From: gleanings
To: y'all
Subject: Gleanings: Everybody matters
DESIGN MATTERS
Larry Constantine's examination of how the shopping cart metaphor is abused in most site implementations in "Use and Misuse of Metaphor" -
http://www.foruse.com/ApplicationNotes/metaphor.pdf
also on CHI-WEB recently someone asked for recommendations of magazines for designers.
http://www.acm.org/archives/wa.cgi?A2=ind0009d&L=chi-web&F=&S=&P=6416
USABILITY MATTERS
How usable are dropdowns? I recently asked the members of CHI-WEB and put together this summary
http://www.acm.org/archives/wa.cgi?A2=ind0009d&L=chi-web&F=&S=&P=7665
PRIVACY MATTERS
Pew Research: Trust and Privacy Online
http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=19
report:
http://63.210.24.35/reports/pdfs/PIP_Trust_Privacy_Report.pdf
surveyed 2,117 americans, 1,017 of them internet users
- 86% favor opt-in privacy policies that require companies to ask before
using personal info
- 54% believes web site tracking is an invasion of privacy; only 27% think
it is helpful
- 56% cannot ID the primary tracking tool (cookies); only 10% have set
browsers to reject cookies
ECOMMERCE MATTERS
Rick Levine, of Cluetrain Manifesto Fame put together some of the best, most
common sense advice for designing an e-commerce site in his article - "Your
customer isn't an idiot"
http://www.hatfactory.com/customer.html
NEWS
as ever, mostly from tomalak. you could get everything he puts up rather than just what I find interesting by going to http://www.tomalak.org/todayslinks/newsletter.html
Inside: Burn-Rate Casualties Ripe for Big-Company Buyouts.
Jason Chervokas and Tom Watson. While it may be clear now that giving a bunch
of content creators buckets of money and expecting a return in the near term
was foolish, it is equally clear that the market for online content is growing
rather than contracting...
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,10029_13_30_1,00.html
News.Com: Lawmakers want to legalize MP3.com service.
Dubbed the "Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000," the bill would give
companies the right to copy CDs, store them online, and stream the songs
individually to listeners who could prove they already owned a copy of the CD.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2872715.html
Internet Week: Patent Licensing Benefits Both Sides.
Did Amazon really obtain tangible assets in return, or did it go easy on Apple
just to get a license under its belt? Meanwhile, eBay, whose plans are still
not fully fleshed out, similarly stands to benefit by taking in license fees
for its technology.
http://www.internetwk.com/columns00/ed092700.htm
from the standard
MUSIC TO ADVERTISERS' EARS: According to a new study released by
Arbitron & Edison Media Research, 20 percent of Americans claim to
have listened to online radio. Despite the criticism levied recently
at the value of online advertising, 46 percent of Net radio listeners
say they pay attention to streaming advertisements. Half of them pay
attention to banner ads, and 40 percent say they have clicked on one
in the past month. By comparison, only 30 percent of non-streaming
users say they pay attention to banner ads.
http://www.thestandard.net/article/display/0,1151,18797,00.html?nl=np
MOBILE CLICKS: Ad click-through rates on mobile devices are booming in
Japan. According to the Japanese ad agency Dentsu, the market for ads
distributed via Net-enabled phones will reach $92.6 billion in fiscal
year 2001, which begins in April. ValueClick Japan, which runs ads on
NTT DoCoMo's I-mode service, reports a click-through rate that, at 1.5
percent, is three times higher than the average rate for ads the
company sells on PCs.
http://www.thestandard.net/article/display/0,1151,18828,00.html?nl=np
News.Com: Lawmakers want to legalize MP3.com service.
Dubbed the "Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000," the bill would give companies the right to copy CDs, store them online, and stream the songs individually to listeners who could prove they already owned a copy of the CD.
read it!
