(Comments added for week ending Sun 29 Sep 2002) | View Other Weeks
| last updated:30 Sep 2002 13: 51 Webword time, or 30 Sep 2002 18:51 UK time |
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| Webword Statistics - Recent Comments (Comments added for week ending Sun 29 Sep 2002) | View Other Weeks |
| Hello? Is this thing on? | Sun 29 Sep |
| (Zen Haiku) How is lighting the power light when the modem is off senical? Why is the power light glowing for both on and off states? Thats nonsensicial. |
| Sun 29 Sep 16:56 | Jack Schonchin | Chad must be a Jakob Nielsen clone. He obviously cannot accept that designers are knowledgeable. Chad doesn't understand the way the product was intended to be used. Design error? No. Hey, do I sound like a consultant yet? |
| Sun 29 Sep 23:48 | Jack Schonchin | Now that it's nighttime and the lights are low, I'm reminded that several pieces of my stereo equipment have 'off' lights. When the equipment is active, an 'on' light is lit. When I turn off the equipment, the light dims and another light turns on to indicate the equipment is 'off.' Ummmm, what the hell? The one piece of equipment I never use -- a dual tape deck -- I keep unplugged because the energy waste annoys me. I don't care how many pennies a year it comes out to, the idea is just plain bad. Every once in a while those damn 'off' lights trip me up and I hit the power button thinking I'm turning the device off. |
| Has online content jumped the shark? | Sun 29 Sep |
| (NUblog) Independent Web sites (which seem to take only one form, Weblogs) have proliferated beyond any credible expectation and have now become what so many costly commercial sites never managed – a component of the mainstream reader’s daily diet. (You didn’t really visit Pets.com every day, did you? But now don’t all of your friends have daily blog-trolling lists?) |
| Sun 29 Sep 23:14 | Jack Schonchin | 'Usability, localization, and accessibility are now taken seriously as ways of life ' Joe, IMHO, usability and accessibility are not taken seriously or are even widely understood. Accessibility is especially weak. Lots of lip service, little implementation. Plus, many of the designers who write accessible code bend the rules that they don't like. Wasn't there an article about federal agencies -- the only operators of U.S. web sites under a strict, specific guideline to produce accessible web sites -- that these same agencies are in poor compliance? Usability is not widely understood. Just look at these yahoo designers who spout every knee-jerk reaction to usability (and misunderstanding of usability) in the book. That thread is an instant classic, as it were. Back to topic... Joe, are you asking whether content has jumped the shark or weblogs have jumped the shark? I do not believe that blogs represent the bulk of online content generated by individuals. I think that because we use blogs on a daily basis, the world looks like it's dominated by blogs. Most people I know who read the web on a daily basis have never even heard of weblogs. |
| FTC's turtle advises Americans on information security | Thu 26 Sep |
| The Federal Trade Commission has created this website for consumers and businesses as a source of information about computer security and safeguarding personal information. All over the site, you’ll see Dewie the e-Turtle. (Jack comments: Finally a mascot with a good, trusting smile and a congenial personality that makes me stand up and take notice. By the way, WebWord is turtle-green.) |
| Thu 26 Sep 19:32 | JB | Now in some way do you think the FTC and Dewie are speaking down to it's audience? |
| Fri 27 Sep 06:18 | Mac | We need a 'battle of the mascots'. My money's on Cap'n Wacky |
| Fri 27 Sep 08:21 | Mac | WebWord Mascot NNGroup Mascot Lyle Mascot MadMan Mascot Jack Mascot Zeldman Mascot Mac Mascot |
| Fri 27 Sep 11:01 | Ron Zeno | Satire on Dewie via Ridiculopathy. |
| Fri 27 Sep 11:10 | Jack Schonchin | Mac, you nailed The Z-man's mascot... A barber for little blind girls. They cannot tell the difference between a wizard and a hack -- but boy does he talk a good haircut -- and if the girls figure out their hair has been butchered, they're too little to fight back. |
| Fri 27 Sep 12:13 | Lydia | Dunno, seems like a good idea to me. Most of the people concerned with online security are parents, and maybe Dewie being there means they can get their kids to sit still long enough to look through the site? |
