Digital Things of Interest Overview:
Read these Digital Things of Interest for 19 August 2017, which includes these knowledgeable nuggets:
- PageSpeed is dead to this browser extension;
- Sneaky priming in social media;
- When to use UX as bad design;
- Nokia goes for a ‘bothie’ camera. Interesting
#PageSpeed #SocialMedia #BrandBuilding #UserExperience #WebDesign #MobilePhones
Digital Things of Interest 19 August 2017:
- PageSpeed is dead
- I thought this was a really interesting article. We’re always told about PageSpeed and how important it is, but the tools which most people use to check speed test certain things and give (almost) no context for the load time. This article chats about a Chrome extension called Lighthouse which gives a really good metric of a “first meaningful paint”. Obviously I think you should use both in conjunction – work on pushing content down the pipe fast, and work on getting the first paint / first screen done as soon as possible. As iOS demonstrates, a bit of sleight of hand can hide a few lag issues.
- Use Priming in Social Media
- This is a treatise on social media, which I took a dystopian view of. Yes, priming works. In reality you are building your personal brand by talking about relevant things, posting in certain ways, commenting on certain topics. This leads people to think of you in a certain way (not always nicely). Bascially, get your messaging coherent and on point with who you want to be perceived to be.
- UX Design is Bad Design
- I really liked this piece, talking about the reality of using UX to achieve a particular outcome, rather than adhering to a set of guidelines, best practices etc. I love the idea of using UX to disqualify users, go against user complaints and protecting your users. Worth a read.
- Nokia and the Bothie
- I really want Nokia to succeed with their new incarnation of phone manufacturing. I always loved their design, features, and general usability. Having given up and gone to Android limits them in a lot of ways, but their photography prowess was second to none before they went belly up. This little beastie uses the front and back camera to create a “bothie” pic of you…and the thing you’re looking at. Sounds good? A small issue is of course the fact that a user can just turn round. (Most selfie lenses are poor, but produce okay pics of social, which is where most of these pics are posted).
That’s it for today. If you find anything of interest in the digital space that you think is worth sharing, please get in touch with me.
Mobile First is NOT Mobile Friendly
TL;DR
- PageSpeed is poor out of context.
- Brands are being sneaky on social media.
- Sometimes good UX is bad UX.
- Nokia wants to take a couple of pictures of you.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these digital things of interest might mean for your web property, or you have found something of interest and would like to share it, please feel free to contact me.
