We’re incredibly excited about the new Tatty Devine book that we’ve been working on over the summer. It was designed by Design Beckons’ very own Nina Ziegler.

This beautifully written and designed book includes practical DIY techniques for creating your own necklaces, earrings, rings, cuffs and more, as well as some top, creative tips and insider knowledge from Tatty Devine’s founders, Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine.

No doubt destined to be a must-have for aspiring DIY jewellery-makers or lovers of Tatty Devine. The book is available from their website.

We’ve recently created a facebook application for CRUK – Race for Life, where facebook users can compete against each other to create the longest chain of friends and win prizes.

The application uses a variety of social engagement features, thoroughly utilising the facebook graph API, to connect with their active community of facebook users and provide the best possible opportunity for campaign traction. There are currently 15,000+ active users of the application, a fantastic result! The campaign still has another month to run, so hopefully it will continue to grow.

ATLeP (Anti Trafficking Legal Project) is a network of practitioners who represent victims of trafficking and other vulnerable people.

A charity, they share information and resources with everyone involved in helping victims of trafficking and the victims themselves.

We were thrilled when they asked us to help them create a more refined identity and a website which will enable them to promote and publish their work to a broader audience and through a more digestible channel than previously.

The picker, which was integrated as a facebook application and with their existing Tatty Devine website, allows customers to create customised name necklaces: choosing the text, font, colour, texture, chain colour, size and charms that make up their own bespoke necklace—a step-laden and otherwise dull task—in a visually enriching and seamless manner.

Customer Reception

Tatty’s loyal and proud customers have given it the massive thumbs up and this has been reflected in a significant increase in conversion rate for the Name Necklace page on their website, the feedback on their profile and comments from their customers.

I love the new Necklace Designer. I wish I could of used it when I bought my name necklace. I spent ages trying to decide whether Helen or HelsBells would look best! I went with Helen in drippy red blood but now I’m very tempted to Helsbells in in glittery black Sundae too with the lightening flash charm! x

Results

The initial results are promising, with a 15% increase in the Name Necklace conversion rate, a vast jump in usability, and the bolstering of Tatty’s perceived user-centric and customer-focused brand values. Everyone is very happy!

Tell us a bit about Information Architects. What were your motivations for setting up the business?

As the founder of iA Zurich, I can only speak for myself. Founding my own company was, among many other things, my way to escape from the big companies I was working for before. Large corporate structures very often prevent you from getting things done. While we are still confronted with these structures in our projects, there is now a significantly larger amount of our visions actually making it to the end user. AND, in an agency, there’s always a new project on the horizon.

What in your opinion are the main pillars in UCD and information architecture – what are the dos and don’ts?

We try to find the reason why we are doing something in one way or another (instead of arguing about opinions or tastes), we try to simplify and we understand large design projects as something reaching deep into the guts of a product or a company. There are times when managing a design project can become as important as the actual design work itself.

With your teams spread across Japan, Europe and the USA – how do you find working together virtually compares to working together in an office – which aspects work and which don’t?

iA has offices in Zurich and Tokyo. Being able to collaborate virtually as an agency depends on finding people who are willing and able to do so and on defining the best interfaces for a given project. Detailed wireframes for example might not be a very efficient tool for a team working in one room, but they are an excellent tool for handing over structural ideas to a remote team. An HTML/CSS Clickdummy might be a much better interface between design and programming than the usual layered Photoshop files etc.

We are interested in your methodology when it comes to researching for a new project.

Do you have a dedicated research team?

We are a small agency and try to involve almost everybody during certain critical phases of a project. Only work that is obviously on track should be done in a specialized team. We do have a methodology for research and all the other aspects of our projects, but we also found out that some projects defy any predefined logic and call for a lot of ad-hoc investigation, reflection, inventiveness and testing.

Like you, we are avid readers of useit.com. Are there any other specialists out there you’d like us to know about?

I consider much of Jakob Nielsen’s work to be part of the classical must-reads. In this ever-changing field, it’s very important to keep up to date on a daily basis. Following design professionals on Twitter is my solution to getting good recommendations right now.

What are your preferred research methods? Which in your experience work – and which don’t?

Users are the best advocates for their own interests, but they won’t help you develop visions for the future. The official project stakeholders are not the only ones you should interview when starting out. Try to get hold of any information fragment available regarding your project: previous concepts and projects, previous analysis, external reviews, recommendations & critiques, competitor behavior, market analysis, statistics, user studies, user feedback etc. etc., analyze it, ask again, think deeply about it, then forget about it.

Tell us a bit about your business. What were your motivations for setting up DoGood?

DoGood Headquarters is a social enterprise that makes web applications. Our first product—The DoGooder—is an app that turns web surfing into cash for causes.

We started analyzing some of the barriers to social action in our own personal lives and quickly discovered that if we could break down as many of those barriers as possible, and make doing good really simple, we might be able to make a positive social impact on a grand scale.

How did you start out?

I’ve been a Creative Director for the last 12 years with an academic education in Sociology and Computer Animation.

Technologically, what were your biggest hurdles and how did you deal with them?

