ChaosScenario

What You Don't Know Can Kill You

On a recent project, I was reminded of "The Curse of Knowledge," the arch-villain of Chip and Dan Heath's Made to Stick. According to this concept, the more we know about something, the harder it is for us to remember not knowing it.

There's a corollary curse that goes with that:

The more we know about something, the more tempting it is to assume we know more than we do.

You might be surprised to learn how much medical doctors and/or other incredibly bright and useful people know about web architecture and design.

Aircraft engineers are pretty bright people. Lives depend on their competence. They have to know how objects will react to minor tweaks to the thrust, weight, drag, lift, etc, so that when they design an aircraft, none of the millions of things that could go wrong do go wrong, and if something were to go wrong, the plane can still safely land.

They know more about airplanes and flight than pilots.

But would you want an aircraft engineer to land a plane you're in?

If you said, "Only if he also has a pilot's license and is rated for the aircraft he's flying," go to the head of the class.

Likewise, because you know that your customers are 18-34 upper-middle class suburbanites doesn't mean you have even an adequate understanding of how they think or how they behave. Even if you're in the target audience.

In fact, if you are in the target audience you should be especially diligent about testing your assumptions. The Curse of Knowledge does not discriminate because you went to Stanford or MIT.

To borrow the structure of a well-known phrase in the advertising profession, it's safe to say we know only half as much as we think we do. Problem is we don't know which half. - Cam Beck

10 Advanced Features I Want from Apple Tablet

To hear some commentators tell it, Steve Jobs is going to single-handedly save the newspaper industry with Apple's new tablet, which is rumored to be announced next week (Read Newsweek's Article: Five Ways Apple's Tablet May Change the World).

 I wish him, the newspaper industry, and the world the best of luck.

But while we're pontificating about what the Tablet might do, here's hoping its rumored crowdsourcing need aggregation and fulfillment app (codename: iGenie) will pull in my wish list and make it a reality.

Besides the basics -- Music, Internet, eReader, etc., here are some things I'd like to see in the new Tablet. In the interest of time, I'll stick to the higher points.

1. A magic pixie dust dispenser (Credit Joe "YOU LIE" Wilson)
2. Unlimited battery life
3. If not indestructible (wouldn't be "green"), it would be at least highly durable.
4. A 20 Megapixel camera with 1600x optical zoom, nightvision, flash, and macro and panoramic views.
5. Free 4G connection running on a viable unloaded network.
6. Video conferencing that makes it look like you're looking at the person and not the camera.
7. Autotuning.
8. Wireless Enhanced Neurological Projection (I made that term up. Think of Neo's ability to learn Kung Fu in "The Matrix," but without the holes in our heads).
9. A Step-by-Step Guide to Kung Fu eBook (See previous wish).
10. Can be used as a flotation device and re-breather in the event of a water landing.

There's much more, but you get the point. What are some of the features you want to see? - Cam Beck

When can a comma cost you $2 million?

Little details matter. Ask Rogers Communications, Inc.

In 2006, this Canadian company witnessed firsthand how a single comma in a contract could cost them over $2 million.

What they thought they signed:
The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

What they actually signed
The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

The second comma changed the meaning completely. Whereas Rogers Communications thought only the subsequent extensions could be terminated on one year's notice, the clause created by the comma meant that the initial 5-year agreement could be canceled by either party. Consequently, the rates they were obligated to pay shot up immensely within the 5 year period they thought they'd have the prices locked in. (Read the story)

Details can make or break your website
Hopefully you have good lawyers who will, among other things, indemnify you in case someone maliciously uses your software or website to build weapons of mass destruction. Like Apple's lawyers did with iTunes. (Read iWMD: Why No One Reads License Agreements)

But even with that important detail taken care of, the little details matter in user interfaces, as well. And failing to pay attention to them can be the difference between success or failure.

• Should that call-to-action be a button or a link?
• Should those calls-to-action be together or separate?
• Should the calls-to-action be of equal weight, or should one be given greater priority?

How you answer those questions depend on what it is you're trying to accomplish and what people are expecting to find. But on a high-volume or high-stakes site, if minding the details can improve your conversion metrics by just 5-10%, it could be the difference between profitability and a money-leaking ego booster.

The Web is your petri dish
If at all possible, don't rely on experts to tell you that something has to be one way or the other. Test early and often. Don't be afraid to try new things.

Work diligently on the details. In bits.

• Is the headline effective?
• Is the language on the button inviting?
• Does the button look imminently clickable?

Let the data speak for themselves. You may want experts to design the page and the test, but you don't need an expert to know that a 15% conversion rate is better than a 10% conversion rate.

There are plenty of cost-effective experiments you can run to help you get the most bang for your buck, including A/B split testing and informal low-cost usability tests.

However, the characteristic you must first have is a willingness to fail. Because only through failure can you foster a willingness to search for the problem and design experiments to help you improve. - Cam Beck

Giving Credit Where It's Due

I like to give credit where it’s due.

Unfortunately, in my industry, the people who put in the most hours, who have to drink the most coffee, and who get hosed most often due to last-minute hiccups, discoveries or scope changes are the ones who have some of the most thankless jobs.

That’s why I fell in love with the idea of the Hive Awards, which recognize those whose contributions often go unnoticed or unappreciated.