| Fri 27 Sep 12:30 | Mac | I think that these sites are aimed at the adults not the kids and if they want to be more effective they would be better off helping the parents/teachers rather than trying to appeal to 7 year old boys ala Ninja Turtles. Jack, now I look at the picture again I see he is a barber! When I originally looked at it I saw a designer showing a protege how to create a paper prototype of a web design ! |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:39 | Anita Rowland | Choose from the Orphanage of Cast-off Mascots. Lileks is a font of web goodness that never ends! I'm tempted by Comfy and Minty, myself. |
| Fri 27 Sep 14:00 | Mac | Anita, I think I'll adopt Kwik 'n Eezy to advertise my new web development methodology. |
| Sun 29 Sep 20:32 | kevin D. White | Am I the only one who finds the usage of a turtle vaguely insulting? When do we favorable associate people and turles in everyday speach? I doubt that there is a hidden message of 'weak cowardly freak' in Dewey but still. At turtle? Come on. On the up side perhaps we can get a danger scale that jives with our mascott. Rather than color we can use different varieties of lettuce. 'Privacy Condition Bib' |
| Sun 29 Sep 22:37 | Jack Schonchin | Kevin, I do not associate turtles with 'weak cowardly freak.' Without telling my wife the context, I asked her what qualities she associates with turtles. She said: 1) Persistence 2) Longevity 3) Self preservation I say: 1) Wisdom (e.g., long-living animals) 2) Nobility (e.g., the great sea turtle) 3) Patience (racing that wascally wabbit) 4) Sexual prowess or hard-headedness (I saw a particularly impressive PBS show about the mating habits of turtles. This one particular persistent little fellow repeatedly rammed his head against her shell to get her attention. He was a mighty green battering ram.) |
| RAMP™ | Sun 29 Sep |
| RAMP™, Robust Accessibility Management & Production. RAMP™, with its unparalleled product depth, automates analysis and remediation of Section 508 rules and W3C WAI Web Content Guidelines and provides efficiencies of over 95% as compared to a manual effort. (Comments: Thomas claims it blows away Usablenets Lift.) |
| Sun 29 Sep 17:02 | Jack Schonchin | Can RAMP tell you when your page has poorly contrasted colors? That seems to be an emerging problem. Anyone used it? |
| defending design decisions to usability nutters | Sun 29 Sep |
| (Yay Hooray) First some usability evangelist disses elasticspace for lack of contrast, then posts new threads about it again, and again, and again, and again, and again. What a loon! (Comments: Jack the Loon.) |
| Sun 29 Sep 16:20 | John S. Rhodes | Below are some of the most interesting and important quotes from the page. As you can tell, the designers don't like us. I can't say that I blame them. We are often annoying, aggressive, and myopic. But, the thing they miss is that we tend to be the most anti-usability group of usability community. If anything, we are fighting for them more than any other usability web site or group. We aren't afraid to attack and criticize usability itself. I'm not always sure about other folks here, but I'm not afraid to reflect on my own lack of design skills. I cannot always do what is right for the users. But, I will say this: I do what I can, when I can. And, when designers tell me WebWord is ugly, I respect their opinion. I don't seek revenge and I don't get upset. I appreciate the feedback. It is gold. Some quotes... 'Does anybody have a bookmarklet that will apply a good design to webword, so that its less glaring and headache inducing? Would be great if this bookmarklet used about 200 years of typography, design, and aesthetic knowledge into creating a complementary colour scheme, legible type-treatment, balanced layout and good information architecture please.' 'i think we need a new term to go with usability expert - usability loser.' 'One day they might wake up and realise that the answer to many of their problems is contained in the intricacies of 200 years of design history. If they bothered to look.' 'This is something that critics of Nielsen and the others don't seem to grasp. The people are not designers, and they don't have those skills. What they do know how to do is make life easier for the average user. Don't treat them like they're rejects from the DeVry school of design: they aren't designers.' 'i'm also disappointed by the fact that many usability experts refuse to recognize that many designers are as knowledgeable, if not moreso, in the very same usability principles they preach.' 'I just scanned some of the pages on webword and from what I could make up - that site really is a pain in its content structure - it more likely seems that they (the Nielsen enthousiasts with Jack in particular) feel threatened by the fact that there can be such a thing as usable and good-looking.' |
