As we stand on the cusp of summer in the northern hemisphere, a season full of breathtaking panoramas are waiting on the horizon to be immortalized on film. There’s a trick to capturing the beauty you see, though, or in the case of Digital Photography School‘s Joe Decker, six of them. 1. Get Close! Because [...]
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Most Topular Stories
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6 tips for taking epic wide-lens shots
Holy Kaw!21 May 2013 | 5:40 am -
Make It So: Five Lessons in Interaction Design from Star Trek
UX Magazine16 May 2013 | 2:53 amWith Star Trek Into Darkness opening in theaters this weekend, it seems like a perfect time to survey some of the technological foreshadowing the franchise has bestowed upon us over the years. There are few better sources for that kind of info than Make It So (Rosenfeld), a book by Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel that describes in great detail the interaction design lessons we can take from science fiction. From brain copying in Metropolis (1927) to voluminous projections in Iron Man 2 (2010), the book provides a wide and detailed account of how the tech in SF inspires the glowing… -
Words & Votes: The Changing Congressional Opinions on Gun Violence
information aesthetics17 May 2013 | 8:34 amThe political visualization Words & Votes [sandyhookpromise.org], developed by digital agency R/GA for non-profit organization Sandy Hook Promise, provides a comprehensive look into the opinions of congressional representatives on the issue of gun violence. More specifically, the visualization tracks each member of congress as being "neutral", on the side of "Gun Safety," or on the side of "Gun Rights". It then maps the evolution of these opinions over time on a vertical timeline. These individual opinions have been based on two separate types of information: the analysis of the tweets sent… -
An Event Apart: 10 Commandments of Web Design
LukeW | Digital Product Design + Strategy19 May 2013 | 5:00 pmIn his presentation at An Event Apart in San Diego 2013 Jeffrey Zeldman walked through today's web design principles and how they can make our sites better. Here's my notes from his talk: Ten Commandments of Modern Web Design. Thou Shall Entertain. We spend lots of time thinking about efficiency and usability but we also need to think about being delightful and entertaining people. Set a conversational tone with your body copy. Headlines and visuals play together. Consider how images can add life and clarity to your content pages. Stock photos might not be the best answer, illustrations and… -
Information architecture's teenage dilemma
InfoDesign: Understanding by Design21 May 2013 | 2:27 amDepicting the growth of a discipline as the growth of human is based upon biological and social laws. Mmmm... let me think. "Imagine if you will information architecture as a pimply-faced, malcontent teenager. IA is eager to express and redefine itself. It wants to be an individual yet accepted by its peers. It is simultaneously aggravated and apathetic about its parents, mentors, and role-models. It is a bit of a mess, but a wonderful, beautiful mess with endless opportunity and potential." (Jeff Pass a.k.a. @jeffpass ~ Boxes and Arrows)
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Holy Kaw!
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6 tips for taking epic wide-lens shots
21 May 2013 | 5:40 amAs we stand on the cusp of summer in the northern hemisphere, a season full of breathtaking panoramas are waiting on the horizon to be immortalized on film. There’s a trick to capturing the beauty you see, though, or in the case of Digital Photography School‘s Joe Decker, six of them. 1. Get Close! Because [...] -
The lighter side of the pommel horse [video]
21 May 2013 | 5:10 amLet’s face it, when most of us giggle at a pommel horse routine, it’s not in the best taste seeing as it usually contains a touch of malice at the stumbles of Olympians, preferably from a country other than our own. Feel free to laugh out loud at this routine from the Japanese talent show [...] -
Inspiring Quotes From Maya Angelou
21 May 2013 | 5:07 amDr. Maya Angelou has healing words and inspiring messages that bring hope when people need it. Through her life’s work as a performer, poet, writer, and most importantly teacher, Dr. Angelou is a calming voice in times of need and a spark to the spirit at just the right moment to ignite the [...] -
How start-up funding works [chart]
21 May 2013 | 4:59 amWe point out plenty of articles discussing the various aspects of starting up a business around here, but sometimes, nothing gives a clearer picture of the process than, well, a picture, particularly when it comes to the ever-important issue of funding. The picture is only part of the story provided by Funders and Founders, so [...] -
Art nails it without paint or pen
21 May 2013 | 4:52 amWho says those who wield a hammer don’t have an artistic touch? Not anyone who’s seen the work of Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita, whose materials include thousands of nails and continuous lengths of thread artfully wrapped over months to create the amazing detail one sees in his portraits. His work will be on display until [...]
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UX Magazine
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Make It So: Five Lessons in Interaction Design from Star Trek
16 May 2013 | 2:53 amWith Star Trek Into Darkness opening in theaters this weekend, it seems like a perfect time to survey some of the technological foreshadowing the franchise has bestowed upon us over the years. There are few better sources for that kind of info than Make It So (Rosenfeld), a book by Nathan Shedroff and Christopher Noessel that describes in great detail the interaction design lessons we can take from science fiction. From brain copying in Metropolis (1927) to voluminous projections in Iron Man 2 (2010), the book provides a wide and detailed account of how the tech in SF inspires the glowing… -
The Greatest Secrets of UX Revealed!
15 May 2013 | 3:50 amI’m a big fan of Penn and Teller, and have been for many years. I saw them live for the first time last month and was blown away by their performance. What I really love about Penn and Teller is that they often “pull back the curtain” and reveal how they do their magic. Other magicians produce an air of mysticism and pretense around their craft, but Penn and Teller will have none of that. They know they are playing tricks, fooling the audience, and by letting everyone in on what they are doing they debunk mysticism while also (hopefully) teaching you something. Their attitude towards… -
Create a Better Responsive User Experience
14 May 2013 | 3:12 amThe mobile market is exploding with unprecedented growth, and marketers are no longer hesitating to embrace responsive web design. As more and more businesses choose to adopt this new approach, it has become crucial for anyone in the web industry to understand the implications of creating a responsive user experience. It's become our responsibility as content strategists, information architects, designers, developers, and digital strategists to do more than just squeeze a website onto the mobile screen of a commuter: we have to plan, design, and build a...read more By Nick Switzer -
A Look at Flat Design and Why It's Significant
13 May 2013 | 2:43 amThere has been a growing tidal wave of flat designs on the web, and recent trend reports have confirmed that they're only increasing in popularity. Of course it's easy to dismiss flat design as yet another fleeting aesthetic trend. But further investigation into this new philosophy reveals that flat design is a lot more than "just for looks." What is Flat Design? Flat design can be seen as the more sophisticated and versatile cousin of minimalism. While flat designs look great when made within the restraints of minimalism, they...read more By Luke Clum -
Creating a Successful Information Experience for Your Users
9 May 2013 | 5:27 amIn a world where people of all ages and backgrounds are spending increasingly more and more of their time navigating through software and web and mobile apps, providing an experience that engages and guides users is crucial for the success of the application. While development teams spend countless hours designing the user experience, planning and coding features, and testing the application, they often overlook the importance of the information appearing within the application. While this information is referred to, in its simplest form, as the user interface text, the integration between…
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information aesthetics
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Words & Votes: The Changing Congressional Opinions on Gun Violence
17 May 2013 | 8:34 amThe political visualization Words & Votes [sandyhookpromise.org], developed by digital agency R/GA for non-profit organization Sandy Hook Promise, provides a comprehensive look into the opinions of congressional representatives on the issue of gun violence. More specifically, the visualization tracks each member of congress as being "neutral", on the side of "Gun Safety," or on the side of "Gun Rights". It then maps the evolution of these opinions over time on a vertical timeline. These individual opinions have been based on two separate types of information: the analysis of the tweets sent… -
How Half a Second of High Frequency Stock Trading Looks Like
13 May 2013 | 1:57 pmThe movie shown below, developed by a real-time trading software developer Nanex, shows the stock trading activity in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) as it occurred during a particular half a second on May 2, 2013. Each colored box represents one unique exchange. The whote box at the bottom of the screens shows the National Best Bid/Offer, which often drastically changes in a fraction of a second. The moving shapes represent quote changes which are the result of a change to the top of the book at each exchange. The time at the bottom of the screen is Eastern Time HH:MM:SS:mmm, which is slowed down to… -
Mapping the Pavement Quality of Streets in L.A.
