Scobleizer: James says PodTech site sucks: I agree
thatedeguy
· 3 years ago
So, let me see if I get this right...
Podtech has to earn links before you'll link to it. But, then once it's earned enough links, you'll stop linking to it because of the whole gesture bit you've been going on about? I don't understand the thinking here...
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
thatedeguy: obviously I haven't stopped linking. I was just having some fun exploring Steve Gillmor's ideas. In the end I don't agree with him about it. Although, the most astute people don't need links to find things. So, if you only care about people who REALLY want to find you then linking isn't as important.
ET
· 3 years ago
I totally agree! I was lost on that site. Couldn't tell the difference between ads and real content, or is it all real content? Wasn't sure where to start and where to end. I like the players but the site just needs to be reorganized into a more user friendly layout. ET
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
ET: the paid for content (aka ads) is in the "corporate" bar. Everything else is "real" content. But, you're right, it's confusing. The redesign will make that a lot clearer too.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
ET: and on "where to start" you're absolutely right. The first rule of newspaper page design I learned from the professionals back in college is "make ONE THING at least twice as big as any other thing on the page." The human mind needs hierarchies.
Blogging succeeds cause it puts things into a top-down hierarchy (newer is more important than older).
The human mind needs hierarchies to feel good and to know where to go.
A trail with five intersections and no signs confuses the hell out of us. Even terrifies us.
We need a device that says "take this path first."
Roland Dobbins
· 3 years ago
This isn't an either/or situation - offer both. Yes, you'll have to decide which is the default, but make the control to toggle the mode big and put it at the top of the initial page.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
Roland: good point!
Wanna make a bet? If we do both the aggregator view will get more visits and more inbound links.
mike
· 3 years ago
Your going to win the arguement that site design is tied to stock price? I'm not sure what you are arguing because they aren't related.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
Mike: you think they aren't? Well, they are. Google is growing faster than Yahoo. The stock market figures that out pretty damn efficiently.
Kuli
· 3 years ago
Robert, I'm going to agree with Mike, you shouldn't base the design for a page based purely on stock price. Google is growing faster because it plays the PR machine well and has a great ad network strategy.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
Kuli: if you believe Google is growing faster simply because it plays the PR machine well then you are TRUELY LOST.
Google is growing faster cause it is a better search engine and is more usable. Period.
I can't believe the reasons you guys come up with sometimes.
Google's PR machine is even worse than Microsoft's.
Ivan Pope
· 3 years ago
I thought it was me! I visited the site but I just couldn't get it, so I went away. I didn't know what it wanted me to do. But, as I said, I thought it was just me being dumb. I'm pleased to find out it's not me.
PXLated
· 3 years ago
Robert, don't get lured into looking at other sites and what works for them. The Amazon site works for them only because it's what people expect at Amazon, they couldn't really change it if they wanted to. eBay the same, Google the same. Digg the same. You'll be far better off starting afresh, looking at what you need to present (and how) based on what your visitors expect to get or make happen. And do some testing on various designs/philosophies. You and the others sitting around discussing/arguing is just mental masturbation and supposition ;-). I will agree with you on one thing though, page length. There was a study done back in 99-2000 that showed people don't mind scrolling vertically and will as long as you don't put a hard visual barrier it their way. A strong horizontal rule can be a barrier. If it's open, or dividers are subtle, they'll scroll.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
PXLated: of course you're right, but you should try to learn from why other people are gaining in audience share.
It helps you take on some of your own assumptions as well.
All I know is Podtech's site is pretty damn unusable and we have total consensus on that at PodTech. So, something will change. I'm arguing for an aggregator view. Other people are arguing that more of a link or portal view will bring more traffic.
It's an interesting discussion, that's for sure!
Richard Brownell
· 3 years ago
Robert: portal and blog are not the only two types of layout. I assume what you are really saying is blog vs. everything else. Blog layout is not better just because you think it is better. I'm also not sure how Google fits into your argument. Their home page is just a mini portal with very few options. Your stock argument I think more shows that minimalism combined with trendyness and having the best search technology = win. See, I didn't mention PR machine or any other wacky theories ;)
I also don't see any clear focus of the organization. Are employees given a clear vision? Here, this is on your about us page:
"PodTech is on the air, on the ground, and on the go, bringing to you fresh, defining voices in digital lifestyle, innovation, and thought leadership from frontline events, newsmakers, and experts. PodTech seeks to challenge the boundaries of traditional media and capture the best of new media by bringing focused, high-quality podcasting and videoblogging content to audiences worldwide, directly from the movers and shakers of technology and media."
