From: Gleanings
To: Damp Ones
Subject: Gleanings: anyone got an umbrella?

OPENING THANG

short one today. it's moving day for Carbon IQ, and I gotta go schlep boxes in the rain....
http://www.carboniq.com/space/new_space/space_collage.jpg

***Get well rounded
http://www.computerhistory.org/

NEWS

***Wired News: Follow Your E-Mail Everywhere.
Both scenarios are possible, thanks to services that track when and where
e-mail messages are read without the recipient's knowledge. The technology has
long been used by online marketers to determine who reads their spam; now it's
available to consumers as well.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,41686,00.html

***InfoWorld: The next generation of Web site interfaces.
Q&A with Nick Gould, CEO of Catalyst Design Group. As the medium matures,
you're going to have fewer sites serving more people, as well as serving more
user groups, and [the sites are] going to need to learn how to more
effectively target their product offering to those groups based on what [the
customers] really want and need.
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/01/02/02/010202hngould.xml
from tomalak.org

***A hole in macy's balloon: When Macy's issued online coupons last
month, the company gave away more than it bargained for. When
customers started broadcasting that errors in the system would allow
people to combine offers, Macy's was stuck selling merchandise for as
much as 50 percent off. While its faulty coupon system is to blame for
the problems, customers discovered that orders made with
"unauthorized" coupons would not filled. Other major online retailers
have experienced similar problems recently, complications that should
result in a more careful review of online coupons as a viable
marketing tactic.
http://www.dmnews.com/articles/2001-01-22/12808.html

MARKETING MATTERS

***Poorer media? Although the arguments behind the wider adoption of rich
media ads are well known - better experience for the user, more
revenue for the industry, greater creative flexibility - barriers
still remain. The lack of industry standards for rich-media placements
means that each campaign must be created anew, complete with ramp up
costs and people hours. And while the brand experience available
through rich-media ads is arguably superior, the CPM for rich-media
impressions can be more than twice that of traditional banners. An
alliance headed by Macromedia looks to solve some of these problems.
http://adage.com/interactive/articles/20010205/article1.html

***Spamford and Sons: So-called Spam King Sanford Wallace is at it again.
The dethroned king of unsolicited e-mail and former president of spa
firm Cyber Promotions has found a new way to force his clients' wares
upon irritated users. Borrowing a page from the Internet porn
industry, Wallace has created two sites that launch as many as three
new browser windows when users try to exit - forcing his message upon
users again and again. While such questionable marketing tactics are
nothing new from Spamford, they may find wider acceptance as more
mainstream sites become increasingly desperate for users.
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-4687442-0.html?tag=tp_pr
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2001feb/gee20010205004153.htm
from thestandard.com

APROPOS OF NOTHING

***please help

***don't you wish *your* CPU had a cigarette lighter (see photos)
http://www.atrus.ru/mpl/face?id=1462

***happy machine

................................................................
Sick of me? Go to www.eleganthack.com and unsubscribe.
Can't get enough of me? Go there and read my 'blog.
Talk to me: gleanings-comments@eleganthack.com.
Hire: http://www.carboniq.com

posted by Christina Wodtke 2/9/2001 08:52:18 AM

From: Gleanigns
To: bloggers
Subject: Gleanings: from pyra to email wiretaps...

OPENING THANG

I'm still facinated by the blogger and pyra adventure.
http://www.haughey.com/pyra.html
"Thousands of young and old alike, beginner and expert started using their website to communicate their voice, build a brand, feed an ego, and spread their ideas through weblogs. At the center of it all, was Blogger.com, and it showed no signs of stopping.
But backstage, things were falling apart..." from matt haughey.

Loving his new site design, btw
http://a.wholelottanothing.org/
but then, anyone who quotes Tibor is okay with me. Wish I had time to redesign eleganthack.com. or at least the front page. sigh.

