Design By Metaphor

Design by metaphor—or, as is often the case, design by simile—happens when a client provides design and development in the form of a reference to another product. This can occur both in high-level concepts, such as, “MySpace, but for B2B relationships,” and in individual details, like “the login should be just like Gmail’s.”

Spoken language provides an interesting analogue to design by metaphor: If you’re not a fluent speaker of a particular language, you’re often forced to stretch your limited vocabulary into bizarre, descriptive phrases instead of the exact words that say what you mean. Maybe you remember the last time you were overseas and asked directions to the “shop of changing banknotes.” In the same way, you’ll mostly see similes in specifications provided by clients who may not know how to say that they want “database of user registrations with reports X, Y, and Z” or “JavaScript menus that degrade into CSS-formatted lists.”

Metaphors and similes are also excellent ways to summarize multiple, loosely-related concepts in shorthand. After all, the basic behaviors of any web-based discussion forum, contact form, or shopping cart are largely the same as those of any other once you factor out the specific content of the site.
Why put up with comparison-driven design?

When used to pin down abstract concepts or unusual design details, design by metaphor or simile bridges a major gap of understanding. The customer may not be able to pin down what he wants from another site, but in some cases, pointing to that site can be enough to make the features he desires apparent to experienced developers.

Conversely, comparative references can be extremely powerful for explaining design decisions back to a client. Few client-provided specifications are all-inclusive, and you can expect questions when your judgment calls don’t match what he imagined. If you explain that you designed your booking process “like Expedia,” you can easily summarize a wide range of choices through the system, as well as gain added authority by showing that your choices mirror those of a successful system.

When comparisons attack

Unfortunately, the power of this method of communication comes at a significant cost. If a client says he wants his new auction site to be “like eBay,” what does that mean? An artist hears “It has a tacky color scheme.” A developer hears “It’s scalable to 20 million users.” A user hears “It has feedback ratings on all sellers.” Which, if any of these, did the client mean? You may spend dozens of hours writing specs for eBay-esque features that didn’t capture the client’s heart.

Conversely, defining your own work in terms of other products may set up unacceptable comparisons or fixations in your customer’s mind. If you boast that a new shopping cart works 95% like Amazon, the client may grow obsessed with “fixing” the 5% that’s different, or incorrectly believe that his site has acquired the capacity and features of Amazon across the board.

Moreover, the ability to identify a loose aggregation of features via a single comparison may cause clients to accidentally include irrelevant or needlessly expensive features in their specifications. For example, many off-the-shelf shopping systems include extensive support for multiple currencies and tax jurisdictions. This adds many layers of complexity, and if you’re running a single outlet in Chandler, Arizona, you probably don’t actually want to spend $5,000 more on development to ensure your “just like Zen Cart” shop is ready to handle British Value Added Tax.

Finally, a client who can only speak in similes may be unable to bring the best possible choices to the table. If the client is selling merchandise, he’ll probably say he wants a self-contained shopping system styled after his favorite e-commerce site—but his comparison is limited by his experience. Odds are, he hasn’t seen an example of a hosted shopping cart service, or a single-action “Buy Now” button that he can allude to, even if those would suit his needs better. Your experience and expertise comes in there, as you’ll be able to offer your clients choices they didn’t realize they had and rescue them from the tyranny of comparison.

Bounce back to the real world

The ambiguity inherent in comparison-based design communication must be managed, or you’ll end up trying to build mutant websites which work as YouTube plus Newegg multiplied by DeviantArt…on a $750 budget. Fortunately, there’s a practical strategy for controlling runaway scope: limit the use of metaphors and similes to the phases in which they work best.

It makes sense to start with comparisons, especially if you’re about to develop a significant new functional unit. However, if you do so, the second round of specification development becomes critical. Once you understand what the client is asking for on a high level, you should restate that understanding in more concrete terms that will form the basis for binding design documents. You can even walk through the comparison product part by part and ask the client what he really means with his comparisons. There is absolutely no harm in asking “what part of this process do you want to copy?” Developers often over-complicate vague requests, and it may turn out to be a pleasant surprise when it turns out that all the client really wants to lift from the $300,000 commercial backend is its color scheme and menu placement.

