| last updated:19 Sep 2003 17: 34 Webword time, or 19 Sep 2003 22:34 UK time |
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| Webword Statistics - Recent Comments (Comments added for week ending Sun 14 Sep 2003) | View Other Weeks |
| SAP | Sat 13 Sep |
| is an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning System) and a whole lot more. Unfortunately, it is difficult to implement and configure, and novice users find it to be overwhelming. The good news for SAP is that just about any person who has used it will tell you that it is very powerful. Furthermore, once it is installed and configured, and users are properly trained, it can provide significant ROI for a company. I have direct experience with SAP. The user interface has frustrated me very much, although I keep telling myself that it is a good system. I know that expert users love it. So, I stick to it and keep learning. But, I need to express some frustration with the interface so lets take a look at the login screen. I want to point out three things that drive me nuts. First, in the upper left hand corner (Item 1) you will see a strange looking icon. It sort of looks like a rectangle with a trapezoid of some sort on top. It allows you to restore, minimize, and move the window as well as some other special functions. I dont have a problem with the functionality but I do have a problem with the contrast. The light blue on the dark blue is terrible. This same color scheme shows up all over. It is the default color scheme, and while I like the colors, I hate the low contrast. It makes it difficult to use the interface. Secondly, to change your password you need to fill in your username and password and then click on the New Password button (Item 2). Ive needed to change my password a few times in SAP and each time I really have to think about what to do. I always want to just click the New Password button. Im not allowed, of course, then I need to think back about how I did it in the past, or look up the process in an old email or database. Maybe Im just being picky, but it just doesnt make any sense to me. The process doesnt feel right. Finally, the password field is poorly designed. Before you start typing, the field is filled with asterisks (Item 3). Thats right, before you type the field has information in it. First time users are always, and I mean always, confused by this. Ive been using SAP for a while now and it still confuses me. On the good side, when you type at least the cursor moves. But other than that, the password field is terrible. In my opinion it completely violates the population stereotype of password field design. |
| Sat 13 Sep 21:25 | daniel szuc | Unusual that the 'new password' button sits above the login area. Does language also require a code? Or is this a funny looking pull down? If its a code ... help! |
| Sun 14 Sep 18:25 | John S. Rhodes | 1. I agree that it is strange that the New Password button is above the password area. It just begs to be clicked, especially if you want to change your password! 2. Language does require a code. Unfortunately it is not even a drop down. On the other hand, you can configure the system such that it isn't necessary to enter a language selection. |
| Sun 14 Sep 23:47 | Avon Lady | The first thing needed to clean up that interface is to remove all those damn numbered arrows. They clutter up everything. |
| WebWord Comment | Tue 09 Sep |
| I was told today that virtually all schools in India have strict admissions requirements. What interested me most was that many schools (pre-school and up) actually interview the parents. If the wife works, it can be a problem since Indian schools basically expect that parents (mother at least) to spend significant amounts of time with the kids, helping them with their work. It is not abnormal, Im told, for students (e.g., 4th grade) to have 4-5 hours of homework per day. In the U.S. a 4th grade student would very rarely have over 1 hour of homework. Can anyone confirm or deny this information? Im quite curious about it. (By the way, I also ate at an Indian restaurant and drank a very yummy banana lassi.) |
| Wed 10 Sep 02:07 | Anonymous | Yes, it is true that Indian Schools (at least the good ones) expect the parents to have a substantial involvement in their kids education. It is not uncommon for mothers to quit jobs for the sake being with their kids, especially during the few years leading up to the crucial school leaving exams. I wouldn't say they stay home to help them with homework and such, but to take care of everyone of their children's needs so that the kids can concentrate on studying. |
| Wed 10 Sep 13:07 | Manu Sharma | Schools have strict admission policies, particularly in higher classes because a school's reputation mainly depends upon the board result [nationwide standardised exams for class X and XII] it delivers. To deliver a great result, they must admit students with exceptional academic backgrounds. Another reason is that unlike the US or Japan ours is not an egalitarian society. Even in large cities, you can find people from all walks of life. The divide is sometimes staggering to an outsider. Restricting admission to only a few is a way to filter out students who may not come up to the standards held by the school. It's completely untrue that a child is rejected because of a working mother. That never happens. In an urban household, it's very common to have both the parents working. The interviews are simply to judge whether the environment at home is conducive to the standards that the school aims to provide to the child. There are some schools in Delhi that impart compulsory western music classes to the child from class I, provide air-conditioned buses to them and get their lunches from five-star hotels. Then, there are also those that admit students only from a particular sect or community. Of course, most schools do provide an egalitarian environment and do not restrict students based on their background. What's more important is the child's academic record and the fact that parents are well educated and can provide an environment necessary for the child's balanced growth. And it's only the private schools that admit students through interviews. Those held by the government have no such policies. About the amount of homework kids get... actually it is uncommon for a 4th grade student to have 4-5 hrs of homework. The average - I'm told - is only one hour. Both my mom and my sis teach so I do know a little bit :) |