IA MATTERS

Designing a normalized database structure is the first step when building a database that is meant to last. Normalization is a simple, commonsense, process that leads to flexible, efficient, maintainable database structures. We'll examine the major principles and objectives of normalization and denormalization, then take a look at some powerful optimization techniques that can break the rules of normalization.
Normalization Is a Nice Theory
http://www.4dcompanion.com/downloads/papers/normalization.html
as a 732K PDF:
http://www.4dcompanion.com/downloads/papers/normalization.pdf

USABILITY MATTERS

Q&A: Vanessa Donnelly (Part II)
We caught up with IBM's usability guru Vanessa Donnelly. In Part 2 of an
interview, we talked about the availability of online usability courses.
She also gives her Top 10 list of usability do's and don'ts.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2474

NEWS & COMMENTARY

First Monday: Content is Not King.
Andrew Odlyzko. For the wired Internet, the secondary role of content will
likely mean that the dangers of balkanization are smaller than is often
feared. Further, symmetrical links to the house are likely to be in greater
demand than is usually realized.
http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue6_2/odlyzko/

SJ Mercury: Big business and government stretch the boundaries of privacy yet
again.
Dan Gillmor. Trusting businesses to protect privacy is always a risk, because
personal data is a valuable commodity. That's why I'm hesitant to take at face
value a new Amazon service that looks quite useful -- and which, at least for
now, is sensitive to privacy concerns...
http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg020701.htm

Forbes: Linking Like Minds.
There is no shortage of people willing to freely give their time to their
favorite sites, and certainly, companies are quick to reap the benefits.
Mindful of the legal pitfalls, executives are hiring consultants to show them
new ways to involve volunteers online without incurring liability.
http://www.forbes.com/asap/2001/0219/078.html

all from tomalak.org. read more news there....

MARKETING MATTERS

Unleashing The Ideavirus, by Seth Godin
free download
http://www.ideavirus.com
review:
http://www.personalization.com/soapbox/columns/norlin-1.asp

Coming Clean on "Real-Time" Marketing
Real-time optimization, real-time tracking and real-time trafficking need
to be key elements of your online marketing campaigns. Monitoring and
fine-tuning campaigns in real-time is the key to improving click rates,
conversion rates, cost per acquisition and sales. And when we say
"real-time", we mean real-time--not taking days, weeks or months.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2476

APROPOS OF NOTHING

"you can have my aeron when you pry it off my cold dead ass."
http://www.fuckedcompany.com/merch/

bible action figures
HTTP://www.jesuschristsuperstore.net/Action%20figures/Action%20figures.html

A FRIEND WRITES

passed on from muffy

WASHINGTON (AP) - Imagine a large corporation wants to acquire a
small Web company. The corporation sends an e-mail with a price
proposal to the target - and includes a few lines of invisible
computer code. As the target's executives pass the message around,
the corporation gets a copy each time it's forwarded - with all the
supposedly private comments attached. On Monday, a privacy group
started demonstrating this new method to listen in on e-mail that
works on the most popular programs. Called an e-mail wiretap, it
could be used to note off-color remarks from governmental officials,
by a spamming company to gather e-mail addresses, or by a boss to
find out what you're saying about him. "You really would never know
that this is occurring, unless you could view the source code and
know what it meant," said Stephen Keating, executive director of the
Privacy Foundation. The foundation, associated with the University
of Denver, and its chief technology officer Richard Smith, found out
about the situation from computer engineer Carl Voth, who discovered
it in 1998. Though Voth posted an explanation on his Web site, he
kept quiet about it otherwise until contacting the Privacy
Foundation recently. Smith said e-mail wiretaps may become even more
common than viruses
posted by Christina Wodtke 2/8/2001 07:50:33 AM

From: Gleanings
To: clickyclicky
Subject: Gleanings: linkylinky

OPENING THANG

off to user testing, no time for chit chat. enjoy your links!
(a bunch are from the ever-delightful xplane.com/xblog)

USABILITY MATTERS

Empowering users through user-centered web design

"In theory, the web is the ultimate user-empowering environment. In
practice, the very opposite is often the case. Many web sites fail to
empower users and in fact frustrate and confuse them because although they
offer the promise of information, services or goods at the mere click of a
mouse button, they are difficult for people to use. Problems associated
with the use of web interfaces are too often wrongly attributed to user
incompetence, when in fact it is poor design that is to blame."

