make up your query. You give me a quizzical look and answer: "Why, that's the point!" But you're wrong. When somebody enters the query "Tony Blair", they're not looking for news articles that contain the words "Tony Blair", they're looking for news articles and assorted other information relating to Tony Blair. Tony Blair, the person, not Tony Blair the string of letters. They'd be happy to see:

• A biography for Blair, for instance,
• an opinion piece written by the former Prime Minister,
• content about Labour from 1997 to 2007 when Blair was the PM.

Let's make a small but important distinction. There's relevance, and there's occurrence. When you perform a search, you're looking for relevant content.






How To Improve Content Search: Stemming and Synonyms A strong indicator of relevance is whether or not the words you're searching for occur in the result set, but that doesn't make relevance and occurrence the same thing. A good search engine goes beyond occurrence, by stemming and by being aware of synonyms. The latter means simply that a search for "illness" should also match documents about "disease" unless you specifically tell the search engine you prefer to see only exact matches. Stemming means that a search for "disaster happened before" should also match documents that contain a sentence like "Disaster happens every so often, we've seen it before." "Happens" is not a part of that query, but it's what you were looking for. Google is amazing at this sort of thing. Most search engines you'll see on news websites aren't. But they should be, because although Google is in a whole 'nother league, stemming and synonym-awareness is a solved problem: Text indexers like Lucene do it very well. But a good search engine that blazes through enormous quantities of text is not good enough. Remember, oftentimes you're not even searching for text, you're looking for things.

• If somebody searches for "economy" they're probably looking for stories categorized or tagged under "economy".


• If you search for "Birmingham" on a news website, you'd like to see all the news that has a link to the greater Birmingham area. Considering that this is an area, maybe the best way to present these results would be as a map and not as a list of results. More about that later.


• If you search for "Randy Newman about musicianship" you'll want to see all the content where Newman talks about his own and other people's music, and what would be really kick-ass is if the search engine wouldn't return stories but instead would present you with just those parts of the matched documents that are relevant. And those fragments most likely won't even contain the word "musicianship", even though they'll be about musicianship.

Some of these wishes are a bit too wild for current technology. But provided you have a solid information architecture in place (hint: Tags don't cut it and Themes and topics and Navigation headaches and We're in the information business), creating a great search experience is well within the realm of possibility. We'll take a two-pronged approach:

1. We'll try to improve search by not searching, and
2. we'll also try to make things better for those times when our readers really do want to or have to search to find what they need.

Content Search Needs To Be Humanized Our readers often don't know exactly what they're looking for. Perhaps more importantly, people who land on on our site from Google don't know about all the great similar content they could find if only they'd stick with our site for just a bit longer. Which is why most news websites still generate no more than a measly 15 pageviews per unique visitor per month. We need to:

• Get readers to the content they would like to see as fast and as effortlessly as possible,
• keep them engaged for longer when they've found that content, and
• point them in the right direction when they ask for either context, related or similar content.

Getting people to the content they want to see, using the search functionality your average newspaper website has on offer, is not exactly what I'd describe as fast or effortless. Full-text search can be a daunting experience. "Poor search wastes time like a crooked street sign that sends us in the wrong direction. It erodes trust, derails learning, and confuses decisions. It makes us blame ourselves. [...] We feel sadness, shame, anger, and disgust. Sometimes, we soldier on, unhappy but resolute. Often we surrender. We simply fail to search. We live uninformed without seeing what we miss (Peter Morville and Jeffery Callender, Search Patterns, p. 19)" Full-text search is the web equivalent of searching for your keys. They could be anywhere. Your surroundings give no indication whatsoever of where they are to be found. Keys are small so it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Before long you'll be second-guessing yourself and kicking yourself in the head because you probably didn't search your jacket pockets thoroughly enough. Even though you've rummaged through them twice, earlier. Ahhhrr. As I mentioned, we can try to make full-text search as palatable as possible, but part of our strategy should be to make search superfluous in most scenarios where people hope to find more or other information on a certain topic. That means:

1. Preemptive contextualization,
2. blended search-and-navigation, and
3. assorted methods that humanize the search experience.

How To Make Content Search Superfluous: Three Examples
1) Preemptive Contextualization
Which Searches Are Predictable? Preemptive contextualization. Whew, now that's a mouthful. What it comes down to is that search is often very predictable: People search for the same kinds of things, and have the same kinds of questions. Predictable means avoidable. Don't make people use a search engine to get answers to questions like:

• I've just read this great article by Chris Anderson. That guy is on to something. Can I see more stuff written by Chris?
• Great piece on the rat race for admission to an Ivy League institution. Where can I find similar stories about higher education?
• This story about the recent political crisis in Belgium reads like a follow-up to some earlier reporting. Link me up!

Most news websites don't even provide a quick link to the portfolio of the author of the piece you're reading?

• MinnPost doesn't,
• The Voice of San Diego doesn't,
• The Los Angeles Times doesn't, and
• Le Monde doesn't either.
• The Texas Tribune does.

Seriously, do you really need to be a Pulitzer-prize winning developer or have the genius of the New York Times to realize people might want to check out more stories or opinion pieces by the same author after they've read a story they like? Do you really expect them to copy-paste the name of that author into a search box and pray for the best?




How Savvy Content Navigation Limits Content Search We can preempt search in a number of ways. One of the most obvious site-wide improvements we can make is to fashion a good information architecture in the narrower sense of that term, namely IA as a way of structuring content and constructing navigation on top of that. We need kick-ass navigation:

• Superb primary navigation (what we'll present as the basic sections of our site) and
• complementary secondary ways of navigating the site (browsing by author, by topic and so on).

Primary navigation and secondary navigation should go together like toast and butter, and the final scheme should be based on:

• The nature of your content
• what kinds of user interaction you expect or want to encourage
• analytics that give insight into how users click through your site
• AB-testing to make sure any enhancements you make along the way actually work

The Texas Trib complements its primary navigation with the ability to browse content by author or by topic. How neat would it be if we could also browse by mood or by genre? Most improvements we can make with preemptive contextualization are not site-wide, however, but depend on the kind of page that prompted the (type of) question in the first place. We should evaluate and enhance each type of page separately, and think about frequently asked questions we need to suggest the answers to, even before readers have asked these questions.




How To Optimize Content Navigation and Provide Good Related Content The homepage is becoming less important than it used to be, but it still gets a huge amount of traffic that we can't afford to mess with. Here are some common questions on the homepage:

• "Wow, I'm overwhelmed. What's on offer? Do you have a map?" - We need some sort of a sitemap that acts as a gateway to our content and is broader than our primary navigation.
• "Hmm, do you happen to have any reporting about banking reform? I thought that was all over the news?" - We need deep links to the topics that are currently on people's mind and that are being talked about.

The Spokesman-Review provides a nice example of navigation that allows people to explore what's on offer in a few different ways:

• By topic,
• by timing,
• by place or
• by medium.

