So here’s the story of what we did and how it worked and hopefully if your site has been affected by Panda you can use this as a template to bring it back up. Even if Panda did not have significant impact on your site, using these lessons will take your site to the next level.

The most significant lesson from the Panda – Is your site of use to the visitor?

It’s a simple but profound question. We usually get so caught up in our own development ideas, design tweaks and all the bells & whistles that we lose sight of the very reason we have created this site – to be of use to the visitor so that he/she can give us business. All our study on the Panda update brought us over and over to the same conclusion – make the site more useful.

Tackling Content Discovery – In how many ways does a visitor find information on your site?

We started with modeling the content discovery system of the website i.e. in how many ways can a visitor find the information he/she is looking for? We shortlisted and fixed on 3 methods of content discovery:

1. Site Search on top
2. Categorized Content in a left menu
3. ‘Also read’ articles and recommended search ‘tags’ along with each article. 

 We worked hard to make sure all three avenues were uptodate and easy to use.  This took a lot of effort as we had to break 8 categories into 26 as well as use a logical script to provide intelligent ‘Also read’ options to the visitors.

Revising Content – Beefing up existing content, removing duplicates, filling in the gaps.

After content discovery we tackled the actual content itself. The first major job was a cleanup operation – removing duplicates, redundant information and of course broken links. In terms of size the site is moderate i.e. about 600 pages. But due to the technical nature of the information it took quite a bit of doing.

So we got our content writer to review each page with the following mandate

• Write a fresh intro for each page of the site
• Write intelligent tags for each page of the site (not the normal SEO kind of tags but more indepth.)
• Check and remove duplicate and redundant content.

It was a slow and cumbersome task for the copywriter but the end result was a great set of meta-data for each page of the site. More importantly this was of a higher quality than that of normal SEO use.

I want to strongly point out here that this was not undertaken as a normal SEO rewriting exercise which many times barely scrapes the surface of the content. This was in-depth research and writing.

A new paint job with some web 2.0 finished the job in style.

Along with the above content work we redesigned the site to web 2.0 specifications. This helped by making the site faster to load, accessible on mobile devices and also gave a fresh breath of air in terms of colours and fonts. In the new design we went for simplicity over jazz. Although it was counter intuitive we played down the design aspect and played up the content discovery of the site.

 The results speak for themselves – a jump to and above pre-panda levels.

Not only did we reach the pre-panda levels but we also exceeded them by a good 30-40%. The rise was so astonishing that our client could hardly believe it himself (although he was quite happy!). Thanks to his support and patience we managed to pull of a really meaningful change to the site. We gratefully acknowledge and appreciate Dr.Malpani for this.

 In conclusion I would like to say that in order to beat the Panda you have to get to basics, forget the tech, forget the design, just focus on one thing only – make it a fruitful experience for the visitor.

Cheers,
Ron

Challenges faced by our team and complexities of the project

• The United Way Mumbai website caters to 4 major constituencies for the Mumbai Marathon – NGOs, Corporates, Dream Team and Donors. Each of these constituents had to have their systems setup in a particular way and had to interact with each other in preset formats. E.g. Corporates, Dream Team & Donors supported the NGOs but the NGOs have thier own supporters as well. Seperate donation tracks need to be kept for each constituent.
• The size of the database and the amount of data that needed to be collated was enormous. Each of the above constituent has his own donation page and payment flow. We have 219 NGOs, 152 Corporate Teams, 134 Dream Team members and 550 individual donors through whose pages thousands of donations are being made.
• The value of donations is also enormous and needless to say not a penny should go here or there.  Each and every donation needs to be processed, accounted for and tax exemption slips generated. Crores of rupees of donations have been passed through this site so far. Each day brings more donations and the system must work flawlessly.
• A high traffic site such as this needs to be optimized properly. As the marathon approaches the daily traffic to the site is increasing steadily and so is the pressure on the website resources. The site has performed flawlessly thanks to the efforts of our team.

 A great job by a great team and a happy client.

For us client satisfaction is everything and we really felt great when we received this testimonial:

“Choosing Miracleworx to redesign our website has been a brilliant choice for United Way of Mumbai. Miracleworx transformed our online presence and enabled the intensive functionalities required that go beyond our organization and extend to over 200 charities, 152 corporate houses and hundreds of individuals. The Miracleworx team delivered beyond their brief and more importantly continues to extend every help, support and assistance daily and proactively.