From: Gleanings
To: gleanettes
Subject: Gleanings: Experience Design and glow-in-the-dark rabbits
IA & DESIGN MATTERS
User Experience and Interface Design Resources
from SIGIA
"For those of you interested in paper prototyping and evaluating with prototypes in general, you might find some useful tips in the following paper. Showing it's age a little bit (it came out a bit before the web hit town), but I've had good feedback on it's practical use as a how-to piece.
(zipped .pdf, 4.3 meg)
NEWS
from NUA
Harris Interactive: Online kids now spend up to USD164 billion
A new study has revealed that online US kids, teenagers, and young
adults aged 8 to 24 are now spending at a projected rate of USD164
billion per year.
more articles about the changing face of the web.
from tomalak:
ZDNN: AOL quietly linking AIM, ICQ.A person familiar with AOL's situation says the company is taking some steps
internally to make AIM and ICQ interoperable, but that it faces challenges
meshing the cultures of the two companies and also with the kind of users
signed onto each system.
NewMedia: Is Rich Media Worth It's Weight in Gold?
Software designers and Webmasters keep pushing forward like scouts in the wilderness, claiming new audio and visual landscapes as their own. As a result, the Web now is a swirl of color and movement, games, three-
dimensionality, and virtual worlds--it's a bastion of rich media. But there's a rub.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Mutant Rabbit Raises Controversy Over Genetic Manipulation
Visit TheStandard.com and scroll down to "Homage" to read about my friend mike who makes usable cookies Then visit biggerhand.com to see what other mischief he gets into.
It's the consumer experience, stupid. (with apologies to Mark Hurst).
a. Go their site. It's easy to download Napster. No painful registration screens (they get that information later, after you've committed). No hiding of the links users want the most (it's right at the top: download Napster, tour Napster). Last time I was on Adobe's site I had a hard time just finding where to download products, much less finding the product I wanted most: acrobat reader.
b. Install Napster (go ahead, I dare ya!) This is the best installation of a software program I have experienced in a long time. My favorite part is during configuration. One of the choices on connection speed is "I don't know" and they let you skip the geek talk in a way that suggests not knowing how Napster works will not impede enjoyment of it. And why should you have to know about proxy-servers to listen to music?
c. As part of configuration Napster asks you if you'd like to share music with the Napster community, then searches and shares the files for you. This is what keeps Napster valuable. Each song a user shares makes it a little more likely that a song another user is searching for will be found. If you used Napster to search for Metallica songs and never found any, you'd stop using Napster.
A problem with Gnutella-- the other popular P2P file swapping software-- is that Gnutella users tend to be borrowers rather than sharers (see an article on the study). I suspect this is because how Gnutella is designed: I still haven't figured out how to share a song via Gnutella. Open source software is notoriously hard to use, probably because software engineers are rarely interface designers and open source is a pure engineering play. Without people sharing songs as well as downloading them, the service isn't valuable. And if people can't figure out *how* to share songs... .
Everyone is talking how Napster has revolutionized the internet via P2P, or by galvanizing the music industry to finally use the internet as a music delivery channel, but I have yet to see anyone point out the revolution wouldn't have come if Napster was as hard to use as Gnutella. Napster had to be easy to use to gain wide use to gain value.
(what use would a telephone be if you were the only one in the world who owned one?).
And then the revolution could begin.
From: gleanings
To: experiensors
Subject: Gleanings: mark and dack
OPENING THANG
dack.com is good. Not only the source of the lovely best practices shopping cart article I mentioned in an earlier glean http://www.dack.com/web/shopping_cart.html , and the now-famous Amazon tab-cancer http://www.dack.com/web/amazon.html , he offers
flash is evil
http://www.dack.com/web/flash_evil.html
the new economy bullshit generator (scary how many of the terms it generates I used to hear bandied about at my former company)
http://www.dack.com/web/bullshit.html
the excellent intranet cost generator, for cost justifying making your intranet halfway decent
http://www.dack.com/web/cost_analyzer.html
go. http://www.dack.com/web/
IA MATTERS
New paper from Good Experience: The Wireless Customer Experience: Download the white paper here for free:
http://www.creativegood.com/wireless
and a few other Mark Hurst tidbits
"New York Times: A special e-commerce section, including a story by
Ben Stein about why it's hard to produce humor online, and another
story about "geek fashion," which includes a quote from little ol'
me.
