By Mike Mella | Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Filed under Marketing & Communications, Non-Profit, Usability
You know those little bits of text that appear throughout your website that provide your visitors with feedback about actions they perform? That’s called microcopy. Too often, microcopy is overlooked and left up to the Web developer. Here’s why you should reclaim yours.
Read the rest of Who writes your microcopy? →
By Mike Mella | Monday, August 15, 2011
Filed under Design, Marketing & Communications, Sound Advice, Usability
In this audio post I explain why you shouldn’t use the phrase “coming soon” in lieu of real content and what you can do instead.
Read the rest of Don’t use the phrase “Coming soon” →
By Mike Mella | Monday, June 6, 2011
Filed under Design
36 comments
There seems to be a lot of debate within the ExpressionEngine community about whether to use the Structure module by Travis Schmeisser and Jack McDade. Some believe that it makes content management simpler for end-users because it organizes content in the control panel in a list of nested pages. I’ve built some sites using Structure and concluded that it’s not for me. This post explains why.
Read the rest of Why I don’t use the Structure module →
By Mike Mella | Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Filed under Design, Marketing & Communications
I have an account with Groupon, a site that’s gaining traction in the online deals market. Everyday there’s a new deal from a local store or service provider. I subscribe to their RSS feed so that I get notified of the deals regularly, and I noticed something they’ve started adding to the feed that has nothing to do with the deal of the day: Trivia.
Read the rest of Spice up your content with attention-getters →
By Mike Mella | Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Filed under Design, Marketing & Communications, Usability
2 comments
Imagine walking into a restaurant. Inside, the building is clearly falling apart. The wallpaper is peeling off the walls, electrical wiring is exposed, there’s dust everywhere. You point this out to the manager, and the manager responds, “Oh, that?...Well…I’m in the food business, not construction, so ignore all that. Just sit down and order, and you’ll see how great we are!”
Read the rest of Your website is your brand online: Take it seriously →
By Mike Mella | Thursday, October 28, 2010
Filed under Design, Sound Advice, Usability
2 comments
Organizing content intuitively is more important than having all content accessible from the top level of navigation. I explain why in this audio post.
Read the rest of Don’t worry about minimizing clicks →
By Mike Mella | Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Filed under Marketing & Communications, Non-Profit
You’re probably aware of the importance of engaging your audience. You’ve probably drawn in many of your customers through targeted campaigns and social media. But what do you do to keep those customers?
Read the rest of Do you have a strategy for re-engaging dormant supporters? →
By Mike Mella | Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Filed under Design, Marketing & Communications, Non-Profit, Sound Advice, Usability
Don’t forget to take advantage of social networking when undergoing a website redesign. Your audience would probably love to tell you what they think!
Read the rest of Redesigning your website? Survey your audience first. →
By Mike Mella | Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Filed under Marketing & Communications, Non-Profit, Sound Advice
Having trouble coming up with new content for your website? Why not remind your visitors of all your great but not-so-new content?
Read the rest of No new Web content? Post an archive of old content! →
By Mike Mella | Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Filed under Design, Marketing & Communications, Usability
We recently got a puppy. In the course of doing this research about training and whatnot, I was amazed at how many Web design and usability no-nos I encountered on pet-related sites. I’ll explore some of them in this post.
Read the rest of Bad dog!: Web mistakes encountered in the pet industry →