Ryan Pitts reports mixed reactions by readers. I hope they complement rather than replace their approach with more traditional navigation. Topic pages (e.g. about a person) should be able to quickly display and filter associated content by:

• Content type or medium: Video, audio, text, data
• genre: Interviews with that person, opinion pieces by or about that person, the positive or negative stories about him or her.
• related content: The organizations this person belongs to, events in which he or she has played a role

Story pages are obviously the most important part of our website. We can answer a lot of questions for our readers here:

• "Eh, I don't understand this!" - We need links to terms on Wikipedia (e.g. using Apture) or the ability to look things up in a dictionary (like the one they have over at the New York Times).
• "Interesting piece, can you tell me a bit more about the shady organization that is mentioned in this story?" - We need quick links to topic pages about related persons, organizations, events and locations.
• "Mm-mm. I do love these long New Yorker-style features that seem to go on forever. More, please!" - We need links to content in the same section or of the same genre or mood.

Do mind that if you include related content, make sure it doesn't suck. I've had it up to here with "related content" boxes on news websites that are nothing more than automated searches for related content based on "significant keywords" in the content. It doesn't work. Everybody hates it, it's crap. If you really really must have it, use Evri, which is halfway bearable. But try to do things the right way. Related content should be referred to either using tags or if you're really hip, using relationships. These lists, while they don't have to be entirely hand-crafted, should have a human touch. Explicitly linking back to previous reporting on a certain topic is still the only reliable way of indicating follow-up pieces and previous reporting. And instead of naming it "related content", try these instead:

• "More in this section",
• "other opinion pieces from this author",
• "earlier reporting on this subject".

A bunch of links on a story page labelled "related content" or "similar content": The ultimate mystery food. Yuck.






2) Blend Search and Navigation: Faceted Search All of the suggestions above improve findability and reduce frustration by replacing search with navigation. But there's an entire gray area between search and nav as well, as Peter Morville points out in Search Patterns. After all, even something trivial like browsing a list of items within a category to see what you'd want to read is search behavior too. Search behavior doesn't always revolve around a big input box and a submit button. If we can't preempt search, maybe we can improve the experience by providing interfaces that are 50% search, 50% navigation. It's pretty much unexplored territory, though. Faceted search is probably the blended experience you're most familiar with. Enter a search query, and then refine the results using a dynamically generated menu. One of the benefits of storing not just the text but also the properties of a story, like its genre and theme, is that they provide all you need for a faceted search engine. But nothing's for free. Faceted search needs facets: Ways of splitting up search results into meaningful categories. Rich metadata and a well thought-out categorization scheme is a prequisite.






3) Humanize Content Search And Content Navigation Suppose you'd ask Steven Levy, "so, have you written anything about Google lately?" "Well, yes", he'd respond, "I've just written a cool piece about their search algorithm for Wired!" And the natural follow-up would be something like: "So, you're looking for stuff about Google, eh? Have you read What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis? That's a good place to get started." See how natural that feels? First and foremost, we want to know about matches to our exact query. But because most of the time we don't really know what we're doing or what to expect when we enter a search, a helping hand that senses what we might have meant and gives additional suggestions is exactly the ticket. If somebody would ask me: "I think you've written something about structured content and serendipity, isn't that so?", my answer would be: "Ah, no, you're quite mistaken. You must've read my article We're in the information business and clicked on the link to Adrian Holovaty's A fundamental way newspaper sites need to change. Here ya go, let me link you up." Online search should work similarly to asking a question to a flesh-and-blood reporter. I don't mean to exalt answering engines like AskJeeves or WolframAlpha. I mean that search should incorporate some basic elements of what it's like to ask a human for a question, and for another human to give an answer:

• Flexible scoping. If you insist on an exact answer, you're going to get one (or none, if we don't know the answer), but otherwise we'll try our best to give an answer to a variation that we can answer.


• Broad scoping. It's not because you ask me a question, that I have to provide the answer off the top of my head or that the answer must be something I've personally said or written. If I know of a book, a magazine or an article that's a good match for your query, I'll point that out. Getting the answer is what counts, wherever we find it.


• Knowledge of intent and context. We get what we're getting at. We try to grasp the intent behind a question and return results that might be helpful even if they're not a direct answer to your question. We go beyond the precise question and, thank God, beyond the precise terms used in formulating that question.

Applying these abstract principles to online search might seem to require voodoo or sci-fi-style artificial intelligence, but actually, it doesn't. There are a few feasible ways in which we can humanize our search engines.




Enhance Content Search With Best Bets Maybe we can't preempt search entirely, but then we can at least cut it short and provide quick answers to common answers so readers don't have to scan the dreary lists of content returned by our search engine. They still can, if they're not happy with our preformulated answer or editor's choice, but most of the time our preselection will be all a user needs. Best bets are easy to implement, as long as you have search analytics. If you do, it's only a matter of taking the ten or twenty or fifty most common queries, hand-picking the most relevant content from your website, and displaying those picks above the regular search results. You can even implement this on top of a Google site search engine, if your site doesn't have its own engine. We'd be foolish if we thought that best bets provide us with real "knowledge of intent and context", because we don't know the first thing about the users that are doing the searching.

• We don't know what their existing knowledge or read-state is like,
• we don't know their mood,
• we don't know what keeps them up at night.

But while we can never really understand a search query, hand-crafted human responses to common search queries do go a long way towards solving search-related usability problems.




How To Improve Content Navigation Using Related Articles Topic pages about persons, organizations, locations and events are great ways to answer general inquiries by readers. After all, if you have these kinds of pages, you probably spend hours and hours to get them just right and to keep them up to date, hoping that your readers will get something out of them. A lot of search behavior stems from an attempt at learning. So another way of cutting search short is by trying to ascertain what a query is about and then, in addition to the full-text search, providing quick links to relevant topic pages. Words like "financial meltdown" as part of a query are a pretty good predictor that we're looking for information about economics, finance and the global financial crisis. Chances are these pages will be way more valuable to me than a bunch of links to articles that contain the exact words "financial meltdown". Even if plain-Jane full-text search was all a reader came in for, the invitation to learn more about broader topics might be too enticing to pass up. Isn't that exactly the Wikipedia-style exploratory browsing (or wilfing) we're so jealous of? The simplest way of doing quick links to related topics would be to simply boost the relevance of the "topic" content type while configuring the search engine. That way these pages will end up at the top of a lot of search results. Most any search engine is configurable in this way. Another way to accomplish these related links to high-value topics pages, one that's a bit more refined, would be to programmatically aggregate the themes / topics of each search result (you do have that sort of metadata, don't you?) and serve up the topic pages related to the themes that recur most among the results. One advantage over simply boosting the relevance of topic pages would be improved accuracy. But more importantly, this approach allows for more freedom in designing the experience, for example:

• by putting these references to broader topics in a separate box to the right of the regular results, or
• by allowing you to display these topic pages by type (person, organization, location, event).

Further improvements to the accuracy and usefulness of such "broad framing" could probably be achieved by analyzing the semantic sphere (the "aboutness") of the query and to take it from there. Bringing natural language analysis into the picture would allow us to go beyond the precise words of the query and instead get a feel for its intent and meaning when suggesting related topics. A vague feel, yes - machines and language are still a tricky combo - but maybe it's stuff that we can use. Even basic versions of this pattern have the potential to enrichen the search experience for a sizable amount of search queries, i.e. all queries that are exploratory and don't have a precise intent.




