We are creatures of habit. This is not a new concept, but with Foursquare’s release of Time Machine, we see just how much truth is behind the theory.

In a tweet this morning, Foursquare introduced the Time Machine stating, “with 4 billion check-ins” they “love exploring new ways to visualize all the places people go around the world.” The beautiful visualization of the places a user checks-in allows you to zoom in to specific locations, fast forward through all check-ins, discover new places to head next, and provides an infographics of your stats to share with your friends.

“The Next Big Thing” recommends places to go based off of previous check-ins. While some do not seem fitting, others provide a great insight to the things a user might like to do. For example, on my Next Big Thing list, there was Taco Bell (for me, eh) and The Funky Buddha Brewery –which I was planning to visit this weekend. 

To check out your Foursquare Time Machine, go to: https://foursquare.com/timemachine

Authored by: Alexandra Gormann, Digital Strategy Coordinator

Why visits are the most primary traffic metric

I would like to preface my point of view by saying that all traffic metrics have their own unique value depending on the campaigns KPIs. When deep diving a web property it is important to utilize multiple parameters to accurately assess the story of your websites performance.

Unique Visitors

Unique Visitors are users that are identified by first party cookies in their browser. These cookies can last for a long period of time. Unfortunately unique visitors do not take multi-screen users into account; if a user accesses your web page on their phone, then transitions to their desktop, it will count as two unique visitors.

Unique visitors are a superset of visits. Because unique visitors are typically a smaller metric than visits, they will overly inflate a conversion rate. It is easier for marketers to detect problems with their conversion funnel when they can see there is a problem, and inflated conversion rates offer a false sense of security.

Some analysts at www.analytics-ninja.com experimented by firing an event that capture CRM data in a controlled environment that showed an inflation of 25-39% between unique visitors and the actual traffic going into a site.

Visits

Visits are based on a session that either ends when the browser is closed, the campaign is changed, or after 30 minutes of inactivity. Because visits do not attempt to identify users that visit the site they are a more dependable metric; they don’t become skewed as easily by multiscreen behaviors etc.

 When making improvements to any web property, it is important to focus on trends instead of overly granular data that lacks context. Visits are dependable because every visit is an opportunity for a conversion regardless of which machine is being used. 

Universal Analytics

Universal Analytics is a light at the end of the tunnel for Google analytics. This newer version of the GA tracking script is positioned as a more comprehensive suite that tracks users on login. This program will open up GA reporting to multiple devices and non-web digital solutions tracking such as in–store scanners and loyalty programs.

http://blogs.adobe.com/digitalmarketing/analytics/unique-visitors-or-visits-which-metric-should-you-use/

http://statisticalconcepts.blogspot.com/2010/03/visitors-vs-visits.html

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/standard-metrics-revisited-6-daily-weekly-monthly-unique-visitors/

Authored by: Jason Brewster, Junior Technical Strategist

Contact forms are an often neglected, clear-cut example of an interface that can use gamification. The application of creativity can transform a mundane form into a delightfully nuanced module that enhances the users experience significantly. We respond positively to a good narrative; we become engrossed by content in a powerful way and gamification helps create that narrative. This presents us with an opportunity to create fascinating new user interactions by recreating how people think about data collection.

How Will This Work? Creating a Game Parallel

When looking for inspiration for gamified experiences in contact forms, look to casual gaming. Casual games are centered around creating simple, repeatable tasks that have a high payload of gratification built in so end users will enthusiastically repeat the same action for hours on end.

A perfect example of a gratifying game design is Grow Cube from EYEZMAZE. This game shows the amount of content a developer can deliver based on minimal user input. Grow Cube requires less input than a contact form but retains the user’s attention because it tells a little story as the player interacts with it.

Think of the contact form this way: Every time there is a checkmark, or a warning ­– anything can happen. It is possible to make responsive animated contact forms that are so intriguing that a user fills out fields that they would typically omit just to see what happens. This way, we use the element of motion to highlight the form and bring it to life.

According to Alexa’s estimate EYEMAZE’s average visitor spends 7 to 8 minutes on their domain tinkering with the different permutations of the gaming concept. We typically do not need 7 minutes of engagement for contact forms; in most cases, one to two minutes is more than ideal. We can use gamification to reduce abandonment because the same gaming elements that influence a user to spend hours on end playing a game like Grow can bolster engagement with different parts of our websites.

Why Will This Work? Human Computer Interaction

Gamification elevates the user’s perspective to a more dynamic and animated level. By placing the impetus on the contact form, we can rely on the user to interact with it based on its own merit rather than coasting off of the experience preceding it. Building form experiences that incorporate gamification and tell a story allows us to access a gaming behavior that has been recognized in gaming culture for years: completionism. The gist of completionism is that once a user is “hooked” on the experience, they will feel compelled to continue until its full realization. The concept is implemented in almost every video game as in-game “items” or storyline scenes. In summary, by utilizing gamification for contact forms, we give the user a provocative design that raises the bar for UX and reduces form abandonment.

Gamification Guidelines

Smashing’s Peter Steen Høgenhaug has written extensively on gamification and its impact on a website’s experience.  Gamification has become a commonplace buzzword with gross misuses. To avoid making mistakes, it is important to keep these basic principles in mind.