9 May 2013 | 1:15 pmL.A. Street QualGrades [latimes.com], developed by the Los Angeles Times Data Desk, maps the pavement quality rating for each of the 68,000 street segments in L.A., the largest municipal system in the US with about 6,500 miles of paved roadway streets. Using a state-of-the-art van equipped with cameras and lasers, the Bureau of Street Services graded each single street segment of L.A.'s vast street network from from A (dark green) to F (dark pink). The grades were based on a 100-point scale called the "pavement condition index". The accompanying news article can be found here. Via Flowing… -
YouTube Trends Map: Explore the Most Popular Videos by Location
9 May 2013 | 12:10 pmThe YouTube Trends Map [youtube.com] is a visualization of the most shared and viewed videos in various regions across the United States over the last 12 to 24 hours. It accompanies the more analytical Trends Dashboard to provide a full overview of the the rising videos and trends on YouTube in terms of actual views or shares, filtered by geographical location, gender or age of the viewers. The demographic information of viewers is solely based on the information reported by registered, logged-in users in their YouTube account profiles. Next to the geographical map, the Trends Map also… -
Bolides: Explore the Eye-Witnessed Meteorites that Collided with Earth
3 May 2013 | 2:20 pmBolides - Visualizing Meteorites [bolid.es] by data visualization designer Carlo Zapponi visualizes all historical occurrences of meteorites that collided with the Earth and were eye-witnessed when falling and hitting the ground. The visualizes is comprised of a linear timeline of which the top denotes the number of meteorites spottings per year, and the bottom shows their mass, estimated in kilograms. The dataset includes 34,513 recordings of found and fell meteorites that have not been classified as doubtful or discredited. A meteorite is classified as 'fell' if it has been observed by…
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LukeW | Digital Product Design + Strategy
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An Event Apart: 10 Commandments of Web Design
19 May 2013 | 5:00 pmIn his presentation at An Event Apart in San Diego 2013 Jeffrey Zeldman walked through today's web design principles and how they can make our sites better. Here's my notes from his talk: Ten Commandments of Modern Web Design. Thou Shall Entertain. We spend lots of time thinking about efficiency and usability but we also need to think about being delightful and entertaining people. Set a conversational tone with your body copy. Headlines and visuals play together. Consider how images can add life and clarity to your content pages. Stock photos might not be the best answer, illustrations and… -
An Event Apart: The Map Is Not The Territory
19 May 2013 | 5:00 pmIn his The Map Is Not The Territory presentation at An Event Apart San Diego CA 2013, Ethan Marcotte shared his thoughts about the changing definition of the Web and his philosophy for making broadly accessible experiences. Here's my notes from his talk: Maps capture our understanding of a space. They make us aware of our surroundings and make things feel a little less foreign. Randal developed a new map for New York. 2 out of every 5 buildings in New York were “mapped over”. This system was designed for use to create regularity. His was a system that became beautiful through use. -
An Event Apart: Designing for the Responsive, Retina-Friendly Web
19 May 2013 | 5:00 pmIn her presentation at An Event Apart in San Diego California 2013 Sarah Parmenter talked about the changes responsive Web design requires of Web designers. Here's my notes from her talk on Responsive Design Workflow: Any change is accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts. We're going through this transition right now. Responsive design is new and can be hard. We're used to a fixed canvas when we design but the multi-device Web is filled with many canvases of varying size and shape. We have to think in terms of designing a puzzle vs. designing a single fixed canvas. We need to work in terms… -
Data Monday: Mobile Devices Per Day
19 May 2013 | 5:00 pmLast year, I illustrated the importance of mobile by highlighting how many devices enter the World each day compared to the number of people born per day on our planet. The ratio was striking. Looking at the same figures today is even more sobering. The End of 2011 The total of smartphones entering the World per day was about 1.45M devices compared to 371,124 births. The End of 2012 The total of smartphones entering the World per day was about 3.6M devices again compared to the same 371 thousand births. Hope you've got you multi-device design strategy in order. -
An Event Apart: Billboards & Novels
19 May 2013 | 5:00 pmIn his Billboards & Novels talk at An Event Apart in San Diego, CA 2013 Jon Tan talked about important considerations for font setting and selection on the Web. Here's my notes from his talk: The Web is reading: how can we give them a better experience doing that? Language is human communication through the use of written and spoke word in a structured way. Words are gestures that paint pictures in our mind. A recent study found that “there are important differences between good and poor typography that appear to have little effect on reading speed and comprehension.” People are really…
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InfoDesign: Understanding by Design
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Information architecture's teenage dilemma
21 May 2013 | 2:27 amDepicting the growth of a discipline as the growth of human is based upon biological and social laws. Mmmm... let me think. "Imagine if you will information architecture as a pimply-faced, malcontent teenager. IA is eager to express and redefine itself. It wants to be an individual yet accepted by its peers. It is simultaneously aggravated and apathetic about its parents, mentors, and role-models. It is a bit of a mess, but a wonderful, beautiful mess with endless opportunity and potential." (Jeff Pass a.k.a. @jeffpass ~ Boxes and Arrows) -
Apples and oranges: Developing an enterprise taxonomy that works
16 May 2013 | 5:40 amSo much to change in enterprises. How about metadata? "The increasing need to dynamically deliver targeted content that is contextually relevant rests on three things – the technology to deliver it, the appropriate personalization and targeting strategies, and a robust enterprise taxonomy. Developing and managing your taxonomy is not a painless exercise, and it requires the help of an expert and the involvement and buy-in of key stakeholders, but based on our experiences, the benefits far outweigh the effort." (SiteWorx) -
The greatest secrets of UX revealed
15 May 2013 | 1:12 pmA list of so-called secrets, with a description phrase. We want narratives. "I know many UX designers present themselves as unquestionable experts on human beings; as seers whose edicts should be followed to the letter. Come on." (Joseph Dickerson a.k.a. @JosephDickerson ~ UX Magazine) -
Is the iPad mobile?
15 May 2013 | 1:49 amNice example of a rhetorical question. "Listen to your users and always check whether the new features are desirable. As you first release an app, start with your core competency and consider the features that are essential to your primary user path. As you iterate and add more features from your business and product road map, take into account what users are saying. You may find yourself adding or sunsetting features based on how and where people are using your app. Mobile or not, the tablet market is here to stay and, directly or indirectly, users will tell us what features to build… -
The Governance component of content strategy success
14 May 2013 | 9:47 amThe larger the organization, the more important this component becomes. "While all three components (creation, publication, governance) of the content strategy lifecycle are intended to be ongoing, it's the Governance component that often requires the most dedication due to its never ending need for attention. Once content is created and published then it will forever need to be managed, maintained, optimised and compliant which leads to the age old question of 'where to begin?'" (Jessica O'Sullivan ~ Siteimprove)
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UIE Brain Sparks
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Design Studio: Building Design Consensus Early in Your Process – Our June 20 Virtual Seminar
20 May 2013 | 11:00 amJoin us on June 20, when Adam Connor presents Design Studio: Building Design Consensus Early in Your Process. Design reviews can result in conflicting lists of stakeholder feedback and out-of-scope ideas about what the design should be. Bruised egos, longer timelines, and higher budgets are often par for the course. Adam Connor builds design consensus naturally by running a Studio, which structures team brainstorming early in the process, then uses sketching, presentation, and critique activities to get everyone moving toward a shared vision. Before long, you’ll be running faster among a… -
What is innovation in UX design?