E-commerce section:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/technology/index.html
Ben Stein:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/technology/20stein.html
Geek fashion:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/technology/20laferla.html "
and also another mocking of mark hurst (relax Mark, this means you're famous!)
http://www.lfw.org/jminc/customer%20experience/http://www.goodexperience.com/
NEWS
ZDNN: Palm, Motorola pack cell phones.
Under an agreement to be formally announced Monday, the two companies plan to
develop a phone by early 2002 that combines Palm's operating system with
Motorola's wireless technology. The new device will feature a color-display
screen that is larger than most cell-phone displays...
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2631800,00.html
From: Gleanings
To: Interfaces
Subject: Gleanings: Your recommended daily serving of IA
OPENING THANG
Well, fast company finally went after fucked company and now Pud has to change his logo. If you are a designers, he's putting out a general call for a new logo. If you loved the old one, order his merchandise now... he's selling it out and won't be producing more.
http://www.fuckedcompany.com
IA & INTERFACE MATTERS
http://www.eastgate.com/ thanks peterme for this pointer to a source of interface thinking.
http://www.shift.com/shiftonline/html/onlineTOC/2000/8.5/html/maeda.html
contemplating our medium of choice.
from MSDN good article on KISS
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?URL=/library/welcome/dsmsdn/humanfactor8_4.htm
Information Architects Construct Their Sites With a Unique Blueprint
http://www.publish.com/features/0007/feature4.htm
NEWS
a longish but interesting article on the latest even in the music wars.
Are You Digitized?
That ringing you hear isn't from the new Jimi Hendrix box set. It's
the bell announcing the next round in the digital-music wars. Not
surprisingly, the first punch has been thrown by Universal Music
Group, which distributes the Hendrix catalog. Having prevailed in
court (MP3.com may need to write a $250 million check), the world's
largest record company may be taking a big step toward trying to sell
what's now available for free.
Late Thursday night, News.com and Inside.com reported that Seagram's
Universal, soon to be part of Vivendi, cut a deal with Loudeye
Technologies to encode and store 14,000 audio tracks and 30,000 music
videos, the label's "entire U.S. active catalog of audio and music
video titles." Loudeye has some high-profile encoding deals with other
entertainment companies, but the news here is that it'll be hosting
now, too.
Both sides of the transaction talked to both News.com and Inside.com.
Neither talked money, but both talked size. "We'll be storing 150
terabytes," Loudeye founder and CEO Martin Tobias boasted to News.com.
"Between us and the U.S. Department of Defense, there's nobody else
who comes close to that capacity." Inside.com pointed out that
Tobias's multiple titles also include "minister of order and reason."
Inside.com reported that the tracks "could be ready for streaming or
other means of digital distribution in a matter of weeks." What
Universal intends to do with 150 terabytes remains unclear. Both
outlets discussed samples for free and full tracks for sale, and
Inside.com listed Universal's many digital initiatives without probing
how much they might overlap.
How might people buy some of these 150 terabytes? At a conference in
Beverly Hills, the president of Emusic.com said that the subscription
model made the most sense, while the public statements of major labels
like Universal continue to suggest that they want consumers to pay by
the track. And while Napster's still in business, no one's buying
anything. Ding! - Jimmy Guterman
Universal Licenses Music Catalog to Digital Encoder
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2837789.html
Universal Takes the Digital-Music Plunge, Contracting With Loudeye to
Provide Security
http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,9833_9_16_3,00.html
Emusic.com President Says Paid Music Downloading Can Work
http://www.newsbytes.com/pubNews/00/155506.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Before They Were Politicians
The making of the eighth-grade president
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0009/lil_pols/
Performance Artist Shocks U.S. Out Of Apathetic Stupor
http://www.theonion.com/onion3633/performance_artist.html
From: Gleanings
To: TGIF
Subject: Gleanings: flash and IA and not much else
FLASH-FRIDAY!