| Wed 10 Sep 14:14 | MadMan | Hey John, if you wanted me to say something, you coulda just asked straight. ;) It's been more than a decade since I went to school, but 4-5 hours does seem a bit unrealistic here. That said, the exploding population of my country is not making admissions into good schools any easier. And what Manu said... (What's a banana lassi? We have lassis here, but never seen a banana-flavoured one.) |
| Sat 13 Sep 17:37 | Francis Wu | I don't think 4-5 hours of homework is a good idea. The Asian educational system geared to create 'super students' has resulted in ridiculously high suicide rates, mental health problems, substance abuse. The Asian educational system there is also a problem for 2nd generation immigrants in North America. Immigrant parents are unaccustomed to the slackness of the educational system here (and the culture). I've had the displeasure of experiencing this culture gap myself. |
| Sun 14 Sep 03:13 | Manu Sharma | Three features in today's paper discuss this issue. Admissions restricted here What Forms Ask 'No selection criteria at this age' |
| Contempt of Consumer: It's a Real Crime | Fri 12 Sep |
| Were making those people our customers angry. In our race to make as much money as possible (as fast as possible), we take time and resources and esteem and careers and use them up as fast as we can. Weve lost sight of what it means to treat customers with respect. We also disrespect our shareholders, our employees, and our government but its all part of the same problem. |
| Sat 13 Sep 12:11 | Matthew Oliphant | Puts me in mind of one of my favorite business tag lines: We're not about making money, we're about making customers. |
| investment | Wed 10 Sep |
| for the user, because it is a committment. It is also a risk for the user, with the hope of a return. Most folks concerned with page loading time are actually talking about the time it takes for a destination web page to load. However, for the user, the clock will definitely still be ticking even after the destination web page loads. For example, if the destination page is a news page, the user still needs to read the content. Or, if the user intends to buy a book, there is still the time it takes to scan the page, perhaps read the reviews and summary, and find the button to add the item to the cart. If the user is buying something, like a book, it will take time to checkout. We are still not done talking about time because if the user needs to wait for delivery the user is still concerned with time. The moral of the story is that even if a destination page loaded in less than one second (wow!) the user still measures the web site in terms of minutes, days, or even weeks. Remember, the web site is the company. And while it might be nice for web developers and web usability folks to think they only need to care about page load times, or even the web site itself, they are completely wrong. Time for users is measured by their entire experience, not something as narrow as page load time for a destination page. I call into question research that is concerned with single page (i.e., destination page) download times. Why? Because I would argue that almost any user would be willing to wait between 5 and 10 times as long for a single page to load if they were highly confident about it. If success is almost certain, theyll place a big bet on it (i.e., wait time). They will wait a long time, and when it does load, theyll be happy. As Christine Perfetti indicated, success drives the perception of page load time. Not surprising, especially in light of total task time as I am suggesting. Heres an example. Imagine one task that was designed where the user only needed to rate satisfaction (for example) of page download time but did not need to wait for any other pages to load, and did not need to do any work before that destinatation page loaded. Imagine another task where the user needed to do work to get to the page (search and navigation), but then had to wait for the exact same destination page. Which task would yield higher satisfaction ratings? The one where the user only needed to load the destination page, of course! In spite all of the articles I have read, I think many users are quite patient. But for them we need to remember that the clock has been ticking for a long time before they reach their destination pages. Furthermore, the clock is often ticking long past the time they were on the destination page. |
| Wed 10 Sep 22:11 | John S. Rhodes | One more quick comment. Many people forget about the importance of the 'weakest link' of the entire experience. Anything could be the weakest link. More important is the fact that, as the user does more and more, the opportunties for failure compound significantly. If the user only needs to visit 2-3 pages to get to the destination page, there is a good chance of success and the weakest link will not be broken. However, if the user needs to visit 9-10 pages (or perform a large number of actions) the weakest link will be more of a threat. The user will become more and more frustrated over time, and the weakest link is more likely to break. If that weakest link breaks, no amount of time can salvage the overall experience. So, we are doing battle not only against time but against all of the other possible failure points on the way to the destination web page. Yikes! |
