There’s a lot of buzz in the technology world about User Experience, or UX as it is more commonly abbreviated. There is definitely a need to make the human-machine interface a more natural and intuitive one. However, I was reminded this weekend that UX can (and indeed, should) be applied to every interaction that a business has with their clients.
Today I had the privilege of attending the RE/MAX Broker/Owner Conference at the Spier Estate. White Wall Web has a long history with RE/MAX but my personal involvement has been relatively short. Today I got to know them a bit better as well as seeing what makes them such a great brand.
It’s great to see a company’s top leadership interact with such charisma, honesty and integrity. It is clear to me that they see RE/MAX as a large family, with each broker/owner a valuable and respected member.
The 2 speakers, Christopher Invidiata from Aboutowne Realty and Steven Murray, President of Real Trends, both gave enlightening and useful talks on a variety of topics, applicable not only to realty, but to business in general. I personally walked away with many revelations and valuable business nuggets that I will be applying in my team.
In previous posts we have discussed the importance of tweaking your website’s meta descriptions and meta tags in order to optimise your site. Although doing this is very important, prioritising links on your site is something that needs to be checked at least once to ensure that your site is ranking as highly as it deserves to.
First Link Priority is the rule that if a web page contains multiple links to the same destination, Google’s search engine will ignore any link that comes after the first one.
In our previous post, we discussed why you should consider making a shift to mobile; in this post we’ll delve further into the opportunities that can be created through having a mobile site.
At last year’s Google Searchology conference, it was confirmed that Google is returning optimised mobile websites ahead of desktop results for certain mobile queries. So, those companies who are merely redirecting a mobile user to another domain, rather than optimising the site for mobile searchers, aren’t benefiting as much as they should with their mobile site.
Mobility is a ranking factor for mobile search – by not optimising a mobile site it may be more difficult to appear in a competitive non-branded search.
The use of mobile phones for Internet searching is a fast growing trend in South Africa, which offers a major opportunity for companies to tailor their marketing efforts to reach a mobile audience.
Is your company truly leveraging your mobile audience? Are your listings accessible on mobile devices, and are you meeting the needs of your mobile audience?
Having a mobile site does not only satisfy the needs of the mobile user, but also increases your chances of ranking higher in search results – thanks to Google’s separate mobile index.
In addition to this, mobile users want to be able to quickly and easily perform the tasks that are important to them whey they are mobile. For example in the Real Estate industry, if a potential customer can search and find properties in the area they are currently in, the likelihood of them viewing the property and potentially buying is increased.
This article is based on a presentation I gave at the recent Rubyfuza conference, which was addressed at Ruby developers. The title of the presentation was ‘The Business of Ruby’ – specifically because it was given at a Ruby conference. However, it had very little to do with Ruby. In fact, it had very little to do at all with any programming language, any framework or any specific technology. I didn’t write any code or show any interesting snippets, explain the latest incarnation of this or that gem or plugin.
I wanted to step out a bit. Get to a higher level and talk about the people that usually cause developers the most stress (and no, I don’t mean Project Managers). I mean clients. Customers. The people that we are ultimately building our software for. The real people that (again, usually) don’t speak “geek”. These “real people” never seem to be interested in developers fancy, elaborate code or their highly elegant software architecture. The people always seem to be more focused on the design and how easy it is to use the systems or applications that we build. Because, at the end of the day, you have to admit that clients are the ones that are paying our bills, so we need to satisfy them.
Said to be Africa’s first Ruby conference, Rubyfuza, will be held on 3 – 4 February 2011 at the Strand Tower Hotel in Cape Town. We strongly believe that Ruby is fast establishing itself as one of the most promising dynamic programming languages, so with this in mind, it was only natural for us to get behind this initiative as a sponsor.
Presentation topics range from apprenticeships to selecting the right data store for your next project, with our very own Executive Director, Zayne Upton, presenting on ‘The Business of Ruby.’
“Often when we get really involved in the code, we forget the bigger picture – that ultimately we are (usually) building our software for a client, a real person that (again, usually) doesn’t speak “geek”. These “real people” don’t seem to be interested in your fancy and elaborate code, or your highly elegant software architecture. They always seem to be more focused on how it looks and how easy it is to use. You know they’re paying your bills, so you need to satisfy them. I’m going to help you find out how.”
“It’s great that initiatives like this are starting to emerge in South Africa” says Zayne. “Ruby – and especially the web development framework, Rails – has taken hold in Silicon Valley, due to it’s ability to get applications built quickly and with very little effort. This allows for rapid prototyping, meaning applications can be let out into the wild sooner and you can start seeing a return on your investment sooner. This is why White Wall Web uses Ruby on Rails almost exclusively for our custom-built applications – it just makes sense.”
For more information on Rubyfuza, visit their website or follow them on twitter.
Executive Director, Zayne Upton, was recently featured on eTV’s The Tech Report in an insert focusing on Cloud Computing.
Zayne explains the concept of Cloud Computing in layman terms, and highlights the benefits and what it means to the average Internet user.
