PixelMEDIA Inc.

We get it. You don’t need a website, social community, content management system, brand redesign, or flash demo. You need customers, loyal fans, email from people who want your products, and inquiries about the services you offer. You want to connect with people.

Last night PixelMEDIA hosted the monthly meeting of the NH Usability Professional Association (NH UPA). The meetings are an opportunity for user experience professionals to connect with each other. Talks included our own Luke Michel (watch his crowd-pleasing discussion about punctuation) as well as John Herman, a local media maker in his own right. As a newcomer to the NH UPA gatherings, John said two things that made me think about the way we communicate. The first:

I have no idea what you’ve been saying for the last 45 minutes but you sound like smart people and I think we do about the same thing.

As people engrained in what we do every day, we can all get hung up on industry vernacular, catch phrases, and tech-speak that the audience we’re trying to reach may not understand. And while one may say that it was a gathering of peers—so we can use our language—even within our own networks we can improve understanding by avoiding terms that mean different things to different people.

So the next time you write copy for that print brochure, stick a label on that web page, or talk at a public event, think about what your audience cares about. Remember they don’t know your internal language and won’t take the time to translate your features into their benefits. Connecting with people requires taking the time to understand their needs. And if your web or media partner is using language you don’t understand, remind them of your business goals and make sure they will be addressing them with their solutions. (They should be asking for that information and learning your language in the first place, then applying their process to produce results, not the other way around.)

The second nugget John shared was to:

Lead with your passion, not time or money.

While we all know time and money are important, especially in the current economy, if you put them first people will see through your message and suspect your motives. With all the user-generated content and alternatives to your offering out there, people can spot who’s in it for themselves and will seek other options. Find what your company is truly passionate about and lead with that first. Let the problem you are trying to solve determine what medium you use to connect with your audience. Are you working to find a cure for diseases with your research? Helping save lives with your heart devices? Educating kids with your Rubik’s cubes? Stay true to your passion and fans will follow.

Luke Michel presents at the Feb 25, 2009 New Hampshire Usability Professionals Association monthly meeting in Portsmouth.
(Oops, we forgot the mic, so the sound quality isn’t great.)

NHUPA: Punctuation and Usability from PixelMEDIA on Vimeo.

Tags: nhupa, User Experience