Kristi Colvin is a user experience and usability expert and founder of FreshID. Her career includes many aspects of marketing communications including working with Whole Foods, software and new media companies; she’s now consulting VisualCV. I recently interviewed her about user experience. Her passion for the subject is apparent in her mission, “to bring user experience evangelism into an organization.”

1. What do you mean by “designing for the universal experience?”

People often think of brand identities, marketing collateral, user interface design for software applications, and web site or blog design as separate items. But all an existing or potential customer sees and feels is one experience: the experience of an individual or company.

2. What, if any, special factors do you consider when designing a site you know will be used by Twitter users: Do they behave differently than other users?

The average blog or web site with information they want others to share on Twitter could greatly benefit from:
– pre-shortened url’s for blog articles and web pages
– “twit this” programs added to the end of a blog article helps users share the information while it is top-of-mind
– sites that are not “blogs” would benefit from easy-to-tweet buttons for things like news articles, special promotions, recipes, landing pages, product datasheets, products for sale, ebay items, books, etc.
Also, I am creating a mini-site focused on people tweeting about cheese, and an actual alternate Twitter interface called Twitterface that will be released soon.

3. What are your favorite usability / user experience tools?

My basic tools are a computer and a user.  Aside from that, I utilize tools like Skitch and the Jing Project to communicate UE issues to developers & gather small bugs or anomalies from users.

4. What is the first thing you consider when evaluating the usability of a website?

Following a quick examination of the look and feel, I start looking deeper:  at forms, workflow, the existence (or usually, not) of guiding text, available help, the information architecture and the screen layouts.
The very first thing I assess is whether it is immediately obvious what I should do first after arriving at a home page, or next after arriving at a landing page.
There is an art to guiding users through a system.
When done well, it produces a magical effect we call “being in the zone.”

5. Can you recommend another great usability / user experience blog?

I cannot get enough of Logic + Emotion, because those two aspects are so critical to a great, lasting user experience. The author works for Critical Mass, a premiere interactive agency whose work I admire. Bokardo has a lot to offer people who are interested in designing blogs & sites for social media.
And Luke W. is someone who personally inspires me and my design, with his iconic, clean interfaces

If you enjoyed this interview, visit Kristi’s blog here.

Gennefer Snowfield’s recent blog post “There’s Too Many ‘Me, Me, Me’s in ‘Follow Me” spurred an impacting conversation on who we follow on Twitter and why. More than 30 people commented, and the discussion that started on her blog carried into many twitter conversations. Gennefer emphasized the importance of quality over quantity, complementing the relationship builders and disparaging “friend collectors and wannabe gurus.”

People who wear their friend count like a badge of honor are annoying, and there is no prize for attaining a target number of friends. However, I do not think the situation is so black and white.

I like adding “random,” people on twitter not to increase my friend count but to add to the diversity of my tweet stream. I often use twitter’s search tool to find keywords that suggest people I may want to follow. Recently, I’ve used these keywords and phrases:

• Salman Rushdie
• James Joyce
• CPM
• “Check this out”
• Brazil

I have found that people who uses these keywords are often people I enjoy following. And when I am wrong, I simply unfollow them.
When in doubt, I follow first and unsubscribe later. That method works well for me. Other methods I use are described here.

I have found that my experience of twitter is different with more friends and followers than it was with fewer friends and followers. If I ask a question now, not only do my friends respond—I also receive responses from unexpected people with completely different backgrounds and experiences.

I confess. I’m completely addicted to cool ideas, spectacular links, and fresh insight. Following 100s of people has deeply satisfied my information addiction.

I personally agree that it’s ideal to connect to a network of people whose insights you value. However, I have no problem with people arbitrarily “friending” folks to find those people.

A few weeks ago I posted my criteria for following people back on twitter.

Do check out Gennefer Snowfield’s blog post. The conversation there is spectacular.

Mr. Tweet, the personal networking assistant for twitter, has all the twitterati talking. According to the website, “Mr. Tweet looks through your extended network to help you build effective relationships on Twitter.”

I used and enjoyed the service. Recently, I interviewed its founder, Steve Ming Yeow Ng, over email. Our discussion is below.

Have you actively marketed yourself? If so, how?
We are almost at 14,000 [followers] now, gaining at about 1000 a day. The amazing thing is that all our users came almost exclusively from word of mouth, as opposed to active marketing, or even PR. Even all of PR came from users who used us and love the service.