see the candidates rap their position on the ever delightful jibjab
http://www.jibjab.com/
making fun of flashturbation 2
http://chaoticdemonz.cjb.net/
the people they tend to make fun of
http://www.homewrecker.com/
still eyecandy, still fun to wander
IA MATTERS
best of breed
http://www.commarts.com/interactive/index.html?ia_home.html
The quicklist versions of the heuristics for Web communication
published in the August 2000 issue of _Technical Communication_ are
now available to the general public at the Technical Communication
Online site:
http://www.techcomm-online.org/shared/special_col/quicklists/menu.html
The quicklists are derived from five sets of heuristics on designing
personas, Web navigation, designing comprehensible Web pages,
displaying information on the Web, and collecting Web data to
understand and interact with users. A summary of the introduction to
the special issue is also included.
From: Gleanings
To: SamYouAm
Subject: Gleanings: Dr. Seuss and reflect.com
OPENING THANG
all the usability people are just gleefully watching to see reflect.com take a dive, chatting boo.com under their breaths. we shall see.
Good Experience: Reflect.com Lives On.
Who knows how valid the speculation is, coming from an anonymous source. But it seems reasonable that Reflect would be less than successful, given that it still takes over 20 clicks just to see the first product on the site.
http://www.goodexperience.com/columns/092000reflect.html
also,
If Dr. Seuss Shopped on the Net...
http://ecommerce.internet.com/opinions/article/0,1467,3551_451391,00.html
USABILITY MATTERS
John Rhodes issued a challenge: a usable profitable company that uses flash for their interface. Here are the results
http://www.webword.com/flashusability2.html
IA MATTERS
from peterme.com
"And Kevin is letting us peek into his academic life. He links to the Web sites for all his courses, including User Interface Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation CS 160 - Fall 2000. Professor Landay has been good enough to post lecture plans and notes for the world to see. I
Kevin http://www.fury.com/
User Interface Design, Prototyping, and Evaluation CS 160 - Fall 2000. http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/courseware/cs160/fall00/
lecture plans and notes
http://www.bmrc.berkeley.edu/courseware/cs160/fall00/Lectures/
NEWS
from tomalak
News.Com: Report: Music pirates will evade countermeasures.
"Right now, most traditional (record) companies are focused on providing
security and using security to protect and control distribution of content,"
said Forrester analyst Eric Scheirer. "That proposition has no future in it.
Content won't be controlled. Content can't be stopped legally."
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-2815014.html
NY Times: Those Banner Ads Keep On Waving, But They're Singing a Different
Tune.
Ms. Foley agreed. Though she conceded that all the new talk was to some degree
a face-saving exercise in 20/20 hindsight, she insisted that marketing people
always knew that the measures being used for banners were incorrect, and that
branding was the way to go.
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/09/biztech/technology/20stamler.html
Useit.Com: From February 21, 1999; Details in Study Methodology Can Give
Misleading Results (Jakob says nope to banners as brand)
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990221.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
from media nugget
Ed Ruscha
From his early paintings, which featured a single stylized word emblazoned on a solid background, to his recent canvasses of mountain peaks superimposed with seemingly unrelated text, much of Ed Ruscha’s work explores the relationship between image and language. Despite this motif, his portfolio is well mixed, including everything from photo-essays documenting gas stations, swimming pools, and parking lots, to a series of paintings stained with cherry extract, egg yolks, and spinach. Always sharp, sometimes enigmatic, Ruscha's art undoubtedly provokes responses just as varied as his subjects and techniques. (TP)
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/ruscha_ed.html
From: Gleanings
To: surfers
Subject: Gleanings: 1-click elephants?