17 May 2013 | 10:10 amSo here’s the thing: Innovation isn’t a bad word. Overused? Perhaps. But not bad. How do I know this? Because cheese in bread, cookie dough in ice cream, and Genius Bars inside Apple stores are AMAZING. These are just a few examples of innovation that create great user experiences. They’re creative ways of putting existing things together in new ways that add real value to users’ lives. So that’s what our fabulous lineup of presenters will be focusing on at UI18. They’ll tackle innovation in UX design from a variety of angles. Scott Berkun will talk about what it takes to enable… -
UIEtips: How Content Strategy Can Help
14 May 2013 | 12:36 pmIn this week’s UIEtips, Margot Bloomstein discusses the strategies content producers should take to optimize their writing. Here’s an excerpt from the article: But with the opportunities of publishing come immense challenges. Don’t just write; write well. Don’t just blog once; maintain a schedule. Don’t just launch an app; ensure your content is appropriate for the many contexts and devices through which it may appear. And goodness, don’t just curate content by choosing keywords and automating aggregation; hone your perspective on the topic and continually revisit your… -
Controlling the Pace of UX with Content Strategy – Our 5/30 Virtual Seminar
13 May 2013 | 7:45 amWhat happens when we slow our pace, enjoy the ride, or look around while waiting in line? Well, if there’s content to engage us, our experiences will be richer and more memorable—and our typical frustrations from “waiting” are more likely to vanish, too. That’s the power of good content that guides us, helps us focus, and encourages us to explore: it helps us make better choices and have more positive memories of an experience. Margot Bloomstein knows which companies use content to control and focus users’ attention. In Controlling the Pace of UX with Content Strategy,… -
UIE Book Corner: Margot Bloomstein’s “Content Strategy at Work”
10 May 2013 | 12:31 pm[ Transcript Available ] Here at UIE we’ve amassed quite a library, and we’re adding to it all the time. One of the more recent additions is Margot Bloomstein’s book Content Strategy at Work. Margot is a fixture at conferences like Confab and the IA Summit. She’s also a veteran of our Virtual Seminar program having presented Combining Curation with Your Content Strategy and returning May 30 with Controlling the Pace of UX with Content Strategy. The subtitle of Margot’s book is “Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project” and in keeping with that idea, it is chock…
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E-Nor Blog - Marketing Optimization and Google Analytics
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Google I/O 2013 – Optimize Web and Mobile Apps, Across Devices, Using Google Analytics
17 May 2013 | 12:17 pmYesterday, the Google Analytics team gave an amazing presentation on the recently launched platform Universal Analytics, a new user-centric way to measure user-interactions across devices, platforms and environments. It shifts the focus for the platform from being “visit centric” to “visitor centric”. In the presentation from our Googler friends, Nick Mihailovski, first talked about how we can measure beyond web and app in Google Analytics and then Andrew Wales spoke about how we can optimize experiences across devices. Finally, Pete Frisella tied it altogether and talked about how we… -
Google Analytics Premium Data Available for BigQuery
16 May 2013 | 4:19 pmTo read the official blog post, click here. On May 16th, 2013, Google announced at the Google IO conference that Google Analytics Premium will integrate with Google BigQuery. Until today, there really hasn’t been any exposure of hit-level data from Google Analytics, thus external data crunching of raw Google Analytics data has been relatively limited. Why would anyone want such granular level access? Any large (to midsize) organization will have their own data-mining warehouse, not only for online data, but for everything. Examples are product inventory, shipping tracking, phone calls,… -
Vote For Feras Alhlou for the 2013 Digital Analytics Association Board
9 May 2013 | 12:32 pmWe’re excited to announce Feras Alhlou has been nominated for a seat on the 2013 Digital Analytics Association Board. The DAA is a non-profit, volunteer-powered organization consisting of big names in the analytics industry that, among other things, aims to unite and educate individuals who have a passion and aptitude for digital analytics. If you’re a member of the DAA, and believe in Feras’s vision for the organization, vote for him! When asked by the DAA Election Committee where he would like to see the organization in two years, his response was: “Looking… -
Aladdin meets Alice in Marketing Wonderland
19 Apr 2013 | 9:34 am…and boy is Jasmine jealous! Working in the Silicon Valley is an awesome ongoing adventure. The spirit of entrepreneurship, creativity, hard work, and fun is always there. Even large companies like Google have the “20 percent time” program, where Googlers are allowed to use 20 percent of their work week to pursue any special project they like, which Google claims many of their innovative products to have originate from. Here at E-Nor, such innovative spirit is integrated in our culture and company’s DNA. We try to think about data and analytics beyond the 8 (official) working… -
Reporting Accurate Funnels in Google Analytics
15 Apr 2013 | 9:00 amSometimes, the urls (and titles) of your pages are not conducive to web analytics reporting. For example, your ecommerce site’s payment, shipping, and order confirmation page may all have the same url for some reason – http://www.domain.com/checkout.aspx. To web analytics, all these funnel pages are reported as one page. You are now stuck, you can’t create ecommerce funnels and measuring shopping cart funnel abandonment is impossible. And there is a more subtle and serious issue as well, in your report, you may find hits (events, ecommerce, social, etc) associated with this url, but…
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web analytics - Google Blog Search
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With Site Ai, Automated Insights Provides A Cliffs Notes Version Of ...
20 May 2013 | 5:09 pmAutomated Insights, a startup that translates raw data into plain English, is launching a new product that could make analytics data a lot more accessible... -
Web Analytics & Customer Analytics Face Off: Tracking Users ...
16 May 2013 | 11:28 amWeb analytics and customer analytics go head to head on the topic of tracking users across multiple devices. We conclude with a final showdown comparing how the differences between them will be reflected in your reports. -
What Does This Mean to Me, Laura? » Thinking about web analytics
16 May 2013 | 6:20 amMost libraries have some form of web analytics, to measure at least the basics: page views, number of unique visitors, time spent on the site, and so forth. But those numbers are often largely meaningless. Sure, maybe your -
Web Analytics Software Comparison - Search Engine Land
10 May 2013 | 9:50 amIf you're considering using an analytics platform other than, or in addition to, Google Analytics, it can be a bit difficult to determine what the best alt. -
Episode 66: Data Layer Standards with IBM | Beyond Web Analytics!
8 May 2013 | 6:06 amIn this episode, the Beyond Web Analytics team talks with Viswanath Srikanth & Eliot Towb of IBM on their work on the Data Layer Standards. The conversation covers how this need for standards came about, what the benefits
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Google Analytics Blog
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Google Analytics at Google I/O recap
20 May 2013 | 3:48 pmIt was a busy week in San Francisco at Google I/O. We unveiled new products and features, such as deeper mobile app analytics integration with Google Play and Google Tag Manager for mobile apps. If you missed the earlier announcement, you can learn about our new features here. Our team at Google I/O! We also gave several great presentations on some of our new features. Our Developer Relations team also showed off some tools for multi-screen measurement here, so take a look if you didn’t manage to catch our livestream this past Thursday. We also presented on dynamically configuring mobile… -
I/O Announcement: Google Analytics Premium data in BigQuery is coming soon
16 May 2013 | 4:00 pmThe landscape in data analysis has changed rapidly in the past few years. Organizations and developers are analyzing larger data sets, from more data sources, to drive their decision-making. They are examining huge volumes of unsampled data to make informed business decisions--often mining information in business intelligence tools for strategic insights. For the data scientists that perform these analyses, having direct granular access to Google Analytics data is becoming increasingly important. Today at I/O, we announced that we are giving Google Analytics Premium users the ability to glean… -
The Future of Measurement Starts at I/O: What’s New and on the Horizon for Analytics
16 May 2013 | 2:10 pmLast year at I/O we launched Mobile App Analytics, a re-imagining of app analytics from the ground up, speaking the language that matters to app developers and marketers. Since launch, the insights provided are already helping hundreds of thousands of app developers and marketers create more successful Android and iOS apps and experiences by measuring metrics at all stages: acquisition, engagement and outcomes like in-app purchases. This year at I/O, our team continues to improve mobile analysis with two announcements: Mobile App Analytics Play Integration and Google Tag Manager for… -
Google Analytics at Google I/O
14 May 2013 | 1:26 pmWe’ve been working hard getting ready for Google I/O! We're livestreaming our presentation on how to optimize web and mobile apps across devices using Google Analytics on Thursday, May 16 at 1:40pm PT and we’d like to invite everyone to join us. We recently launched Universal Analytics, a new way to measure user interactions across any device / platform / environment. By measuring this data, developers can better optimize their applications. In this session we'll discuss how to measure user-interaction from any device as well as demo new reports and best practices to optimize both web and… -
New Google Analytics Filter Fields
9 May 2013 | 9:22 amOne powerful feature of Google Analytics is the ability to create filters to limit and modify the traffic data that is included in a profile. Custom filters can be made on specific fields of data; our users have long been asking for more data to filter, especially for mobile and social. We have listened, and are glad to announce an expanded fields list. Full descriptions of the new fields and values are documented here, and following is a summary: Mobile Is a mobile device Is a tablet Mobile brand name Mobile model name Mobile marketing name Mobile pointing method Mobile has QWERTY keyboard?