Well, we weren’t even sure it was possible initially, so we did quite a few technical tests before we began the production process. Breaking down larger complex problems into smaller ones and tackling them one by one seemed to work well for us. We follow a simple mantra popularized by John Lennon: There are no problems, only solutions.

Your system does not affect any CPM (impression-based) revenue but since many campaigns have a different revenue model (CTR PPA etc), what reactions have you had from publishers?

Overwhelmingly positive, or indifferent!

Once you start understanding the logic behind our paradigm shift, you realize the DoGooder has little effect, if any, on traditional revenue models. An end user has opted-in to see a (generally) particular genre of ads, so any other ads are a relatively moot point—the DoGooder eyeball is no different than someone that would never have acknowledged the “regular” ad in the first place, or clicked on it, or become a lead. But we’re always searching for ways to improve our model.

We find ourselves clicking on your banners quite regularly—from a rate of nil for corporate advertising to about 4/5 clicks a week on DoGood ads—are your figures reflecting this and have they increased or decreased over time?

Yes. We are seeing a higher engagement rate than traditional banner ads and they are holding steady. Of course, engagement rates are dependent on several variables, but as long as we keep our inventory of campaigns fresh, it seems to keep our rates solid. When we launch a new campaign or informational ad, we tend to see a rise in clicks.

We notice, understandably, that a lot of the pages are specific to the North American continent and do not apply so much to Europe or the rest of the world. Is there a measure of geo-targeting and if not is this something you guys are aiming for?

There is a measure of geo-targeting, but its quite cumbersome in its current state, and something we would definitely like to improve. The demographics of our end users also affect our content. If more users from Europe, for example, begin using the app, then we can begin creating more relevant campaigns for said segment.

Currently, a majority of our end users are from the United States and Canada, so we do tend to focus our content to said audience, but many of the pages can be adapted to / are relevant to global issues. For example, reading about a unique method of recycling in a city in the U.S. may encourage a European counterpart to do the same.

What issues get people clicking?

Cool green/social products and services do very well—people want to learn about better alternatives to what is out there now. Environment, women’s rights, and healthy eating seem to be on the top hit lists too, with statistical campaigns often being the most intriguing (and educational) for end users.

We noticed that some of the pages we land on are of a commercial origin and are trying to shift product—what kind of criteria do you apply that allows a company to be green and how is your own revenue driven?

We try to keep it pretty simple: it need not be rocket science. Most of us can discern between what is a generally healthy, green(er), or socially relevant product than one that is not.

Our revenue model has definitely been a challenge. I think you’ll find us pivoting a bit more to curated commercial campaigns to generate revenue, but we’ll always keep inventory for DoGood ads—it will be a hybrid model. We generate revenue from paid campaigns and affiliate links to products. Have to keep our CFL lightbulbs on somehow.

You have a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Tell us a bit about your social marketing strategy?

We rarely talk about our product. We focus on conversations, and ultimately, providing information that people find interesting, educational and entertaining. We have never done a “social media campaign” to accrue followers or fans. It has all been word of mouth and organic growth because there is an actual utility in our conversations—we are curators of “good” things.

What other tools do you use to drive traffic and raise awareness of DoGood?

Not many really. Being a startup, we basically have a zero marketing budget (we tend to focus on the technology). What has been helpful, is simply making honest connections with influencers online that believe in what we are doing. Having them write blog posts, or send out tweets is pretty invaluable. Another thing we pride ourselves on is good design. It’s not necessarily a tool to drive traffic, but I think it leaves a positive impression on end users and may encourage them to share.

How does the future look for DoGood? Where do you see yourselves in 5 years’ time?

Well, we think it looks pretty… good. In five years time I hope we are recognized as a pioneer doing innovative things at the epicentre of philanthropy and technology, and being a source of regular funding for all types of wonderful causes.

*update: sadly DoGood have had to close its doors. We wish its founders all the very best!

Nothing is Good from DoGood Headquarters on Vimeo.

One of our favourite clients, Cecilia Mary Robson, has created a fashion video in collaboration with TEST and directed by photographer Sandra Freij. Good stuff.

He boils it down to 6 methods that reduce unfavourable listings and ensure as much control over a brands/individual’s SERPs as possible. In summary, these are:

1. Cultivate the right social profiles in the right ways

   Don’t register with a whole host of sites. Cultivate 5/6 profiles that are effective, targeted, updated regularly and speak to your audience.

2. Author a universal bio with embedded links

   Use the same bio for all of your profiles with links to relevant pages that you control that are part of your online identity.

3. Speak, invest, donate & hire

   Each time your bio is on the web, you can have high-quality, relevant, keyword controlled back-links – great SEO collateral.

4. Avoid wikipedia pages & other free-for-all sites

   You don’t have absolute control over edits/comments/content. This can be a problem best avoided.

5. Start an alternative blog

   Create a blog on a separate URL that is linked with your main online persona/identity – entries & back links will dominate rankings.

6. Leverage lower quality links for social profiles, higher quality for self-managed domains

   If you are going to have back links from less reputable sources or sources outwith your control, link them to your social profile pages. This way, your domain is innoculated from search engine penalisation but be cautious with this approach and make sure you do some testing beforehand.

Rand goes into much more detail in his article on reputation management, so check it out.