OPENING THANG
Peterme complains about TiVo's ads in his sept. 18th entry, and I think he's right
http://peterme.com/
why would a company not publicize their most valuable quality in favor of presenting a feeling/mood/attitude?
IA MATTERS
tog writes about the elephant in your livingroom. funny and often quite accurate.
http://www.asktog.com/columns/039Elephant.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
tiny drawing put on chips by playful engineers
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/index.html
NEWS
MSNBC: Credit-card fraud has become a nightmare for e-merchants.
But in the world of Internet retailing, the customers are always right. As a
result, whether customers are ripping off merchants or have been victimized
themselves by credit-card thieves, it's the merchants who almost always end up losing money.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/462835.asp
USA Today: Apple licenses Amazon's 1-Click.
''Right now Apple and Amazon are the only two companies in the world that use
this technology,'' said Mitch Mandich, Apple senior vice president of
worldwide sales. ''Amazon claims they have a patent, and so we didn't want to
do anything that could infringe on the patent.''
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/cti553.htm
From: gleaner
To: gleaned
Subject: Gleanings: light flow
OPENING THANG
This startled me.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356031&rel=true
Jupiter Communications: Online retailers must use web technologies
Less than 20 percent of online retailers use Java, Flash, and chat
facilities on their websites, which can enhance the online shopping
experience and close sales, according to Jupiter Communications.
IA MATTERS
ten commandments of IA (found at the bottom of this interview)
http://www.publish.com/features/0007/feature4.htm
EYECANDY
Since it's in German, it will only be eyecandy to most
http://www.form.de/wao/intro
NEWS
from Tomalak...
Industry Standard: Out With the Old.
Many old-media executives, mostly from television, were hired. All of them were smart people who had succeeded in their previous careers and - as in the early days of other media - most of them sought to graft their previously successful ideas onto the newest medium.
http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,18535,00.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
http://www.knockerstheklown.com/
From: Gleanings
To: greedlings
Subject: Gleanings: let's sell stuff
IA MATTERS
ecommerce best practices (finally something useful form the SIGIA list)
http://www.dack.com/web/shopping_cart.html
http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/current_paper.html
(also about shopping carts)
http://www.peterme.com/ecommerce/bestpractices.html
USABILITY MATTERS
New Jakob Nielsen column
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000917.html
The current generation of mobile Internet products and services (shown at
the DEMOmobile'2000 conference) has miserable usability. New devices like
Blackberry, Modo, and a prototype Microsoft telephone do better.
"I don't like Flash because I don't think it is a tool that can
generate a good customer experience. In fact, I think
e-commerce web sites created in Flash are miserable.
If you know of a company that predominantly uses
Flash for its e-commerce presence, and you can prove
that the company is turning a profit, then check out
the Flash Usability Challenge. (Earn $150!)"
John S. Rhodes
>> http://webword.com/flashusability.html
GENERAL NEWS
Salon: A scanner darkly.
Scott Rosenberg. If a company wants a magazine ad to drive traffic to its
Web
site, what's more reasonable for it to expect consumers to do: Type
"www.companyname.com" into their browsers, or laboriously install the CueCat
and its software and scan a bar code?
http://www.salon.com/tech/col/rose/2000/09/15/cuecat/index.html
Computerworld: At privacy conference, government regulation starts to look
inevitable... in the final hour of the conference today when one of the participants, U.S. FTC member Mozelle W. Thompson, asked the large audience of businesses representatives and privacy advocates a simple question: How many believe online privacy legislation is inevitable? A sea of hands were raised.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO50450,00.html
APROPOS OF NOTHING
flashturbation mocked.
http://www.skipintro.com/
click on the 1998 version
From: Gleanings
To: acolytes
Subject: Gleanings: Go Do that VooDoo than YooDoo so well
USABILITY MATTERS
How should a page load? What "feels" fast"?
