It’s no surprise that Google properties account for 66.7% of search queries, making Google the most popular search engine. What may surprise you is that many people go directly to YouTube (a Google property) and begin their searches there – it’s the 2nd most popular Google property for search.  As video becomes more popular and easier to upload and stream, particularly on mobile and especially tablets, video is going to become a more and more important element of many businesses’ digital presence.

What does this mean for businesses?

The short answer: the creation of shareable video content needs to be part of your marketing efforts.  (Fun fact: 92% of videos viewed on a mobile device are shared.) Here are a few quick tips to start building out your video assets, and getting them seen.

Finding the budget

Fortunately, you can now make many videos without a huge budget. In fact, most people don’t expect high production values from short, informative videos and screencasts. Just be sure you have enough time and resources to shoot and edit the video. Don’t expect that you’ll capture anything all in one go.

Getting ideas

Make sure your video has a specific purpose, and that it conveys something that can’t be communicated as well or better in other ways. You can get inspiration for your video content from several sources:

• Search analytics from your website - what questions are driving visitors to your site and what questions are they typing in the search box on your site? Can you provide an answer in video form?
• What can you show rather than tell? If your site has directions or explanations about products or services (how to hang curtains, how to take better photos, how to accessorize an outfit, etc.), see if you can demonstrate those activities on video. It can be a great learning tool for your customers.

 Creating & Publishing your Video

No matter where you get your ideas, and no matter what you’ll be showing in a video, here are some tips to help you create an effective video:

• Think about the audience you want to reach – tailor your content to their sensibilities. Your video should be neither to elementary nor too complex for your desired audience.
• Sketch out the story or tasks to complete in the video.
• Practice ahead of time to be sure you don’t leave out any steps.
• Speak clearly and take your time .
• Include contact information at the end of the video.
• Edit, edit, edit.
• Don’t include music you don’t own. (You don’t want your video taken down because of copyright violations.)
• Promote your video on your social networks and customers.

A Few More Words of Wisdom
At CDG, we have found that short, single task videos are more effective than longer videos. Rather than providing an entire product tutorial, break up the most common questions into short, question specific videos. This also allows you to target the search terms for each video more effectively and make the specific videos more shareable (not to mention more suitable for mobile viewing.) Other good ideas:

• To improve the searchability and the accessibility, post it with a transcript.
• Add keywords to your video - consider what specific keywords people will look for in a video (versus a Google search).
• Share your videos – once you posted your videos on Facebook, be sure to promote them. Post them to Facebook and on your website

Not sure how which content is video-worthy or how to create winning videos for your company? Contact CDG Interactive. Our award winning creative team can help.

Worldwide, mobile now accounts for 10.01% of total web traffic. In the US, more than 120 million people now own a smartphone, and 48 million people own a tablet.  Half of all local searches are currently performed on mobile devices.

Clearly, you've got to make sure that your site is ready to welcome traffic from mobile devices, and to provide those visitors with a great user experience.

Even if you're not ready to completely overhaul your site, there are several quick and easy steps you can take to vastly improve the mobile experience.

Here 5 fixes you can implement right now to ensure your mobile visitors stay on your site:

1. Control Pop-Ups: Either eliminate pop-ups for mobile users or ensure they are resized to not be larger than the screen.  Visitors will spend little time scrolling around looking for a way to close the window. If you must use a pop-up for some reason, be sure to watch your bounce rate for mobile visitors in your web analytics to ensure you’re not losing visitors.
2. Push Your Buttons:Test the target areas of buttons and links for touching with fingers. Most websites were designed and built for clicking with the more precise mouse which allows for items to be placed in close proximity. At the very least, ensure that your purchase and cancel target areas don’t overlap and can be touched separately.
3. Select the Right Keyboard: In any situation that requires user input, make sure your site serves up the correct keyboard to match the input you/re requesting from users – using the options for email, URL, telephone numbers and numbers will help your mobile visitors provide the correct information with fewer typos, resulting in fewer errors and less frustration.
4. Turn Off Auto-Correct: Disable the auto-correct function for form entry. Nothing is more frustrating for a visitor than having to re-input information because the device “knows” better.  Depending on the form fields, you may also choose to turn off auto-complete and auto-capitalize.
5. Never Think You're Finished: Okay, this isn't exactly a quick fix, but it's important. Between new products and user expectations, mobile standards are constantly evolving, so you can't simply "fix it and forget it." You need to keep vigilant and continually evaluate whether your site is still performing optimally, and whether you can improve it. (That goes for us too! At CDG, we regularly revisit and improve previous work.) 