Enhancing Search Means Improving Content I mentioned before that we hardly ever really search for text: We search for information about Steve Jobs, news nearby our home town, all content that has something to do with climate change and so on. Our search engine should be smart enough to extract these entities and use them to enhance the results we get back:

• If a query contains a date, we could display relevant events within that date range, either textually or in a timeline.
• If a query contains the name of a person, a link to the biography of that person should be the first result people see. (If we have that biography on hand, that is.)
• If a query contains a place name, we could display relevant results on a map centered on that location.

Services like OpenCalais and Yahoo! Placemaker make entity extraction easy on us developers, by doing all the heavy lifting so we don't have to. When we're searching for news about a certain area, it makes sense to display the results on a map. Do note, though, that the more heavily tagged and structured your content is, the more advantage you can take of entity extraction. You can't return a biography as the first result in a query, if that biography is not in any way differentiated from regular news stories. You can't do location-aware search if you don't store the relationships between news stories and locations. Enhancing search often means enhancing the content that provides the raw material for your search engine; you can't turn lead into gold.




Leverage Aggregated User Behavior To Improve Content Search Flickr has a lot of photos, but finding exactly what you want to see can be hard. Most of the time, search is a back-and-forth experience that involves multiple rounds of refining and tweaking the query. What if we could use the research, the specific tweaks and refinements to the original query, and use that data to inform the search of another user? That's exactly what Flickr does. If you'd search Peter Morville's photostream for "Microsoft" you won't find any results, but Flickr knows from the search behavior of its users that a query for "Microsoft" is often tweaked to "Windows", and when those users click through to photos in that second result set, Flickr knows that this second attempt was probably a success: They've found what they needed. This works very similarly to how human beings search for things: Steven: "I can't seem to find a good shop to buy these Adidas Millenium Falcon shoes. I've scoured three stores already with no luck." Jon: "Yeah, but those shoe shops along Columbus Avenue are a bad bet for sneakers. Have you asked Ted? He went looking for those same ones last week, and I think he found some." So another neat little way of reducing frustration with search, although one that requires a significant engineering effort, is to tool your search engine to learn from the aggregated behavior of its users.






How To Optimize Content Search For Your Website Okay, so we've talked about some ways in which we can improve the user experience during search. What we haven't talked about is what our site should be searching. Again, this might seem to merit a simple answer: Why, the full text of our content, of course! But we can do better than that. Imagine me surfing your news website. I'm interested to know more about a person or a location or an organization. Since I've decided that I want to search on one specific site, yours, rather than via Google, you can safely assume I want to narrow my search and that I don't want to search the entire web. I want to know what your site has to say about whatever it is I'm searching for. But what does that mean?




Index Any Bit of Content You Publish Don't forget about all the content that is available on your own site, yet often doesn't get indexed. There's a nascent movement towards journalists providing (wherever possible) their original research material, allowing readers to explore a subject as fleetingly or as deeply as they want. These Word and PDF files need to be searchable as well, yet often they aren't. There are open-source tools to return plain-text renditions of Word and PDF documents, and optical character recognition(OCR), while not there yet, is getting better and better. DocumentCloud also allows people to easily annotate these kinds of source documents. So a great search engine would know about all the cool stuff your site has to offer, not just about the news reports in your database. Here's a very incomplete list of things that should be searchable:

• News items
• documents (if necessary using OCR)
• video and audio (using transcriptions)
• topic pages, and
• assorted other content types that are not stories
• comments
• photographs (using tags)
• events (using dates)

Content Curation: Look Beyond Your Site With the role of curation and link journalism growing ever more important in journalism, what a site has to say is no longer limited to the content that lives on your own webserver. Good content links to articles and blog entries and documents all over the web. That content doesn't exist on your site, but for your readers you're the gateway to that content, and they should be able to find it not only when linearly reading an article, but also when they're searching on your site. Now here's the thing: If we index documents and other source material, why don't we index the content of links to other websites as well? They're source material just the same. By curating, your site gives those links meaning. They're part of your offering and they should be searchable just like your own content is. We want to design search that is not merely adequate but search that's excellent. Excellence means thinking in terms of user experience. When we think of search as a way for users to explore all our varied offerings, the border between your site and the rest of the internet becomes extremely vague. Perhaps we shouldn't just include external webpages we've linked to in our search repository, but RSS-feeds from people and organizations we cover as well? Users expect a search engine to search the site they're on, so we shouldn't stray too far from that convention. However, when implemented wisely, and with good visual cues that make it easy to tell apart external content from your own, it can make sense to open up your search engine a bit, and allow it to return meaningful results not just from your own website, but from that part of the web and those topics you cover. There are two big tools that can help us index other parts of the web that are relevant to our own site:

1. Web crawlers. A crawler can visits the links in our own content and adds them to our index.
2. Search APIs. We can do clever things using the power of the Google, Yahoo! and Bing search APIs.

Searching a bigger part of the web than just your own website requires storage and processing power, as well as a good design to separate your own content from relevant content from elsewhere. Aside from that, it's hardly rocket science. Humanizing search means a search engine should be able to give answers to the question "what's happening?" rather than just narrowly answering "what is on this site?". That said, it will take a lot of experimentation to find the right balance.




Use Content Sharing Tools At Your Own Risk On a side note: Beware of some of the newer tools in the reporter's toolbox. Apps like Scribd and CoverItLive store documents and text on their own servers, which makes them inaccessible to your own search engine, unless you go to the additional effort of integrating with their APIs. That is, if they actually have an API you can integrate with. Keep your archives intact and complete. Think about search before deciding to use any of these services. The goal is to index more content than you currently do, not less!






Why Content Search and Content Navigation Are Crucial Search doesn't have to be awful, but it's never going to be exactly fun to skim through tens of hundreds of supposedly "relevant" results to our query, hoping to find the ones we're looking for.

• We can make things better by allowing readers to quickly narrow down their search using rich facets.
• We can support those readers who happen to be in an exploratory mood by adding smart secondary navigation by genre, topic, location and medium.
• We can answer questions readers might have about a certain piece of content before they even ask them, preempting search.
• When solid navigation, alternative ways of browsing and prefab answers to common types of questions aren't enough and people do have to use the search engine, it's only proper that we make the experience as painless and human as possible. It's going to be hard, but we should try to teach our search engine to understand the meaning and intent behind each query.
• Search engines on news websites should make helpful suggestions about content you might want to check out, even if you didn't explicitly search for it.
• Search engines should guide readers to topic pages that provide excellent introductions to important parts of your coverage, like the broader context behind events, biographies, company profiles and so on.
• More importantly, we should guide readers to topic pages because they're among the best gateways to your reporting. Definitely better than search.
• And we make sure to avoid uncharted territory that doesn't show up in our search indexing not only our stories, but sources and documents as well.
• Newspapers try to help their readers in making sense of the world.

