Warm sunny days are often in short supply up North, so we’re welcoming the heat of summer with open arms here at What’s Next. In between ‘proper work’ projects, I’ve dedicated some admin time to registering my surf club as a Community Interest Company, or C.I.C. for short. I’m mentioning it here because using the government website was such a painful process. Two rounds of personal details, signed document uploads, additional digital signatures, and multiple confirmations for every address entered had me questioning how important this really was to the club. I’d previously held the government website in such high esteem, a beacon of usability and clarity, but it turns out there are still some dark corners in need of attention, and C.I.C. registration is clearly one.
My big UX takeaway is to tell your users what to expect from a process and be very clear about you need from them. If you don’t, you end up with a bigger and more frustrating version of telling your users that the password they created is invalid even though you hid the criteria from them.
If you want to test your patience with a taste of this try The Password Game.
SEO secrets
While the SEO universe picks over the Google data leak, there is still plenty of insight to be gained via the good old test-and-learn approach. One such example comes via Darren Shaw who reports on testing embedding video in pages via YouTube versus other platforms such as Vimeo. The results showed clear evidence of Google prioritising pages embedding its own player, one to consider when choosing which platform you use on site.
Another study worth reviewing is Brian Wood’s test of co-branded search terms (that’s a brand name plus another word, such as ‘Adidas trainers’) and how you can influence them.
Sticking to the strategy
A timely reminder that strategy is as much about what you don’t do, as what you do, and if your team isn’t following it it’s likely because they don’t know what it is, how to implement it or why they’re doing it.
Run, don’t walk
The window is open for businesses in the North of Tyne area to apply for grant funding which can pay up to 50% of external support costs. Check if you qualify here.
Pick of the week
A shout out to the Formats Unpacked newsletter from the team at Storythings, reviewing content formats from A Place in the Sun to this week’s Hell in a Cell (I just learned that’s a wrestling thing, every day is a school day).
And finally…
Don’t underestimate the wider impact of sports participation, the data from Women In Sport suggests it can accelerate your career and impart leadership skills.