| Thu 11 Sep 07:34 | Philip Chalmers | I take the points about other parts of the user's investment of time -connecting to the ISP, loading the browser, etc. But I still think download time is important, for example: * Few sites have no competition. Most have to compete, and one aspect of that is having at least reasonable load times. * The user might not want to visit furhter pages on a site where the first page is much slower than the average in that user's experience of the web. |
| Thu 11 Sep 09:00 | Frank Lynch | My memory is failing me — there's an Australian site with a maritime theme to it, deals with internet issues. Guy's name is David something... He wrote about a lot of this a couple years ago, and used an economics metaphor (much like the one used here), referring to users as in an options market... It was valuable to me, because we had heard focus group respondents say that they have click-hesitancy based on prior bad experiences with download time on the site. I tried using that as an argument that the Web site was a community, that every page manager helped every other page manager by improving their pages. Damn damn damn, wish I could remember the site! AGH! |
| Thu 11 Sep 09:27 | Matthew Oliphant | I agree with what you say, and would even back up the experience before the computer boot to the point where the user says/thinks, 'I need a ____ and only the Web can provide it.' However, I would bet most of 'us' are not in control of the entire user experience. We control only a few of the pages. As such, we should be aware of page loading times. Not as a primary concern or course. I still get people at work using 54 lines of code and 5 images (logo and 4 byte-heavy spacers) to make a page header instead of 34 lines (I could get fewer with more than the 10 minutes I spent), 1 image (logo) and a CSS file. From a Web app perspective, I look at total task time compared to all the other tasks the user has to accomplish, broken out as appropriate to the task (hourly, daily, weekly, quarterly). I think that would be another differentiating point: Web site vs. Web app. Information foraging vs. transaction completion. My guess (definite guess) is that people will be less patient with the perceived performance of a Web app, especially once they get used to how it works. Initially they may be more forgiving, because they will blame themselves for 'mistakes.' Here's some other info (via usability.gov) on page load timings. |
| Thu 11 Sep 09:27 | Jason Fried | It's all about setting expectations. If you don't tell people what they are waiting for (giving them a reason to wait) they won't. Or, if they will, they'll be more likely to be dissapointed if they waited and the content wasn't worth the wait. |
| Thu 11 Sep 09:45 | Anonymous | My wife is probably a typical user. When a site loads slowly, she will wait long enough to be convinced that something has gone wrong with the connection, then go to the address bar and hit Enter to try to reload the page. She gets annoyed when this happens, but at 'The Internet,' rather than the site that won't load. She is usually very persistent. She never looks at the little progress bar at the bottom of Internet Explorer (which takes an experienced user to interpret correctly anyway.) |
| Thu 11 Sep 09:52 | Matthew Oliphant | they'll be more likely to be dissapointed if they waited and the content wasn't worth the wait. Overall I agree, but I do think there is a point, based on past experience with similar (or the same) content/transactions where the user switches from blaming themselves to blaming the Web site. Not that I am anywhere near a typical user (if there is such a thing), but I still find I blame myself for somethings I do on the Web, when in retrospect of the action I realize that it was the site's/designer's fault. The user should never feel bad about making a decision while using one of our products or services. It's not as detrimental to the business if they are in the 'I blame myself' stage, but it becomes detrimental when they enter the 'I blame you' stage. *sigh* Being sick at home leaves far too much time to write posts. :) |
| Thu 11 Sep 11:00 | Moe Canby | Download times are a barrier to adoption. 56k is the ideal most never achieve because conditions are never perfect. I have two relatives who I got online with 6-months-free ISP offers. After six months they had abandoned the web and dropped service. Why? Web sites are too damn slow to load. Designers have smoked fat pipes too long and can't remember the reality that most of us occupy. There is a new caste system rising -- wired folk who can afford broadband, analog cretins who eak by using e-mail mostly because the web is a nightmare, and the unwashed masses who can't afford to spend ten hours a month waiting on their status bar. |