Clearly, a great committee came up with that. But what does it mean? What is a voice of a digital lifestyle and why do I want to listen to it? Are people from TWiT, Revision3 or Ziff Davis involved? The best of new media? I need only look at the top of the iTunes podcast directory for that, right? And is something wrong with the "old" media? And also, any site that has an entire section called "Corporate" will not hold a large consumer audience. Consumer + "corporate" = no sale.
Just my thoughts. I've visited the PodTech site on several occasions since you first mentioned it. Your hire has bought them several hits from me, but I have yet to spend more than few seconds each visit and that's NOT because of the design.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
>that minimalism combined with trendyness and having the best search technology = win
Richard: I'd rephrase that as "that minimalism combined with usability and best search technology = win."
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
>Clearly, a great committee came up with that. But what does it mean? What is a voice of a digital lifestyle and why do I want to listen to it?
Richard: you said what I've been thinking for the past couple of weeks.
>I also don’t see any clear focus of the organization. Are employees given a clear vision?
No. And that's one thing that's hurting Podtech. It'll take a few months to clean that up.
I'm just going to start with my show and focus that, then go piece by piece and bring in the best stuff. There's some good stuff being done but not enough good stuff and when it happens it's just obfuscated. And that IS bad design. (for instance the order of headline, text, photo, subscribe and other links, is in the wrong order for usability).
But you nailed it, it's amazing that an organization's disfunction comes through the end product, both at big companies and small.
Robert Scoble
· 3 years ago
BTW: I don't do committees. They remove life from everything.
Richard Brownell
· 3 years ago
You're right. I missed usability. Funny since I've been doing some design work to make some of my work more usable! (I'm a developer, so quick and dirty designs occasionally happen from me)
Good luck with the clear vision. And I agree that you just have to do your part and go one step at a time. Can't fix an entire company in one fell swoop.
Christopher Coulter
· 3 years ago
That’s like listening to DEC back in 1977 when the CEO there said the world doesn’t need personal computers.
You have used that example as a cover-all for everything from demanding the world buy $5,000 HD setups, to excusing all sorts of Microsoft intelligence-insulting PR-slicing lies, to a beachhead defense for all manner of fraudster MLMish and dubious start-ups, and for firing Marketing pro's with serious results in their background, just they don't use RSS.
Get a new stock sound-bite phrase...please. :)
PXLated
· 3 years ago
Robert, I didn't say not to learn from others. By all means, do so. But, you have to keep what you learn from them in perspective and relate it to their product/audience/objectives/goals. Most times those don't match up with yours and can't be directly transfered/mimic'd. As I mentioned, figure out what you have, what people will want/need from it, then do some paper-based designs and test to see if people can actually do what they need/want efficiently/effectively. I do know that if you test, the users will surprise you. Been there, experienced that. But, it sounds like there is a clear/concise corporate mission that needs to be decided first. Don't know how you design a site for an effective business if you don't start there.
dataminer
· 3 years ago
Google is growing becaus of it's search. That's all. Yahoo doesn't monetize search as well and has portal strategy, which google does not. To talk about their interfaces in such a way just sounds silly.
Kosso
· 3 years ago
Hi Robert,
If you have your 'channels' all sorted - and in an OPML file - send it on over and I can set you up as a tester of our cool new subdomain system. podtech.podcast.com ? ;)
It only takes a moment. ;)
Regards, Kosso
Jon
· 3 years ago
Agreed - went and had a look a week ago and was a bit shocked! Not what I was expecting at all - look forward to the makeover! Jon
All Comments
Podtech has to earn links before you'll link to it. But, then once it's earned enough links, you'll stop linking to it because of the whole gesture bit you've been going on about? I don't understand the thinking here...