When we see readers exploring and searching, we see them at a crucial point in time: A moment when they're ready, willing and eager to learn. The power to turn exploration into learning is the most wonderful gift we can give to our readers. We should help readers on their quest for knowledge. Retooling navigation and search is a worthy first effort.

Originally written by Stijn Debrouwere for Stdout, and first published on April 29th, 2010 as Findability and Exploration: The Future of Search. This article is a part of a bigger series on info architecture for news websites. Due to explicit request from the author, this content is not available for republication.

About Stijn Debrouwere Stijn Debrouwere writes about journalism, technology and information science. Stijn worked at the media laboratory Apache, at the student newspaper Schamper while he was in college and he also contributed to the student city guide Gent Verkend. He is currently a freelancer searching for new projects to start.

Photo credits: Content Navigation: What News Websites Must Consider - Jenny W. How To Improve Content Search: Stemming and Synonyms - RambergMediaImages Content Search Needs To Be Humanized - Mgemin Preemptive Contextualization - Vitalik Blend Search and Navigation: Faceted Search - Xiao Fang Hu How To Improve Content Navigation Using Related Articles - Krisdog Content Curation: Look Beyond Your Site - Michael Osterrieder

Wireframing and website prototyping tools allow you to take full control of your website architecture without hiring a web designer. You can build a faithful draft of what your website layout will look like without detailing color, graphics and specific design elements. In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find the best wireframing and website prototyping tools under $150 to start sketching out your site right away. Photo credit: Yasuhisa Hasegawa A website wireframe is defined by Wikipedia as such: A website wireframe is a basic visual guide used in interface design to suggest the structure of a website and relationships between its pages. A webpage wireframe is a similar illustration of the layout of fundamental elements in the interface. Wireframes are a significant step in simplifying the design of your site, because a wirerame mockup allows you to reduce design rendering and production time while also freeing you time to focus on what is really important to have on your site. Another remarkable advantage of wireframing and website prototyping tools is also that they are available in different price tags and flavors to fully adapt to your budget. You can already find a guide published on MasterNewMedia on free wireframing tools and another one will be published in the next few weeks on top-notch wireframing software. Instead, this very guide is devoted to all those publishers who want to get their hands dirty with wireframes for a reasonable price. In fact, here you will find a selection of website prototyping tools that cost under $150 per month (well below in most cases). To help you select and identify the best wireframing solution for your specific needs, I have then compared and selected a number of tools (both web--based and software applications). Here below, you will find an interactive mindmap and a set of comparative tables and mini-reviews to make your evaluation as simple as possible. Here the criteria I have used for this comparison:

• Software type: Downloadable / web-based tool (if downloadable, the operating system supported is specified).
• GUI symbol library: Free, readily-available buttons, scroll bars, menus and other objects to draw wireframes.
• Interactive wireframes: Clickable mockups that simulate the navigation between web pages.
• Real-time collaboration: Interaction with customers and collaborators and receive live feedback.
• Export formats: Supported formats to export wireframes projects.
• Starting price: First price level available.

N.B.: The present roundup of wireframing tools under $150 is still incomplete. You may want to bookmark this page (simply hit CTRL+D on your Windows keyboard or CMD+D on your Mac keyboard) as I will be adding more services in the coming weeks. Here is the full guide in detail:






Wireframing and Website Prototyping Tools Under $150 - Comparison Tables






Wireframing and Website Prototyping Tools Under $150

1. Gliffy Gliffy is a web-based wireframing tool that allows you to sketch out a prototype of your website, You can create both static and interactive wireframes to simulate navigation between web pages and take advantage of an extensive GUI symbol library. You can also collaborate with other people to receive real-time feedback and comments on your work. When done, you can export your wireframes to SVG, Gliffy XML files, JPG or PNG image formats. The Premium account of Gliffy costs $5/mo and lets you draw unlimited wireframes.
   http://www.gliffy.com/
   
   
   
   
   
2. Creately Creately is a browser-based wireframing tool. Creately is specifically designed for online collaboration purposes, so that you can sketch out a mockup of a website to show your clients collecting immediate feedback without using e-mail attachments. Website mockups are also interactive, so that you can simulate navigation between different web pages of your mockup site. In addition, you have a large GUI symbol library with readily-available objects to build your wireframes. To export your mockups you can choose among PDF, JPG or PNG file formats. Starting price for Creately is set at $4.95/mo.
   http://www.creately.com/
   
   
   
   
   
3. ProtoShare ProtoShare is a collaborative, web-based website prototyping tool. You can draw interactive website mockups that simulate navigation between web pages, share them with your clients and collaborators to gather feedback and also export your mockups to HTML, CSS, JavaScript and MS Word formats. An extensive GUI library of symbols, web elements and drawing objects is also available to help you draw your website wireframes. ProtoShare pricing plans start at $29/mo for a single user.
   http://www.protoshare.com/
   
   
   
   
   
4. HotGloo HotGloo is a web-based wireframing application. With HotGloo you can draw interactive prototypes of your website, taking advantage of a list of readily-available GUI objects, shapes and web elements. The built-in chat function allows you to receive immediate feedback on your work from clients and collaborators. To export your finished website mockups you can choose between PDF and PNG file formats. HotGloo pricing line starts from $7/mo, but with such starting plan you are limited to build one project only.
   http://www.hotgloo.com/
   
   
   
   
   
5. Pidoco° Pidoco° is an online GUI design tool that allows you to create interactive, clickable wireframes to prototype websites and user interfaces. The wireframes you create can be exported either to HTML or to a MS Word-compatible format. A comprehensive GUI system library is also available to provide you with readily-available web elements like menu bars, scrollbars and other objects to draw rich user interfaces. Pidoco° pricing tags starts at $9/mo, but to take advantage of real-time collaboration features, you must go for the $29/mo plan or superior. No collaboration features are available.
   http://www.pidoco.com/
   
   
   
   
   
6. Mockup Screens Mockup Screens is a software tool for Windows computers that lets you prototype and build mockups of your website. Wireframes are only static, therefore you cannot hyperlink different pages of your wireframe to simulate user navigation. A GUI symbol library is available to utilize pre-made objects and drawing elements inside your mockups and the exporting feature allows you to convert your wireframes to XML, HTML or PDF files for offline reading. MockupScreens is priced at $99.95 for a single-user license.
   http://www.mockupscreens.com/
   
   
   
   
   
7. WireframeSketcher WireframeSketcher is a software tool that lets you draw mockups of your website. WireframeSketcher is based on the Eclipse IDE and it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux machines. All mockups you can build are static, with no interaction between different web pages. A GUI symbol library is available to utilize readily-available design objects and other website elements inside your mockups. You can also export your website wireframes to PDF and PNG files. WireframeSketcher costs $75 for a single-user license.
   http://www.wireframesketcher.com/
   
   
   
   
   