Ron was instrumental in providing us the calm assurance that we were in capable hands, Sonali with her wonderful aesthetic sense was brilliant in the design of the website and Leena and her team has been exceptional in anticipating and accommodating our every requirement cheerfully and efficiently. I have no hesitation in recommending Miracleworx for any online project and our website which notched 1.6 million hits in 5 months stands testimony to the caliber of this great talented team.”

- George J Aikara
Assistant Executive Director
United Way of Mumbai

I would like to acknowledge, as George has above, all the members of the team for their excellent efforts – Sonali, Leena, Nirmala & Sayali. Good job guys.

They have once gain proven, no matter the complexity, no matter the effort – MiracleworX delivers.

Cheers,
Ron

I am simply blown away by the professionalism of the popular food show Masterchef Australia

I am not particularly a foody but presentation and setup of the show really caught my attention and kept it there for an entire season. It speaks volumes about the show that a non-cooking IT techie like me was engrossed in it.

Thinking about it I began to question what makes the show so cool? The answer, in a word, Professionalism.

 Naturally I wanted to draw parallels to my own industry and the learnings we can get from the show. It can apply to any industry but I am more web design specific.

 Appearance matters, impeccably dressed, clean kitchens, color coded uniforms – professional attire

This is one area I personally struggle with and my wife tears her hair out on. But watching the show, one of the things that struck me was the grooming and dressing of both the judges and the contestants. A lot of trouble was probably taken to ensure both looked their best. The overall kitchen premises were spotless and surroundings well maintained.  The Japanese associate cleanliness and orderliness with efficiency and performance and this show epitomizes it.

Learning for web designers - Show up for client meetings well groomed, keep office premises impeccable and try and cultivate the same in your work as well i.e. clean clutter free designs, neat and presentable communications such as emails, bills, proposals etc.

 Direct communication, clear, honest and to the point – no room for misunderstandings or confusion

 A common complaint with most reality shows is that they are too full of bullshit. Sometimes everything other than the topic at hand is discussed. This is seen with the other Masterchef competitions across the globe. The judges in Masterchef Australia speak clearly, directly, with no room for misunderstanding. Instructions, guidance and even criticism is given with razor sharp focus and clarity.

Learning for web designers – Our industry is notorious for bullshit. Web designers, especially in India, tend to overpormise and under deliver. Most don’t inform clients clearly about problems and issues. Sometimes weeks go before clients hear from the designers. This has to change. At every stage, crisp & clear communication has to go to the clients. Problems should be discussed and transparency is paramount.

 Brutally honest and fair – a deal is a deal with no wiggle room.

 You have got love the Australian sense of fairplay and sporting spirit.  The entire competition was followed to the letter as per guidelines decided. No judge or competitor was given an exception. Both has to make some really tough choices and nobody let them off the hook. No wiggle room. As an example one of the competitors caught using a cellphone was immediately chucked out of the competition, no warnings or wrist slaps.

Learning for web designers – Honesty and integrity in all our dealings from pricing to delivery is the need of the day. During a project communication between team members, clients and others should be clear and direct. Agreements made at the start of the project should be honoured by both the designers and the clients, no exceptions.

 Professionals know their subject inside out and upside down.

 What made the show such a great success was the professionalism of the judges. There was no doubt that they are masters in their field and experience and knowledge shone through. Even the participants started to get more knowledgble as the show progressed. The challenges were created to showcase the different aspects of the subject i.e. the culinary art. For a non-cook it was facinating, I never imagined the depth present in the subject of cooking.

Learning for web designers - Be the master of your respective speciality. Know it inside out. The client should not only buy your services but your knowledge and experience as well. Keep on exploring, keep on learning. When you speak, it should be clear that you know the subject inside out and upside down.

 A sense of humour and good sporting spirit are invaluable.

Taken to its very core the show is quite brutal in terms of the challenges and the eliminations happening every week. But thanks to the judge’s and participant’s  sense of humour, good spirit and comraderie, what could have been a tedious exhausting process becomes fun and interesting. The rewards were interesting and worth fighting for. The judges commentary was interesting, fun, but also to the point. The entire show was conducted in an atmosphere of good grace and sporting spirit.

Learning for web designers - Projects need not be tedious. Interactions with client can be fun. If you make an effort to ensure a positive environment it will lift the work and people up as well. No matter the pressure or the situation, maintain a sense of humour. Do not work with people who insist on bringing you down or are overly critical. Good spirit counts.

Overall I would really like to compliment the creators of Masterchef Australia on an engrossing and entertaining show. We enjoyed watching it and learned a lot from it. Thank you guys.

Cheers,
Ron

I started off in my career as a visualiser. In our college (Sir. J. J. institute of Applied Art), we knew what a visualiser meant. A person who becomes aware (of things or events) through the senses is a visualiser. Once you know what to put on paper what you see/feel in your senses, you have mastered the art of expression through external tools.

