State of the Web Today
For today’s podcast, I gave a shout out to Sandra Niehaus, VP User Experience and Creative Director of Closed Loop Marketing. I asked Sandra to provide her perspective on the state of the Web today. Specifically, I wanted to know the level of adoption of Web services within medium level organizations and the enterprise. I also wanted to know if today’s Web services falls within the responsibility of the IT department, marketing or both. Additionally, I wanted to know how the various departments work together and if any issues existed between the two.
Sandra heads up the company’s usability and conversion optimization projects. She is co-author of the book “Web Design for ROI” from New Riders Press, and regularly speaks on the topics of usability, design, and conversion at industry and business conferences. Sandra has contributed her expertise to projects for a wide range of companies, including Hewlett-Packard, Brocade, ReelzChannel, and Allstate.
Sandra’s creative and scientifically-inclined family fostered her early fascination with technology and the arts. After discovering computer programming in high school, she balanced college courses in computer science and electronics with orchestra, music theory, and composition.
Sandra’s music studies took her to France, Hungary, and the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music, resulting in a Master’s degree in music composition. She complemented these studies with graduate courses in business law, IT management, and, as the Internet emerged into public awareness, multiple web development languages.
She joined Closed Loop Marketing in 2004 after nearly a decade as an independent web consultant. She resides in Northern California, where she surfs, writes, practices mixed martial arts, and thinks about stuff.