After all, when was the last time you’ve been to a website and thought to yourself, “Boy! I’m so glad that I can view this website in Explorer 6, Safari, AND Firefox,” or “Wow, the CMS on this site must have been a real beast!”

You probably haven’t.

If Everything is Right, We Don’t Notice

In our jobs we may have developed the discipline to look for ancillary details, but in practice as consumers, we just don’t function that way. When it comes to all of that, except for those who have a vested interest in and a responsibility for producing websites that actually satisfies the wants and needs of people and organizations, as consumers we are all hopeless egoists.

When using the Internet, at any given point in time, the most important needs are our own. It doesn’t make a bit of difference to us if a website looks right in Opera – unless we prefer to use Opera as our Internet browser. Then it only matters if it doesn’t work right.

In fact, we typically only take notice when something doesn’t work. We don’t marvel when we can use something the way we want to use it.

When we buy a recommended book on Amazon, we’re conditioned to fly right through the process (and maybe add an impromptu gift wrap along the way), we have no idea the number of hours that were spent checking and fixing that process so that it’s so easy you barely notice that you’ve just forked over $20.

And that’s a real shame, because the lack of gratuitous animation, epic photography or “pizzazz” notwithstanding, Amazon.com is a real work of art. For Amazon’s most frequent customers, it isn’t just a utility, it’s an extension of themselves; it’s just what they do to get what they want.

Award Shows Treasure Pizzazz

Its “design” may not win any awards that account folks and art directors covet, but its design does generate more online revenue than any other retailer in the world. Sadly, an industry accustomed to rewarding the “creative” disciplines (art directors, writers) has been slow to recognize the contributions of those in less glamorous professions – which include some of the most creative people I’ve met – people who aren’t generally acclaimed as such.

Working at an interactive agency with deep roots in traditional advertising, every day I walk by all the awards we’ve won for creativity. The awards are good for what they are, and they typically bring esteem to (most of) the right people. But they are woefully inadequate for giving due recognition for the creativity of those perceived as having “technical” or “production” job titles.

And as the award shows tried to catch up with the burgeoning interactive discipline within their ranks, they tended to favor “clever” or “popular” over “effective.”

Enter the Hive Awards

Along came the Hive Awards, the brainchild of Alan Wolk, which gave companies a chance to recognize the very real and significant contributions, be they creative or otherwise, of people the advertising world typically recognizes as “bit players” in the quest for a “big idea.”

The truth of the matter is that not every big idea makes a big splash. But it’s hard to compete in traditional award shows with those sites that do make a big splash.

The Hive Awards have multiple categories across multiple industries – so that, in their words, “a truly innovative b-to-b insurance site is not directly competing with mtv.com.”

So if you haven’t entered yet, please think about how you can recognize those who continually and quietly save your company’s bacon with the help of countless hours into the morning and gallons of coffee.

Tomorrow (December 31) is the last day to qualify for an early-entry discount, but even if you miss that deadline, it’s still worth it, if you have created a truly remarkable product that would otherwise go unnoticed. Enter now.

The Value of Y-O-U

Recently I read Value-Based Fees: How to Charge and Get What You're Worth by Alan Weiss. I've coveted this book since I wrote Innovation by the Hour last year. After I worked through my rather large (and growing) stack of reading material, I finally was able to get my hands (and eyes) on it, and I am glad I did! (Thanks to Lisa for the recommendation).

Many, if not most, people in service industries bill for time and material. This is problematic in industries whose output includes ideas, for who is to say when (or on whose dime) ideas were generated? Who owns the idea formed in an employee's head if it never sees the light of day?

Weiss argues that the problem is far more pernicious. Many of the headaches involved in consultancy or agency relationships stem from a systemic flaw in their billing methods. Weiss says it plainly: It's "simply crazy" for consultants to base fees on time and materials. When you sell value and do your job correctly, you maximize your margin while ensuring the client feels like they got a bargain.

That is the definition of a "good deal."

The book is well-written, memorable, and at times shockingly honest. Weiss says he's glad his accountant hasn't read his books, because he'd pay a lot more if he had to pay for value, not for time and materials.

He also practices what he preaches. The Kindle version of the book, which obviously does not require printing or distribution fees, is still $32, which is much more than typical new releases sell for on the Kindle, and not much less than the printed version, brand new. This is because Weiss is selling an idea and techniques to implement it, not paper and ink.

That idea in the book is worth the same regardless of the method in which it's distributed. And if you're currently billing by time and material, at $32 or $100, it really is a bargain.

The Supply and Demand of You
Weiss claims that "There is no law of supply of demand in the consulting profession." What he's referring to is that the fees you charge should have nothing to do with your supply of hours in a day, week, month or year.

However, as Weiss himself iterates elsewhere, there is only one person in the universe who is the product of your education, skills and experience. The supply of you is exactly one.

The question, then, is what is the demand for that product? It depends on what value you mutually establish.

• What are the client's business objectives?
• How will success be measured?
• What results can you deliver against these objectives and metrics?

You, as a product, may be of significant value to a client, regardless of how much time you need to spend on a project, as long as you are willing to believe in your value enough to make yourself accountable to actual, measurable results. Do the work necessary to educate the client and establish agreement on what your goals are.

Then you can both come away confident that you've been successful at meeting those goals. The client will feel like they got a bargain, and you will come away knowing you've been adequately compensated for your expertise.

Pick up the book today. You'll be glad you did. - Cam Beck