| Thu 11 Sep 11:55 | Andy King | John, As usual you are provocative in your posts, which evokes great discussions (perhaps your intent). I disagree of course. Your statement that users are 'quite patient' when waiting for pages to download is flawed I think. I'd like to see studies that show this effect. I do agree that the total experience is important, and there is some evidence that 'cumulative frustration' may have some influence on user satisfaction. However, the research I summarized in my book, Speed Up Your Site, shows that page download times are important to user satisfaction. The UIE 'study' above is often cited, but they haven't revealed their data. Every other study I've read contradicts what you propose. Users hate to wait and there is usually an alternative site that they can go to. Speed matters, and it is a critical part of usability, utility, and likability (Shackel). I've seen sites that were 1.5MB and fatter for their home page alone. This is an abuse of the user's time, if they ever wait around for the entire page to load. Slow pages say in effect, 'we don't value your time.' They are user hostile, not user-friendly. Fat graphics and Flash splash screens are out. Fast and sleek and standards-compliant are in. |
| Thu 11 Sep 12:10 | Matthew Oliphant | Related comment: One thing I think we cannot trust is any 'usability study' on this topic. Contextual Inquiry reports (low interaction), observation sessions (low interaction) in the user's environment, and possibly interpreting some clicking data. But any 'study' is going to be with user's who 'want to help' and they will wait as long as it takes (in many cases) for the page to load. And even when the pages take forever to load, they will still say they had a satisfying experience. If you have a good facilitator that can delve without pushing, you may get some decent data, but it's doubtful. Andy asked for some studies to back up John's claim. They exist. Not at work today, otherwise it would be easy to point to them. But there are some sources in the link I posted to usability.gov above. Lastly, I highly approve of using quote marks around the word 'study' when used in the same sentence as UIE. |
| Thu 11 Sep 20:58 | Gerald | As mentionend before, expectations are an important factor in this game - and the importance of the task itself. If I expect to find the answer of my request at a special page I will wait - even for a long, long time. My patience correlates directly with the importance of the activity. But if I step through some search result pages looking for some less important results, my expectations at most depending on the description and title of the listed pages, the download time is a major factor. An additional note: Imho it would have been better to compare sites with relating themes/content and not Amazon with About. |
| Thu 11 Sep 21:30 | daniel szuc | Give me a device I can switch on in the morning and *bang* its ready to go. No splash screens, no need to get a coffee while waiting ... Why cant switching on a PC be as fast as turning it off? Then again, is too fast, too fast? I mean do people require a certain amount of waiting time for certain tasks? I could always just leave the PC on :) |
| Thu 11 Sep 22:17 | Matthew Oliphant | One of the good things about the old 28.8 (went from 28.8 to DSL) days was I had to get up and make food from time to time. Now with DSL at home T3 at work, there's just no time anymore to enjoy a good walk to the kitchen, or even talk to the people who live with me. So maybe waiting is a good thing. |
| Fri 12 Sep 05:22 | Mac | By choosing to focus on computers rather than the tasks we wanted done, we inherited much of the baggage that had accumulated around earlier generations of computers. It is more a matter of style and operating systems that need elaborate user interfaces to support huge application programs. These structures demand ever larger memories and complex peripherals. It's as if we had asked for a bit of part-time help and were given a bureaucracy. Canon Cat |
| Fri 12 Sep 06:35 | daniel szuc | Another thought, think it also depends on what you are looking for, is it worth the wait and if there is competition who can provide something faster. For example, Google provides me with everything I generally need from a Search perspective. But if there is something out there that can offer something faster and better, I would probably use it. I also wonder if there have been time comparisons done on finding information or completing a task using the web vs more traditional channels. For example, if I can do it faster using the phone, why would I use the web site to do it in the first place? |
| Fri 12 Sep 09:10 | Matthew Oliphant | I also wonder if there have been time comparisons done on finding information or completing a task using the web vs more traditional channels. Yes, there have. In studies that set paper vs. electronic for information search and comprehension, paper always wins. Of course most of the people tested have YEARS of experience looking for things on paper medium, and electronic is newer. I wonder if there are any trending studies. If you have access to HCIRN (I don't) there are some related papers. |
| Fri 12 Sep 14:38 | Mauro Gutkii | My memory is failing me — there's an Australian site with a maritime theme to it, deals with internet issues. Guy's name is David something... He wrote about a lot of this a couple years ago, and used an economics metaphor (much like the one used here), referring to users as in an options market... It was valuable to me, because we had heard focus group respondents say that they have click-hesitancy based on prior bad experiences with download time on the site. I tried using that as an argument that the Web site was a community, that every page manager helped every other page manager by improving their pages. Damn damn damn, wish I could remember the site! AGH! It's David Walker's site Lighthouse on the Web |
| Fri 12 Sep 16:29 | Frank Lynch | Mauro, you're correct... I was able to recall the url some time after posting but I still couldn't find the specific column I remembered, even using the search engine. I emailed him asking for assistance, but haven't heard back. |