Computerworld: The Interface Revolutionary.
Q&A with Jef Raskin. It's a human issue. I have yet to meet a computer user
who is happy with the way computers treat them. And most of their pain is
caused by bad interface design. That includes overcomplex software,
nonexistent manuals and help systems that themselves need help.
http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO57255,00.html

group usability testing
http://www.cs.hut.fi/~sri/Riihiaho_thesis.pdf

DESIGN MATTERS

"With the increase of usage of the Internet many questions have been
proposed and many suggestions offered on how to design a webpage for
optimal readability. Unfortunately, the majority of "guidelines" or
"rules" for designing webpages have proven to be subjective and
inconsistent. "

IA MATTERS

Looking for Metadata in All the Wrong Places

"Andy King, editor of this fine newsletter, contacted me [Louis Rosenfeld]
recently with what he thought was a reasonable question. Knowing me as an
information architect with librarian roots, he wondered if I could help
him find a basic vocabulary of Internet and technology-related terms. He
was hoping to use these terms to better organize and label WebReference's
content. Andy had looked at both Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal
subject headings (remember them from your library's card catalogs?) and
found them wanting for his purposes. So he asked me if I could recommend a
quick-and-dirty alternative. What happens when you ask an information
architect a simple question? You get a long and complicated answer."

ADVERTISING MATTERS

Sanford Wallace, once the "spam king" of the 'Net, is now backing an
advertising service which spawns windows when uses attempt to exit affected
sites:

Kathleen Anderson wants pop-up advertisements gone from the Net.
As chair of a Connecticut government committee, Anderson is charged with
ensuring state-run Web sites become accessible to people with disabilities.
She reviles the use of pop-up ads on mainstream Web sites such as AOL.com
and Netscape because the disruptive ads--which appear on Web pages
spontaneously--often confuse a blind person, for example, who relies on a
screen reader to hear content rather than see it on Web sites.... "Web
masters can find other ways of getting their message across, the advertising
or marketing, rather than taking control of your desktop, which is what they
do," she said.

NEWS
Adweek: The Peacock Portal.
But is that enough to keep them coming back? Neither his critics nor analysts
are convinced that his portal is a peacock and not a turkey. For all its
changes, NBCi's biggest battles are still ahead of it. Its image, its revenue
stream, even its relevance are still in question.
http://www.adweek.com/iqinteractive/012901iq_01.asp

Internet World: Deconstructing NBCi.com.
Peter Merholz and Jennifer Fleming. Fox focuses on its prime-time programs.
Warner Brothers serves up entertainment. How can NBC differentiate itself in
this crowd of network players? The plain-vanilla portal available at NBCi.com
is not likely to be the winning strategy.
http://www.internetworld.com/020101/02.01.01decon.jsp

APROPOS OF NOTHING

recipes: information architectecture in it's most practical application.

Chai-Spiced Creme Caramels with Raspberries and Pistachio Phyllo Crisps, Gourmet
http://food.epicurious.com/ego/pistachiocrisps

Coffee Dacquoise Hearts, Gourmet
http://food.epicurious.com/ego/dacquoisehearts

Honeyed Panna Cotta with Dried Figs and Sauternes, Bon Appetit
http://food.epicurious.com/ego/pannacotta

Individual Chocolate and Peanut Butter Bundt Cakes, Gourmet
http://food.epicurious.com/ego/bundtcakes

posted by Christina Wodtke 2/7/2001 07:32:12 AM

From: Gleanings
To: pop-up readers
Subject: Gleanings: marketing and me

OPENING THANG

***Well, ask for a rebuttal, and ye shall receive. Adam GreeNfeild writes

"Reasons why Lovemarks is *not* insanely silly:

1. Don't you see? Kevin is - I doubt he'd use this term, but - talking about
branding from a user-centered perspective! Get meta with me here! He's in
effect asking the whole marketing world the same sorts of questions
responsible interface designers have always asked each other.
What does this brand do for the user? Why would someone choose your
product over Brand X? How is this intense sense of loyalty evoked? Which
leads me to my second reason...