| Sun 29 Sep 16:48 | Jack Schonchin | Thanks John, that thread really cracked me up. I stopped when someone suggested I was schooled by Filbert. Hee hee. How many of those guys are consultants? |
| The Wal-Mart Menace | Tue 24 Sep |
| At any given moment, some 10,000 lawsuits are pending against Wal-Mart. Each year, it is sued roughly 4,700 times an average of 13 cases a day on matters ranging from injured customers to employee discrimination. The total makes Wal-Mart second only to the federal government as Americas most frequent litigation target. |
| Wed 25 Sep 11:33 | JB | It is surprising then that they have time to take a class action suit against the credit card companies. |
| Wed 25 Sep 15:31 | Lydia | Nauseating. Absolutely revolting. I guess I'm just naive, but I am completely horrified by this article. I don't like their grubby little stores, anyway, and now I have even less reason to stop by. |
| Wed 25 Sep 15:58 | boysen | I'm constantly amazed at many American's desire to 'pull down' any person or organization that is succeeding. The amount of disincentives already burdening our working people in the form of the tax code just reinforces this mindset. Not to say I promote illegal activities, so in those cases shine the light of truth on the wrongdoers and punish but I feel it's safe to say that Wal-Mart has done far more good than harm. (Is is just me or does this site deal with bigger issues than Usability on a regular basis?) |
| Wed 25 Sep 16:10 | John S. Rhodes | boysen, WebWord deals with issues that WebWord readers care about. Over time I have found that we talk about things that are far beyond and outside of usability, although the focus is generally on usability. If I see a lot of comments about telephones, then I hunt down articles on telephones. If it seems that we haven't touched on an issue in a long time (e.g., blind readers) I might dig something up about that. Other times, I simply look for material that will allow people to communicate. Invariably, when I post links to usability articles, we talk about things like politics, language, and the weather. When I post links to articles on things like voting or leadership, we often end up talking about usability, human factors, and information architecture. We are a melting pot of usability. No, scratch that. We are a fruit bowl of usability. Or maybe just a bowl of fruits. |
| Wed 25 Sep 16:35 | JB | I am a lychee |
| Wed 25 Sep 18:56 | Jack Schonchin | My hometown successfully fought off that Big Box. To say we wanted to 'pull down' the corporation because of its success is to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of the issues involved. |
| Wed 25 Sep 19:07 | Lydia | Boysen, I'm not sure what pattern behavior you have seen Americans exhibit in regards to wanting to see failure among companies that succeed, but it could probably be chalked up to the very basic drive of not wanting to see anything be too dominant. America is kind of based on an egalitarian society and we are naturally suspicious of anyone doing too well. As for this Wal-Mart thing, why support a company that does this to their employees, customers, and community? I would not work for a company that would do this, so why should I shop there? Wal-Mart squeezes out better stores in the name of 'always low prices,' and to hear that it is at the expense of the people they should be on their knees thanking is offensive. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:47 | boysen | Wow. You would think it would be hard for Wal-Mart to find employees given the stories that I've read. To me, (and I'm not trying to be overly confrontational) when I hear someone say something like, 'we are naturally suspicious of anyone doing too well' it makes me thing that those individuals would rather be living in a more socialistic nation where the government assures a mediocre level of performance by all parties involved. I'm not saying anyone on this site is a socialist. I'm saying that when we criticize an organiation for performing well in a capitalist society, we might as well criticize the Yankees for winning too many World Series. Now, if they are breaking any laws then I hope that those parties will be punished to the fullest extent of the law. |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:36 | Lydia | I like