Quality is in the eye of the beholder:
Meeting users' requirements for Internet Quality of Service
NEWS
When the Web Gets Too Personal... and How to Stop It
Who needs a Napster fix?
Napster Fires New Salvo in Legal Battle With RIAA (Reuters)
Napster Case Makes Strange Bedfellows
EVENTS
EYECANDY
Art Center College of Design
APROPOS OF NOTHING
sending some voodoo your way:
From: Gleanings
To: gleanettes
Subject: Gleanings: It's not easy being gleaned
Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.
USABILITY MATTERS
after six seconds, wave bye bye to your customers
I know it's an old study, but it's still quite valid. go to "quicktime" with a stopwatch if you are on a modem. ouch.
and if you are saying, isn't everyone 56k and faster?
IA MATTERS
Ford-Forlizzi Theories of Experience
Really interesting discussion on UML on CHI-WEB right now,
it produced this
"Still, UML as it is now, is inadequate for effectively communicating
with non-technical people. But new ideas are rapidly evolving. I've
already experimented with colour modeling, based on the work of Peter
Coad , and found it
promising (see also UIdesign.net, which I'm sure you're
familiar with). And I think it would also be a good idea to add another
dimension to the model, e.g. an isometric perspective, the way Dynamic
Diagrams uses it."
GENERAL NEWS
from tomalak
Internet Week: Don't Trust Everything You Read, Even On The Internet.
The events that led to this damage involved a string of errors that would be
comical if they weren't so serious. They all had one root cause: the fact that
many people make major decisions based on information they find on the
Internet but don't confirm.
Advertising Age: Delta flies toward $1 billion in Web sales.
The campaign from Leo Burnett USA, Chicago, launched last week and includes TV, print and radio. Print tells customers the simpler URL will save them "an extra 0.73 seconds,'' TV features the delta-air.com URL morphing into the new delta.com, while radio asks, "Why oh why wasn't delta.com our Web address all along?''
Industry Standard: Disney Looks for the Magic. Bornstein is fond of saying the new site won't try to be all things to all people and will focus instead on a few key areas. The search engine will still be in place, but in addition to Web results, consumers will also receive user- rated sites and related content from any of DIG's dozen or so other properties...
Wired News: Eudora Retards Flames.
The newest version of the Qualcomm software features MoodWatch, an automated emotion monitor that scans the text of both incoming and outgoing email for the sorts of "aggressive, demeaning, or rude language," that typically appear in flames -- or abusive electronic communications.
 |
| fig 1.1 |
When I arrived at Apple - QuickTime I was treated to a particularly egrerioius world wide wait situation. Even at 8 seconds I still didn't have the button I needed to click to upgrade (see img 1.1)
If they had only used alt tags on their navigation bar, not only would they have made the site accessible to the blind, they would have also let me know what to click so I didn't need to wait for those darn gifs to load. There are actually a lot of reasons to use alt tags, including getting better placement with search engines.
 |
| fig 1.2 |
From: Gleanings
To: glean feelings
Subject: Gleanings: Feeling chatty this morning
USABILITY MATTERS and Christina rambles.
Mark Hurst reviewed Dr. Marten's site and gave them a pretty harsh review.
I wonder though:
is he wrong, and the Dr. Marten's is hitting squarely their current demographic, just as they do with electric blue or sequined boots (anyone else here old enough to remember when we were 'appropriating" working man boots?)
or
is Doc martens wrong... or rather, limited in thinking of the net as a flavor of television, in which peoples level of entertainment by a commercial equals their positive brand associations and thus sales.
levis has recently come under this same kind of criticism, and I think it's an important question.
what do you think? tell me, and I'll pass it on
Mark Hurst was recently interviewed by Lou Rosenfeld (heretoafter perpetually referred to as "Lou"). Mark looks 12.... and takes the Jakob Nielson "wrong headed but loud so people will listen, think and react" approach. But is always a good read.
Another site review and all I can say looking at Bose is "this is a best practice?" sheesh.