And what makes one a good designer?

To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner, which has both appeal and function to ones eye and brain describes a perfect graphic designer. Now, this sentence here is very important, because this very sentence holds the key to understanding what’s expected of you when you apply for a post of a “Designer” in any stream.

I have always believed, artists cannot be created. They have that seventh sense that differentiates them from others. These artists breathe design every day. Their whole life revolves around seeing beautiful things. Good designers have an acute sense of colors, balance, shape, size and most important of all, medium. Designers see the world from a very different perspective. If you ever say, “that’s a bad design”, it just means elements in that particular canvas are just not in sync with each other.

What is expected of a “Web Designer”?

A Web designer is someone who designs Web pages. A Web designer is more focused on the look and feel of a website than how it works. This explains the visual part of the job description.

Web designers have the following skills:

• Design / Visualization
• Understanding of the medium (Web)
• Some HTML
• CSS
• Project management

Companies looking for Web designers are looking for people with a good aesthetic sense that can build and maintain websites that look good, which is a first point of impression for that particular brand online. Web designers won’t be asked to build Web programs or applications or maintain databases for data driven websites.

These days “Web Designer” is used as a Catchall. Some people use the term Web Designer to refer to anyone who does anything on a website. Most freelancers refer to themselves as Web designers. This fine line needs to be drawn to differentiate between regular layout makers and high-end professional designers. It is indeed a tough job these days when this particular line is blurry.

So be sure to read the job description carefully for any job you are applying for to make sure you meet the requirements, especially when it says “Web Designer”.

- Sonali Salvi

The crossover took place sometime in August where at one point all three browsers almost had equal share at 33%.

See chart below 

Are we seeing the imminent demise of IE and the Google domination?

Cheers,
Ron

We design for compatibility on all browsers. See our designs at http://www.miracleworx.com/portfolio.htm

That does not mean that we lose our creativity, just that it has to be channeled differently. What I mean by different is in ‘content discovery’ i.e. the way visitors browse your site and in ‘content clarity‘ i.e. original content cleary written.

Recently I came across this wonderfully obscure product description of a major tech company -

“It’s a unique way to build consensual (opt-in) mobile number property at every customer touch point and engage with relevant rich content to reduce sales cycle, optimize marketing spend, up-sell and cross-sell.”

Wow, what a mouthful, even if you can dissect the statement to find what they are actually selling (mobile number capturing system at the sales point) it will leave you dazed. Obviously written by a techie with no intervention from a copywriter.

 Years ago the main team components of a web design project were the project manager, designer/visualizer and a code/programmer and maybe if budget permitted a copywriter. Clients used to give content which we just slapped into the design and we are were done. No more. Content writers have become not only an essential ingredient of our team but also an indispensable one.

So take a real good look at your site. Is it a technology packed, jargon filled, state of the art bomb? Or is it a refined to the point, simple and clear user friendly sales engine. Your choice.

Cheers,
Ron

Most web redesign jobs can be a bit messy especially if the logistics are not handled well. Here are some ideas and thoughts to help make the transition smooth.

Backup, backup, backup…before touching the old site make sure your back it up.

Before your website designer touches the old site make sure you have a backup of the old site design. This includes:
a. HTML files
b. Image files
c. SWF files (if any)
d. Source files (Psds, Flas etc)
e. Database backup files (.sql or any type of dump files).

Once you have a copy safely in hand and are confident you can restore it if anything goes wrong then proceed.

Check the platform on which the new site is being built – is it the same as the old one or a new one.

Web designers generally prefer to work on either the LAMP (Linux, Apache, PHP, MySQL) platform or the Windows (IIS, Asp.net, SQL server) platform. If the the new site’s platform is different from the old one you might have to switch your hosting package. Make sure you work out these details with your web designer before starting.

Throw your hat over the wall. Commit completely to the new design. No waffling.

I have seen many times the website owner goes for a half-hearted redesign job and keeps sitting on the fence on many issues. The web designer has to hear stuff like ‘but in the old site we had…’ or ‘will it work like the old site?’. Leave your old site behind and commit whole-heartedly to the new site. Set a hard target to get the new site up and running and then go all out for it.

Make sure you get a CMS if you don’t have one already.

A CMS (Content Management System) allows for the site to be update online almost immediately without touching the source files. This allows for quick updates, more systematic filing of web pages and is easier to maintain. If you don’t have one in your old site then get one, even if you do, make sure its there in the new site.

Take the opportunity to revise and renew site content. Don’t recycle old content. That’s just lazy.