This is the second in a series of posts about rethinking the museum experience to attract a new audience.

In the past, when a museum mounted an “interactive” exhibit, it typically meant that attendees could touch what was on display. Now interactivity has a newer and richer meaning, and museums are scrambling to keep up. The Smithsonian American Art Museum has jumped into the fray with The Art of Video Games, not only allowing visitors to interact in the traditional sense (you can play Myst, PacMan, Super Mario Brothers and other games), but also incorporating social media, QR codes and webcasts.

I had a chance to catch up with Georgina Goodlander, the exhibition coordinator for the Art of Video Games, who said that the exhibit was an outgrowth of Smithsonian 2.0, a brainstorming conference that addressed ways the Smithsonian can continue to interpret its mission “for the increase and diffusion of knowledge” in the digital age.  “Video games are a huge part of American culture and they are an art form,” said Goodlander.

The concept of allowing online participation in the exhibit was introduced early in planning stages; curators developed an online voting system to determine which games would be included in the exhibit. (The exhibit features one game from each of 5 stages in video game development: "start," "8-bit," "bit wars," "transition," and "next generation.")

The voting site was promoted on Twitter and the museum’s blog as well as the website announcing the upcoming exhibit.  Goodlander said that the voting exceeded the Smithsonian’s expectations and sparked interesting discussions, not only on the museum’s blog, but also on gaming forums.

Commenters debated the question of who should be able to answer the question “What is art?” and wondered whether the online voting would skew toward the best-selling/most popular games. (They didn’t). “It was clear that people though carefully about which [video games] should be represented in the Smithsonian,” Goodlander said.

Continue reading "The Smithsonian Gets Interactive: Exploring The Art of Video Games" »

CDG is looking for volunteers for user testing during the week of September 4^th. We’re looking for female volunteers who are politically engaged and interested in women’s/feminist issues and social justice. We are seeking at least 2 participants under the age of 30 and at least 2 participants between the ages of 35 and 50. The test will take no longer than 1 hour, and will be conducted remotely; you’ll need access to a phone and to a computer with Internet access. We will schedule a time that is convenient for you, but the tests must be conducted during business hours between September 4 – 7.

You will receive $25 for your participation. If you or someone you know interested in participating, email Elizabeth@cdginteractive.org or call 202-872-9500 for more details. 

CDG Interactive is looking for some new talent – specifically a User Interface Developer. Know someone or want to apply? Send your resume and links to jobs@cdginteractive.com.

User Interface Developer

CDG Interactive is looking for a User Interface Developer to join our technical team. We’re looking for someone with a demonstrated understanding of how quality software and services are designed and constructed. We want you to think as much as you code.

What You'll Do:

• Implement user interfaces for websites and applications using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and related client-side technologies.
• Work closely with the design and development teams to deliver an excellent user experience for all of our work.
• BS or MS in Computer Science or similar discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and W3C DOM.
• Ability to cleanly implement a UI across different browsers (IE8, Mozilla/Firefox, Safari).
• Experience in UI development of content-based applications such as blogs, photo albums, email, content management systems, etc.
• Experience implementing standards-based web application user interfaces.
• Demonstrated understanding of how implementation choices impact user experience in terms of browser compatibility, accessibility and performance.
• Strong work ethic.

What You Need:

• BS or MS in Computer Science or similar discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise in HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and W3C DOM.
• Ability to cleanly implement a UI across different browsers (IE8, Mozilla/Firefox, Safari).
• Experience in UI development of content-based applications such as blogs, photo albums, email, content management systems, etc.
• Experience implementing standards-based web application user interfaces.
• Demonstrated understanding of how implementation choices impact user experience in terms of browser compatibility, accessibility and performance.
• Strong work ethic.