You may also be able to control ambiguous comparisons by treating them not just as a design reference, but also as a source of benchmarks. Compare compatibility and performance of the model site: when you bring a focus group in, let them attempt to complete tasks on your site and then on the sites the client presented as models. Direct comparison of user experiences and task success rates are solid evidence that your site matches, or even exceeds, the models. Such a strategy is particularly effective when the client has questionable assumptions about user behavior.

When it’s clear that the client is relying on a poor or inadequate analogy because he lacks a better choice, you can combine his understanding of comparisons with your wide design vocabulary. Speak his language, and propose that “instead of doing it like your example, what if we try doing it like this other example?”

Finally, don’t miss the possibility of the sum of a client’s models being significant as well. If all the sites he idolizes average 700k per page of images and Flash, the unspoken message could well be “a seamless, graphics-intensive look is more important to me than 28.8 modem users.” Reading between the lines is no less important here than it is with a more conventional specification.
One more communication tool: no more, no less

Design by comparison can help to engage your clients in the development process while keeping the discussion at a level they’re comfortable with. However, its practitioners must realize that poorly analyzed metaphors can say too much or too little. The need for this delicate balance keeps the technique from being a panacea, but doesn’t prevent it from being useful.

Article by Jack Zeal
A List Apart

Search Engine Marketing – Do You Have InBound Links?

A great way to increase your search engine ranking is by gathering inbound links to your website from reputable sources.

Best of the Web – Online Directory

Web directories are “search engines” that are powered by people rather than computers. Websites are organized according to subject categories for drill down searching… but the directory also has a search function that you can use on the homepage. The subject directories may be smaller than other searchable databases because of the human interaction involved. But sometimes smaller is better.

Human editors can very often provide a better level of results. In addition to the direct traffic that a directory listing can provide, computer based search engines such as Google, MSN and Yahoo often crawl directories, looking for new content. When the crawlers find your site listed in a directory with other relevant websites it can help your “organic” listings on the major search engines.

AVOID “link farms” – these are typically web directories that allow “FFA” listings (Free For All)… These directories often include many irrelevant websites in all directories, sometimes even porn. Linking to these sites is a very bad move on your part.

Best of the Web (BOTW.org) has been around since 1994, and has always been a “human edited” directory. Click here to submit your site today.

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The BOTW Category Sponsorship program allows webmasters the opportunity to enhance their online visibility with free Internet advertising. Your sponsorship is displayed at the top of a relevant directory category of your choosing as well as alongside Best of the Web search results. Your first Category Sponsorship is FREE for 60 days and then bills monthly thereafter.

Your sponsorship is displayed at the top of a relevant directory category of your choosing, as well as alongside Best of the Web search results. Only three sponsors are allowed per category, ensuring maximum visibility. Also, large title and description fields allow you to tailor your advertising message. This includes allowing marketing language and even phone numbers.

The Deal: Your first Best of the Web Category Sponsorship is FREE for 60 days and then bills monthly thereafter. Get Started Now!

Amy Fedele, Creative Director
Bullzeye Design – Targeting Your Web and Graphic Needs!

What a Difference a URL Can Make

…especially when it comes to print.
Research shows that print ads that contain URLs are up to three times as likely to drive readers to a website than those that don’t include them.

Not that this information comes as much of a surprise, but it is probably a tactic that many businesses still are not using.

The Research Shows…
A study conducted by the Magazine Publishers of America shares this info along with statistics that show that readers of magazines in the Travel, Home and Women’s categories tend to drive more readers from the magazine to the web.

Think About the Actual URL
For a print ad to inspire web traffic, the URL itself can play a tremendous role in whether or not it even gets visited.

Helen Leggatt at BizReport suggests using fresh, unique URLS “perhaps per campaign or even per publication” to generate interest. As an example, she mentions a recent Burger king campaign utilizing the haveityourway.com domain.

I would suggest at the very least using a memorable, easily spelled domain name like I talked about in this SmallBusinessNewz article.

Don’t Overlook the Strategy
The concept of inclusion of a web address in offline marketing is also something I’ve stressed before for encouraging more customers to turn to the web, particularly for brick and mortar business looking to expand their online identities. It’s a no-brainer for those businesses who exist strictly online that are already seeking print advertising.

Think about print ads that have inspired you to find a company’s website. What was it about the ad that made you want to learn more by way of the Internet? Odds are it was probably the URL there pointing the way.
Written By Chris Crum
Reference: WebProNews

Amy Fedele, Creative Director
Bullzeye Design – Scranton, PA