Many clients out of sheer laziness (or busyness) will just tell the web designer to ‘take content from the old site’. They are missing a great opportunity to relook at the information on the site and rejuvenate it. Smarten up the language, correct errors in hindsight and bring a new fresh feel to the words. Let the redesign start with a review of the sitemap and add/remove sections as per the business directions and opportunities.

Be mindful of SEO, some website addresses are well indexed in search engines, retain those as far as possible.

Normally a new site would look to change everything including the addresses of most pages. However some pages are well indexed in search engine and it makes sense to retain the old address (with new content though) just to ensure you do not loose the SEO mojo. If the site is poorly setup in terms of SEO then this would be a great opportunity to make it search engine friendly.

Create buzz with videos and social media content. Let your company’s personality shine through.

Youtube videos, social book marking icons, blog feeds (if you have a blog) are all new and can enhance your site content tremendously not to mention adding to your marketing mix. Create some multimedia content (and no boring chariman speeches please). Interview employees (the ones that like your company), create viral videos of fun stuff in the office. Let your company’s personality show through the site.

 Plan your transition carefully to reduce site downtime as much as possible.

Normally a certain amount of downtime is natural for any site transition but some clever planning can reduce it to the bare minimum. Usually a clever web designer can transition a site within just one or two hours. Too much down time will cost you not only in terms of immediate visitors but also in the search engines.

 Launch with a party. Celebrate your new site. Issue a digital PR release

Most website redesign launches go unnoticed even within the company. But this is a good time to celebrate this achievement and have some fun as well. Who does’nt like a party right? (except for maybe Bob in accounting). Make some noise by issuing a digital PR release. It probably won’t be as big as a Google +1 launch but it might get noticed by important people.

Having a new contemporary website can be very good for business and for company morale. So if your site is touching 4 or pushing past 5, its time for a redesign.

Cheers,
Ron

We do a lot of redesigns – check out our work at http://www.miracleworx.com/portfolio.htm

So here are a few quick tips to help thing along both for business owners and web designers alike.

Web Designers – Present a well thought out strategy and design note to the client with your designs

 A website design seen in a vacuum will be judged solely on its design elements which is definitely not how you want your design to be evaluated. A design strategy note before the design unveiling primes the client to view the design in the right context.
Some ideas on what to include in the design notes:

• Review the target audience for the website
• Outline the concept & thinking behind the design (hopefully there should be some)
• Explain exactly what behaviour you would like the visitor to do e.g. click on the ‘More Info’  button.

Priming the client will help you make a more effective case and defend the design better.

Business Owners – Limit the size of your team giving feedback to 2-3 persons max. Too many cooks spoil the broth.

Imagine presenting the design in front of 20 people (I have seen owners make their entire staff sit in on a site design presentation) with each contributing his/her two cents worth. A horrible mishmash of ideas and feedback with no background and relevance. In contrast a smaller more focused team involved right from the briefing stage looking at the designs from a mission oriented perspective makes more sense.

Corollary to this point – Do not leave the design approval work to low level staff.

Atleast have someone of VP level sitting on in the meeting. Senior staff bring experience and perspective to the table. Lower rung staff tend to get caught in the little things instead of viewing the big picture. Also you need people who can communicate effectively with the web team.

Web Designers – Be prepared to defend your design like a lawyer would. You are on trial and so is your design.

Yeah, I know, sounds a bit too confrontational? But many clients will eat you alive if you are not prepared to defend your designs. Of course this implies that you must believe in your design and feel that what you have come up with is relevant and defendable.  Don’t be confrontational, be diplomatic. Play up the strengths of the design, refer to the original briefs for backup. But this is not a battle to the death. Be prepared to give a little too.

Business Owners – You selected them, appointed them, paid them, so the least you can do is trust your web designers.

Not listening to the web designers feedback is like second guessing your own judgement. If you don’t trust the web designers work that means you made a wrong selection from the beginning. If you have hired experienced designers then trust their judgement, allow them some latitude and give their ideas a shot. You might be surprised at the results.

Web Designers – Listen, I mean really listen, to the clients feedback. Clients have something useful to say too.

Although I consider myself and my team as experienced web designers with hundreds of sites under our belt, I many times find clients pointing out things that should have been obvious or come up with really cool ideas. I have had the privilege of working with many very smart and saavy clients and they have taught me a lot too. They are after all business owners who have made it to this level.

Listening is a skill every web designer needs to learn. The type of listening I am talking about is a very advanced form of listening where you not only hear the words but also digest the meaning behind them with your full attention.