ET
Blogging succeeds cause it puts things into a top-down hierarchy (newer is more important than older).
The human mind needs hierarchies to feel good and to know where to go.
A trail with five intersections and no signs confuses the hell out of us. Even terrifies us.
We need a device that says "take this path first."
Wanna make a bet? If we do both the aggregator view will get more visits and more inbound links.
I'm going to agree with Mike, you shouldn't base the design for a page based purely on stock price. Google is growing faster because it plays the PR machine well and has a great ad network strategy.
Google is growing faster cause it is a better search engine and is more usable. Period.
I can't believe the reasons you guys come up with sometimes.
Google's PR machine is even worse than Microsoft's.
You'll be far better off starting afresh, looking at what you need to present (and how) based on what your visitors expect to get or make happen. And do some testing on various designs/philosophies. You and the others sitting around discussing/arguing is just mental masturbation and supposition ;-).
I will agree with you on one thing though, page length. There was a study done back in 99-2000 that showed people don't mind scrolling vertically and will as long as you don't put a hard visual barrier it their way. A strong horizontal rule can be a barrier. If it's open, or dividers are subtle, they'll scroll.
It helps you take on some of your own assumptions as well.
All I know is Podtech's site is pretty damn unusable and we have total consensus on that at PodTech. So, something will change. I'm arguing for an aggregator view. Other people are arguing that more of a link or portal view will bring more traffic.
It's an interesting discussion, that's for sure!
I also don't see any clear focus of the organization. Are employees given a clear vision? Here, this is on your about us page:
"PodTech is on the air, on the ground, and on the go, bringing to you fresh, defining voices in digital lifestyle, innovation, and thought leadership from frontline events, newsmakers, and experts. PodTech seeks to challenge the boundaries of traditional media and capture the best of new media by bringing focused, high-quality podcasting and videoblogging content to audiences worldwide, directly from the movers and shakers of technology and media."
Clearly, a great committee came up with that. But what does it mean? What is a voice of a digital lifestyle and why do I want to listen to it? Are people from TWiT, Revision3 or Ziff Davis involved? The best of new media? I need only look at the top of the iTunes podcast directory for that, right? And is something wrong with the "old" media? And also, any site that has an entire section called "Corporate" will not hold a large consumer audience. Consumer + "corporate" = no sale.
Just my thoughts. I've visited the PodTech site on several occasions since you first mentioned it. Your hire has bought them several hits from me, but I have yet to spend more than few seconds each visit and that's NOT because of the design.
Richard: I'd rephrase that as "that minimalism combined with usability and best search technology = win."
Richard: you said what I've been thinking for the past couple of weeks.
>I also don’t see any clear focus of the organization. Are employees given a clear vision?
No. And that's one thing that's hurting Podtech. It'll take a few months to clean that up.
I'm just going to start with my show and focus that, then go piece by piece and bring in the best stuff. There's some good stuff being done but not enough good stuff and when it happens it's just obfuscated. And that IS bad design. (for instance the order of headline, text, photo, subscribe and other links, is in the wrong order for usability).
But you nailed it, it's amazing that an organization's disfunction comes through the end product, both at big companies and small.
Good luck with the clear vision. And I agree that you just have to do your part and go one step at a time. Can't fix an entire company in one fell swoop.
You have used that example as a cover-all for everything from demanding the world buy $5,000 HD setups, to excusing all sorts of Microsoft intelligence-insulting PR-slicing lies, to a beachhead defense for all manner of fraudster MLMish and dubious start-ups, and for firing Marketing pro's with serious results in their background, just they don't use RSS.
Get a new stock sound-bite phrase...please. :)
As I mentioned, figure out what you have, what people will want/need from it, then do some paper-based designs and test to see if people can actually do what they need/want efficiently/effectively. I do know that if you test, the users will surprise you. Been there, experienced that.
But, it sounds like there is a clear/concise corporate mission that needs to be decided first. Don't know how you design a site for an effective business if you don't start there.
If you have your 'channels' all sorted - and in an OPML file - send it on over and I can set you up as a tester of our cool new subdomain system. podtech.podcast.com ? ;)
It only takes a moment. ;)
Regards,
Kosso
Jon