What Will Set You Apart:

Here's what will make you stand out and get you the job: 

• Experience integrating rich web interfaces with server-side code.
• Technologies: jQuery mobile; XML and Web Services; Internationalization.
• Ability to learn. Candidate must show they can adapt to the rapidly changing technology landscape.
• Demonstrated willingness and ability to work and lead in a fast-moving dynamic team-oriented environment.

About CDG:

CDG is recognized as an industry leader in the creation, implementation, and marketing of interactive environments that enable our clients to grow their business. Our innovation efforts are focused on achieving our clients' goals through user-centered design. In all aspects of its work, CDG seeks to help our clients deliver high value to end-users.

Working at CDG, you’ll find we’re serious about what we do, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Perks and benefits include: generous vacation leave, health insurance (with flexible spending account), Metro-accessible office, casual dress code, free soda and snacks, and the best-looking co-workers in the DC-Metro area. Interested? Send your resume and links to jobs@cdginteractive.com.

Today marks the launch of VisionAware.org, a website designed by CDG Interactive for the American Foundation for the Blind and Reader's Digest Partners for Sight. VisionAware.org is devoted to providing much-needed resources, support, and information to adults adjusting to vision loss, as well as their families, caregivers, healthcare providers, and social service professionals.

To ensure that VisionAware.org would have the broadest appeal to the widest audience, CDG worked with AFB and Partners for Sight to develop a fully accessible and intuitive environment for all users. Because VisionAware.org is a member of AFB’s extensive family of sites, we leveraged many of the design elements used on our recent redesign of AFB.org. The consistency in design and navigation layout promotes a continuity of brand and user experience.

Given the extraordinary amount of valuable content on the site, CDG also guided AFB and Partners for Sight through a comprehensive content strategy and IA process, including several rounds of user testing. Our goal was to ensure that the site’s overall structure not only provided ease of navigation, but provided a curated experience to users who had little-to-no experience with the subject of vision loss. The new VisionAware.org includes extensive cross-links, highlighted content, sidebars and other methods to help users discover additional helpful resources.

CDG is proud to continue to develop sites that are highly effective for all users, and prove that accessible design is not only attainable, but desirable.

Need an accessible digital solution? Contact CDG.

We’ve all seen it happen. You create a fantastic video for a marketing campaign and hope it goes viral. You set up an online donation page on your non-profit’s website and hope visitors will give money. You write a fascinating, helpful blog post and hope readers will comment on it, or share to their social networks.

But the video isn’t shared. The donations don’t come in. The blog post goes un-commented.

Why?

(We’ll assume that visitor traffic isn’t the problem; that’s a whole different solution!)

To understand what is happening (or not, as the case may be), you need to understand how your viewers and visitors and readers think.

Here are 3 things you need to understand about how people think if you want them to take action.

Continue reading "Persuasion Starts with Psychology: 3 Techniques to Convince People to Take Action" »

Being based in Washington, DC, we at CDG are literally surrounded by world-class muesums. (In fact, if we hurled a rock off of our balcony, we could probably hit the Phillips Collection—not that we would want to, of course.) Plus, we count the wonderful Muscarelle Museum in Williamsburg as a client. We’ve begun to think more and more about the online presence that museums provide to their audience, from online collections to logistical help to mobile apps. This post explores the realities and possibilities of the digital museum experience in the first entry of a new blog series.

So, there is this big idea brewing among the minds and talents who curate and run museums across the country. It’s about re-conceptualizing the function or role of museum websites in order to enhance the user’s online experience.

Up to now, the typical museum website has basically been used as a virtual replacement for the brick and mortar building it represents (as well as a logistical guide for potential visitors). That approach made sense back when museums were first venturing online.

But we are living in a culture where Internet and mobile technologies are evolving rapidly (read: daily!) and people’s expectations of an “online experience” are different than they were five years ago—or even two years ago.

Museums should start thinking about ways to re-position their websites to serve new functions in order to meet the demands of a mobile-savvy and social media-captivated audience. After all, visiting a museum website is not like physically being at the museum. Why should it try to be?

