With this relocation, we have expanded space for collaboration and day-to-day activity. This includes an on-site usability lab, ideal for conducting formal and informal usability studies. Our “zen room” is the ideal place to find inner peace.  The new office is distinctly Sandstorm with our giant swirl logo painted at the entrance (It’s 8-foot by 11-foot!), and 4700 feet of exposed ceiling pipe was hand-painted Sandstorm blue to give some added color to this former warehouse space. To see more about this exciting development, check out the Sandstorm Photostream. We even tallied all the numbers from the move, and put together this infographic.

Be sure to update your records, CRM system, and iPhones. Our marketing firm is now located at 4619 N. Ravenswood Suite 300, Chicago, Illinois 60640. Our phone number is the same, 773-348-4200, but all extensions have shifted with an upgrade to a new Shoretel phone system.

The ad campaign setup consists of what seems to be three simple steps. But as the user moves through the experience, what initially felt simple becomes rigid and constrictive when trying to make changes, update, or delete.

The top three key items LinkedIn Ads could fix to improve usability and the user experience:

1. No delete? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’ve heard this complaint within other areas of LinkedIn before, so I wasn’t surprised to find it in LinkedIn Ads. Once created, there is no way to delete an ad campaign or ad variation. You can hide them, but not delete them. Users should always be allowed to delete anything they create (just make them confirm it’s really what they want to do).
   
2. No “Save” option. If you leave the ad campaign setup process at any time, LinkedIn saves everything you started. This is great, except they don’t tell you they’re going to do that. So if you leave before finalizing a campaign, you would assume you’re losing what you started. Upon coming back to find it’s still there—you might be surprised, and also annoyed you didn’t know it would be saved in the first place. If the functionality is there, tell the users upfront so they can plan for it.
3. Cannot add new ad variations. I love that LinkedIn gives users 15 ad variations per campaign. But after you go through the initial three steps, there’s no way to come back and simply “Add a new variation.” You have to use a workaround where you duplicate an existing variation and just make changes to that. Users should never have to use a workaround for something that should be basic functionality. In fact, they should never have to use a workaround, period.
   

Despite my rant here, I love LinkedIn, and am very pleased to see it growing so much (100 million members as of March 2011!). As they grow, usability and the user experience is definitely something they’ll want to put more focus on. For now though, these few items would make a nice improvement.

Don’t forget to follow our usability and user experience design agency  on LinkedIn!

We are so honored to be mentioned in B2B magazine today! I just wanted to share as it really demonstrates our company’s passion for user centered design and usable web sites. Here’s a little excerpt for those that don’t have time to read the full article:

Another trend: Making the most of a user’s time on the site, rather than focusing on increasing the amount of time spent on the site, said Sandy Marsico, principal of Sandstorm Design, a web design and usability firm. “You want to help them find what they want quickly and get on with their day. Businesspeople don’t have any time to waste anymore.”

“You want clear areas of content,” Marsico said. “There should be more conversation and less selling.”

Now for those of you who just want to see the highlights, here are two web sites that we love that were featured:
http://edit.btobonline.com/article/20100913/FREE/100919974/10-great-websites-freightcenter-com

http://edit.btobonline.com/article/20100913/FREE/100919973/10-great-websites-ixda-org

Maybe it’s one part of our “secret sauce” (this is one of my favorite new sayings) but it should be a necessary part of every web design process. The IA is “the one” that ties together the strategy, business requirements, user requirements, and messaging. The IA considers a layout from the user’s perspective, ensures the site is easy to use, brings the most important features to the front, and aligns the marketing goals with the web site goals. An IA is highly strategic, is intuitive, and has a strong knack for common sense. My favorite book on the subject is Steve Krug’s book, “Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability”.

At Sandstorm, everyone in the creative department has to read it as part of their onboarding process. And we’ve added to the developers as well so we are all speaking the same language. Information architecture for us here at Sandstorm is just a part of who we are.

The goal of any usability test is to figure out what you’re doing right, what you’re doing wrong, and learn what your users want. So what are you waiting for?