July 18, 2008

Free? Free - as in free for real? This is an outrage!

Actually, I am delighted.  I am at the airport in Palm Beach, Florida (that's PBI for all you road warriors) and I have free WiFi and electricity.  Yes, I know we all can find outlets in an airport and plug in - but that usually means sitting in the hallway or using an airline club.  At PBI they have desks with outlets and free WiFi in the common area for anyone to use.  I thought, how easy was it for this airport to take something as simple as a workstation and WiFi and make it free - thereby thrilling the customer.  What simple thing can your organization do to provide a delightful surprise? 

July 14, 2008

Crazy lines for an iPhone

Is it me or is it crazy to stand in line for hours to wait for a new iPhone?  Granted, the iPhones are very cool and with the new Exchange connector they are ready for the business user to adopt.  But hours in a line for it?  That level of brand loyalty is rare.  How does Apple do it?  Well - one thought is that they aren't selling a phone - they are selling a design.  We've all read that Apple isn't a technology company - they are a design company.  People want the products they design.  They want the Apple experience.  The sounds, shapes, colors, tactile feeling, etc.. the products offer.  It's exciting.  Where else do we see lines like these?  Entertainment events and entertainment products (e.g., game boxes)  They are willing to stand in line for hours for something they can get next week without standing in line (probably).  Even when the company doesn't do a particularly good job at rolling out the product the fans will wait.  Can you imagine the sassy Apple ads if Microsoft had botched a roll out as much as Apple did with this iPhone release.  Still, Apple fanatics don't care.  Whether it be a new communication vehicle or a conference - put as much attention into the design/user experience as you do the details.  Clearly it pays off.

July 09, 2008

Usable, but not very useful

Blog2 OK you communications majors out there - what does this mean?  Does it mean they want you to skate or they don't want you to skate?  I took this picture in downtown Silver Spring outside a client's office building.  In this case, the sign is usable, but it's not very useful.  Useful is the counter part to usable when performing a Web site usability study.  Something on your site can be very usable, but not very useful to your site users.

July 08, 2008

Training - eliminate the scapegoat from your organization

Training.  Technology training to be more specific.  Let’s forget that it’s the ultimate scapegoat for a moment.  Who’s job is it to ensure it’s happening?  Does it fall under human resources – as a professional development endeavor?  Or under IT?, because it has to do with technology.  Or both? 

First, let’s separate the IT staff from the rest of the staff.  Regarding IT staff training – clearly the head of the IT department is responsible to ensure the IT staff has a professional development plan that advances skills and knowledge relevant to each position and the organization’s needs.  However, it is also each IT staff person’s responsibility to seek training opportunities and to inform their managers and leadership what type of training they need.  IT staff need to demonstrate initiative and identify which type of training they feel is most effective for them.  Do they need online courses available to them? Do they need a "boot camp" or hands-on classroom setting?  Or are they a self studier and need just materials?

Regarding non-IT staff - what type of skills does each position need to be as efficient and successful as possible?  Marketing professionals need different technology tools and skills than office management professionals.  Finance officers need different technology skills than the CEO. This is why it is important for human resources and IT teams to work together to review each position in the organization and identify the necessary technology skills and training options. 

But wait, there's more if you act now....by making IT skills and professional development accomplishments part of your review process and perhaps your compensation structure, you're helping to avoid the typical problem of offering training but no one taking you up on it.

July 02, 2008

Usability - it isn't just for Web sites

Blog1_2 This is a photo taken in a client's lobby elevator area.  Every time I visit, I observe someone pressing on the left or right UP arrows.  They press and press and press and press.  Then they see the button in the middle.  The up and down arrows are only lights there to indicate which way the elevator car is headed.  I wonder how often communicating more information ends up creating confusion.  Are the navigation elements on your Web site clearly labeled and visible?  Or are their distractions that frustrate the user with useless 'pressing?'

June 26, 2008

Classic ownership and communication example

We had our DelCor Family Summer Picnic this past weekend.  Each year there is a civil, yet grusome, vollyball game at the picnic.  Whehter or not my team won this year really isn't important (ah..hem...) but how the game is played is very important.  This picture is a classic example of why a team might not win (aka, lose).  The team that neither communicates nor takes ownership of "the ball," will certainly see the ball land in a dead zone.  I think the picture says it all.

When_no_one_takes_ownership

June 24, 2008

Keeping the blogs alive

I was curious how other blogs in the association community are doing overall.  How often are new posts created?  How many comments does the average post have?  How many have been started and forgotten about?  So, I took a quick run through the blogs listed on ASAE's Acronym blog and looked at the content.  The following list is the date of the most recent posting on each blog.  Parentheses indicate the number of blogs that had that date as their last post entry.

  • June 24 (2)
  • June 23 (8)
  • June 22 (3)
  • June 19
  • June 17 (3)
  • June 12
  • June 5
  • June 2
  • May 27
  • May 22
  • May 20
  • May 3
  • April 15
  • April 10
  • March 29
  • January 28
  • August 8, 2007
  • September 1, 2006

As you can see, the majority of blogs seem to be kept up to date.  For those blogs that are considerably out of date, should ASAE remove them from the list?  Also, for the most part, postings have no comments - or a few at the most.  That makes me feel better since I see that based on Web traffic, this blog has readers, few of them comment on the posts though.  How is your blog doing?  What's your most recent posting?

June 17, 2008

The things you learn doing usability testing

One of the benefits of being a DelCorian is that you are exposed to many different industries through the association community.  We've learned a great deal about professions and industries we didn't even know existed.  On top of the exposure to so many industries and professions, we meet great people.  In some cases, great zombies.  Let me explain.  Recently Tobin Conley, DelCor Sr. Consultant, was doing some usability testing a client's member site.  The staff joked that his next testing participant was a real zombie.  Tobin wasn't sure what to make of that.  Days later Tobin learned that they meant it literally.  Our test participant had a rather prominent role in the 1978 cult classic "Dawn of the Dead."  I shamefully admit I haven't seen the movie, but apparently for those that have, they will know him as the zombie who got the top of head chopped off by a helicopter.  His Web site has all the gory details and pictures of him losing his head.

June 02, 2008

How many connections does it take to be connected?

The fact that associations need to pay attention to social networking is old news.  However, the social networking world still seems a bit Wild Wild West to me.  I am connected to some folks so many ways that I don’t know which to use – so I just e-mail instead.  For example, I am connected to the same colleagues at ASAE through multiple social networking tools - LinkedIn, Facebook, and ASAE’s social networking application.  In some cases, I’ve turned down a fourth of fifth invitation because I couldn’t figure out the value of having yet another connection to this person.  Don’t misunderstand, I am a social person and like to be connected and communicate, but it’s confusing to be connected too many ways to the same person.  How is your association helping your members avoid the confusion and understand the value of using a particular social networking tool? 

May 30, 2008

Laptop solution to please the hard to please

I've posted several times about how much I like the MacBook Air running MS Vista.  However, I am aware that even that slick combination of hardware and software won't please everyone - so here's a laptop you can purchase for your 'hard to please' user.  A thanks to Sanjay (our marketing manager) for pointing it out to me.

Coolest laptop ever.

Authors

  • Loretta DeLuca
    CEO of DelCor
  • Dave Coriale
    President of DelCor
  • Brian Sheehan
    Vice President, Network Systems & Support

Books We're Reading

  • Dave - Boydell, Deutsch, Remillard: You're Not The Person I Hired!