We wanted to start thinking about how museums can start to create a new type of user experience. And we came up with three guiding words: enable, enlighten, and engage.

• Enable: For every person that can visit a museum, there are literally millions more who can access it through technology, mobile or otherwise. Rather than merely replicate their collections online—although that’s a good start—museums could view their websites as a way to experience their collections and content in new and expansive ways. Using social media, museums can also proactively enable their audience members to not only experience content, but to share it with others. By allowing the visitor to comment, tag, or pin information, the museum will reach a much wider (social) network.
• Enlighten: Museums, and the people who curate them, are regarded as experts in their fields.  But the majority of visitors (online and offline) to museums are not experts—most are unfamiliar with the academic language of art, history, science, etc. Most museums have educational programs or components, so why not extend that online? There’s no reason that museum websites can’t interactively educate users directly on their sites. By exploring innovations in online education, museums could attract a younger, more diverse audience that could eventually translate into more actual visits to the physical museum.
• Engage: Museums have one incredible asset when it comes to the digital space--content. They should take advantage of the possibilities inherent in digital technology and innovate on the ways users experience content. Videos, podcasts, streaming collections and apps are only a few of the tools that museums could use to create a truly unique online experience for users.

These are initial thoughts about expanding the online museum experience.

[Edit 9.20.12]: The next post in this series reviews the interactive Smithsonian exhibit "The Art of Video Games" and how it leverages viewer participation through social media and other channels. In a future post we'll also take a field trip to the Phillips Collection to give their mobile app a try, and see how it adds to the museum experience.

In the meantime, if your museum is looking for a digital solution, contact CDG.

Yesterday the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) launched the new afb.org, designed and developed by CDG Interactive.  This redesign of AFB’s flagship website marks the organization’s latest collaboration with CDG; over the past seven years, we’ve provided multiple interactive solutions for AFB’s wide and diverse audience.

In redesigning its site, AFB wanted to capitalize on technology and mark-up advancements that allowed for greater aesthetic and functional flexibility—while still maintaining a 100% accessible site. In addition, AFB needed an information architecture strong enough to support its immense and growing amount of online resources and information. It was a challenge that CDG approached with enthusiasm.

“Working with AFB gives us the opportunity to really explore what’s possible in a fully accessible environment,” said Matthew Snyder, CDG’s creative director, “We’ve always embraced the idea that accessibility can—and should—coexist with a highly compelling online experience.”

Collaborating closely with AFB’s team, CDG streamlined afb.org’s IA and provided a comprehensive search optimization strategy for the new site. We then created a design that supported AFB’s image as a dynamic and vibrant organization. Both the IA and the design were subjected to several rounds of user testing, in order to validate assumptions and refine the final result. CDG then coded the site’s HTML templates and handed off the markup to AFB’s developers for implementation into the AFB content management system.

The newly launched website provides an online presence that reinforces AFB’s position as the nation’s premiere organization for people with vision loss. We’re proud to continue to support AFB and its mission.

If you want to make your online environments more accessible and more effective, contact CDG.

Yesterday AARP launched the Health Law Guide, an interactive tool designed and developed by CDG in partnership with Avalere Health LLC. The Guide helps users understand how they will personally be impacted by the new health care law, the Affordable Care Act—both now and in the future.

To use the tool, users answer several questions about their personal situation (age, income, health insurance status, etc.). Based on the data, the survey provides the user with a personal report that he or she can view online, download, and print. The results page also includes a timeline that gives an overview of how your coverage will change year by year as the law is implemented.

Avalere Health, which prepared all of the content and source data for the Guide, chose CDG to design and develop the interactive tool. The result of the collaboration is a hugely useful tool for people who are wondering how exactly the new health care law will affect them personally.

“The real challenge to this project was giving people an easy way to consume and understand a great deal of complex information,” says Matthew Snyder, CDG’s creative director. “We developed a very straightforward and intuitive user interface with a welcoming look-and-feel to ensure that people would feel confident and comfortable using the tool and understanding their personal reports.”

We are pleased to help Avalere and the AARP answer the needs of millions of individuals who are seeking understand the personal impact of the ACA.

Need an interactive solution for your audience? Contact CDG.