How and Why to Segment Your Website Audience

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How and Why to Segment Your Audience

When you go shopping for new clothes, online or in a brick and mortar store, which section do you hit first, the men’s or the women’s clothing? Good. OK, when you need a new power cord for your computer or smartphone, do you go to the Windows section or the Mac section? Finally, when you are in Europe at a great local restaurant, do you ask for the menu in English or in the local language?

Your specific answers to these questions are not the point. The point is that my answers may be the same or different from your answers. With that understanding, if you owned any one of the store types mentioned above – clothing, computer, food – you might ask me these types of questions when I walk in the door, or you might provide signage that shows me the way without having to be asked. Continue reading →

Why Data Skills Are Great for Non-Math Backgrounds

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Never in my life would I have considered myself a data storyteller. While I had always been good at math — taking multiple levels of calculus throughout my years of high school, college, and grad schools — numbers didn’t really interest me. I was more interested in disciplines I felt were “solving real problems,” like sociology and government. Eventually, I majored in English because I enjoyed the challenge of interpreting and communicating complex ideas. Plus, someone once told me, “Girls can’t be good at math.” 

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4 Common User Interface Patterns You Should Be Using

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User Interface Patterns

“There are only patterns, patterns on top of patterns, patterns that affect other patterns. Patterns hidden by patterns. Patterns within patterns. If you watch close, history does nothing but repeat itself.” This quote comes from author Chuck Palahniuk’s novel Survivor, but it’s also a perfect summation of the world of user interfaces.

User Interface patterns (UI) are common best practices that serve as a reusable solution to a frequently occurring problems. Over time, users acclimate to these patterns and can even grow to expect them. Herein lies the issue. If a pattern becomes ubiquitous with a certain task, the user experience can be hindered if the pattern is not present or a suitable replacement is not offered.

As user experience designers, we need to keep up with these trends and patterns. However, it is not enough to just recognize and utilize them, but we must also understand the implications associated as well.

In this post, we will explore the following common UI patterns for further examples:

  • Input – Inline validation
  • Navigation – Infinite scroll
  • Content management – Hover controls
  • Data management – Draggable objects

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Bringing New Opportunity to the DC Community

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DC pics

DC Innovation Opportunity Program partners at the event at GA’s campus

Today at our Washington, D.C. campus, we joined Mayor Muriel Bowser, 1776 and others to announce the DC Innovation Opportunity Program, to connect talented, low-income students with the resources, skills, and support they need to succeed in the careers of tomorrow. This exciting initiative is enabled with the support of partners such as the TDF Foundation, THEARC, Capital One, MedStar Health, and Microsoft.

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Laugh & Learn Newsletter Lightens Up The Tech Conversation

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Salman came to General Assembly as an engineer looking for a tech community to jump into. He ended up as a beloved Back-End Web Development instructor, both in New York City and San Francisco. Realizing the importance of “soft skills” for developers, he started the Laugh & Learn newsletter to provide a well-rounded continued learning experience for his students and job-seeking techies. 

Salman will be teaching Building Startup Ideas at our San Francisco campus on Thursday 7, May, 2015.

Follow Salman on Twitter: @daretorant

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Disrupting the Construction Industry With Data Science

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Anton working at GA's Hong Kong Campus.

Anson working at GA’s Hong Kong Campus.

By moving beyond analysis into prediction through data science, General Assembly Hong Kong’s DAT graduate Anson Au has brought unparalleled performance and efficiency to traditional practices in the construction industry.

Before coming to GA, Anson was already an avid learner, having completed both an MSc and MBA at HKUST. In his current role as head of IT projects at Alliance Construction Materials, he sought to use data and technology to improve the performance in the traditional construction materials industry.

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Essentials of Usability Testing

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Intro-To-Web-Usability

I’m sure you’ve heard that great web products have great usability. But what does that even mean?

Enter, LEMErS. No, not the monkeys; the mnemonic device.

Usability is determined and understood by testing the following criteria:

  • Learnability
  • Efficiency
  • Memorability
  • Error Management
  • Satisfaction

These elements can and should be tested using usability tests.

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3 Components of Every Great Product Strategy

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product-strategy-ga

If you are a great product manager, you know a secret that others ignore: managing relationships is essential to your job and overall business strategy component. As the “mini-CEO” of your product, sometimes it might seem like your main job! Teams from sales to engineering all have a stake in your product. And they often want to see updates presented “their way.”

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Transformational Leadership in the Digital Age

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Leadership

Companies in all industries are wrestling with how to crack the code to win in the digital space. Typically, they focus their efforts on shifts in business strategy. They concentrate on enhancing marketing capability, creating new digital products and services, improving their social media efforts, and upgrading their IT expertise.

From our experience working with clients across various market segments, it is clear that far less attention is paid to the important shift in leadership behavior that is necessary to foster a culture of innovation and experimentation.

There are four key issues that senior executives need to address in order to retool their organizations for success in the digital space. They must implement practical strategies that proactively engage:

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