GENERAL NEWS
Internet Workforce Compensation Study 2000
by Industry Standard Staff
The Standard's first-ever review of compensation, culture and job satisfaction in the Internet workplace.
and a bunch more from tomalak, as usual.
Salon: When Big Brother knows you watch "Big Brother".
Q&A with Mike Ramsay, CEO of TiVo. We're looking at interactive ads; we're
putting ads and promotions on the disk as it goes out the door. We've got the
ability to make ads more flexible so that if you're watching an ad and you're
interested, you can hit select and it will take you to an infomercial.
Boston Globe: Bulb business.
The company's voice mail system touts it cheerily as ''the Web's number one
light bulb superstore.'' But does the Web need a number one light bulb
superstore, any more than it needs a number one paper clip store or a number
one toilet plunger store?
Business Week: Bad Timing for Swatch's Web Watch.
A Swatch spokeswoman now says the Internet Swatch has been put on hold because
of "technical questions." The company isn't elaborating, but judging from a
prototype unveiled earlier this year, the Web watch was so flawed that it may
never be put on the market.
CODE
Add helper rollovers to your links
APROPOS OF NOTHING
From: Gleanings
To: listeners
Subject: Gleanings: folded and unfolding
It's a foggy Monday in San Francisco, so I thought I'd start the day off with some humor
How people forwarded jokes before there was email.
and of course, we will all get this t-shirt
USABILITY MATTERS
it's an old song, but as dsl, cable modems and the like get more attention, we need to remember that most of America isn't there yet.
InfoWorld: The speed of business: If your pages are slow, your customers will
go.I understand the difference between Web-and host-based systems, but the
difference between 2 and 8 seconds is far too much. Our expectations appear to be heading in the wrong direction. I'm also certain we didn't become more
patient over the years.
Useit.Com: From March 1, 1997; The Need for Speed
IA MATTERS
I know it may sound odd, but I believe IA's should try folding origami from diagrams. the act of using a diagram to create a 3d object is both satisfying, relaxing and makes you consider what it takes to write halfway decent instructions. I'm sure there are other hobbies that would produce the same set of feelings and skills (model airplanes? knitting) but origami is my choice.
Of particular interest here is the "Phone Folding" --text only instructions.
My favorite of the origami sites
GENERAL NEWS
eCompany: A New Way to Keep Score on the Web.
At IRI, they gave 50,000 pen scanners to a panel of consumers to keep track of all their purchases -- an expensive proposition. Now, on the Web, they've
attracted 1.3 million surfers who willingly allow ComScore to stalk them
online and record every click.
the new star wars trailer is a hoax? (and yes, I'm a bit behind on this one. if you want your news pre-masticated, you'll have to live with it)
anyhow, if you wanted to waste your whole day watching fanfilms, check this out
Forbes: MongoMusic Fans Include Microsoft.
People like to think their tastes are quirky and unique, and Hinman doesn't
disagree. He just believes he's found a way to predict their music likes and
dislikes--down to the chord, even--using a database of songs and a patent-
pending computer program.
more on music and the napster influence
I know it may sound odd, but I believe IA's should try folding origami from diagrams. The act of using a diagram to create a 3d object is both satisfying, relaxing and makes you consider what it takes to write halfway decent instructions. I'm sure there are other hobbies that would produce the same set of feelings and skills (model airplanes? knitting) but origami is my choice.
Of particular interest here is the "Phone Folding" --text only instructions.
A good site is Joseph Wu's origami page . Or you can straight to the Files and Diagrams.
From: Gleanings
To: Sleep is for the Smart
Subject: Gleanings: refreshed and refreshing
Hey kids...
after a grueling working week I'm back. I'll never use the phrase "sleep is for the weak" again... sleep good.
Idle information....3% of my visitors have no JavaScript. They either turn it off or don't have JavaScript enabled browser. Wonder which it is.