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Web Analytics, Behavioral Targeting and Optimization by Anil Batra
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Are You Depleting Your Email List?
5 May 2013 | 10:02 pmIn all the effort to drives conversions marketers often forget to measure “Unsubscribe” metrics and their impact on the email marketing. As I mentioned in my post “Number One Email Marketing Mistake”, email marketers, in order to maximize short term conversions, often bombard irrelevant emails in subscribers inbox However this short term mentality results in erosion of long term viability of their email marketing, due to increase in unsubscribes causing depletion of email lists. Getting an unsubscribe is easy, however getting more people to subscribe is very difficult and… -
Tell a Story with the Data: Creating a Culture of Analytics
24 Mar 2013 | 10:20 pmMany organizations fail to create a culture of analytics, not because they don’t understand the value of analytics, but because the analysts fail to craft a good and relevant story with the data. We have all seen reports filled with pretty charts, graphs and numbers. After going through all the data if the audience doesn’t have a clear understanding of what the reports are telling and what they should do with those charts and graphs then the analyst has failed in his/her job, no matter how pretty the reports are. Let’s face it, numbers are interesting for a while but a lot… -
Number One Email Marketing Mistake
28 Jan 2013 | 9:57 pmNumber one mistake marketers make with email marketing is to send “Irrelevant” messages to their customers. It is not because they don’t understand that sending relevant messages drive higher conversions. It because they think that email messages are “Free” and incremental cost of sending messages to “non-target” customers is Zero. They hope that, by sending emails to everybody, some of the “non-target” customers will respond to their message thus causing overall conversions to go up. However, this is a big mistake because what they don’t realize is that ultimately they… -
5 Tips to Improve Marketing Campaigns
3 Oct 2012 | 1:07 pmMarketers spend millions of dollars on digital marketing campaigns every day. Analytics help marketers get the most of out of every dollar spent and drive great benefits for them and their organization. Data collected at each step of the way to conversion can help marketers and their agencies in optimizing each campaign's performance. Below I've outlined five tips on how to use the data to optimize marketing campaigns. 1. Target the Right Customers For a campaign to have any chance of succeeding it has to reach the right customers. Clearly defining customer segments is a critical component of… -
Standard Definitions of Metrics: Creating a Culture of Analytics
5 Jul 2012 | 11:28 amLack of standard definitions for the metrics causes people to report different numbers for supposedly same metrics, leading to confusion and total lack of trust in data. No trust in data means that nobody is going to use the data to make strategic decisions and there goes all your efforts to create a culture of Analytics. Having standard definitions is not as easy as it sounds. It starts from you and your team having a clear understanding on how to calculate various metrics. Some seemingly simple metrics can be calculated in various different ways and all of those ways…
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Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik
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Excellent Analytics Tip #24: Obsess About Real Business Profitability
20 May 2013 | 3:05 amThe art of analysis often fails to deliver ginarmous success simply because of how limited our worldview is when we go about identifying bottom-line impacting insights. Hence, this is a post on a simple concept that will drag you out of your current "what is happening on my website?" comfort zone, and out of your Google Analytics, Site Catalyst, WebTrends worldview silo. Sounds like fun? It is. And you end up becoming rich and famous. Not too shabby, right? Macro Business Context: The Big Deal Digital is an obsession for almost everyone who reads this blog. Part of the reason is… -
Eight Silly Data Myths Marketing People Believe That Get Them Fired.
29 Apr 2013 | 2:40 amIt turns out that Marketers, especially Digital Marketers, make really silly mistakes when it comes to data. Big data. Small data. Any data. In the last couple months I've spent a lot of time with senior level marketers on three different continents. Some of them are quite successful, but sadly many of them were not. In the latter group I discovered two common themes: 1 Some absolutely did not use data to do their digital jobs. This group should be fired immediately, so I'm not going to talk about them. [A benchmark for you: If you are not spending 30% of your time in 2013 with… -
The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act
8 Apr 2013 | 2:17 amThis should not be news to you. To win in business you need to follow this process: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act. Online, offline or nonline. Yet this structure rarely exists in companies. We are far too enamored with data collection and reporting the standard metrics we love because others love them because someone else said they were nice so many years ago. Sometimes, we escape the clutches of this sub optimal existence and do pick good metrics or engage in simple A/B testing. But it is not routine. So, how do we fix this problem? This thought was in my mind as I was… -
Excellent Analytics Tip #23: Align Hits, Sessions, Metrics, Dimensions!
18 Mar 2013 | 2:24 amWeb Analytics tools have become pretty feature rich, and the future promises to bring even more goodies (Universal Analytics anyone?). But these features bring with them new problems that we hadn't imagined before. Mostly because the limitations in the tools meant we were unable to make these mistakes. Today's post is about a new problem I'm starting to notice, which only exists because our tools have become so much cooler and handed us so much power: constant mismatching of hit- and session-level metrics and dimensions. This particular problem exists primarily because… -
Excellent Analytics Tip #22: Calculate Return On Analytics Investment!
25 Feb 2013 | 2:02 amAnalysts: Put up or shut up time! This blog is centered around creating incredible digital experiences powered by qualitative and quantitative data insights. Every post is about unleashing the power of digital analytics (the potent combination of data, systems, software and people). But we've never stopped to consider this question: What is the return on investment (ROI) of digital analytics? What is the incremental revenue impact on the company's bottom-line for the investment in data, systems and people? Isn't it amazing? We've not pointed the sexy arrow of…
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Adobe Digital Marketing Blog
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How You can Stop Statistics from Taking Advantage of You — Part 1
20 May 2013 | 11:30 amYou can’t go five minutes in the current business world without the terms big data, predictive or statistical tool being thrown about. If one was to believe all of the hype you would have no problems making perfect decisions, acting quickly, and all everyone would be improving their performance by millions of dollars every hour. Of course everyone in the field also acknowledges just how far everyone else is from that reality, but they fail to mention the same errors in logic from their own promises and their own analysis. All data is leveraged using mathematical tools many of which do not… -
Breaking the Rules in Behavioral Targeting
20 May 2013 | 10:15 amIn the constantly changing world of digital marketing, segmenting your audience using rules based on broad assumptions or unsubstantiated insights can work against your success. Unfortunately, many marketers rely only on limited rules-based targeting systems, without realizing that better options exist. The reality is that given today’s complex relationships between businesses and their customers, traditional rules-based targeting systems are often not powerful enough on their own to give customers richer, more relevant experiences when moving through a digital universe. We all know that… -
What Was the Question? The Consequences of Not Paying Attention
20 May 2013 | 9:03 amEvery day, customers leave a trail of digital bread crumbs. From computers and notebooks to smartphones and in-store transactions, the information contained in available data streamlines the customer experience. It localizes and personalizes it. If your company isn’t gobbling up that trail, using it to gain market share advantage, you aren’t paying attention. The cool thing about the whole digital marketing process is that data can be analyzed and used in ways that are helpful to both your customer and your company. It saves the customer time and money. It directs them to your product. It… -
Point of Sale: Retail & Travel Weekly #34
17 May 2013 | 4:55 amHere are this week’s links of interest in Retail & Travel from the thought leaders on our retail and travel consulting team: YouTube Finally Makes Some Videos ‘Shoppable’ [Mashable] 3 Habits That Set Chinese Online Shoppers Apart From Westerners [Business Insider] eBay links shopping carts across platforms as it updates apps [Internet Retailer] E-Commerce As A Term Will Become Obsolete In Five Or Six Years [Business Insider] Square Stand Turns iPads Into Cash Registers [Mashable] Fulfilling web orders from stores can be costly, but worth it [Internet Retailer] It’s About Time… -
Correlation Defined: Solving Mysteries
16 May 2013 | 10:17 amI’m going to get a bit nerdy right off the bat this time around. I generally wait until the second or third paragraph before I let my nerd flag fly, but this time there are some things I need to define to the average reader. The topic (as you can see by the title) is correlative data. In statistics, we have what is called positive and negative correlative data. A positive correlation means that as one specific piece of data reaches a positive measure, another follows suit. For example, let’s say we have a rocket on the Moon, and for some unknown reason, we decide we are going to go for a…
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Social ROI: A Social Entrepreneurship Blog
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The Artha Venture Challenge – Applications due by June 17th