8. FlairBuilder FlairBuilder is a web-based tool that allows you to prototype websites and iPhone apps. Your mockups are interactive, which means you can simulate user navigation experience between different web pages of your site or app. You can also use the large GUI system library to find pre-made web elements that you can add to your wireframes. To purchase FlairBuilder you can either pay $24/mo or $99/year. No collaboration, nor exporting features are available.
   http://www.flairbuilder.com/
   
   
   
   
   
9. OmniGraffle OmniGraffle is a wireframing tool available for Mac and the iPad that you can use to sketch out interactive website wireframes. A GUI system library is at your disposal to grab pre-made web elements to add and style your wireframes. Exporting possibilities span from PICT, PDF, EPS files to MS Word- and MS PowerPoint-compatible formats. OmniGraffle is priced at $99.95 for a single-user license. No collaboration features are supported.
   http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/
   
   
   
   
   
10. Balsamiq Mockups Balsamiq Mockups is a wireframing tool that allows you to prototype interactive website wireframes. Balsamiq Mockups is available both as a web-based application and as a downloadable software for Windows, Mac and Linux. The service has a large GUI symbol library with ready-to-use buttons, scrollbars and other objects you can use to draw your mockups. Collaboration features also let you share your project to receive real-time feedback and comments. When done, you can export your wireframe to XML, PDF, and PNG files. Balsamiq Mockups Desktop App is priced at $79 for a single-user license.
    http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups
    
    
    
    
    
11. iPlotz iPlotz is a wireframing tool that allows you to create navigable mockups of websites and software applications. iPlotz is available both as a web-based service and as a downloadable software for Windows and Mac machines. The service has a large GUI symbol library that provides ready-to-use buttons, scrollbars, menu bars and other objects that you can use to draw your mockups. You can also share your project in real-time and receive live feedback and comments. When done, you can export your wireframe to PDF, PNG, JPG or HTML files. iPlotz starting price is set at $15/mo for the web-based service and $99/year for both web-based service and desktop app (single-user license).
    http://www.iplotz.com/

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on Jun 21st, 2010 as "Wireframing And Website Prototyping: Best Tools Under $150 To Design Your Website".

How do go about improving or creating great website designs? Unless you have some references and key principles showing you how critical legibility, layout and content organization are, in determining your site look and feel, you are going to remain unsatisfied. Solving your typical web design challenge by searching for yet another cool new web site design template is not going to get you anywhere better than where you were before. You can't achieve "design beauty" or "coolness" by adding widgets, decorations and other design fluff. Beautiful designs and great user interfaces are generally the consequence of a highly analytical work, not the results of an inspired design performance by a hip web designer. Photo credit: Villedieu Cristophe In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find a highly curated selection of guides, tutorials and visual samples collections that can greatly help you in understanding better what makes a great web site design and to how to distinguish a design that work from a cheapo, splashy, all-smoke-and-no-fire design template. What is important to understand in fact is that the web design principles and best practices are not useful just for blogs, but also and even more for any kind of content-driven or service-driven website that you may want to build. For example a few critical items that most new web sites have to take into consideration are:

• Above the fold: People should feel at home immediately when they land on your site. They do not have to scroll down to see where they are, who you are and what you have to offer them.
• Page legibility: Do not pretend to be Monet. Virtuosisms in web design is beautiful to see, but they it is not required. What really counts is whether your web page communicates clearly what you have to offer in a handful of seconds.
• Loading speed: Each and every design component you add on your web pages (widgets, plugins, Flash elements, etc.) contributes to slow down the overall load time of your content. Remember that speed is now one of the ranking factors that Google uses to rank your website inside Google search engine result pages.
• Simplicity: Stay simple. Do not throw as much content and calls for action on your pages as you possibly can. Start by focusing your design layout on a few, valuable content items and then gradually guide your reader in discovering more of it.

If, this is the focus you were looking for, here is a brief summary of the key topics you will find inside this guide:

• Wireframing and website prototyping
• Website design patterns
• Website templates
• Website navigation design
• Website design layout

Whether you are just moving your first steps in designing a new web site or you are just looking for good examples and best practices to refine your existing design work, this MasterNewMedia guide is a comprehensive resource covering all of the ground work, principles and practices you may need to improve your web site design work. Here the new MasterNewMedia Website Design Guide:


Before Web Design: Wireframing and Website Prototyping
Website Prototyping Strategies When you start a web design project, whether you're starting from an existing website, sitemap or wireframe, the first ideal step you could take is to put all of the input you have collected until now into a clickable, web-based, grayscreen prototype. And then from there you burn your final sitemap or web site wireframe. But how do you this? In this guide Eric Holter shows you what are the key steps to take when prototyping another website. by Eric Holter - Newfangled




Web Design Process: From Sketchbook To Prototype What does a website design process look like? In this guide prepared by Steven Wilson you can learn the key phases of his design process, in which he takes a basic idea and drives it from a sketch to a prototype, by showing you how he proceeds when designing a new small portfolio website (a site used to showcase your best work - like designers do). by Steven Wilson - D79




Wireframing and Website Prototyping: Best Free Tools To Design Your Website Website prototyping and wireframing tools can help you sketch out and draft your overall website architecture without the need to hire a web designer to do it. For this reason, wireframing is the first step one should consider when designing a new website. In this guide you will find the best free tools available out there for wireframing and website prototyping design work. by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano - MasterNewMedia




Great Examples of Sketched UI Wireframes and Mockups Whether you’re designing a user interface for a website or an iPhone app, it’s always a good idea to start with a wireframe. Henry Jones has curated eighteen great examples of sketched user interfaces wireframes and mockups. A lot of these look so good that you may be inspired to start your next project with a sketch. by Henry Jones - Web Design Ledger




User Interface and Web Design Wireframing Kits Find out everything you wanted to know about actual wireframing tools and standalone applications, as well as other useful resources and samples you may need when building your own wireframe. by Paul Andrew - Smashing Magazine







Website Design Patterns
What Is a Web Design Pattern Interaction design patterns are a way to capture optimal solutions to common usability or accessibility problems in a specific context. They document interaction models that make it easier for users to understand an interface and accomplish their tasks. In other words a design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem. A design pattern is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into a ready-to-use interface. It is rather a description or template for how to solve a problem that can be used in many different situations. by Wikipedia Editors - Wikipedia




Why Do You Need Web Design Patterns What are "design patterns" and where do they come from? Find out which are the specific benefits of using design patterns and the reasons why you should incorporate them into your web design work. by James Maioriello - Developer.com




Yahoo! Web Design Pattern Library Yahoo Design Pattern Library is a collection of user interface patterns that web designers and web developers can use to take inspiration to design new web pages. In this Yahoo Library you can find a great number of useful web design patterns and typical components grouped together under a useful set of categories that includes layout, navigation, selection, rich interaction and social elements. by Yahoo! Developer Network




Web Design: Pattern Library A great collection of web design patterns, prepared and organized by interaction design consultant Martijn van Welie. by Welie




Web Design Shop: Pattern Tap Pattern Tap is an online shopoffering readily-available web design patterns organized into niched collections (navigation, buttons, design, forms, etc.). by Pattern Tap