to see competition, not dominance. That's why WalMart makes me (and others) nervous. That doesn't make me a socialist, quite the opposite. Competition keeps companies on their toes. Companies get lazy when they are the only game in town. It's kind of a double-edged sword: people like mass-produced things on the cheap, but don't like the companies that sell the stuff. As far as I know, this is not a POV that is exclusive to America, which is why your original comment of observing this trend among Americans so perplexed me. I don't agree with the Yankees comparison - winning a slew of games doesn't affect my ability to choose where I will buy an indoor grill. We want to see one sports team win out over everyone else - that's the point - we don't want to see that happen with businesses selling consumer goods. |
| Thu 26 Sep 16:46 | Jack Schonchin | when we criticize an organization for performing well in a capitalist society boysen, I criticize corporations because they are anything but capitalist. They receive so many government subsidies (welfare), tax write-offs, and legislation bended in their favor that they are not playing by the same rules as you or I. |
| Fri 27 Sep 06:44 | Anonymous | boysen: I'm not saying anyone on this site is a socialist. For your info I am a socialist. You would think it would be hard for Wal-Mart to find employees.. Nickel and Dimed On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, which does quite a good job of explaining why people have to take jobs like these ones. Why are so many people hostile towards Wal-Mart? I don't think they are anti-capitalists working for the overthrow of the new world order. I think that they are people who think their own community is more important than Wal-Marts profit figures. |
| Fri 27 Sep 06:45 | Mac | Oops, didn't mean to be anonymous. |
| Fri 27 Sep 07:35 | Alan Fisher | Mac, I was expecting you to chip in, so I was surprised that we got an anonymous socialist popping up! I too would consider myself a socialist. From some of the earlier contributions, it's apparent that for some people the word 'socialist' is an insult. I think this illustrates a divergence over what the word actually means between Europe and the USA. In Europe, many people view it as something to be proud of, illustrating a particular set of values. In the USA, it means something much harsher, like anti-capitalist subversive for example. An interesting aside - Lydia said that America is an 'egalitarian society and we are naturally suspicious of anyone doing too well'. There was a TV documentary in the UK over the weekend which drew parallels between modern America and the Roman Empire. The comparison was put to a number of Americans, and the reaction was that, while it might be true, they didn't like to see themselves in this light because the USA was founded as a protest against imperialism. As Lydia said, ordinary Americans don't like to see anyone wielding over-mighty power, and yet they live in the most powerful country the world has ever known. How do you square that circle? |
| Fri 27 Sep 12:48 | Lydia | Alan, RE: socialism. I can't say that I can fully embrace all the ideas of socialism (some, but not all) so I can't label myself that way. Sort of like how I don't call myself a vegetarian because I eat a lot of fish. I'm not saying it, Socialism, a bad thing - I'm just saying that my desire for corporate competition disqualifies me as a socialist because I'm putting the emphasis on business rather than on human cooperation. Many Americans, I would suspect, think socialism is just like communism. That has more to do with propaganda and not being properly informed than anything. As for squaring US being the most powerful: well, of course the people with the monopoly don't mind when it's their advantage. (ha ha) All kidding aside, I really don't have a better explanation than that. It's a good analogy, though, because you'll notice that America is very unpopular globally. Aside from the usual complaints about trying to force our dogma down the throats of others, some people don't like us simply because we're perceived as being on top. I am constantly being told that I'm a lazy American, that I have no interest in anything outside my borders, etc. It's frustrating, because I was born here but I'm German and have a lot of family in Germany, and ironically I can't tell people this because you can almost see the word 'Nazi' form in their minds. So, yes, I have outside interests, and no I won't deny that many American's