Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, April 6, 2009:
First 2 Words: A Signal for the Scanning Eye

Summary:
Testing how well people understand a link's first 11 characters shows whether sites write for users, who typically scan rather than read lists of items.

Our newest usability study — in preparation for the new Writing for the Web 2 course — tests how well users understand the first 11 characters of a website's links and headlines. For example, we'd represent this article by the "First 2 Wor" string. (Note how the guideline to show numbers as numerals lets me squeeze more meaning into this tiny stump of text.)

Why test text that's so severely truncated? Because online reading is often dominated by the F-pattern. That is, people read the first few listed items somewhat thoroughly — thus the cross-bars of the "F" — but read less and less as they continue down the list, eventually passing their eyes down the text's left side in a fairly straight line. At this point, users see only the very beginning of the items in a list.

On Web and intranet pages, lists occur in many places, including:

* Search engine results pages (SERP)
* Lists of current or archived articles, headlines, press releases, and other news items
* Product listings on category pages
* Table of contents (ToC) listings
* Question lists that serve as ToCs at the top of FAQ (frequently asked questions) pages
* Bulleted or numbered lists, checklists, task steps on a help page or job aid, etc.

Users typically see about 2 words for most list items; they'll see a little more if the lead words are short, and only the first word if they're long. Of course, people don't see exactly 11 characters every time, but we picked this number to ensure uniformity across the sites we tested.

The full text of these short items is microcontent, so this study targeted nano-content. Similar principles apply to both links and headings, but we tested a set of links — again for uniformity.

User Research
Our study included 80 people broadly distributed across age groups, gender, and education.

Younger (<30 years) and college-educated users were over-represented among the test participants. However, because these groups can be expected to have above-average reading skills — and, in the latter case, spend more money online than less educated users — that small skewing shouldn't invalidate the findings. Indeed, whatever difficulties such test users encountered would be even more severe for a broader audience.

We tested 20 different links, one from each of the following 20 sites: Accenture, Amazon.com, Ann Taylor, AT&T, Barclays Bank (UK), Bell Canada, Chase Bank, Dell, Direct.gov.uk, Fidelity Investments, Free Application for Federal Student Aid (USA), Freestyle Media (Australia), Fujitsu, Intel, Norwich Union (UK), Northwestern Memorial Hospital, RMC Labs (Australia), Streamline Solutions (Australia), Topshop (UK), and Xerox.

As the list shows, we tested sites from 3 continents representing a wide range of sectors, including B2B, e-commerce, financial institutions, government, health care, and technology.

We tested two tasks:

* Users were shown truncated links, one at a time, and were asked to predict what they'd find if they clicked on the link. In addition to the 11 characters, we showed users the site's name and a brief site description for additional context.
* Users were shown a list of 10 truncated links, 9 of which were distracters chosen from 60 other sites that weren't otherwise part of our study. We gave users a scenario, asking them to choose the link that would lead to the requested information. For example: "Find information about how to listen to your voicemail messages on your iPhone."

Best Links
Ann Taylor's e-commerce site won this study with the best 11-characters lead. The full link text read "Gift Cards & E-Gift Certificates" and the first 11 characters were "Gift Cards " (including the space after the second word).

85% of users were able to predict where this link led after seeing only the first 11 characters, and 100% of users successfully picked this link (despite the 9 distracters) when asked to "purchase an Ann Taylor gift certificate for a friend."

Barclays Bank scored well for "New custome" (full link: "New customers apply online now"), at least for the task of picking the right link from among the 10, which 95% of users did. And 75% of users had a fairly good idea of where the link would lead when they saw the first 11 characters in isolation.

What characterizes both of these winning links? There's money at stake, so designers are under a mandate to keep it plain and simple, so that the site can make money. Gift certificates are a big revenue source for e-commerce sites, and new accounts are a lifeline for online banking. When users identify and click the right link, both companies can score a win.

The two winning links also showcase principles for effective Web content. Both links

* Use plain language
* Use specific terminology
* Follow conventions for naming common features
* Front-load user- and action-oriented terms

Worst Links
There were a lot of bad links. In fact, for 35% of the links, users who saw only the first 11 characters hadn't the faintest idea of where the links would lead.

The very worst link was from Chase Bank: on its tested link, the initial 11 characters, "Introducing," had no meaning. The full link, "Introducing Chase Exclusives Special Benefits for Checking Customers," is not much better; we're still clueless as to what those "exclusive" and "special" benefits might be.

Not surprisingly, none of the users had a reasonable prediction — or even an inkling — about where "Introducing" might lead. And, when we asked users to pick a link for "Locate any additional benefits you may be eligible for as an existing Chase checking customer," only 15% picked "Introducing" from a list of 10 links.

Links at Directgov ("Working while you study: paying tax") and Xerox ("Profit Accelerator Overview") tied for the second worst. One user actually had a reasonable prediction of where "Profit Acce" would lead, so Xerox didn't lay an egg in the first part of the study the way Directgov did. On the other hand, 25% of users correctly picked the Directgov link from the 9 distracters in the second part of the study, whereas only 5% of users did so for Xerox.