Who are 3 of your most memorable Twitter friends and what makes them memorable?
Haha, I keep close track of the conversations, and I have to say it is these 3:

1) Gary V – cause his personality is so amazingly outsized yet endearing at the same time.

2) Marta Strickland – cause she is smart and sassy, and generous with ideas

3) Acclimedia – cause she is very critical, w/o ever being negative. Very hard balance to achieve, but she does it

4) KrisColvin – I was blown away when I read her blog (as part of user research), because she shares so much of her valuable thought process in such detail. She is actually a classic case where I felt that the world would be a much more valuable place if more people could learn from her, as opposed to being obsessed with the same few people all the time. And that kind of granularity of connecting is what we will be gunning for soon

If I use Twitter Grader do I need Mr. Tweet?
We are a very different ball game. We do not offer a universal grading statistic, because we think that is very misleading. Influence is an attribute of the audience, not an attribute of the person. IE, it really is personalized. My kid is highly influential to me, but he is probably has zero influence on you. On a similar note, Werner Vogels cannot be compared to Scoble when you try to apply a universal ranking, but as the is probably the leading thought leader when it comes to Cloud Computing, his thoughts are immensely influential for technologists and backend engineers. Hence, influence depends much less on the person being graded, but who he is being graded for.

Can you share a few interesting stats with us (your growth, what features people use, stats that marketers may find compelling)?
Haha, we do not have many features, and we are not ready to publish some of the stats yet, although we will do so at some point.
That said, I can say one thing with confidence: People are not interested in subscribing to marketing messages, or celebrities/companies who follow random people. They are interested in personalities who value relationships.
I know this sounds like common knowledge, but both the stats and the user feedback back these up ->People are really a lot more interested in listening to people who are building relationships. There is a very strong reciprocal effect here.

What has been the most interesting part of launching Mr. Tweet?
Definitely the enthusiastic user feedback, and seeing the diversity of ways we add value. It is an amazing feeling.

A recent presentation from Mr. Tweet’s founder:

Discovery Is The New Cocaine – Going Beyond Engagement

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: discovery ux)

I recently helped a new Twitter user write her bio.
It’s only a few words; however, the process gave rise to challenging questions.
For example, do people read a Twitter bio or do they just scan for keywords like: “mom,” “blogger,” “CEO,” “marketing,” “content,” etc.
If they read the bio, will the same process we use to write adwords copy apply, with the most important ideas first followed by a call to action?
And how do you teach style and attitude? Twitter bios can be short and punchy as well as polished and professional.
While it’s hard to make a generalization, I’m in favor of a keyword-rich, compelling bio with at least one useful link that reveals personality.

Here are 21 things to consider when enhancing your twitter bio.
If you’re happy with yours, this can serve as a checklist.

1. Add a quote.
2. Add a question people should ask you.
3. Add something you are looking for.
4. Add something you can offer.
5. Add your mantra.
6. Add an article that rocks your world.
7. Add a sentence that describes who you are.
8. Add a sentence that describes what you want to do on Twitter.
9. Add descriptive tags, see StumbleUpon for ideas
10. Add a link to people’s replies to you. @Pistachio does this
11. Add your Linkedin account
12. Add your Delicious account
13. Add a link to FriendFeed
14. Add a link to your favorite Flickr photos
15. Add a link to your playlist (blip.fm, last.fm, etc.)
16. Add a link to a YouTube video of you, or that you enjoy watching
17. Add a link another blog, or website you are a part of
18. Cut your bio to 50% its current length
19. Put the most important terms first
20. Decide on your emphasis. If your bio was only one word (and not your name), which word would it be and why?
21.  If you’ve written in a complete sentence, try writing in short, punchy phrases. If you’ve written in short punchy phrases, try writing in complete sentences. Use what works.

BTW, here is my Twitter profile:

Name: Zach Braiker
Location: Cambridge, MA
Web: http://www.quiverandquill.com
Bio: “to understand one life you must swallow the world.” I run refine+focus: a marketing agency working w/ brands, media and VCs. http://tinyurl.com/63mrn

For related resources see:

Twitter Best Practices So Far, by David Lee King

How to Write a Short Bio on Yourself, by Pete Kistler

William K. Zinzser, author of On Writing Well, offers helpful advice: “My four principles are: Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity and Humanity. If you keep those four principles in mind, there’s almost nothing you can’t do.”