Website Templates
How To Choose an Effective Blog Template Or Theme How do you pick the right theme for your blog? The challenge for any web site owner is that this is not an easy to take decision as it requires balancing the needs of content, function, and design ("look and feel"). Find out how to select an effective web design template in this quality analysis extracted from J.D. Meier's research on effective blogging. by J.D. Meier - J.D. Meier's Blog




High-Quality E-Commerce Website Templates Great commercial web site templates curated and selected by the editors of Smashing Magazine. Inside this collection you can find web design templates specifically prepared for WordPress, Prestashop, osCommerce, Magento, Zen Cart, CubeCart, and CRE Loaded, as well as a number of general e-commerce templates. by Steven Snell - Smashing Magazine




Free Website Design Templates Top free web site design templates collections available out there. by Robin Good - MasterNewMedia




Commercial Premium Website Design Templates Top commercial Premium web site design templates collections available out there. by Robin Good - MasterNewMedia







Website Navigation Design
Website Navigation Design Strategies What are the moast important points to consider when designing the navigation of a new website? Find out in this guide all of the basic steps required to design a website navigation system. by M Editors - Mardiros




Ten Principles For Effective Website Navigation Design If content is the heart of every website publication, then navigation is its brain and a fundamental pillar of information architecture design. When dealing with large quantities of content, the critical importance of providing high quality navigation can hardly be overestimated. Content that can’t be found can’t be read. by Charlotte - Onextrapixel




Great Examples of Creative Website Navigation Menus Want some inspiration? Ideas? Examples about great web navigation designs? Here they are. by Tehseen - Pro Blog Design




Ideas To Design Website Navigation Menus Additional ideas for designing web navigation systems that really work. Find out how to push your creative limits to build a web navigation solution that is both remarkable and outstanding. by SR Editors - Six Revision







Website Design Layout
Interface Design: Examples and Best Practices Utilize this full set of useful interface examples to help yourself in developing and designing better and more effective user interfaces. Specific focus is on simplicity and legibility of web pages which should be the highest, most critical priority for any buddying web designer. by WSG Editors - Web Style Guide




Examples of Website Layout Solutions To Improve Your Web Designs Which are the most effective layout solutions and techniques that you can use to create a clean and organized content layout? Find out in this guide prepared by Matt Cronin the eight user interface design techniques that include the explanation on how to use sliders, tabs, progressive layouts, structured grids, modal windows, rollover elements, accordions and mega drop-down-menus. by Matt Cronin - Smashing Magazine




Examples of Excellent Website Layouts In Web Design How do you use grids, columns and blocks to design and organize a new web site interface design? Giselle Muller showcases and curates an excellent range of great examples you can use and refer to. by Gisele Muller - Web Design Ledger




Jeet Design Do: The Web Designers Ninja Formula The key points driving my own design strategy on MasterNewMedia and elsewhere all circle around these 10 issues. Find out what they are. by Robin Good - MasterNewMedia

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Elia Lombardi for MasterNewMedia, and first published on June 17th, 2010 as "Website Design Guide: Best Practices And Examples Of Website Interface And Navigation Design Solutions".

Photo credits: Website Prototyping Strategies - Helder Almeida Web Design Process: From Sketchbook To Prototype - Marja Flick Wireframing and Website Prototyping: Best Free Tools To Design Your Website - WebDesigner Depot User Interface and Web Design Wireframing Kits - Venus Worldwide What Is a Web Design Pattern - Yahoo! Design Pattern Library Why Do You Need Web Design Patterns - Alastor How To Choose an Effective Blog Template Or Theme - Robert Kneschke High-Quality E-Commerce Website Templates - Brian Morgan Ten Principles For Effective Website Navigation Design - Liz Van Steenburgh Ideas To Design Website Navigation Menus - Brian Jackson Interface Design: Examples and Best Practices - Jefferson Han Examples of Excellent Website Layouts In Web Design - James Steidl Examples of Website Layout Solutions To Improve Your Web Designs - Derek Mack

What is social media? Is it a strategy or a tactic? You cannot just gather fans on Facebook one day, send messages on Twitter the next and start commenting on YouTube and Linkedin in between, hoping that this is the way you can get social media to help your marketing efforts. What you are going to end up with is a lot more time spent on social media, the opportunity to brag about the number of friends, contacts and followers you now have, and no time left to think what to do next and why. The social media flow is so fast and intense you don't even have time to think about it. But, if you look beyond, friends, followers, chats and comments, your true ybottom line, your subscribers, customers and revenues, are not changing much. Why? Simple: Firing comments, videos, images and other content across as many social media networks as possible, is an activity, NOT a strategy. In part 2 of this social media strategy video interview, Ravit Lichtenberg explains how to build and carry out an effective social media strategy. Photo credit: Robin Good Rule one: To build an effective social media strategy you must have a clear, specific marketing objective you want to realize. Social media networks are a new venue to carry out a conversational, value-sharing propositions that can help you reach that specific goal. Traditional approaches to marketing campaigns cannot be replicated on social media platforms and understanding the key differences between old-style marketing and social media-based value-sharing and conversational approaches is critical in being able to leverage the social media marketing power to its fullest. If you are still struggling to realize the value of social media for your business, this video interview with Ravit Lichtenberg will help you understand which are the practical steps that any small or medium-sized company must take to develop a social media strategy that really works (...and if you missed it, here is Part 1 of my video interview with Ravit). Here is Ravit unique insight on how to bring effective social media strategy to your table:


Social Media Strategy: What Is It? Ravit Lichtenberg Duration: 2' 13''
Full English Text Transcription
Robin Good: We just forget to listen and we keep working at creating value for our customers and fans with a traditional mindset of: "What can be a nice idea... This is a nice idea... Let's go give it to them...", while instead we should just be engaging: "Hey, what are you doing? I would like to know what kind of problems you are running into, because I am frustrated myself, do you have this problem? Do you have that one, how would you go about it?" And then follow their interests, their leads, into what frustrations they have to really serve their needs. I can fully emphatize with your take. As a matter of fact, I read something that you must have written about strategy and tactic. You make it very clear to make a distinction between these two things and you drive it to the point of saying that actually Twitter, Facebook, your blog cannot be your social media strategy. Can you go a little deeper into this point? Ravit Lichtenberg: Yes, absolutely. That is one of those things that I keep telling my clients. I keep telling people that Facebook Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging is not a strategy. That is when you hear the gasp: "What do you mean: 'Not a strategy' "? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, forums are tools, channels, delivery mechanism, but they are tactic. Your strategy should be just as about as your marketing strategy, as your product strategy. There is a marketing strategy, there is a social media strategy - and the two should be alligned. They have to do again with the objectives:

• What your customers want to know about?
• What is valuable to them?
• How would you measure success?

Take that through the filter of what you are able to do in the organization and only then, decide on the right tools and channels to implement on that strategy. Otherwise what you will see is what we are seeing with a lot of companies: A lot of time spent ,a lot of resources spent on twittering, on being on Facebook, on creating groups that are tendent to sort of just a reactive mechanism, rather than a strategic mechanism, with very little return after that initial spike - which then sends us back to the drawing table. To avoid that, make sure you have a strategy first, before you start implementing on those tools.