These links are infected by 3 nasties that cause bad content usability:

* Bland, generic words
* Made-up words or terms
* Starting with blah-blah and deferring the information-carrying text to the end

Guiding Users to the Correct Links
It's admittedly harsh to judge a website's design on only the first 11 characters of its links. So, if you replicate this research with your own links, don't cry if you score below Ann Taylor.

Users don't need to predict a link's destination with 100% accuracy based solely on its 11 leading characters. In real life, links aren't truncated on the page. Even if users see only the first 2 words or so during their initial scan, they can immediately read more if their eyes stop on the link.

Thus, only the full link text needs to provide the full information scent:

* Allow users to confidently predict what they'll get if they click.
* Be clearly differentiated from the other links.
* Not be misleading or promise too much.

Nanocontent (first bit of a link) just needs to be good enough that users will sniff the most promising links in full.

Still, low scores in this type of study indicate that you haven't written your site's content for the way users read online, as proven by eyetracking research and many other usability studies. If you score really low, you need an urgent rewrite.

This interesting featrure was written by Dr. Jakob Nielsen. I thought it was interesting to read about.

Internet Surfing Makes Productive Employees
As Posted on RedOrbit.com: Friday, 3 April 2009, 06:25 CDT


Employees who spend time surfing the Web aren’t necessarily costing the company money. In fact, a new Australian study finds surfing the Internet for fun at the office increases productivity.

The University of Melbourne study found people who use the Internet for personal reasons at work are typically 9 percent more productive than those who refrain from spending time on the Internet.

Study author Brent Coker, from the department of management and marketing, said "workplace Internet leisure browsing," or WILB, helped to sharpened workers' concentration.

"People need to zone out for a bit to get back their concentration," Coker said on the university's website.

"Short and unobtrusive breaks, such as a quick surf of the Internet, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration for a days' work, and as a result, increased productivity," he said.

The study examined 300 workers and found that 70 percent of people who use the Internet at work engage in WILB
. The most popular activities included searching for information about products, reading online news sites, playing online games and watching videos on YouTube.

"Firms spend millions on software to block their employees from watching videos, using social networking sites or shopping online under the pretence that it costs millions in lost productivity," said Coker. "That's not always the case."

However, the findings only apply to people who moderately spend time on the Web, perhaps less than 20 percent of their total time in the office.

"Those who behave with Internet addiction tendencies will have a lower productivity than those without," he said.

The New Long Island State Veterans Home Brochure Was Delivered Today!

We had the privilege of working with our friends at D.James Marketing on the capabilities brochure for their client The Long Island State Veterans Home at Stony Brook University. We were charged with spearheading the concept, design, and art as well as the conception, art direction and production of the photography. The director of Marketing for LISVH is a wonderful person named Jonathan Spier who has such a strong grasp on the importance of branding that it made our job easy. He could visualize and understand or reasoning for our suggestions and concepts thus making the process a truly collaborative and positive effort.

Jonathan is a natural graphics person with a unique creative eye. In fact some of the photos in the brochure were shot by Jonathan! For the major photographic work, we had the chance to work with the great photographer James Cingone, who has been responsible from some of the most memorable photographic work in the eyewear industry. With his skill behind the camera, he was able to bring our vision to life.

D. james is a thoughtful and imaginative company that specializes in the healthcare field. The copy that Doreen Guma of D. James wrote was the fuel that inspired this beautiful piece.

I was thrilled that my 3 year old daughter, Anastasia was chosen for the cover. It was actually a funny story. The director of marketing for the LISVH, Jonathan Spier had asked that I bring my daughter to the shoot as the residents love children: translating into joyous expresions on all of the subjects faces. While we were shooting one of the shots, my daughter had sat in the lap and was having a wonderful conversation with one of the residents. James, Jonathan and I all looked at each other and at once said "That would be a great shot! So James repositioned the lights around them and we clicked off some images as a test. The concept was a big hit with all and we reworked the cover for this approach. On one of our other days of photography (we were there for four days shooting), we re-shot the picture with my daughter and the resident.
There were so many great photo ops at the home and we were able to tell the story of this wonderful, caring facility through Doreen's mesage of hope and these great visuals.

To give the 16-Page self cover brochure the right look and feel and to support the graphics, we chose to print on the uncoated stock Lynx Opaque, We printed in 4-color process and yes, we used an aqueous coating to seal the paper and punch up the images. we printed 200 line screen to ensure crisp images that would translate on this unusual medium while keeping the detail.

This brochure shows what can be done when you have a client with vision such as Jonathan who will trust in our abilities and work as a team to produce something remarkable.

Here is a special Urbach Mid-Month Newsletter.