I also have a higher than industry standard number of Mac and Netscape users
I get 28% Netscape and 20% Mac... compared to the web-wide numbers of 13.5% for Netscape and 3.5% Mac. Just goes to show you, nothing is more valuable than designing for *your* users. Anyone have an old Mac to donate so I can browser test?
(BTW I use http://www.TheCounter.com/ for my stats rather than digging through my logs)
okay, enough about me.. here are your URL's.....
USABILITY MATTERS
do not forget the alt tags!!!!!!! or it may cost you.
Still more reasons to remember alt tags, including being found by search engines.
evil bureaucracies?
Useit.Com: Regulatory Usability.
Regulatory requirements often reduce the usability of Web content and end up
damaging the exact goals they were trying to promote. Regulatory agencies
usually base their rules and regulations on design criteria that are
appropriate for paper-based documents but which don't work in the online
medium.
more Jakob
CIO WebBusiness: From February 1, 1999; Jakob Nielsen on Dinosaurs
DESIGN MATTERS
Death of the Websafe Color Palette?
good old webmonkey discoverers there are really only 22 websafe colors. hope you like green.
OTHER MATTERS
interview with author of cluetrain manifesto
NEWS
Business Week: So Who Wants to Surf the Tube Anyway?
Q&A with Lutz Erbring, professor at the Free University of Berlin. The
technology is there to combine the devices. But nothing that we've [seen]
suggests that people want to mix those activities. When they're watching TV,
they want to relax. They don't want to do any research.
NY Times: Trademarks Winning Domain Fights.
At the heart of Icann's domain name arbitration system is the Uniform Dispute
Resolution Policy, a set of rules that provide the litmus tests for
determining if a domain name holder is acting in bad faith or is out to hijack
a trademarked name.
Industry Standard: Yahoo "Ads" It Up.
Anheuser Busch might know that millions of dollars spent on ads that feature
talking frogs will lead to hundreds of millions in beer sales. But the
intuitive logic of advertising seems like a stretch to Wall Street, especially
with investors leery of Internet stocks.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
Splendid Maya Palace Is Found Hidden in Jungle
Dieting Lowers IQ of British Girls
One in four schoolgirls are damaging their IQs by dieting and depriving themselves of iron. British researchers found a highly significant difference in IQ between schoolgirls with the lowest levels of iron in their blood and those girls with adequate iron levels.
Webmonkey looks at the possiblity that we might have a few more colors to play with in their latest article, Death of the Websafe Color Palette? and their discovery is.... well, let's just say "hope you like green"
From: Gleanings
To: labor day demons
Subject: gleanings: laboring on labor day
IA MATTERS
collection of readings on ethnography and experience design
Slashdot: Copyrights on Web Interfaces
EYECANDY
Cool Web Design http://www.cwd.dk offers inspiration to web designers by featuring "best of" websites in many common categories.
NEWS
hey! Linking against the law? I think we are going to see a lot more of this...
from Tomalak:
Washington Post: 'Opting In': A Privacy Paradox.
It's one of the more puzzling conundrums of online life. While companies that
capitalize on the Internet's powerful potential to invade privacy are
denounced as villains of the information age, millions of people type out
highly personal data and send it off to Web sites they've barely heard of...
PC World: Is Eudora Snooping on You?
That's the situation we currently find with the Eudora 4.3 e-mail client. And
while the company that makes the program, Qualcomm, says no "personal
information" is being sent to their servers, data is being sent from the
program to a Qualcomm server, and most users probably don't know it.
and.. I never thought anyone would have anything nice to say about reflect.com, but...
NewMedia: Inside Edge.
This is a true quantum shift, for although it's one thing to just-in-time
design and manufacture a computer through Dell, it's quite another when a
company such as P&G mounts the wave. They've recognized that new product and
service lines...
The Race to Be Wired
By Dale Buss
In a century-long rivalry's latest chapter, Ford and GM each want to
claim the mantle of world's most Net-savvy automaker.
APROPOS OF NOTHING
fun variation on the old meyer-briggs test