| Natural Selections: Colors Found in Nature and Interface Design | Wed 10 Sep |
| (Boxes and Arrows) In the case of interface design, color combinations found in nature are especially useful. From complex web applications to informative “brochure-ware” sites, naturally occurring color combinations have the potential to distinguish (by helping create a more memorable website), guide (by allowing users to focus on interactions), engage (by making page layouts comfortable and more inviting), and inspire (by offering new ideas for color selection). |
| Thu 11 Sep 10:37 | Arne Gleason | Colors found in nature? The examples given are from beautifully composed photographs -- a highly selective sampling of nature by my reckoning. The point seems to be “mimic the color schemes of beautiful pictures” (but alluding to nature makes it seem more profound somehow). |
| Fri 12 Sep 06:27 | daniel szuc | Photos are great and they can really add a more human touch to a site. Especially when the web can be such a sterile environment. I wonder how much research was done on the XP look and feel. When I upgraded from Windows 98, I certainly found it a more relaxing environment to work in. |
| Fri 12 Sep 12:34 | Dino DRomero | Sure... have a colorful page, add some photos to it but keep it simple, keep it clean, information over presentation. |
| Fri 12 Sep 13:42 | daniel szuc | Agree that information is key. But balancing this with some colours and pictures helps. For example, I find some of the blogs difficult to read with text alone. http://news.google.com is a site that perhaps has a nice balance of both text and images. The images break up the text enough to make it interesting. Also think using more pictures within blogs would assist. More piccies John :) |
| 61 Interesting Radio 4 Programmes | Thu 11 Sep |
| (Usability Views) There are a lot of interesting programmes on Radio 4 that are available on the Internet, but it can be really difficult to find the items that are relevant to Usability, HCI and Design. Here is a list of 61 programmes that I hope you will find useful. |
| Fri 12 Sep 11:43 | daniel szuc | Hi Mac, perhaps we can use this remote? - http://www.remotecentral.com/wn000033.htm Now is this usable? It has to be better than the Apogee version ;) |
| WebWord Comment | Tue 09 Sep |
| WinAmp is a great product. Easy to download and install, stable, flexible, simple but powerful in many ways, and free. I just installed it on another computer. So very nice! |
| Wed 10 Sep 11:59 | Gordon | what about http://www.musicmatch.com/ I switched over to it recently and really like it too... |
| Wed 10 Sep 13:14 | Lyle Kantrovich | Yahoo's Launch is excellent, but not quite the same as Winamp. I use Winamp extensively and think it's pretty nifty although the UI and skins really could use some work from a UCD standpoint. |
| Wed 10 Sep 14:14 | MadMan | Winamp 2.x is a far better and bug-free product than Winamp 3. Fancy that! |
| Wed 10 Sep 16:47 | Kirk | God, are you using the same version of WinAmp I just deleted from my computer? What a flaming piece of unusable crap! What the hell is a 'Thinger'? Not only did it have a stupid 'trying to be cute' name, it seemed completely worthless. And forget stuff like playlists. It was just an incomprehensible nightmare, with way too many options about what windows were displayed and which weren't, and how you could clump them anyway you like...ugh. And ugly whenever you took advantage of its resize feature. |
| Thu 11 Sep 06:11 | Michael | I have to agree, I'm surprised to see WinAMP mentioned here. I consider it a usability nightmare. The non-standard interface window is always too small for my medium-resolution screen, and using the sole resizing option - 'Double Size' - turns it into a blocky eyesore that takes up way too much of my desktop. In the regular size mode, the vital window gadgets like 'minimize' and 'close' are nearly impossible to click on the first attempt. Double-clicking the title bar reduces the whole thing to a tiny bar that would be excellent for background music except that the buttons are too small to use. Its navigation is riddled with an assortment of bizarre gadgets that behave in different and seemingly random ways. (Anyone notice the nearly-invisible 'OAIDW' options to the left of the time display, usable only by the most accomplished precision mouser?) The song title either doesn't fit in the tiny window or endlessly scrolls in a jumpy fashion, distracting me from other applications. The virtually useless bookmark mechanism for audio streams makes even Internet Explorer Favorites a joy to use by comparison. The Equalizer's presets require so many clicks to save and load that it's easier to adjust the 10-band EQ manually. I've spent hours downloading and trying various 'skins' in the hope that one of them will actually improve usability. None of them do. And the sad thing is, it's still the best there is. (I'm using 2.x, I agree that 3.x makes new leaps of unusability and should be avoided at all costs.) |
| Thu 11 Sep 07:51 | John S. Rhodes | I think if usability testing was done on WinAmp the results would be horrible. I definitely see what people are saying too. However, I really like WinAmp and it works great for me. WinAmp is a 'great product' for me but perhaps not many others. I can dig that. |
| Thu 11 Sep 21:38 | daniel szuc | John, I installed WinAmp as I wanted to review a competitor to Windows Media Player. As I do with most quick reviews, I uninstalled it. Unfortunately, it left all its software 'poo' in the right mouse click on media files etc and all the files still have a Winamp icon look. How do you completely uninstall programs that do this? |