Social Media Strategy: Practical Examples - Ravit Lichtenberg Duration: 2' 34"
Robin Good: Let's assume I am not the United Nations, but a small or medium-sized company, having this strategy means what? If tomorrow and the next day, Saturday and Sunday, I want to sit down and build that strategy, you are not going to be there. What can you leave me of your experience so that I can do something practically effective for myself? Ravit Lichtenberg: Very good question. Let's put this into practical terms. You start with the first step: understanding your business objectives as a company. For example, if you are in the service industry:

• Do you want to reduce your support costs by moving some of them online? That is a business objective.
• Do you want to create more awareness of your company - because you have just entered and there are a lot of other companies in the space, and you want to create bigger awareness of you as a company?
• Do you have any product launched that you want people to know more about, or you want people to come and try?

Whatever are your business objectives, set that in place. Once you have done that, figure out where customers are spending time right now, and you can do that by using keywords to track where they are. If you are a service provider, use:

• Keywords that have to do with your services,
• keywords that have to do with your company,
• the customers descriptions that you have.

Go look for these customers, see what they are saying, try to engage in a conversation with them, see what is valuable to them. Set metrics. For example, if you are a service company and you want to reduce support cost:

• Would reducing support calls by ten percent be sufficient for you?
• If you did that, how much money would that translate to?
• How much time would that save you?

That is a very hard metric that you can measure against. You want to do that, make sure you take your benchmark metrics though, so you know where you are starting from. What if your company, for example, has a product and has inventory that wants to get rid of? See how fast you can get rid of that inventory or additional inventory that you can sell using online media. If you want to create awareness, look at how many people come to your website, or order from you as a result of your online media activities. Set those in place and then - and only then - asses the resources that you have in place, how much time you can allocate to that, look at the channels that those customers spend time on and start creating your campaign around those specific objectives. Do it very small, because you can always grow, but if you start too big, you will stretch to thin. Start that way and then test how that went and iterate from what you have learned.






Social Media Strategy: Social Media Campaigns Vs. Traditional Campaigns - Ravit Lichtenberg Duration: 1' 38"
Robin Good: You use the term "campaign" and I want to understand whether that is because the tradition of the industries is to use that term or because we really still need somewhat to campaign. Has the term campaining for your companies and customers changed in some way or shall they associate to the term the same thing that they associated before? Ravit Lichtenberg: This is such a good question Robin. I am so happy you brought up, because there is a use of traditional term to mean actually something new. It is really good that we help people understand the difference. When we talk about the traditional campaign, we are often talking about large enterprises bringing in the advertisement firms and the creative firms to these big campaigns. Campaigns on social media do not have to be these big things. What it means is narrow things down, it means focus. If you want to increase awareness, call an awareness campaign, that is all you are going to do. If you want to focus on reducing support costs, you will call that a support campaign, for example. It helps you focus on one thing that you are going to do, because you are going to want to measure the performance on these separately, from all your other campaigns or other efforts that you are going to do. We are using the word basically to mean: "We have narrowed down focus and here are the three top areas that we are going to focus on or campaign around." There are still some elements of the campaign that you want to have. You want to have engagement, you want to have budgets and so on. It helps us as the world is evolving, just like people's behaviors and psycoloygy is evolving on social media.






How Social Media Marketing May Help You Create A Better World Duration: 2' 39"
Robin Good: Ravit, that was indeed insightful and I really appreciate your generous time today. Ravit Lichtenberg: My pleasure.
Robin Good: I want to leave you by asking you a crazy question. Do you think that this change in marketing strategies - being so much focused and pivoting so much around the ability to do what appear to be better human qualities: Listening, trying to help and so on - may be a driver also for a better world somehow? The world of marketing used to be something that I wanted to stay away so much, because I hated those people pushing me things, trying to sell and just pushing things to just making money for a company. I am having a glimpse - I do not want to sound like marketing - but I am having a dream that this new way of marketing may actually change the way we are as human beings, because it forces us to open up, to be honest, to put up a real voice and to really, seriously, truly go out and help other people. Do you feel the same, or am I just having an unforecasted resurrection of psychedelic substances I took when I was too young? Ravit Lichtenberg: If that's what it is, then I think it is just as cool as it was back then, but because it was only a few years' back! I think that the technologies that are brought up by web 2.0 and what the web has enabled us to do, which is eliminate barriers and get through to other people, other nations, oher cultures in ways that were not possible before. We were so separeted before, instead we did it. This ability now to connect with anyone in the world - almost - is remarkable. I would really like to believe like you that it is going to also, help us understand what else we can do that goes beyond ourselves, for the greater good. I am with with you on this, I would love to see that manifesting as well.
Robin Good: From San Francisco, California, on the left side was fantastic Ravit Lichtenberg. Thank you very much and please leave my fans and your listeners right now with your URL and social media posts where people can find you. Thank you Ravit. Ravit Lichtenberg: Thank you. Sure, you can find me at Ustrategy.com. You can find my blog at www.ravitlichtenberg.com and you can follow me on Twitter: ravit_ustrategy.
Robin Good: Ciao Ravit, thank you! Ravit Lichtenberg: Ciao!
End of Part 2 Part 1 - Social Media Strategy: A Video Interview With Ravit Lichtenberg - Part 1

Video clips originally recorded by Robin Good for MasterNewMedia. First published on June 10th, 2010 as "Social Media Strategy: A Video Interview With Ravit Lichtenberg - Part 2".

About Ravit Lichtenberg Ravit Lichtenberg is advisory board member at Quindi, founder and chief strategist at Ustrategy, LLC and founder at Ustrategy Women in Business. Before launching Ustrategy, Ravit worked as a customer experience strategist at Hewlett-Packard Co. She holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a Master in Human Factors and Applied Experimental Psychology, from California State University, Northridge. Ravit also holds a Master certification in Neurolinguistic Programming.

Website prototyping and wireframing tools can help you sketch out and draft your overall website architecture without the need to hire a web designer to do it. For this reason, wireframing is the first step one should consider when designing a new website. In this MasterNewMedia guide you will find the best free tools available out there for wireframing and website prototyping design work. Photo credit: WebDesigner Depot In general, a wireframe is intended to be a draft visual prototype used in interface design to sketch out the architecture of a website and the relationships between its pages, all without needing to worry about the specific of its graphic design. This is why it is called a "wireframe": because it outlines only the key areas and components of the future site, without detailing color, graphics and specific detail elements. Historically though, wireframing comes from the world of computer graphics, where the term describes a mode of representing 3D objects by displaying only their wireframe, in order to have a rapid rendering and display of even complex images without a long wait. But wireframes are not just tremendous design-complexity simplifiers and time-savers, as their benefits goes well beyond reducing your design rendering and production time. Here are some other practical advantages of utilizing wireframes and web prototyping tools to pre-design your website:

• Consistency: Wireframing tools make it easy to test and try out several variations of a design solution without requiring extensive time and resources. It is easy to experiment with very different different design and layout approaches without going broke.
• Planning: Web site design wireframes are also tremendously helpful when needing to communicate initial design ideas with team-mates, clients and developers. A website prototype can act as a solid design base on which to consider improvements and refinements, as well as content structure, overall layout, positioning of key elements, and other types of design requirements.
• Navigation Ease: A wireframe helps designers to plan, develop and position web navigation elements to provide a better experience for website visitors. By developing printable wireframes and site prototyped pages one can easily pre-test and analyze ahead of time which types of solutions would be most appropriate to adopt.
• Infinite undo: Prototyping tools allow you to revert and track back the full history of your previous design changes and revert back to any of them.
• Realism: Website mockups can be created that can be used in early user tests and that look like a normal web site.
• Collaboration and Sharing: Everyone can get involved. Reach out for other designers or colleagues to get feedback. You can share your wireframe design easily with clients and customers to illustrate the progress of your design work.
• Free: Save money. Yes: you do not need to pay anything to use one of the free prototyping tools listed in this guide.