19 May 2013 | 8:43 amTweet The Artha Venture Challenge is a nationwide competition that aims to provide high risk, patient capital for early stage social ventures. Up to 15 winners will get the opportunity to apply for up to INR 25 lakh funding, if matched by at least the same amount in co-investment as well as several other non-financial resources to scale their enterprises. Applications are only open until June 17th . -
Carrotmob, the crowdfunding startup for social good
19 May 2013 | 8:38 amTweet Carrotmob has teamed up with the investment vehicle Greenstart, which has invested $150,000 and design services into the project. Carrotmobs are like cash mobs, except community members earmark their spending at a store or restaurant for a specific social improvement like environmentally friendly lighting, bike racks or sustainably produced menu items. Many businesses want to make these positive changes but are limited by cash to get started, says co-founder Brent Schulkin. More than 100,000 Carrotmobbers have now engaged communities to encourage social change for 260 businesses… -
One Today by Google- A Giving Mobile App
18 Apr 2013 | 10:20 pmTweet One Today is an app that brings together people and nonprofits through the simple act of giving $1. It’s currently available on Android as a limited pilot in the U.S. You can visit their site to request an invite. -
SEEED 2013: Social Enterprise Ecosystem for Economic Development Summit April 26-27, 2013
16 Mar 2013 | 2:53 pmTweet Heads up, here’s an interesting conference coming up: Social Entrepreneurs, Policymakers, Students, Academics and Business Leaders to converge in conference to explore maximizing the impact of social enterprises for economic development Providence to host second annual SEEED (Social Enterprise Ecosystem for Economic Development) Summit April 26-27, 2013 PROVIDENCE, RI (February 27, 2013): Brown University and Social Venture Partners Rhode Island (SVPRI) will host the Social Enterprise Ecosystem for Economic Development (SEEED) Summit April 26-27, bringing together stakeholders… -
Reading now- CREATING GOOD WORK: The World’s Leading Social Entrepreneurs Show How to Build A Healthy Economy
16 Mar 2013 | 2:42 pmTweet I just started reading this book and I think it’s one that all of you would appreciate too. In CREATING GOOD WORK, experts and experienced social entrepreneurs tell their different perspectives and points of views. Aspiring social entrepreneurs can use these as a blueprint to get started on their entrepreneurial paths. Featuring contributions from some of the world’s most successful social ventures such as: Benetech, Brac-USA, Root Capital, Second Muse, Share Our Strength, and YouthBuild, the guidance offered in CREATING GOOD WORK is an asset to any social…
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Mashable
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Woman Finds Missing Dog in Oklahoma Tornado Rubble
21 May 2013 | 6:30 amBarbara Garcia, a survivor of the massive tornado that tore through Moore, Okla., found her dog alive under the rubble during an interview with CBS News. Before finding the dog, Garcia says in the interview that she was holding him while sitting on a stool in her small bathroom. The tornado tore through her neighborhood, destroying her home. She never lost consciousness, but was covered in the rubble. SEE ALSO: Facebook Group Helps Tornado Victims Get Their Belongings Back "I hollered for my little dog and he didn't come, so I know he's in there," says Garcia in the interview Then, the… -
'Always On' Could Change Your Gaming Habits Forever
21 May 2013 | 6:30 amIt’s all but set in stone that Microsoft’s sleek, new next-gen iteration of the Xbox — whether it’s called the “Xbox 720” or simply “Xbox” — will star in Tuesday’s major company announcement But before you start saving your pennies, it’s important to address a very buzzy rumor surrounding the device: The next Xbox could be “Always On.” SEE ALSO: How the Xbox Changed Its Look Through the Ages It sounds innocuous enough, but the Always On trend is very polarizing for game developers and fans alike. Some view it as the… -
Ultimate Ears Boom: The Speaker Jambox Wants to Be
21 May 2013 | 6:02 amForget Jambox. It's officially been replaced, at least in my mind, by the Ultimate Ears Boom: A portable wireless speaker that sounds almost as good as a much larger home system. It also has a brilliant stereo mode that lets you set up two Booms to act as a stereo pair. And it has a sizzling design. Ultimate Ears made its name with in-ear headphones that are custom-made to the wearer's ears. It began by catering to audiophiles (mostly sound engineers), then spread to a more mainstream crowd when Logitech acquired it. The Boom ($199.99) is its first wireless speaker, and it's a great one. From… -
MoviePass Removes Wait List for Unlimited Theater Tickets
21 May 2013 | 5:10 amGoing to the movies is an expensive pastime, especially if you're a frequent visitorMoviePass, a service that launched late last year, is trying to ease the financial burden for film buffs by charging them a single monthly fee — typically around $30 — to watch up to one 2D movie in theater per day Still in beta, the service has had a wait list ranging from a few days to a few weeks since its launch last year. On Monday, MoviePass temporarily cleared the list, opening it up to those who signed up (it declined to share its current user numbers). What's more, to celebrate "summer… -
YouTube: The Newest Dog Toy
21 May 2013 | 4:25 amDid you hear that YouTube has hit the impressive milestone of one billion visitors a month? What the video-sharing site didn't reveal, however, is how many of those visitors are actually human We have found evidence of increasingly-addicted dogs turning to YouTube to watch footage of their fellow four-legged friends SEE ALSO: 10 Disappointing Dogs That Sound Like Cats Take a look through our amusing selection of confused canines in the video gallery above. Link us in the comments section below to any other YouTube-addicted pooches you've come across Homepage image courtesy of Flickr, Shazz…
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Mind Hacks
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Did the eyes really stare down bicycle crime in Newcastle?
16 May 2013 | 2:33 amThis is the first fortnightly column I’ll be writing for The Conversation, a creative commons news and opinion website that launched today. The site has been set up by a number of UK universities and bodies such as the Wellcome Trust, Nuffield Foundation and HEFCE, following the successful model of the Australian version of the site. Their plan is to unlock the massive amount of expertise held by UK academics and inject it into the public discourse. My plan is to give some critical commentary on headlines from the week's news which focus on neuroscience and psychology. If… -
A world of swearing
15 May 2013 | 11:19 amThe Boston Globe has a short but fascinating interview on the history of swearing where author Melissa Mohr describes how the meaning of the act of swearing has changed over time. IDEAS: Are there other old curses that 21st-century people would be surprised to hear about? MOHR: Because [bad words] were mostly religious in the Middle Ages, any part of God’s body you could curse with. God’s bones, nails, wounds, precious heart, passion, God’s death—that was supposedly one of Queen Elizabeth I’s favorite oaths. IDEAS: Have religious curses like that lost their power as the culture… -
The ‘unnamed feeling’ named ASMR
13 May 2013 | 7:03 amHere’s my BBC Future column from last week. It’s about the so-called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, which didn’t have a name until 2010 and I’d never heard of until 2012. Now, I’m finding out that it is surprisingly common. The original is here. It’s a tightening at the back of the throat, or a tingling around your scalp, a chill that comes over you when you pay close attention to something, such as a person whispering instructions. It’s called the autonomous sensory meridian response, and until 2010 it didn’t exist. I first heard about… -
Disaster response psychology needs to change
12 May 2013 | 3:54 amI’ve got an article in today’s Observer about how disaster response mental health services are often based on the erroneous assumption that everyone needs ‘treatment’ and often rely on single-session counselling sessions which may do more harm than good. Unfortunately, the article has been given a rather misleading headline (‘Minds traumatised by disaster heal themselves without therapy’) which suggests that mental health services are not needed. This is not the case and this is not what the article says. What it does say is that the common idea of disaster… -
2013-05-03 Spike activity
4 May 2013 | 5:41 amQuick links from the past week in mind and brain news: I can’t recognise my own face! In my case, it’s because the Botox has worn off but for person described in the New Scientist article it’s because of prosopagnosia. The Guardian reports that the UK Government’s ‘Nudge Unit’ is set to become a commercial service. Nudge mercenaries! A greater use of “I” and “me” as a mark of interpersonal distress. An interesting study covered by the BPS Research Digest. Pacific Standard has an interesting piece about gun registers, felons and…
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Neuromarketing
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Brilliant Billboard Traps 230,000 Real Bugs
14 May 2013 | 5:32 amHow do you promote a new outdoor insect spray, Orphea, on a billboard in Milan? This clever effort turned the portion of the corresponding to the “spray” from a pictured can into a giant piece of fly paper. Over a period of days, the sticky trap captured hundreds of thousands of real insects. Watch the [...] -
Neuromarketing Meets Conversion Optimization: Free Webinar
9 May 2013 | 6:20 amNext week, conversion optimization expert Chris Goward and I will be doing a joint webinar: Neuromarketing Meets Conversion Optimization: Brainy Profit Boosters. I was excited to set this up with Chris, who’s the author of You Should Test That. Testing is critical. In nearly every speech I give, I include a quote from ad legend [...] -
Persuade with Visual Metaphors
8 May 2013 | 11:37 amWhile we think of metaphors as mainly word-based, visual metaphors can be a potent selling tool. They can both engage the brain like text metaphors and stimulate the viewer’s senses in a way that words alone may not. I ran across an ad for Austin-based Elements Laser Spa that includes both a visual metaphor and [...] -
Do Your Customers Feel Ignored?