Sell the product – not the experience: gamification doesn’t substitute product.

Websites should not have difficulty settings: ease of use is critical.

Don’t spam: if you think you are creating a spammy behavior – stop.

Don’t force it! Your gamification should not require any more time than a non-gamified version of your site.

Balance in gamification is key: doctors and lawyers are different from theme parks and toy manufacturers.

Sources

http://www.eyezmaze.com/eyezblog_en/blog/2005/09/grow_cube.html#monster

http://cravernation.whitecastle.com/Sliderbration

http://uxdesign.smashingmagazine.com/2012/04/26/gamification-ux-users-win-lose/#sec3

http://gamification-research.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02-Deterding-Khaled-Nacke-Dixon.pdf

• Tags
• gamification
• contact forms
• user experience
• website development
• data collection

Google+ Redesign

Google+ is celebrating 190 million active users with a redesign! During the Google IO 2013 conference, Google announced 41 features and enhancement additions to the social platform. These updates are concentrated in three areas: the social stream, photos, and Hangouts.

Social Stream

With a multi-column design, the new social stream looks similar to a cross between the Facebook timeline and Pinterest. The social stream is also customizable, so users view posts from others in a variety of ways.

To accentuate the new social stream design, the left-hand navigation bar is now collapsed into the Home tab at the top of the page. With more content on the page, plussers will have the ability to seek content in a more user-friendly space.

Google+ also announced Related Hashtags to automatically tag posts with relevant hashtags. While cool, the idea that Google will be reviewing every post to attach a hashtag the user has no intention of applying, it may raise concerns for privacy.  

Speaking of hashtags, if a user attaches one to an image, it will appear at the top right of the post in a gray bar. When clicked, the tiled posts flip like a baseball card to display any related information on the back.

To see the social stream in action: http://youtu.be/vF5RovO5R8w

Photos

Facebook has Instagram. Twitter now has its own photo filters. Google+ announced, what Google’s senior vice president, Vic Gundotra, deems “your new darkroom,” with the 4 autos: Auto Backup, Auto Highlight, Auto Enhance, and Auto Awesome.

With Google expanding the free data storage comes the Auto Backup feature, which automatically backs up photos from smartphones to Google’s cloud storage. This is great for those who forget to manually backup their photos, however, the free backup space is limited to 15GB.

With Auto Highlight, Google can select the best photos of you by removing blurry images, duplicates, and poor exposures. Google believes this takes some work out of sharing our photos by doing so and has already begun to implement Auto Highlight.

What happens on the Internet stays on the Internet, including photos. Naturally, we always go to select the pictures we think we look best in– the slight crow’s feet that I am insistent that I have despite my avid moisturizing cannot be in any photo that goes onto the Internet– so Google added the Auto Enhance feature. Users have the ability to turn off Auto Enhance, however, with it on, all a user has to do is upload a photo and Google will adjust the brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. for better photos.

The last new addition to the photo ensemble is Auto Awesome. Like ripping off a band–aid, it is better to get the name out of the way quickly, so you can focus on how cool this feature actually is. Google’s description of Auto Awesome is this: “Sometimes we’ll create brand new image based on a set of photos in your library.” Whoa, but, it gets better: Google can animate photos automatically. Additionally, “if you send us a few family portraits, we’ll find everyone’s best smile, and stitch them together into a single shot. Likewise with panoramas, filmstrips, and a whole lot more.”

Google has really outdone themselves with the photo features, but the most interesting update comes in the form of Hangouts.

Hangouts

Hangouts have always been a cool feature that businesses have used to connect with consumers in an interesting way. Whether it was the Muppets Hangout Launch Commercial or Zagat Hangout with Wilson Phillips, Hangouts are one of the best features on Google+.

While nothing has changed in the core functions of Hangouts, still only 10 users can be supported while others can join the chat, Hangouts includes Google Chat and Google+ Messenger for a unified, cross platform experience.

Hangouts also have its own mobile app, available now from Google Play, the App Store, and the Chrome Web Store. By combining video, photo and text across devices, and the cloud save function in Hangouts, the experience will be taken to the next level.

Authored by: Alexandra Gormann, Digital Strategy Coordinator

Google IO 2013 After Thoughts

Now that Google IO is over, it is time to think long and hard about how to apply the tools provided so we can create new opportunities for our client.

Geofencing

Geofencing is not available through Android Location Services, which means it is time to consider how to promote products from a location sensitive perspective. As a result to a heightened level of location awareness, users are more likely to engage with a promotion, which can boost coupon redemption because of the enhanced relevance and timeliness. With so many new opportunities to engage users, it is important to exercise the creative muscles and craft experiences that emphasize convenience and utility. 

http://mashable.com/2013/05/15/google-location-services/

Schema.org Integration

Another exciting development that Google has been working on is the integration of schema.org standards into their web interface. Now, when marketing to Gmail users, we have the option to create direct links and other actions through buttons next to the subject line before the user even opens the email. With the ability to tailor the Gmail experience, we can reach users without the need for open clicks! 

https://developers.google.com/gmail/schemas/embedding-schemas-in-emails 

Authored by: Jason Brewster, Junior Technical Strategist

• Tags
• Google
• Social Media
• Google IO 2013
• Geofencing
• Photo Sharing
• Hangouts
• Redesign