It takes two to tango – No web design project would be successful without both parties contributing equally.

It all comes down to respect. Respect between the client and the web designer can speed things along tremendously and that has to be cultivated from both sides. Like any relationship there has to be give and take. One side cannot dominate, bully, intimidate the other and expect good results.

So the next time you are sitting in a design approval meeting remember the Mad Angles ad. Keep it real.

Cheers,
Ron

People read by context not category. Create a context driven path rather than a category driven path for the visitor to follow.

This is sometimes counter intuitive to web designers who like to segregate everything into neat little categories.

In a nutshell people like to follow a trail of thoughts rather than a category. Phrase or even words in an article can get them thinking along a ‘thought tangent’ and they will follow that tangent in the next article they read. The smart webmaster provides visitors with a ready set of tangential links with which they explore instead of trying to freeze them into a preset category.

Lets take a normal scenario with say two categories.

Now the obvious path would be A -> B -> C -> D -> E

However visitors reading patterns are not that obvious. A more likely pattern would be A -> B ->H ->I ->E

Ideas for making your site navigation paths more intuitive & visitor friendly

• Identify ‘Thought Tangents’ and provide links: Any article will have tiny inflection points I like to call ‘thought tangents’. They could be triggered by a word, phrase or an entire para. What they do is make the visitor go looking for related information not directly connected with the current article/page and completely change the browsing direction. A good idea would be to identify these in your site and ideally provide fodder for these in effect guiding the path the visitor takes.
• Come at it from all angles: Visitors rarely visit your site with the same requirements. Each visitor looks at her/his need through from a different angle and its your job to address each one. Some might be looking for features while other are looking at pricing. You need to cater to a variety of ways to get your content across.
• Matrixing content is a good idea for complex products/services: Any service / product will mostly likely belong to different mutually exclusive sets of differentiators. Eg. A software can be cross matrixed by industries, functionality, enterprise levels, pricing and more. Ensure that you cater to all of these in your product filtering. Provide a industry wise listing as well as a function wise listing and if necessary provide a price scale listing too.
• Videos provide a more engaging experience than text only:With modern technology so easy to access and use, creating multimedia content should be a priority. A video streamed from Youtube has more staying power for a visitor then just a verbose article. At the least you can add some images or diagrams to make your point.
• Content discovery is important, make sure you have a fully functional site search – A good on site search function can help tremendously in content discovery and allow the visitor to jump to the most relevant content. So many times I go to sites (and have been guilty of doing also) where the site search does not work or is so pathetic that you rarely find the right item you are looking for.

Bring the business concept of ‘Easy to do business with’ to the website.

Ultimately the goal for any website is to make it ‘easy to do business with’. A visitor should be able to find what she / he is looking for, should find a intuitive reading path from page to page and should be mentally able to draw a picture of your products / services.

Cheers,
Ron

Imagine visiting a site and being greeted by a beautiful women talking about its products. I don’t know about others but it definitely gets my attention.

A growing trend of adding a ‘Virtual Sales Person’ or a ‘Virtual Spokes Person’ is catching on and we see them popping up in more and more sites.

Their creators claim they can dramatically improve sales. The argument goes that having a human being introduce the site gives it a more homely and less technical feel thus creating a desire in the visitor to interact more fully.

Does it work? Would it work? Maybe

I think it all depends on the message being mouthed by the virtual sales person. Sometime back a client drafted a very boring and simple message which I suggested we rewrite to give it more ‘ooomph’. No point spending so much for this and them giving a lame intro.

You can customize it exactly as you want it

Virtual sales person vendor VSP Worldwide  allows you to customize everything from selecting the models to their attire and mannerisms. You can tailor the spokesperson (rather you can choose) to fit your product category and industry. They have a whole bunch of models, both men and women, to choose from. Although I did have trouble choosing an Indian looking person. We ended up choosing a Latin lady who looked closest to an Indian.

How much does it cost?

VSP charges anything from INR 10,000 to INR 30,0000 per message which includes selection of model, filming and final edited version to put on the site. Others are also in a similar range. It might jack up your hosting bandwidth costs so that’s something you should check up on.

Do you have to change my site design for this? No, its layered on top of your existing site.

The great thing about this type of virtual agents is that you do not need to change your site design. The virtual salesperson appears in a layer on top of your page and disappears after the message leaving the visitor to browse as normal.

Some Vendors offering this service (caveat – subscribe at your own risk)

• VSP Worldwide
• Ispeakvideo
• MyVirtualspokesperson
• Websitetalkingheads

and many more.

So go ahead and give your site that extra oomph!!!

Cheers,
Ron