Welcome to the Escape Blog

I am currently at Trac 06 in Sitges (Spain) at the moment, and my web mind is working overtime, talking to people about web sites and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Whilst I have been away, Keith gave a great analogy about a web site being like a cake (worth a quick read). The combination of this and my discussions got me thinking about English people abroad. Isn’t it amazing how we pick up the odd few words that get us by and it seems enough. There is obviously a lot of cross-over in European (Latin based) languages so sometimes its obvious. The sign above is obviously to do with private parking, for instance, perhaps the big large white ‘P’ on a blue background has something to do with the understanding.

So, you can picture this scene. A English guy is standing at the bar getting the Barman’s attention: "Dos Beers por favor". The guy behind the bar doesn’t quite get it - his English is not so good because he is new. So obviously it makes sense for the English guy to say exactly the same thing, just a little bit louder. Like that is going to help!

So a communication gets under way, pointing, writing, Spanglish being spoken by both parties. Until a woman behind the bar comes along and deciphers the loud English orders. Now, this colleague has met so many customers over the years, she has learned how to play the game. She has learned the language, the slang words. She has learned to play a bit dumb to make the customer feel clever. She has adapted with her new learnings each and every time.

And we all do that as businesses - we very much learn as we go along, getting better and better with each project and client interaction. Now here’s the web bit - shouldn’t we as suppliers; and our clever, interactive web sites, be doing exactly the same thing… Learning behaviour and applying the findings?

Instead we often just start shouting louder at Google - often in the wrong language, or a mixture, instead of learning a bit of Google speak. We use Adwords instead of learning and applying our keywords to natural listings.

We also continue to speak to our customers (on our web sites) in our language, without really understanding the way that they speak, or read (and the words THEY use). We also talk about great benefits of our products and services on our terms. What’s in it for me as a customer!

The web, and our web sites are based upon technologies and learnings that continually change. We can choose to stop learning and adapting, or we can join the train. The sooner you do join the train, however, the more likely you will find a seat!

A report by the Disability Rights Commission found that more than 80% of sites posed barriers to disabled people despite the fact that UK organisations with websites have been legally obliged to make them disabled-friendly since 1999.

This article by the BBC discusses the ongoing implementation of PAS 78 - a guide to good practice in commissioning accessible
websites. This recently updated document is out this month from BSI.

If you aren’t sure if your site conform to existing accessible standards, why not see here?

If you want to talk to us about making your web site accessible - you know where we are.

The Escape web site has seen quite a few incarnations. The thing is with web sites; fashions change, the way we use the web has changed - we need to make sure our sites change accordingly. We also learn more and more about the way people use the web:

1. How do people buy from us?
2. What do existing clients like to see?
3. Does the design represent who we are?

As we develop our understanding at The Escape, V.8 of our own web site has appeared to answer the new questions we face as a business with a web site. Luckily we have the in-house resource to do these things, unluckily we also have more important paying work. But after months of testing, we have the design in place (see the screen shot above). A little bit of Keith and Gaz magic and we should be ready to rock and roll in the next month or so.

It used to be that you’d start with the design of the web site, ie. the way it looks. That has now changed inasmuch as the design you see here has already had two months worth of research before we even began to design. I don’t expect you to be as excited as me - but I think my head might just explode!

In more and more countries across the world it is becoming required for
government and other public service websites to be based on standards
and follow accessibility guidelines.

See this interesting article over on 456 Berea St. about Evaluating Website Accessibility Part 1, Background and Preparation

If you want to know more about Accessibility and what it means to your business web site, why not contact Craig ?

In the past we built web pages, and process, that made sense to us and then wondered why they weren’t as successful as we were hoping.

If you are looking to increase the amount you sell on your site, or up the amount of subscribers you get, you may be interested in this interesting little article by Nick Usborne over at A List Apart - Flywheels, Kinetic Energy, and Friction

Keith Clark pointed me to this interesting article about Eye Tracking. Where to place menus, advertising; how many words to place in a paragraph, etc.

Read the Online Survey points here…

One of My Favourite Authors, Malcolm Gladwell, of Tipping Point Fame, has a new Blog.

He points us to an interesting article this morning from Science Mag about how we should let our unconscious minds make the big decisions.

As a Practitioner of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) I am inclined to agree, In fact, we have been working recently using NLP writing techniques into copy for the web and e-shots. Early indications (and the test numbers are relatively small) would suggest that it does work.

If you are interested in embedded suggestions in copy writing, I suggest Web Copy That Sells by Maria Veloso. The book lost me towards the end in regards to belief (maybe that’s the English cynicism coming out) but it gave me plenty of ideas before that including conditional selling techniques and personalisation of messages.