30 Apr 2013 | 5:21 amNo business intentionally ignores its customers. In fact, most managers think they do a reasonably good job of listening. But, if a customer feels ignored, big trouble lies ahead. -
Brainfluence in Korean
29 Apr 2013 | 5:28 amI returned from my speaking swing through South America last week to find a nice surprise from Wiley, my publisher: a few sample copies of Brainfluence in Korean. The cover, amusingly enough, features a brain in a bottle! I neither speak nor read Korean, so to find out how the title might read, I turned [...]
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TechCrunch
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3 Mindbending Ways Apple Dodged $13.8B In Taxes
21 May 2013 | 5:45 amKudos to Apple’s finance lawyers, who are the Cirque Du Soleil of legal contortionism. On the eve of live testimony from CEO Tim Cook, CFO Peter Oppenheimer and Phillip Bullock, head of Apple’s tax operations, a scathing congressional investigation of Apple’s tax dodging strategy reveals how the computer giant avoided $13.8 billion in taxes through a clever labyrinth of offshore tax havens, shell corporations, and paper shuffling. “The ability to pay taxes of less than 2% on all of Apple’s offshore income gives the company a powerful financial incentive to engage in… -
New U.K. Edtech Entity To Spend Up To $77M Acquiring European E-Learning Firms Over Next 18 Months To Build Regional Giant
21 May 2013 | 5:34 amExpect a swathe of consolidation in the European e-learning sector in the coming months. Edxus Group, a new London-based corporate operating edtech company, is planning to plough in €50-60 million ($64-$77 million) over the next 18 months to develop and acquire European e-learning businesses and build out a single regional player with the scale to compete against U.S. edtech giants, it said today. Edxus plans to execute the first phase of its “buy and build” strategy over the next three to four months, deploying an initial €15-20 million to “consolidate a handful of… -
Brightpearl Raises $8 Million Series B For Its Cloud Software To Help Retailers Manage Sales Across Multiple Channels
21 May 2013 | 5:08 amIn what is effectively a follow-on round, Brightpearl, the cloud software provider for multichannel retailers, has raised $8 million in Series B funding from previous backers Eden Ventures and Notion Capital. Both Eden and Notion seed-backed the UK company, before adding a further $5 million Series A in May 2011. This brings the total raised by Brightpearl to $14.5 million. Brightpearl provides cloud software for small to medium-sized retailers, which integrates orders, inventory and customer data across multiple retail channels — both online and bricks ‘n’ mortar. The… -
Unity Game Engine Goes Free For iOS And Android Developers
21 May 2013 | 5:03 amThe barrier to entry for the Unity game rendering engine for developers on iOS, Android and BlackBerry 10 has gotten lower, as use of Unity tech is now free on both mobile platforms. Unity CEO David Helgason announced the changed terms today during the Unite Nordic trade conference, according to Pocket Gamer’s Keith Andrew. The dropping of licensing fees for the engine’s basic tier means that features which once cost $800 now carry no charge at all. The change in pricing structure is all about building momentum for indie game creators and studio, according to Helgason. Unity… -
With A Media-Rich Platform To Stand Out From The Messaging Pack, MessageMe Hits 5M Users In 2.5 Months [Interview]
21 May 2013 | 5:00 amLast week we reported that MessageMe, one of the latest messaging apps to hit the smartphone market, had picked up a $10 million Series A round of funding, and today, the company is officially confirming the news, along with some more details on how it’s been doing in the 2.5 months since it launched. It now has 5 million users across both iOS and Android — a five-fold increase on the 1 million that downloaded the app in its first 10 days. MessageMe aims to carve out a name for itself by offering more ways than the rest of the pack for users to communicate with each other on its…
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ScienceDaily: Latest Science News
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Early-life traffic-related air pollution exposure linked to hyperactivity
20 May 2013 | 10:12 pmEarly-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution was significantly associated with higher hyperactivity scores at age 7, according to new research. -
'Whodunnit' of Irish potato famine solved
20 May 2013 | 10:12 pmAn international team of scientists reveals that a unique strain of potato blight they call HERB-1 triggered the Irish potato famine of the mid-19th century. -
Resistance to last-line antibiotic makes bacteria resistant to immune system
20 May 2013 | 10:12 pmBacteria resistant to the antibiotic colistin are also commonly resistant to antimicrobial substances made by the human body, according to a new study. Cross-resistance to colistin and host antimicrobials LL-37 and lysozyme, which help defend the body against bacterial attack, could mean that patients with life-threatening multi-drug resistant infections are also saddled with a crippled immune response. -
New NOAA report examines national oil pollution threat from shipwrecks
20 May 2013 | 4:31 pmNOAA presented to the U.S. Coast Guard a new report that finds that 36 sunken vessels scattered across the U.S. seafloor could pose an oil pollution threat to the nation's coastal marine resources. Of those, 17 were recommended for further assessment and potential removal of both fuel oil and oil cargo. -
The mammoth's lament: How cosmic impact sparked devastating climate change
20 May 2013 | 3:55 pmResearchers have found evidence of a major cosmic event near the end of the Ice Age. The ensuing climate change forced many species to adapt or die.
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Wired: Wired Science
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Wired Space Photo of the Day: Swirl of Star Formation
20 May 2013 | 1:25 pmThis beautiful, glittering swirl is named, rather unpoetically, J125013.50+073441.5. A glowing haze of material seems to engulf the galaxy, stretching out into space in different directions and forming a fuzzy streak in this image. It is a starburst galaxy — ... -
Unknown Mathematician Proves Elusive Property of Prime Numbers
20 May 2013 | 10:55 amAn unknown mathematician, Yitang Zhang, has revolutionized his field and helped move forward a 2,000-year-old conjecture about prime numbers. His counterintuitive findings show that special pairs of primes, called twin primes, can never be more than 70 million places away ... -
Wired Space Photo of the Day: Dunes of Titan
19 May 2013 | 3:30 amData from NASA's Cassini spacecraft show that the sizes and patterns of dunes on Saturn's moon Titan vary as a function of altitude and latitude. The dunes in areas that are more elevated or are higher in latitude, such as ... -
Wired Space Photo of the Day: Galactic Wheels
18 May 2013 | 3:30 amHow many rings do you see in this new image of the galaxy Messier 94, also known as NGC 4736? While at first glance one might see a number of them, astronomers believe there is just one. This image was ... -
Wired Space Photo of the Day: Two Views of Iapetus
17 May 2013 | 11:37 amThese two global images of Iapetus show the extreme brightness dichotomy on the surface of this peculiar Saturnian moon. The left-hand panel shows the moon's leading hemisphere and the right-hand panel shows the moon's trailing side. While low and mid ...
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Visual Business Intelligence
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A Preview of Tableau 9: Gauges?!