don't. |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:43 | boysen | Again I say, 'Wow.' I never would expect this level of conversation of this kind of topic... very worthwhile. We could go around on this topic for quite some time, agreeing and disagreeing on this or that. So I'll close my part on the discussion of Wal-Mart and what I percieve to be an ideology called Capitalization with Limitations. People generally agree that a monopoly is a negative phenomenon, although it squarely fits within the general laws of Supply and Demand that support up Capitalism. But I think that Wal-Mart can only be characterized as a monopoly in somewhat less than a majority of their locations. (I don't have any numbers, just a hunch that it's less than 5%.) This is a critical point because unlike the Electric companies of our recent history that were, in fact, monopolies, consumers can buy their juice, basketballs and mulch from other organizations. So while I do sympathize with the plight of the Mom & Pop shops**, I do not think we should fault Wal-Mart for their desire to make larger and larger profits. That is, after all, their purpose. If we only approve of organizations that are marginally successful and desire to put handicaps on organizations achieving even greater success, aren't we advocating the same kind of mindset that socialism promotes? (a more just and equitable distribution of property and labor) My personal gripe with Socialism is that it is demotivating. While it's intent I concede is noble, in practice, history has shown the results to be far less than satisfactory. **In a related note: I used to own a couple of retail stores in Hilton Head, SC that would be accurately designated Mom & Pop. I had to sell them due to incoming competition from national chains. |
| Sun 29 Sep 12:58 | Mac | To call someone anti-American, indeed, to be anti-American, is not just racist, it's a failure of the imagination. Good article on why anti-American isn't anti-Americans |
| As Security Cameras Sprout, Someone's Always Watching | Sat 28 Sep |
| I understand the arguments against them, but I dont worry because I am not doing anything wrong. I consider it security. The people with the biggest problem seem to have a guilty conscience and have something to hide. (Comments: How many times per day are you recorded? Do you care that you are sometimes recorded on videotape without knowing it? Take the poll!) |
| Sun 29 Sep 00:16 | Jack Schonchin | My first time in a Wal-Mart I noticed surveillance cameras so numerous that I was preoccupied with trying to count them all. (The cameras were obvious -- black spheres jutting out from a white ceiling.) The store was like navigating a maze -- ulta-high aisles with numerous turns -- and it made my counting next to impossible. I think I stopped counting around 50, and I had a long way to go. I suspect they had a camera for every single twist and turn in their aisles. Costco is the only Big Box that I regularly visit. (Does Costco have cameras?) The rest of the stores I frequent are too small to bother with cameras. There are no public cameras in my surrounding towns. Too small. One time when a camera was proposed there was an uproar from all segments of the community. |
| Sun 29 Sep 01:17 | Jack Schonchin | I wonder whether webcam folk feel differently about being watched in public spaces. |
| Sun 29 Sep 02:28 | Morris Cox | Go take a look at http://www.wearcam.org This guy is impressive. http://engwear.org/ might also be interesting. Definately look at http://www.wearcam.org/shootingback.html and http://www.wearcam.org/netcam_privacy_issues.html ----- From website: Possible T-shirt design (to be worn by individuals entering establishments where video surveillance is used): ``For YOUR protection, a video record of you and your establishment is being transmitted and recorded at remote locations. [insert darkglass here on shirt] All criminal acts prosecuted.'' |
| Sun 29 Sep 06:25 | Stephen | Under the Data Protection Act in the UK, you are entitled to a copy of any video recordings made of you by CCTV systems. One TV show ran a competition for the best short film created using footage obtained under the act. |
| Sun 29 Sep 09:16 | Matt Round | I think what worries a lot of people here in the UK is the way cameras are spreading beyond shops and known trouble spots, and the way they're increasing being networked. I think I'd rather take my chances on most streets round here than be under constant surveillance. What's interesting is how cameras are working their way into things like mobile phones. Perhaps the police'll set up special lines where people can call in with live video footage of possible crimes. |