2. Brands very rarely get to be "lovemarks" without a superior product.
(We'll see, for example, if Apple is able to retain this status post-OS X.)
I should clarify what I mean by "superior": a product that so speaks to the
intangible needs of its user base that usability is in effect irrelevant.
How many times in the history of VW Beetles has one broken down, been
cursed for its utter inability to accelerate to highway speeds, been
stiflingly hot or bonechillingly freezing? And you *try* to find me a more
loyal user community! Hell, they're so loyal they managed to talk VW into
considering a reintroduction of the product, and look what the bottom-line
and visibility results have been.
Answering the question of how a brand becomes a lovemark has a lot to do
with understanding what the user's real needs from a product are, rather
than what they say their needs are. If people by and large did IA as well as
a few brilliant (lucky?) designers and marketers did their job, our
prospects wouldn't be nearly as rosy.

OK, that's my thinking on the subject. As someone I know once said,
dissenting opinions are, as always, welcome..."

I do love a well thought out rebuttal!

I will say that if their language wasn't so overblown I might have found the ideas more digestible. Is it time to point at cluetrain again? http://www.cluetrain.com/

Anyhow, decide for yourself.

***more on the brand theme

Got Brand?
You know you need it. You know it's gotta be strong. You kind of have an
idea of what it should be, but it's a fairly fuzzy notion. So what is it?
It's you -- what you do and who you are. It's just that simple -- and just
that nebulous.
http://clickz.com/article/cz.3254.html

USABILITY MATTERS

***Useit.Com: Are Users Stupid?
Summary:
Opponents of the usability movement claim that it focuses on stupid users and that most users can easily overcome complexity. In reality, even smart users prefer pursuing their own goals to navigating idiosyncratic designs. As Web use grows, the price of ignoring usability will only increase.
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20010204.html

***Fairfax IT: From February 15, 2000; The myth of the stupid users
http://www.it.fairfax.com.au/software/20000215/A17561-2000Feb14.html
from tomalak.org

***Top 10 Reasons Why the Apple Dock Sucks
http://www.asktog.com/columns/044top10docksucks.html
Apple has replaced user-centered design with ego-centered design in its new OS X. Continuing protest over their amateurish meddlings have forced them to change some things, but the centerpiece of their "hot demo" of an operating system, the Dock, remains.

ADVERTISING MATTERS

***Upside: Will super-sized ads protect CNET from slowdown?
When Jai Singh, editor in chief of CNET's News.com site, showed his reporters
a prototype of the new oversized ad format he was introducing, they were more
than a little shocked. "Their reaction was like anyone else's reaction: 'God,
this is pretty big,'" said Singh.
http://www.upside.com/texis/mvm/digitalMedia/story?id=3a7b489a5

***Adweek: CNET Combats Banner Blight With New Ad Units.
After months of research and creative work, San Francisco-based CNET Networks
today introduced three new online ad units designed to change the way
marketers and users approach Internet advertising. Several blue-chip
advertisers have already signed on for the ad program...
http://www.adweek.com/iqinteractive/020501iq_02.asp

***Online Advertising Steps Aside for Digital Marketing
As companies begin to see Internet advertising and promotions as part of
the bigger marketing picture, traditional US firms will spend $63 billion
annually on so-called "digital marketing," according to a report by
Forrester Research.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2463

***Online Ads End Year on a High Note
December of 2000 was the best month to date for Internet advertising in
terms of the number of impressions, according to AdRelevance. Meanwhile,
marketing budgets got a vote of confidence from a Getzler & Co. study that
said profitability is more easily found by cutting operating expenses, not
marketing costs.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2470

***To Pop or Not?
Pop-up windows--when used sparingly-- can fulfill a number of needs, both
for the customer and the Web site owner.
http://www.newmedia.com/default.asp?articleID=2466

ha!

APROPOS OF NOTHING

***found on the lists

"A friend of mine observes that this picture

http://www.apple.com/hardware/images/hardwarephoto201082001.jpg

simply needs a Philishave logo on it, and people would be convinced
it's an electric razor."
posted by Christina Wodtke 2/6/2001 07:19:57 AM

From: Gleanings
To: viewers
Subject: Gleanings: caught a big one this morning.

OPENING THANG

***Be sure to visit http://www.jath.com today, and see what my partner Noel does when he's not at Carbon IQ. Noel's sequence will only be up today, but I'll squirrel it away somewhere to embarrass him with later, I'm sure.