| Thu 11 Sep 21:48 | John S. Rhodes | Winamp 2.91 -- 'I finally got around to downloading and installing Winamp 2.91. It's fucking awesome. Makes winamp3 look like complete shit.' |
| Thu 11 Sep 22:07 | John S. Rhodes | Remove Unwanted Right-Click Menu Items in IE (Pain in the butt, but does this help?) |
| Fri 12 Sep 06:46 | daniel szuc | Thanks John, but its the items in the pop up menu on right mouse click on the desktop. |
| Why pen computing could put you out of business | Tue 09 Sep |
| The idea is you type something in English, press the send button, and your message appears in German at the other end (ideally in front of someone who speaks German). Your coworker, Hans, then types in a response in German which then appears on your screen in English. |
| Tue 09 Sep 21:23 | Anonymous | > the language barrier to economic prosperity may soon be broken, > thanks in part to tablets, handwriting recognition, and improved > machine translation. The glorious new world of instant translation heralding a new era of bountiful commerce because people can understand each others' handwriting and keyboard typing. Yeah, just look at how well that worked for deaf people. |
| Tue 09 Sep 22:25 | Lyle Kantrovich | 'improved machine translation' is not the same as 'good machine translation' 'functional' does not equal 'usable' Next 'technology will save the world' idea? |
| Wed 10 Sep 14:17 | MadMan | Hey, sounds like the Universal Translator from Star Trek! Kewl! |
| Thu 11 Sep 06:24 | Michael | Ah, so improved handwriting recognition is somehow going to solve all of the problems that make machine translation a novelty rather than a usable tool? Coursey's train of thought has lost me there. |
| Fame vs Fortune: Micropayments and Free Content | Sun 07 Sep |
| (Clay Shirky) What is interesting is the way the failure of micropayments, both past and future, illustrates the depth and importance of putting publishing tools in the hands of individuals. In the face of a force this large, user-pays schemes cant simply be restored through minor tinkering with payment systems, because they dont address the cause of that change a huge increase the power and reach of the individual creator. (Comments: Thanks Frank.) |
| Wed 10 Sep 22:03 | Frank Lynch | I still think that the way to structure it is to charge users through the monthly ISP bill, by quantity of pages viewed, with the ISPs aggregating their customers' usage and forwarding fees to a disburser. Oughta be some kind of window which crops up on a site alerting you that pages will cost. As for Salon, maybe every content provider who wants to remind people that great content isn't always free should go out of their way to link to the Salons & WSJs of the world. |
| THE REVOLUTION USABILITY REPORT sponsored by fhios: Real user testing - Reality check | Fri 05 Sep |
| With usability testing with real users, youll still have the tea and biscuits, and the people behind the one-way mirror if you want, but the participants will be actually using your site. |
| Mon 08 Sep 16:05 | Lyle Kantrovich | Mac, I wouldn't say 'usability people are playing into their hands,' but rather that we're talking their language - seeking common ground. We have to consider *our* users, and in many situations they are business or marketing executives who care about creating good 'brand experiences.' Online user experience = one type of brand experience. Web = 'channel.' The eBay quote IS a horrible one. You'd hope that someone wouldn't say this exactly, but it could be a quote out of context as well. Don't forget the author and editor in all this. 'Unusable' is a dangerous word for a usability professional to wield - as is 'usable.' They are all about context and specifics. Just try to define them and you'll see what I mean. I would welcome someone asking the question 'Unless creative people understand usability, how can they design sites?' -- The answer is no one role should design a site. Not just 'creatives,' not just 'usablity folks,' not just developers, not just executives. Design should be multi-disciplinary. A better question is why didn't the usability expert they hired add more value to their process? Consistently delivering value is the best way to promote usability or UCD. 'We have met the enemy and he is us.' Give me someone who cares about the brand or 'user experience' anyday over someone who cares more about technical excellence. Even if they are wrong about some things, at least I have something to work with. Selling UCD is about finding the common ground and using it to build a fortress on. Then you need a moat with a drawbridge and catapults on the ramparts to assault their defenses with livestock and boiling oil. That's how you win people over. |
| Tue 09 Sep 04:39 | Louise Ferguson | I was going to add something here, but then it got so long that I decided to post it to my own blog. Basically addressing two issues: first, the 'intuitive' question (gosh how I dislike that word), and second, the point about not needing usability people. |
| Tue 09 Sep 07:35 | daniel szuc | From Lyle, Lyle, Croc O' Lyle - 'Design should be multi-disciplinary' - Well said! |
| Wed 10 Sep 01:04 | Lyle Kantrovich | Thanks Daniel. That's an original thought you can attribute to me from now on. :) I also claim: 'Ease of use is not easy(tm)' and 'It's not easy being unusable(tm)' and the all-time favorite: 'Save a brain cell - use blue underlined links!(tm)' PS. You can call me Lyle... |
| Wed 10 Sep 13:24 | Lyle Kantrovich | Just read Louise's post about this. It's excellent. Go read it. |
| WebWord Comment | Tue 09 Sep |