| Sun 29 Sep 12:11 | Chad Lundgren | I used my digital camera the other day to take a picture of that obnoxious TV monitor, it showing me standing there, at the entrance to Mervyn's. Color is becoming more prevalent. At least they have the decency to invade my privacy in full color. My usual act of subtle defiance is to check my hair in the visible monitor. More seriously, the objection I have is to recording. If owners want to see what's going on in their business but not record it, I object less. Some newer stoplights have cameras, but all they do is look to see if cars are there, and never record anything. No problem with that. |
| Why Is JavaScript So Misunderstood? | Thu 26 Sep |
| Despite its popularity, few know that JavaScript is a nice dynamic, object-oriented, general-purpose programming language. How can this be a secret? |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:26 | Mac | Because, unlike C, C++, C# and even VB the language was implemented in a rush and is dependant on the browser interpreter working 'properly', and there are no decent development tools for it. |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:52 | MadMan | Tog has something to say about Javascript on his site. Scroll to the part with the headline 'JavaScript, the ultimate hack'. |
| Fri 27 Sep 15:14 | Lydia | Both are interesting articles. I kind of like JavaScript, when used properly. It's not a substitute for server-side verification in programs, though, but it's terrific for a basic site. I've even designed forms written entirely by JavaScript that can post and repost data when server-side programming could not be used. So I can't knock it, but I also really see where Mac is coming from with his points. It's probably too late to do anything about JavaScript, sadly. |
| Sat 28 Sep 13:23 | Matt Round | JavaScript has several nasty aspects, but to me it's great that virtually every desktop computer now comes with a useful, easy-to-access programming environment built in. Fire up Notepad (or equivalent) and a Web browser and you can have 'Hello world' alert boxes in no time. And even at its nastiest it stands up against VB pretty well. Programming in VB always reminds me of the clunky BASIC I used on the ZX Spectrum, it's horrible. Even Microsoft disliked it enough to invent C#. |
| WebWord Comment | Fri 27 Sep |
| Movable Type, which is WebWords content management system, has been acting fruity all night. When people post comments, they dont always stick. It makes me sad to see Movable Type creak and groan under pressure. It has been relatively solid for me thus far. Although, maybe it isnt Movable Type. Ever since I gave Mac, MadMan, and Jack the ability to add new entries, things have been less stable. Mere coincidence? ;-) |
| Fri 27 Sep 22:31 | Ron Zeno | So, are the missing comments permanently gone? |
| Fri 27 Sep 22:44 | John S. Rhodes | Ron, I think that only the comments Jack's posting are gone. I clicked through several pages and the comments seem like they are alive and kicking. Thanks for being so concerned! |
| Fri 27 Sep 22:49 | Jack Schonchin | This evening I noticed WebWord's front page was toast... that green tagline and not much else. So I brought up my posting in MT and resaved it -- to force a rewrite of the front page. I've done that sort of thing before to correct typos, but this time it nixed all messages in the thread. It's all part of my master plan to drive John insane. Phase 2: Buy postcards on Ebay. Have the sellers mail the postcards to John -- blank. Phase 3: Call John and order mushu pork, kung pao chicken, and tofu kabobs. Order something different every night. Phase 4: Show up at his doorstop Saturday morning posing as a Mormon missionary. Show up the following Saturday as a Jehovah's Witness. Please post additional ideas... You get more points if your plan is not illegal and can be carried out without driving to New York. |
| Fri 27 Sep 22:56 | Morris Cox | And what's wrong with Mormon missionaries? I know plenty of them. |
| Fri 27 Sep 23:20 | Ron Zeno | I found two postings that have comment counts, but no comments: http://webword.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=931 http://webword.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=920 |
| Fri 27 Sep 23:29 | Jack Schonchin | Nothing's wrong with missionaries. I'm not about to poo poo 'the best two years' of their lives. I enjoy people knocking on my door preaching their religiousness to me. Yup. I enjoy it. They're snappy dressers too. |
