It has been over a year now since I started out redefining web business as I see it. The result was core, my web venture in usability and experience design. According to Peter Morville, author of Ambient Findability, you won’t find too many people calling themselves “experience designers”, due to the fact only very few people on this planet combine skills of all fields involved. But it is exactly part of what core is about: an understanding of design that goes beyond the visible.
Growing from the core
Personally, I feel this is where I belong. Core has been difficult to start with, and it continues being difficult to run it as a business every day. The market I am working in is in flux, it is changing in pace with the Internet, and almost everything I do in this field needs a lot of extra work. The market for specialist companies like core is almost inexistent in Europe, let alone Switzerland, which always lags a little with every type of social development. It’s not technology that keeps things slow, it is the mindset of company heads.
I think there is only one way to be successful with this all. As experts, we need to educate this market and make it want what we have to offer, and that is through demonstrated excellence, through showing what we mean by doing it.
In many ways, I made this website behave and function like any ideal case I propose. I believe this is the way all websites should work; something I wholeheartedly recommend to any company in any business. Core is in the process of becoming a true conversation website.
What is a conversation website?
- It tastes fresh, just like fresh orange juice, which makes it interesting and a reviving experience
- It is a treasure chest, something I like to spend time with, because every time I come back I will find new stuff
- It is a playground, a place to be at, where I can connect and interact with others alike, through comments and trackback links
Before we had blogs with commenting, forums and bulletin boards seemed to be the ‘next big thing’ on the Web. They are not gone yet, but it has always been a geek thing. Commenting on articles makes people actually speak up and concur or disagree, they share their passions with you, and they can be inspiring, showing you different ideas or places around the subject of your post. Commenting is the currency that makes blogs more than what they are; it’s what makes them conversations.
Even more important and often under estimated are trackback links. I believe it was Technorati who introduced this idea to the Web community, back in a time when blogging was strictly geek territory. Six Apart defined the term “trackback”, when it made it a consistent part of its blog application, Movable Type.
Participation patterns
9rules published an interesting article about consistency in posting. I would say this sums it up neatly what I call a fresh website.
Participation starts when you make things interesting enough for people to say something about it. If your post is noteworthy, an addition to what is currently discussed on the Web, your readers will mention it to their collegues and friends. It is important to understand the principle behind this all:
- Comments don’t work one way. They are about interaction, about discussions.
- Comments don’t start or end online. The Web and your blog becomes interesting if it has relevance in real life.
Funny enough in this context, Larry Roth just sent me a note mentioning “Google-juice” When I am talking about a website like fresh orange juice, this is a perfect example. Coincidence? Not at all. A couple of days ago Larry had mentioned my article about tagging on his own blog. I found out about this through Technorati and wrote a comment on his article. A couple of days later he sent me an email and left a comment on my article as well. We had never met or heard from each other before this happened. It’s a real life example of finding similar topics of interest and starting real conversations about them. Both of us carried this conversation beyond the net, when we told coworkers and friends about this topic. The topic has relevance in our mindset of interests and it is important for our both jobs.
Brand experience today
A new way of understanding branding is emerging from this all. Brands are more and more about participation. It’s not like advertising, or traditional brand experience, which works one direction only. People only want to become part of something if they really share a passion or at least some level of common interest in what you are. And this doesn’t always restrict itself to what you have to offer, your “real deal”. It’s also about the meta question “am I like you, do I want to be identified with your personality, your ideology?”
What interests me and inspires me most with the Internet is not technology changing. It is beyond of what makes things change. It is about the change itself. I believe the Internet and the way we use it now is a lot more like humans are. It reflects our social behavior, but it frees us from location and physical restrictions. It is all about communication, which will be the topic of one of my next articles.