I have been working for many months on redesigning a website for IE3 Global Internships, an organization which places college age students from Western states into international internships all over the world. ALthough it’s not live quite yet, I thought I might share a quick screenshot of the homepage. I’m super excited about this project. It is fully and robustly integrated with the wonderful Expression Engine, which gives access to multiple authors, and multiple sections of the site. Basically, the organization can easily change, add or manipulate the web content however they want.

From a user perspective, I really focused on the concept of usability and establishing and building the site to the main user path - which is finding internships and then information for application. The navigation has been set up for such a process, while other audiences can still access information particular to them using the utility navigation.

All in all, I’m delighted at the final product and can’t wait to see it go live. The site will replace the old site located here.

I recently received a copy of my local “Homes and Land” magazine in the mail. For those of you who do not know, this publication is a listing of homes for sale in any given area. It’s a large company with magazine publications in many local markets throughout the United States and Canada.

Having worked in Real Estate advertising I always thought pretty low of these types of books, because statistically they accounted for an absurdly low number of actual real estate transactions. 2006 statistics showed that less than 1% of home buyers found the home they bought using these types of publications - which is especially ironic for the magazine called “Homefinders.”

That statistic was enough to convince me that these were not the right way to go for Realtors who wanted to spend their advertising money wisely. However, I’ve just recently started to wonder why these publications have such low numbers of success. Is it simply because people look elsewhere for their home purchases? Or might there be a usability problem with the design layout of the particular magazines which inhibits buyers from finding a home? After some thought and examination of the “Homes and Land” I received in the mail, I realized that the design has nothing to do whatsoever with selling homes.

We’re currently in the market for a new home, and as a consumer and a designer, I’ve been really attentive to the way in which I search for home listing information, and how I interact with the ways in which it’s presented to me by marketers. Information architecture is everywhere, and these magazines are no exception. Information, whether intentionally or not, is presented in a form or fashion which conveys meaning, usability, and intended audience.As a home buyer, I want to be able to search by many criteria - such as price, location/neighborhood, number of bedrooms/bathrooms - NOT by Realtor. “Homes and Land,” and similar publications like “Homefinders” and “Homeseekers” all provide individually designed (or as they would suggest, “market differentiated”) ads, which are hard to read, entirely different from ad to ad, and more focused on the Realtor than the homes they are selling. While looking at the information design (if I dare call it that) for “Homes and Land” magazine I had to ask myself “who do the publishers believe their readers are and how is this conveyed in their design choices?” It is apparent that the answer to this question is not the Realtors coveted buyer, but the magazine’s coveted consumer - the Realtors themselves. Indeed, if the design was truly for a buyer, it would have a completely different information design.

Now, I know that for Realtors there is an incredible need to differentiate themselves from the “competition.” It is a dog eat dog industry, and many in it stress the need to set themselves apart from one another. It is evident, based on the design of these magazines and their low success rate, that the real reason for their existence is not to sell homes, but to meet the felt needs of Realtors for differentiation in their local markets. A magazine which was focused on meeting the needs of the home buyer would be thoughtfully laid out with their needs in mind and the structure would mimmick their user process in finding, selecting and buying a home.

“Homes and Land” is a perfect example in how the way design information structures convey a certain truth in advertising. It undermines our words and shows true intentions. While magazine publishers like those at “Homes and Land” wouldn’t necessarily say they are being deceptive with Realtors, the design of the magazine conveys one of two things: (1) the magazine designers have no clue as to the actual consumer process of a home buyer, or (2) they are not designing for the home buyer, but rather for the people who butter their bread.

This happens all the time, in many different ways - company politics, inattentive copywriters, and other factors make us stray from the intentional focus on the needs of the user and decrease the effectiveness of a design at meeting it’s stated objective.

The irony of this whole thing is that while these print publications fail miserably at conveying information in a helpful fashion for the buyer, many of the company websites get it right. With the ability to search by zip code, price range, beds and baths, and myriad other helpful filtering search choices, Homes and Land does a great job of being focused on the consumer.

I just found out that Clearleft’s much anticipated Mac-based user-testing software Silverback will be released tomorrow. In the process of getting ready for the release, Andy Budd has done a screencast showing off the features of this seemingly intuitive application. The app allows testers to track clicks and screen video of user testing sessions along with facial expressions from the subject using the Mac’s built-in iSight camera. This should really help make the process of recording and evaluating user testing much easier. I am thrilled with the release of Silverback and look forward to using it in upcoming tests.

Silverback screencast from Jeremy Keith on Vimeo.

I found out last week that joshclarkportfolio.com will be included in “The Web Designers Idea Book” by Patrick McNeil. I’m very excited about this, as it’s the first design book I’ve ever had the pleasure of having work included in. Patrick McNeil is the author of Design Meltdown, a website dedicated to web design trends. The books should be out in October and Patrick let me know that my site will be located on page 87! This is very exciting!

Subsequently, my good friend David Moulton will have his site included in the book as well. Very exciting for him too.

Yesterday I recieved my Activity Book for Creatives from Veer. I really enjoy this little freebie and look forward to getting it every year. While flipping through it this year I came across some merchandise they sell and I have to admit, I’m pretty smitten by one of the items. There in front of me was a Helvetica Coffee Cup (seen above). It’s $18 and I really, really want it!