| Sat 28 Sep 00:59 | daniel szuc | It's all those remarks about the *monkeys*,*apes* ... errr ... |
| Web site homepage usability deconstructed, Part 2 | Tue 24 Sep |
| I’ve actually played a little game called “Tag Line Jeopardy” when I present information about the book, where I take a bunch of the tag lines and challenge the audience to figure out what company has that tag line. |
| Tue 24 Sep 22:41 | Jack Schonchin | John, nix the Hulk tagline. Use 'Kiss me, I'm Irish.' Then, the next time some Anglo-Saxon mother conjugator complains about the lime green, you tell that racist punk where he can stick his shamrock. |
| Wed 25 Sep 09:51 | Jack Schonchin | Come on, you can say it. I'm trying too hard. Shark. Jumped. |
| Wed 25 Sep 11:41 | JB | I think she is spending way to much time worrying about tag lines. The simple fact is that all corporations have brand guidelines which state that the tag line is not to be used in isolation. What she is doing is not what a corporation would do. Also how many sites out there today have the tag line of the company on their home page and not the brand image. For a small unknown, obscure company she has valid comments, but for Ford or Visa or Boeing...come on...big stretch...but maybe she is finding that big stretches work well in NNg, but not in the real world. By the way guess what the tag line on Intuit is.....yep...nada, zip, zilch.... Why can’t I be considered an expert damn it (stomping feet loudly) – I can make stuff up just as well as the next person! |
| Wed 25 Sep 13:51 | Kung Pao | Forget the pointless article. I find Marie Tahir very sexy. Anyone else feel the same way? |
| Wed 25 Sep 15:49 | boysen | I completely disagree JB. I feel that taglines are necessary especially in our era of MadeUpName.com, many of which are new and have no history in the mind of the visitor. If the tagline (or positioning statement) does not shed some light on 'what the company is all about' then the visitor is likely to get confused and leave. I highly recommend this easy-reading book called Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind which was originally published in the early 80s. |
| Wed 25 Sep 16:21 | John S. Rhodes | boysen, I bought Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind about two weeks ago. I blasted through it in about an hour. Very easy reading. For those folks that don't want to buy the book or read it, I think I can summarize it this way: Be sure, no matter what, that your product, service, or whatever, 'owns' a word or short phrase in the mind. The way I understand the concept is this. When you think of X it should remind you of the word Y. In the case of Coke, they own the word Soda (or Pop) in the mind. They dominate the concept almost completely so they are well positioned. In the case of Mercedes, it might be Great Car Engineering or Luxury Car, Great Engineering. In the case of WebWord, it might be Hulk Green or Amazing Wondeful Awesome Usability Web Site or Shut Up, John. You get the point. The core idea is to dominate a word or words by associating your stuff with that word, phrase or concept. That's the summary. Nothing else to see; move along now. |
| Wed 25 Sep 16:42 | JB | boysen I see where you are coming from, but to use her example, if I went to the Ford site and see the ford brand mark and their tag line...do you really think people are going to read the tag line and expect to be instantly fulfilled from a 'I know what to expect on this site now...' Tag lines are but one part of the overall brand strategy for an organization. They are actually progress over time and I believe the examples she gave were poor. As I said, if you are a start up then your tag line should be more literal... but as you mature as an organization your tag line is not a literal representation of your companies services, but more about how it impacts a customer at an emotive level. I think it is wrong to pull tag lines out by themselves...ask propel what they mean in terms of a companies service and then hypothesize that because people didn't get it...the tag lines are wrong. Remember we are talking about the web and seeing the Ford brand mark with whatever tag line is two components of the overall brand strategy - not to be viewed in isolation. |