***Yes, the conference was terrific. Adam wrote a good "pre" conference essay
http://www.v-2.org/practicingIA.html
I'm working on getting some post-thoughts down in the blog
http://eleganthack.com/blog/index.html Check it out!

***Finally, I view this as PROOF YOU CAN SELL MARKETING ANYTHING

http://lovemarks.com/
"A Lovemark is a challenge that will be taken up by many and achieved by few. It may be a great experience, a person, a product, a stunning event or a profound belief. It is a state of grace that emerges from a
commitment to mystery, sensuality and love. It irrevocably binds you with the desires and aspirations of your customers, your members, your
believers. It's the emotional connection that lets you go out and conquer the world."

Who's been sniffing the whiteboard markers?

Of course, feel free to disagree: christinayrsowrong@eleganthack.com
(thanks, xplane.com/xblog for the pointer)

DESIGN MATTERS

***Mike Monteiro put up his design book list. TASTE-E
http://www.biggerhand.com/designbooks.html

***undesign: A Plan for All Seasons.
Unfortunately, the potential of the Web as it stands right now is being sorely underutilized, not just by the current scapegoat, dot-coms, but by creatives and designers as well. The opportunities to help realize its full potential, and in the process raising the bar on our personal work...
http://www.undesign.org/

***watching logo trends
http://www.haughey.com/?2000_12_01_archive.html#1677511
http://www.splorp.com/blog/archive/2000_12_01_archive.html#1706266

***I'll nestle this link between usability matters and design matters, as Zeldman brings the two together in his article
http://www.adobe.com/web/columns/zeldman/20000821/main.html

USABILITY MATTERS

***Guideline dogma
http://www.system-concepts.com/articles/smartypants.html
"Nobody would deny that usability guidelines, applied in context by a
usability professional, are extremely valuable in guiding a website
evaluation. The problem occurs when non-professionals apply these
guidelines out of context. This can result in an unimaginative site that
looks bland and homogenous. To design usable sites that truly engage
customers we need to replace simple guidelines with a customer-centred
design process."

***Rolf Molich's Comparative Usability Evaluation (CUE) research.
In Rolf's study 9 usability evaluation teams [7 industry & 2 grad student
teams] found over 300 problems all testing hotmail.com, and there was very
little overlap
http://www.dialogdesign.dk/cue.html

***Don't Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
http://argus-acia.com/content/current_content.html
Chris Farnum explains why you should buy this Web Usability book for your boss.
I haven't read it yet, but it's lying around here. I'll let you know when I do.

***What does Transcendental Mediation, Iowa and Usability have in common?
http://www.humanfactors.com/home/default.asp
http://www.mum.edu/hcid/
http://www.acm.org/sigchi/education/#PROGRAMS

NEWS

***quote from Mike Kuniavsky (usability cowboy of the early hotwired team)
"these ads are bigger than my head!"

Business 2.0: CNET Bans the Banner.
It may look like a traditional newspaper layout, with advertisements as the
major visual element. But the new look of News.com is anything but traditional
when it comes to the Web. News.com unveiled its new design and new ad strategy
last week, after six months of planning, feedback, and retooling.
http://www.business2.com/content/channels/marketing/2001/02/01/25674

***Darwin: Final Frontiers.
First, can we declare the Web frontier settled and secured in 2001? And
second, how can companies balance their sensible desire to integrate the Web
group with the rest of the company, giving it concrete goals and holding it
accountable, with the need to encourage continuous innovation?
http://www.darwinmag.com/read/020101/ecosys.html

APROPOS OF NOTHING

I just bought this. Let me know if you like it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000C2MI/medianuggeofthedA/105-3556296-4501507
Manu Chao
Clandestino
1998
Manu Chao blends pop and folk music from Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the Caribbean into a rich travelogue of rhythm, politics, and found sound. Just as he did in his former band (Mano Negra), Chao sings here in Spanish, French, and English. Whereas Mano Negra's musical and cultural diversity couldn't conceal the roaring beat of its punk heart, the acoustic-based Clandestino is a more restrained affair. It is, however, no less engaging.
from http://www.medianugget.com/
posted by Christina Wodtke 2/5/2001 08:15:49 AM

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