I wanted to let you know about some great New York metro area events coming up over the next several weeks. There's something for (almost) everyone... whether you're a music lover, fitness enthusiast, or business maven, attending one of these events will be highly enjoyable and time well spent.
Concert for a Cure at Lincoln Center: Friday, March 27, 7:30 PMAs with chocolate and peanut butter, sometimes two things go better together. In my book, that goes for classical music and rock. Each alone is great, but a mix can taste even better. That's what you'll have in store for you the evening of March 27th, when Classical Meets Electric and world-class musicians take the stage at the brand-new Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Just reopened after a multi-year complete rebuilding, this spectacular hall is visually stunning and has incredible acoustics; you'll hear the proverbial pin drop on stage. Performers include wunderkind son Jourdan (2009 Artist Ascending) on both classical and electric violin, and Mark Wood, Emmy-Award winning lead electric violinist and original member of the multi-platinum-selling symphonic rock group Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Jourdan and Mark will be joined by vocalist Laura Kaye, guitarist Jon Bivona, bassist Paul Ranieri, drummers Jeff Plate and Elijah Wood, and keyboardist Sean Meagher.

This is a perfect concert for the entire family: just the right mix to keep everybody happy. Best of all, due to a generous underwriting grant from the Frank & Helen Herman Foundation, every dollar raised from ticket sales will go directly to Hope & Heroes Children's Cancer Fund. Call Center Charge at 212-721-6500 or order online.

Ticket prices range from $45 to $100, but here's a great tip: you can get the best seats in the house for only $25 each (if you act this week). A new block of prime seats has just been released. The first 200 will be sold at $25. After that first group is gone, they'll jump back up to $100. That's a hot deal and I don't think it'll last past the weekend. Better order 'em now!

Train Smarter Workshops: Thursday Nights 7:00 PM - 9:00 PMFor folks who are into cycling, running, and physical fitness, I'm sponsoring a 4-session series of evening workshops in Jericho, NY. There's no charge to attend. Each session is independent from the others; you can choose to attend any that are of interest. The first (introductory) session was held last Thursday evening at Vert Fitness and it was a terrific success. Over 50 people joined us for a fast-moving 2-hour educational workshop covering equipment, training techniques, and mental preparation. The next session is this Thursday, March 19th and will feature a "deep dive" into equipment selection and use, as well as a special presentation by Kerry Simmons of First Wave Tri on triathlon training and racing. More information and a registration link is here. I hope you can join us for one (or all) of the remaining 3 sessions.

Bright Ideas for Business – Seminar Series: Thursday, April 2, 7:30 AM - 9:30 AMChanging gears entirely, the next event is for a limited business audience. It is an executive seminar hosted by the Challenger Business Advisory Group. Part of our continuing "Bright Ideas for Business" seminar series, this session's topic is: Aggressive Cost Reduction Strategies in Challenging Times. It'll be held on Thursday, April 2nd from 7:30 AM to 9:30 AM in Garden City, NY. Complete information is here (or call 516-247-3357). There is no charge to attend, however, please be aware that this is not a "networking event." Admittance is restricted to executives with management responsibilities in finance and/or human resources. If you don't hold an organizational finance or HR position, this event is NOT for you! (Please note: if you are an HR professional you will receive 1.5 SHRM credits. Also, if you're a CFO/accountant, you can receive CPE credits as well.)

Professional Roundtable and Metro Roundtable
Another restricted invitation (sorry). The Professional Roundtable on Long Island and the Metro Roundtable in NYC feature monthly breakfast events specifically for practicing attorneys and accountants who wish to gain business skills related to their professions and to socialize with collaboration and referral partners. If you're not already participating, and would like to be added to my invitation list, please email me with a request. Again, this is for attorneys and accountants in active practice and related professionals only. The next Professional Roundtable breakfast is on Friday, April 24th in Jericho, NY and the next Metro Roundtable breakfast is on Tuesday, April 28th at the Friars Club in NYC.

Victor Urbach is from The Optran Group & Altegent LLC · Omni Building, 7th Floor · 333 Earle Ovington Blvd · Mitchel Field, New York 11553-3689

www.optran.com

Concert For A Cure at Lincoln Center: March 27th

The perfect concert for your entire family: Come hear violin virtuoso Jourdan Urbach (2009 Artist Ascending winner) and Emmy Award winning electric violinist Mark Wood in their only blow-out performance together in New York for 2009 -- an extraordinary concert where classical meets electric on one stage at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

The performance takes place on Friday night, March 27th at 7:30pm. Joining Urbach and Wood will be members of the band, The Mark Wood Experience, and host: WCBS-TV's Emmy Award Winning Medical Journalist, Dr. Max Gomez -- for a Night of Music that will ROCK THE HOUSE -- all to benefit Hope & Heroes: the Children's Cancer Fund of Columbia University Medical Center.

Tickets for the event are reasonably priced at: $100 (patron), $65, $45, & $25 for students. To order, buy tickets online or call Center Charge at: 212-721-6500 or Hope & Heroes at 212-305-1420.