| Today I was talking with a guy who works for an oil company. The business he works for does something like $200 million of business per day. (Holy holy!) He was telling me about the logistics. For example, super tankers draft at about 30-35 meters. However, the Suez only allows drafts of about 17 meters. So, when supertankers reach the canal, they unload into holding tanks which then pump the oil across Egypt. The ligthened tankers (which fall within the 17 meter limit) can make it through the canal to pick up the oil at the other end. He also told me a little bit about how the pipelines work. For example, to ensure that oil can be transported by pipeline but not mix (very important), high pressure is required to keep the oil product moving at a high speed. Different oils have different densities, and therefore high speeds are needed to maintain product separation. If the pressure drops, mixing occurs and causes big problems. Another example of a logistical issue is that tankers must be fueled in a specific way or they will drift, break, lean, etc. You must fill up the compartments in an certain order to balance out the weight as it fills. Complex yet interesting, just like usability. |
| Wed 10 Sep 00:46 | Lyle Kantrovich | Logistics ARE fascinating. The company I work for (Cargill) has extensive expertise in logistics since many of our traditional businesses involve moving and processing bulk commodities (grain, salt, steel, etc.) around the globe. Our experience with logistics has lead to some significant business changes. For example, the logistics of moving grain is what got us into the Salt business - it was a backhaul good on barges taking grain from Minnesota down the Mississippi river. That business is now one of the world's largest salt companies. We have an Ocean Transportation business that has done some pretty innovative things with logistics. Did you ever consider that your orange juice might have traveled the world in a ship custom-made for hauling orange juice concentrate in huge bulk stainless steel tanks? Check out page 10 of this brochure (PDF) for a short story around that innovation. I've seen video of the process for loading and unloading juice from these vessels and it's amazing. Cool info on the pipelines. I've always wondered how they managed various products through one pipeline. Now I know. :) |
| Wed 10 Sep 07:18 | Ralph | We need to consider the usability of planet earth. It won't be nearly as usable once we convert big nations like China to our profligate petroleum consumption. |
| Wed 10 Sep 08:54 | Matthew Oliphant | My company doesn't really make anything (product-wise) per se, but there are a huge amount of logistics involved for the Catastrophic Teams that go out when a hurricane blows through, or other large disaster. Getting there quickly, with all the right equipment, printed checks, locations of policy holders, etc. It's interesting to look at the processes involved with the logistics and see where the bottlenecks are, and how you might try to improve it. It's not my area, but it would be interesting to try and make the whole process more, well, usable. :) |
| Wed 10 Sep 13:11 | Lyle Kantrovich | Ralph, How would you measure the 'usability' of planet Earth? And what effect exactly does petroleum use have on it? I assume you're mostly talking about petroleum use in creating energy (not lubricants or plastics). Is using coal better? Is nuclear power better? Maybe wood-fired steam? Mule-based energy? How does leaving fossil fuels in the ground make our planet more 'usable?' If you're going to drag 'usability' into a political debate then you should be prepared to explain your views. |
| U.S. Open victory | Mon 08 Sep |
| and Im told that You have reached a Members Only area say what? Are you kidding me? Why the &$%^#*! would I register for this site? Whatever. Im not going to spend any more time at Andys site. What a complete waste of my time. |
| Mon 08 Sep 22:30 | John S. Rhodes | But wait, there's more. Check out the registration page. One required field is gender. That's just stupid. Another required field birthday. WTF!? That's bullshit. |
| Tue 09 Sep 04:43 | Mac | It'll be much easier when we get our MS Barcodes fitted. |
| Tue 09 Sep 09:37 | username/password | Point taken, but what do you do if you want to get access to the content, but do not want create a bogus account yourself? Well, there is a Netiqette rule that whoever comes first across a site that requires 'free' registration, will create a 'guest account' using 'username' and 'password' as the username/password combination! Check it out, it already worked for the Andy Roddick site, as this u/p combination works for many others... |
| Tue 09 Sep 09:57 | Michael Batey | E-sy News (http://www.e-synews.org.uk/) is a classic of its kind - it's a site for publicising success stories and a 'research area for interested journalists', yet you can't read any of the stories without going through the registration process - ridiculous! The Netiquette rule is a very good one; unfortunately this site uses your email address as the username. If anyone wants to look at the site (unlikely I know), I've registered 'username@password.com' with the password 'password'. Michael. |
| Tue 09 Sep 13:33 | Jim | There are obvious usability problems with displaying links to information that you don't have rights to view. This must be a case where the marketers have won out over the usability people. I wonder if the marketers understand the long-term impact of forcing registration for basic content? Nobody will want to link to this site if the content's restricted. In the long run, other Andy Roddick sites may achieve higher search rankings, simply because they are easier to link to. On the other hand, if Anna Kournikova wanted my name and number, it might be different.... |
