An rare off-topic request: I need your help. 5 seconds of your time.

Here’s the part where I harness the powers of the internets and get my nephew and his family a free trip to Disneyland.

Vote for his Youtube Video

I need you to go HERE and vote for the second video from the top. (the kid singing folsom prison blues) (Select the little radio button and scroll to the bottom to vote.)
http://www.kssn.com/pages/voting24.html

(one vote per IP Address) The votes will be tallied on Friday at midnight and the winner gets an all expenses paid trip for FOUR to disneyland. (My little redneck nephew has been flip-flopping between 1st and 2nd place.)

Thoughts of trying to rig the system and mask my ip address for multiple votes have been repressed, and I figure this earnest plea is all I can do.

Go Vote.

Advancement offices are generally tasked among other things with “telling the story of the university”.  A big part of this task involves attracting media attention.  After all, the news media have the big horn. They command a big audiences:  The morning newspaper readers; The local evening news watchers; The big national magazine readers, etc…

While media attention is important, I’d like to think that a quickly emerging priority involves telling those stories ourselves, without going through editors and reporters and press releases.  I’m talking about storytelling on the web.

Some do a great job.  A majority do the bare minimum, which consists of:

Hey, I know, let’s regurgitate our boring press releases and post them online.

Well I’ve got news for those people.   My generation isn’t concerned with AP Style.  We’re kind’ve past that.  (Beneath it?  or Above it?)  We’re getting our news in other ways.  We’re finding more interesting content through social bookmarking and rss feeds.  We self-select for the good stuff, and refuse to be force-fed the traditional offering.  In a sense, we act as our own news editors.  Over time we develop our own sources for focused news that we care about.  We pay attention to trusted blogs maintained by curators who have proven over time to provide the most interesting and engaging content.

Because content is king.

And in the same way that the dominance of the railroads of the 1800′s was usurped by the automobile, I see traditional news media losing ground and receding, back to something of lesser influence compared to content creators empowered with internet connections, content management, and interesting stories. ..Throw in compelling photography, video, and audio and who needs traditional media? We don’t have to ride your train anymore, Mr Conductor. We can get in our car and go wherever we want.

If we woke up tomorrow morning and everybody behaved like myself and those in my peer group, here’s your new reality:

Your audience size and your influence depend only your skill as a storyteller, not on your promotional budget or your relationship with the news editor.

It will happen.  The question is, to what degree.

In any case, nobody cares about your press releases.  Those that do; those that want to read them, are a dying breed.

Am I totally off base here?  Do you agree?  Disagree?

Nobody likes forms.  But universities live and die by them.

So I’m on a committee to address an overhaul of our online application for admissions.  After much research and a little bit of common sense,  I’ve composed a list of priorities that, I feel, need to be injected into this initiative.

BTW, I’ve been seriously hunting for other university admissions applications worthy of emulation.  And I can’t findy any.  Do we ALL suck at this?

On to my list.  It even has an introduction:

Designing effective web forms isn’t easy. For many resons.  Making things simple, is hard.  It takes work.  We need to use intelligent writing and design to make the process intuitive and painless.

Keys to crafting our new Admissions Application:

It begins with writing / naming
Employ simple, direct instructions and labels.  Avoid internal / academic jargon. As a general rule, this copy shouldn’t get crafted in IT.

Easy questions first..
Starting easy helps build up momentum.  The user invests themselves in the process.  Get movement going,  nd users are more willing to follow through the whole form.

Separate Related Content
Chunk things up.  Don’t overwhelm prospective students with giant stretches of input fields.  Keep it simple.  Make the form a long series of little easy steps.  Easy wins.  Not 2 or 3 big leaps.

Indicate Progress
Show the user where they are in the process.  Step 3 of 7, etc..

Provide sufficient information about information requested.
Probably the number one reason why forms are started but not completed.

Error Messages must be clear, concise.
Help/Tips must be clearly available at times.

Explain Explain Explain
Tell users why certain information is needed.  Tell users how to find uncommon information.

Am I missing anything in this list?  Do you know of an online admissions app worth talking positively about?

See Also:
Forms vs Applications by Jacob Nielson – In particular the section about “Application Benefits”

Those Lovable Unusable Campus Apps – “Software solutions too unfriendly, unstable, and incompatible to last a minute in the universe of competitive business”.

Explain Yourself – Jason Santa Maria

So, perhaps I am a bit elitist in this regard. Web design does employ images, words, and ideas in the same way traditional graphic design does. The real distinction lies in the use. Visitors aren’t merely taking in the design and information as they would a poster or periodical, they are interacting with it, and more critically, reshaping it by that interaction. This is the important difference, because as we all know, it’s not always how it looks, but how it works. Is that really so different from the design goals of a book or a sign? The success lies within the effectiveness of the function, not the aesthetics.

Why Johnny’s Professor Can’t Read – Weblogg-ed

For example, a collection of images on Flickr with authorial comments and tags certainly does not resemble the traditional essay, but the time spent on such a project, the motivation for undertaking it, and its ability to communicate meaning can certainly be equal to the investment and motivation required by the traditional essay—and the photos may actually provide more meaningful communication for their intended audience.

How to Make New Things –

I found the following bit of advice to not only be true, but profound.

Graham describes his strategy precisely: “Find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e) starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly.”

Finding balance on your Web team – Big Glorious Mess

It would be nice if everyone on such a team knew the basics of coding or good Web design. But more important is depth of skill in several areas. I don’t care if your writer can’t even spell XHTML and your developer can’t even make a pretty button in Photoshop, or if your graphic designer keeps pushing for that unwieldly yet gorgeous 700K background image. As long as there is depth of ability in all of these areas, you’ll wind up with stronger deliverables.

Usability and analytics – a match made in heaven – Trending Upward

It’s such a strong message when the powers-that-be are confronted with video after video of users struggling to complete their website goal. It makes you sad, makes you laugh, and gives you a smile on your face all at the same time.

I believe in Santa Claus – Karlyn Morissette

Never assume something was successful or unsuccessful because you hear anecdotal evidence – there are always ways to measure quantifiably.  All any of us speak from is our own experience and your experience with your audience may be completely different.

And never get in a discussion with me where you say “I believe” without giving stats.  It just doesn’t fly.

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