20 May 2013 | 12:47 pmIf George Peck has his way (Peck wrote the only authorized book about Tableau 8 and has also served as the featured speaker in many of the Tableau 8 Roadshow events), the next version of Tableau will add flashy gauges to its library of charts. Here are his thoughts on the matter, as recorded in the latest newsletter from Peck’s consultancy The Ablaze Group: Why Tableau Should Add a Gauge to Version 9 We’re wrapping up the Tableau 8 Roadshow (having now been shut out of two cities, including our own hometown of Denver, by airport weather cancellations). Tableau 8 is available and… -
A More Thoughtful but No More Convincing View of Big Data
13 May 2013 | 10:54 amI have a problem with Big Data. As someone who makes his living working with data and helping others do the same as effectively as possible, my objection doesn’t stem from a problem with data itself, but instead from the misleading claims that people often make about data when they refer to it as Big Data. I have frequently described Big Data as nothing more than a marketing campaign cooked up by companies that sell information technologies either directly (software and hardware vendors) or indirectly (analyst groups such as Gartner and Forrester). Not everyone who promotes Big Data… -
A Gourmet Tufte Sandwich with Confetti Filling
10 May 2013 | 4:49 pmThis morning, in my personalized list of Google alerts, I spotted a link to a new video by PBS about data visualization. I’m a longtime, avid supporter of PBS, so I was hoping for something useful. I also knew, however, that PBS doesn’t always vet its content adequately (some of the self-help gurus that PBS features are laughable) and that it doesn’t always get the story right. So, I held my breath, hoping for the best when I followed the link to the PBS video “The Art of Data Visualization.” My spirit rose when the video began with the words of Edward Tufte and… -
Seven Tenets of Quantitative Data Presentation
10 May 2013 | 10:09 amPresenting quantitative information is a specialized form of communication. Like all forms of communication, quantitative data presentation is most effective when we follow a few best practices, such as the following seven tenets. Know your data. Until you understand the stories that live in your data, you can’t begin to tell them. Know your audience. Unless you understand what matters to your audience, you won’t know what is of interest and use to them. Determine your message. Every dataset contains multiple stories. You can’t tell them all at once. Before you present… -
Beware the Straw Man
9 May 2013 | 8:12 amA “straw man” is a flawed form of argument that occurs when one side attacks a position that isn’t actually held by the other side (the “straw man”) and then acts as though the other side’s position has been refuted. People usually construct straw men when they cannot legitimately refute an opponent’s position. As such, a straw man is a dishonest and fallacious form of argument, but one that can be persuasive when the audience is not aware of the facts. I learned about straw men as an undergraduate majoring in communication studies. I loved the course…
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Marketing Darwinism
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Why CMO’s Need To Be More Involved in Ecommerce
15 May 2013 | 11:00 amPosted in CommerceConversion OptimizationCustomer ExperienceeCommerceLeadershipOnline TestingOptimizationPersonalizationTesting If the $42.3 billion spent online this past holiday season has taught retailers anything, it’s that capturing customers—and their dollars—online is crucial. But online is a big place. And mobile, which can seem like an entirely different universe, looms ever larger. So where to even start if you haven’t yet…started? And who should lead the charge? The modern day merchant must have an intimate understanding of the importance of online and mobile commerce,… -
3 Ways Social Media can Boost Sales Success
7 May 2013 | 10:45 amPosted in BloggingBusiness IntelligenceCommunitiesContent MarketingConversational MarketingEnterprise 2.0FacebookLead GenerationLead NurturingPeopleSalesSocial Business IntelligenceSocial MediaSocial NetworkingStrategyThought LeadershipTwitter Recently there has been a lot of conversation against the importance of relationships in selling such as this recent Harvard Business Review article on Selling is Not about Relationships which makes it seem like social media would not make a good fit for sales people. But a new RAIN Group report proves otherwise and shows that sales people that truly… -
6 Things to Keep in Mind When Replatforming
30 Apr 2013 | 11:00 amPosted in Business IntelligenceTesting As the shelf life of ecommerce sites gets shorter, it becomes harder for marketers to balance the latest trends while maintaining a seamless customer experience. When constant upgrades and revamps become daily tasks, or the functionality just isn’t meeting your growth demands, it might be a sign that it’s time to replatform—or migrate your site to a more stable, streamlined infrastructure. The bad news is that if you’re considering a replatform, it’s likely because your ecommerce site is highly complex and dynamic, with rich content, targeted… -
The Social-Shake-Up: A New Breed of Marketer is Coming
25 Apr 2013 | 9:47 amPosted in InnovationInteractive MarketingStrategy Gartner is predicting that by 2015, 25% of organizations will have a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and further estimated that 20% of existing chief information officers (CIOs) have already taken on some of the responsibilities of the CDO. So what does a CDO do? The role of the CDO in the enterprise has gotten a great deal of attention in recent months. Perhaps because of the impact and influence that the CDO had in the Obama campaign last fall. All the tools of the trade – text analytics, social media analysis, Website personalization,… -
Your Testing Program: Smart Ways to Get Your Team On Board
10 Apr 2013 | 1:01 pmPosted in eCommerceOptimizationTesting On the face of it, the idea of a rigorously testing and optimizing your ecommerce web site seems like a no-brainer. After all, who would object to gathering hard data on exactly how customers move through your site, what happens on specific visits, and what unseen speed bumps and sticking points are hurting sales? Who wouldn’t want definitive answers to such questions? Fact is, though, in many online marketing organizations, there is often surprisingly sharp resistance to technologies such as multivariate testing. Sometimes, it’s simply because…
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See Corey Run: A Fitness & Nutrition Journal
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Coach Corey's Corner: 15 Tips for a Long and Healthy Running Life
3 May 2013 | 9:12 amI know I still have to finish part 2 of that last article. It's currently sitting in draft form, and I'm sure I'll get to it at some point, but right now, I'd like to move on to another topic. I'm training a new client today who's relatively new to the sport and have given him a list of tips that I'd drawn up for this express purpose. (This is standard practice for new clients.) I thought I'd share that list here to help benefit others runners. Although the advice is geared towards newbies, experienced runners can benefit from it too. We all sometimes need reminders to refocus on the basics… -
Coach Corey's Corner: Effective Strategies for Achieving Your New Year's Health & Exercise Goals, Part 1
31 Dec 2012 | 5:00 pmAs this year comes to a close and we look forward to the start of a new year, it's only natural to think about what we want to accomplish in 2013. And not surprisingly, many of those goals are health and exercise related. :) For those of us who've already integrated regular exercise and healthy living into our existing life patterns, this means we're simply renewing our commitment to our ongoing exercise and eating plans, while setting even more ambitious goals to reach along the way. We might need to tweak our plans here and there, but for the most part, we know what we need to accomplish… -
Martial Arts and Running: Balancing the Yin with the Yang :)
21 Dec 2012 | 5:27 pmAs I mentioned in previous post, I'm now enrolled as a student at a martial arts school, in addition to my other exercise activities. I'm currently taking (Northern Shaolin) kung fu and t'ai chi there, and at some point, will probably also toss in a kickboxing class here and there. After some trial and error, I've had to shift my schedule around a bit, but now think I've found the perfect balance to fit everything in. I was originally going to lift on my off-days from martial arts and running, but as I soon discovered, that wasn't feasible. After doing lifting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and… -
Looking Back to Look Forward: A Really Honest Post, Part 3
19 Dec 2012 | 2:57 pmOK, this is the last in a 3-part series of posts about social media and the running community. (If you didn't catch the first two posts, click here and here to view parts 1 and 2, respectively.) After reading the first two, this one will seem a heck of a lot shorter in comparison. :) So, now that I've reflected upon the state of the blogosphere as it applies to the development and historical timeline of the online community, as well as my own personal experiences as a participant in that sphere, it's time to look forward. What will happen to blogging as social media evolves? Will it still… -
Looking Back to Look Forward: A Really Honest Post, Part 2
18 Dec 2012 | 8:07 amThis is a continuation of the previous post about much things have changed over the years with regard to those of us who first started blogging about running way back when (i.e., around 2007 or so): To give you an idea of how much things had changed from the start, I'll use my blog as an example: At one point, my readership ballooned to over 550 readers. Several people wrote positive reviews of it, graced it with a plethora of awards (it made several "best blog" and "top blog" lists, ranking as high as #5 on some lists), and then the PR companies came calling. Would I be interested in…
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CalorieLab - Health News & Information Blog
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Health Insurance Premiums and Obesity
20 May 2013 | 9:34 amContributor: “Dr. J” Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200. It’s well known that obesity’s direct medical, productivity, transportation and human capital bill adds to society’s yearly expenses to the tune of over $200 billion! Now although this number is staggering, as most of us know, we can’t even imagine what that amount of money is. However, if you are one of those obese… -
Lab Notes: Colgate Working Toward Caffeine Toothbrush; Man Comes Back to Life at His Funeral
18 May 2013 | 12:10 amOn our Lab Notes page CalorieLab’s editors select and rank the day’s essential health news items in real time. Readers can suggest, vote and comment on items. Below are brief summaries of this past week’s (May 11, 2013 through May 18, 2013) Lab Notes items. To see today’s items, visit Lab Notes. 1. Colgate Working Toward Caffeine Toothbrush Aiming to save you time in the morning, Colgate-Palmolive has applied for a patent for technology that allows chemicals to slowly release during brushing. 2. Man Comes Back to Life at His Funeral Man comes back to life at his… -
Smart Thermometer Calls Your Doctor For You
17 May 2013 | 9:00 am© red2000 – Fotolia Thermometers haven’t changed much over the years, but they have remained just as useful in letting you know when it’s time to seek out medical attention. Now, there’s a thermometer that makes dealing with illnesses like the common cold or flu a little easier The Kinsa Smart Thermometer is a device that plugs into your iPhone headphone jack to display your temperature right on your device. It will also give you advice on how to treat your illness and how to spot the symptoms of something more serious. If you feel like it’s time to visit your… -
Do Friends Tell Friends They’re Too Fat?