| Tue 09 Sep 15:30 | Toby Gillem | > Nobody will want to link to this site if the content's restricted. Malarkey! High traffic sites like Slashdot and Fark link to registration-required, private-information-required and cookie-required sites all the time. If you want to turn the tide, start complaining to every web site you use that supports this crap, or stop visiting the crap supporters all together! |
| Wed 10 Sep 00:18 | Lyle Kantrovich | John, You just don't &$%^#*! get it. C'mon, Andy's only been a pro since 2000. (You'll find this on the public page titled 'facts' on his web site.) So he's already been a pro for three years and you just never know when a career might suddenly end, especially in a high-impact sport like tennis. I mean look at Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Billy Jean King...it's tragic what happened to them. Andy's only taken home $4,620,311.00 in prize money over his WHOLE CAREER ($2,705,662.00 of it this year), so he needs you to register so he has something to retire on (Spam Mailing List Sales). Give the guy a break. I mean he may have just won the U.S. Open, but clearly he's a hair's breadth from retirement and then death. And you sit here and bitch because they asked if you have a 'thingy' or not. Can't you empathize? Those millions aren't going to last him forever. He's trying to ensure he'll have food in the cupboard next month and you're just being a whiney sod about it. You probably kick puppies too. (For those of you, not like John, who DO care, I'm starting a new charity: Save Andy Roddick from Starvation Now (SARS-Now). Let me know if you'd like to lend your support.) John, I just pray that someday you'll see the light and actually register on Andy's site. Then you'll understand all the glorious benefits that come with 'Members Only' access. ...I'm off to register as an official 'member' now. I just hope Andy's online so I can chat with him and make sure he's okay. The stress he's under must be nearly unbearable. Maybe he'll even auction off a sweaty towel or two on eBay. Keep your fingers crossed!... ...There. It's done. I'm officially a 'member.' I stand in awe of the news and photos I now have access to. In over eight years online I've never seen anything to compare with this world of heavenly content. I'm in tears. ...and (nearly) speechless. |
| Wed 10 Sep 02:23 | Chi Lambda | So ... the site is free but you've got to register first. Seems fair enough to me. |
| WebWord Comment | Thu 04 Sep |
| 280 email messages in less than 8 hours. All of them spam. Ugh! |
| Tue 09 Sep 20:43 | nospam | One of my favorites: http://www.cdt.org/speech/spam/030319spamreport.shtml |
| WebWord Comment | Thu 04 Sep |
| Google has a built in calculator. |
| Tue 09 Sep 08:49 | Ralph | Very nice. Is there anything better than Google for usability? I think they may take over the world. |
| Tue 09 Sep 20:35 | Gerald | Yes, Google is great in usabilty. And the calculator is surprisingly powerful. And the form fields here at webword are a little bit to small. Everytime when I insert an email address and even worse, a longer url, I am unsure whether the spelling of the entries are correct resp. complete. |
| Interview with Roy Want | Sat 06 Sep |
| (Intel) In looking at ways to improve mobile computing, we focused on three technologies, which in combination, offer a potential solution: high-density, small volume storage; low-power, high-performance processors, such as StrongARM and XScale; and standardized, high-bandwidth radios, such as Bluetooth. The personal server represents the integration of these three technologies. Its a small, mobile device that eventually will hold most of the data you use from day to day. It has none of the standard physical input/output capabilities — no keyboard, buttons or display. For this purpose, it relies on the computing infrastructure that happens to be in the locality and short-range wireless-connections to make use of these resources. (Comments: The Ghost) |
| Tue 09 Sep 10:16 | Arne Gleason | The Personal Server idea really appeals to me. I recently find my self feeling a bit of a luddite, as I don’t carry a PDA. They’re fun to poke at, but for me, they just don’t hold enough stuff to be useful (and I never had a problem calculating a tip in my head). I don’t want have to pick and choose what data I have at hand (If you were stranded on a desert island and could only have one book…?). I think I would be first (or maybe second) in line for a wireless 100GB pocket server, with a long battery life (under $500). I don’t need any display -- just give me a headphone jack, a simple speech interface and two or three context aware buttons so that I can access audio documents while walking or driving. |
| Tue 09 Sep 15:26 | Toby Gillem | You may want one of the Archos MP3 players for now. A 20GB hard drive that plays MP3s and has a mic for recording audio is pretty useful. |
| THE Zoom Demo | Fri 05 Sep |
| (Jef Raskin) Another example is with web sites. When one refers you to another page or section, you get a link on which you can click. With THEs zooming interface, instead of a link, you have the page itself there. We can only show bitmaps in this demo, so not all links have their referents there, but a few do to give you the idea. |
| Mon 08 Sep 14:22 | Arne Gleason | While I feel a bit uncomfortable voicing a dissenting perspective, I’m none the less compelled to. Show me the numbers because this approach looks like a waste-of-time. I think zooming and panning are definitely a good way to navigate information that’s primarily spatial, but it seems like a lot unnecessary of work in Jef Raskin’s demo. Maybe I just missed the point |
| Tue 09 Sep 12:21 | Amy | I like it for maps and photos but not for text pages |