To help you select and identify your ideal free wireframing or website prototyping tool, I have done my best to collect and organize all the relevant data that can help you compare and select which online service is the most appropriate for your needs. Here below, you will find an interactive mindmap, a comparative table and a set of mini-reviews to make your evaluation as effective as possible. Here the criteria I have used for this comparison:

• Software type: Downloadable / web-based tool (if downloadable, the operating system supported is specified).
• GUI symbol library: Free, readily-available buttons, scroll bars, menus and other objects to draw wireframes.
• Interactive wireframes: Clickable mockups that simulate the navigation between web pages.
• Real-time collaboration: Interaction with customers and collaborators and receive live feedback.
• Export formats: Supported formats to export wireframes projects.
• Account limitations: Restraints inside free account (if any) like usage time, number of wireframes you can create, etc.

N.B.: The present roundup of free wireframing tools is still incomplete. You may want to bookmark this page (simply hit CTRL+D on your Windows keyboard or CMD+D on your Mac keyboard) as I will be adding more services in the coming weeks. Here is the full guide in detail:






Free Wireframing and Website Prototyping Tools - Comparison Tables






Free Wireframing and Website Prototyping Tools

1. Gliffy Gliffy is a web-based wireframing tool that allows you to sketch out a prototype of your website, You can create both static and interactive wireframes to simulate navigation between web pages and take advantage of an extensive GUI symbol library. You can also collaborate with other people to receive real-time feedback and comments on your work. When done, you can export your wireframes to SVG, Gliffy XML files, JPG or PNG image formats. The free account of Gliffy lets you draw up to five wireframes without encryption, but it is ad-supported.
   http://www.gliffy.com/
   
   
   
   
   
2. Jumpchart Jumpchart is a browser-based website planning application that allows you to draw a content wireframe of your website. You can create both static and interactive wireframes to simulate navigation between the web pages of your mockup. Jumpchart also lets you share your wireframing projects with customers and clients to receive feedback and comments on your work without using email attachments. If you need to, you can export your wireframes to CSS / XHTML files or to a WordPress-compatible format. Jumpchart is free for up to two wireframes with a maximum of two shared collaborators. No GUI symbol library is available.
   http://jumpchart.com/
   
   
   
   
   
3. MockFlow MockFlow is a service to prototype websites, available both as a web-based application and as a software tool for Windows and Mac. Wireframes created with MockFlow are interactive and simulate user navigation across web pages. To draw your wireframes, you can use the large GUI symbol library available. Collaboration on shared wireframes is also fully supported. When done, you can export your projects to PPT, PDF or PNG files. Please note that with the free account all your exported files will be watermarked. Free MockFlow accounts let you build one wireframe with up to four pages and up to two shared collaborators.
   http://www.mockflow.com/
   
   
   
   
   
4. iPlotz iPlotz is a wireframing tool that allows you to create navigable mockups of websites and software applications. iPlotz is available both as a web-based service and as a downloadable software for Windows and Mac machines. The service has a large GUI symbol library that provides ready-to-use buttons, scrollbars, menu bars and other objects that you can use to draw your mockups. You can also share your project in real-time and receive live feedback and comments. When done, you can export your wireframe to PDF, PNG, JPG or HTML files. The free account of iPlotz lets you create one wireframe with up to five navigable pages.
   http://www.iplotz.com/
   
   
   
   
   
5. Mocklinkr Mocklinkr is a web-based service to create prototypes of your website by drawing interactive wireframes that you can navigate just like a real site. You can also share your wireframing project with other collaborators who can provide feedback directly using Mocklinkr. The free account lets you draw up to ten wireframes with no page limit. No export feature, nor GUI symbol library are available.
   http://www.mocklinkr.com/
   
   
   
   
   
6. Pencil Project The Pencil Project is a free open-source Firefox add-on that allows you to create wireframes and prototypes within Firefox. You may create an interactive wireframe that simulate web navigation and also use the GUI symbol library to add objects, buttons, scrollbars and other goodies to make your wireframe more realistic. All wireframes that you create can be exported to HTML, PDF, PNG or to MS Word and OpenOffice.org compatible file formats. No collaboration features are available.
   http://www.evolus.vn/Pencil/Home.html
   
   
   
   
   
7. Lumzy Lumzy is a free browser-based mockup creation tool that allows you to prototype your website. An extensive GUI symbol library is available to add graphic elements to your mockup in order to add more realism to your project. Also, you can invite other people to collaborate on your mockup project and receive feedback. Exporting formats available are: PDF, PNG, JPG. Interactive mockups are not supported.
   http://www.lumzy.com/
   
   
   
   
   
8. Mockingbird Mockingbird is a free web-based wireframing tool that allows you to create interactive prototypes of your website. You can design your website right inside your web browser, taking advantage of a large GUI system library with several website objects to personalize your mockup. Once you are done with your work, you can share your project with other collaborators or export your wireframe to PDF and JPG file formats.
   http://gomockingbird.com/
   
   
   
   
   
9. FluidIA FluidIA is a web-based wireframing tool for prototyping websites and user interfaces. Still at an early development stage, FluidIA works properly only using Firefox 2.5. Collaboration features are available with FluidIA, so you can share and interact with other people on your website mockup. No GUI system library, exporting feature, nor interactive wireframes are supported.
   http://www.fluidia.org/
   
   
   
   
   
10. Balsamiq Mockups Balsamiq Mockups is a wireframing tool that allows you to prototype interactive website wireframes. Balsamiq Mockups is available both as a web-based application and as a downloadable software for Windows, Mac and Linux. The service has a large GUI symbol library with ready-to-use buttons, scrollbars and other objects you can use to draw your mockups. Collaboration features also let you share your project to receive real-time feedback and comments. When done, you can export your wireframe to XML, PDF, and PNG files. The free account lets you create unlimited wireframes for seven days.
    http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

Originally prepared by Robin Good and Daniele Bazzano for MasterNewMedia, and first published on Jun 7th, 2010 as "Wireframing And Website Prototyping: Best Free Tools To Design Your Website".