16 May 2013 | 6:00 amThe author of the XoJane.com piece. (CC) XoJane.com If they want to remain friends, perhaps not I’m not at all familiar with the women’s lifestyle website, xoJane.com, nor with its founder, Jane Pratt, so I can’t say whether it was she or one of the other female contributors to the site who wrote the post titled “How Not to be a Dick to Your Fat Friends.” It is written in the first person singular, so it may very well be just one plus-sized woman’s unrepresentative opinion. But she certainly speaks for plus-sized women with far more credibility and… -
Diagnosis, Cure, and Karma Centered Therapy
15 May 2013 | 9:05 amContributor: “Dr. J” Dr. J offers his irreverent, slightly irrelevant, but possibly useful opinions on health and fitness. A Florida surgeon and fitness freak with a black belt in karate, he runs 50 miles a week and flies a Cherokee Arrow 200. (CC) Fox valley Institute/Flickr All too often, people seem to feel that the diagnosis of a problem is equal to the cure. Take alcoholism, for example. Is the first step to getting sober stating there is a problem with drinking, as in “I am me, and I am an alcoholic?” No, it isn’t! The first step to getting sober is to stop…
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A Trail Runner's Blog
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Ultrarunner Karl Hoagland Takes Over at Ultrarunning Magazine
15 May 2013 | 7:11 amUltrarunner and hotel/restaurant magnate Karl Hoagland has acquired Ultrarunning Magazine, and will be taking over as its Publisher starting with the July, 2013 issue. Hoagland is no stranger to ultrarunning, having finished over 40 ultras including a 15th place at the 2010 Western States 100 (he also serves on the board of WS). Retiring Publisher John Medinger along with his wife Lisa Henson, who has been UltraRunning’s General Manager, will remain involved with the magazine as Correspondents at Large, contributing content on a periodic basis. John will also continue as the Race Director… -
New Injinji Video Showcases the Gorgeous Hills of Lake Sonoma, CA
14 May 2013 | 9:05 am[Ed Note - A few hours after this posted, the video became password-protected. I touched base with Matt, and he said Injinji wasn't quite ready to make it public. I will repost once it is!] Photographer/filmmaker Matt Trappe shot an amazing video for Injinji at the Lake Sonoma 50m this year. Great footage, and commentary from Dave Mackey, Timothy Olson, Meghan Arboghast, Galen Burrell, and Jacob Rydman! Couldn't agree more. I've been blister-free in Injinji's for nearly a decade now. -
Saturday Night Live's Spoof of New Balance Running Shoe Commercial (video)
8 May 2013 | 10:41 amTruth in advertising, brought to you by SNL. ;-) “Comfort. Support. Stability. New Balance shoes, made for running… …but worn by chubby white guys in their late 30′s to early 40′s. New Balance sneakers have advanced cushioning in the forefoot… …because if you were running, you’d need that. That same cushioning helps me just stand here.” My friend Johnny Lee said it reminded him of this clip from Crazy, Stupid, Love...another great NB nerd reference. -
A Glimpse of the 2013 Big Sur Marathon
3 May 2013 | 9:58 am[Going micro-blog style for this one...thanks to a broken camera, whoops.] (Want to know an easy cheat for getting a good picture? Take a photo of the cover of a coffee table book. ;-) ) Friday, 10:44am: Kids asleep in the car, and Christi is a flurry of thumbs on her iPhone as we take the two-hour drive to Carmel and Big Sur. Birthday weekend is off and running (#44!), and we've got a full agenda. I'm looking forward to feeling worlds away on the edge of the earth. The silence is precious. Friday, 3:08pm: Wide-eyed girls stare into the sea at the Monterey Aquarium, mimicking sea otters and… -
Running My Own Race At The Lake Sonoma 50-Mile (Guest Blogger Gary Gellin)
30 Apr 2013 | 8:26 am[The following post is brought to you by the incredibly fast Gary Gellin...go Team inov-8 and Team Inside Trail Racing!] "Run Your Own Race"Lake Sonoma 50 Mile - April 2013 Those of us who race almost any distance longer than a sprint have undoubtedly been advised by someone to "run your own race". Aside from the general acceptance that it is a way to run a personal best time at most distances, it is something not frequently achieved in practice. This has been on my mind since taking a different approach, and perhaps an experimental one, at the recent Lake Sonoma 50 mile race. In recent…
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Trail Running Blog
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Tour of Long Beach 31-Mile Ride Race Report
15 May 2013 | 11:02 pmI actually registered for this race months before, but as it got closer and closer to race day, I still wasn’t sure if I was going to do this 31 mile bike ride. That’s the problem with signing up for a race so far in advanced, you never know what plans you’ll have until a few weeks before. But at the end of the day, I was able to do the race and attend the other commitments I had afterwards. And since there was a chance I was going to do this ride, I prepared as much as I could for it. The weekend before, I completed an 18 mile ride so 31 would not feel as bad. In between… -
Santa Anita Derby Day 5K Race Report
22 Apr 2013 | 10:38 pmI’ve wanted to run this race for a few years now, mostly because it’s literally next door to the mall by my parent’s house in LA. I wasn’t planning to run it again this year, but my friend told me that he was going to run it and told me to do the same. We were actually old high school cross country teammates, but he stopped racing once he graduated. I stopped too, but as I’ve said before, I started to race competitively a few years ago. I knew running with old teammates wasn’t really going to be a fun run, so I wanted to be prepared for race day. I actually ran a lot faster than I… -
2013 Mission Driven Eco Run 10K Trail Run Race Report
23 Mar 2013 | 10:03 pmTwo weeks ago, when we lost an hour due to daylight savings, I decided to start waking up early to run before work. Even though it was just 3-4 miles a day, it was more running that I had done in quite some time. Those two weeks of miles under my belt really made a difference in today’s results: 46:49 (6.05 mi, 7:44 min/mile), 2/7 AG, 16/72 overall. The course was pretty tough and it was literally a sprint to the finish, which worked out since I beat the 3rd place runner in my AG by 1.202 seconds! I ran this race a little bit slower last year but I forget how much I was running at the time. -
Senorita Century 45 Mile Ride Race Report
4 Mar 2013 | 1:17 amI won an entry to this race but wasn’t sure if I was going to sign up, even though it would have been my first organized ride. What I was afraid of was being the only male in this ‘beautiful ride for women’; fortunately they had a ride just for males or what they called ‘rico suaves’. I signed up for the shorter, 40-miler distance instead of the 60. They clarified a few days before the race that the actual distance was 42 miles, but for some reason, my ride came out to over 45 miles! Although the ride wasn’t actually timed or offered place awards, I was happy with my personal time… -
Finish Chelsea’s Run 5K Race Report
2 Mar 2013 | 3:06 pmFinish Chelsea’s Run is a race I’ve wanted to participate (or at least support) since they started it back in 2010. This race is dedicated to Chelsea King who was sadly taken during one of her runs in that same year. A group of runners were so affected by the news that they planned to meet at the same park and ‘finish Chelsea’s run’. “Word quickly spread and on the morning of March 20, 2010 more than 3,500 community members joined together to run and walk in solidarity with, and in honor of Chelsea, who they adopted as one of their own.” It would have been nice to join in that…