| Wed 25 Sep 19:21 | Lydia | JB, you took the words right out of my mouth. Taglines need to evolve. Starting literal is good, evolving to be memorable when there is more brand recognition is better. What I don't get is that she slams Ford for having an uninformative tagline ('Striving to make the world a better place') and in the next breath praises Dell for their 'You’ve got a friend in the business' tagline? Um, hello - that doesn't tell me anything about Dell. What business? I just don't know what her criteria is after that example. Next example of an apparently laughable tagline is 'Dream. Plan. Go' from Travelocity. 'What's that?' chuckles the interviewer. I dunno, sounded pretty good to me. I mean, if you can't get that the site is about travel from their freakin' name, then a tagline isn't going to help! What their tagline tells me is that I can research information, plan my trip, and even arrange travel through their site. I think it's an excellent tagline. I don't think they need a 'good editor,' as she suggested. |
| Thu 26 Sep 00:40 | daniel szuc | Taglines ... Since becoming a more regular traveller to webword, for me what this site provides, apart from the *hulk green* is a sense of 'community' that the other usability sites dont quite offer, its the *user* (human element) part of the usability thats captured well here and the knowledge that there are people out there who are pitching the same thing out in the trenches (US,UK,India etc etc)Its been nice. |
| Thu 26 Sep 00:52 | John S. Rhodes | Daniel, you are spot on the mark. This really is about community. |
| Thu 26 Sep 05:01 | Mac | How are 'Taglines' like 'chat up lines'? |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:31 | JB | I think she needs to stop plugging her book. Mac tag lines and chat up lines are the same thing. Take any tag line and use it in a bar...it sounds just as corny as the chat up line you would have used. |
| Thu 26 Sep 12:45 | Lydia | Well, she's part of NNg, JB (or peripherally related, at least) - part of their Orientation is 'Plug. Plug. Plug.' |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:36 | boysen | I agree that taglines should not be viewed in isolation, but I disagree that that they 'need to evolve'. People somehow always think that things that 'evolve' are doing so in a positive direction. There is such a thing as 'devolve'. I guess what I mean is that not all changes are positive. As the Positioning book points out (as does many of their subsequent writings), there are many an organization that effectively positioned themselves in a given organization only to then come out with a new marketing campaign (evolve their position). If the new campaign doesn't support the position that they've been building in the minds of consumers, it's actually a negative. With Ford as the case in point, they are currently working multiple positioning attributes/phrases. I see one, 'No Boundries' as very vague and not high on the ladder of attributes important to car/truck buyers. The other (remember, trying to convince consumers that you are multiple attributes is not a good idea) attribute is 'Toughness.' This one corresponds to 'Reliabilty' which actually does well in testing for consumers in this industry. If I were the consultant, I would advise Ford to work the 'Reliablity/Toughness' attribute into a positioning statement, then consistently push it across all marketing outlets. This would certainly be more productive than 'Striving to make the world a better place' which says little about the cars they make. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:39 | boysen | I wish MT would let me Edit a post. 8^( '...effectively positioned themselves in a given industry only t then...' Industry, not a second organization. Doh! |
| Fri 27 Sep 05:53 | Mac | Education That Lasts Beyond A Lifetime From stamats tagline repository (annoying page as I just wanted to see the taglines) |
| Fri 27 Sep 11:38 | Jack Schonchin | Most of those school taglines are not taglines. They're slogans used in recruitment campaigns. When they're used on the web site it is to tie into an existing real-world marketing effort. A tagline describes the content or purpose of a web site. A slogan conveys a deeper meaning or philosophy that often requires supplemental material (explanation) to fully appreciate. |
| Fri 27 Sep 23:50 | daniel szuc | 'Simplicity is Timeless' :) |
| User-Centered URL Design | Wed 25 Sep |
| (Jesse James Garrett) Systems that dont take this user behavior into account pull the rug out from under users who have come to rely on readable URLs. Recognizing that people really do read URLs — and, in turn, making those URLs easy for people to read — is really just an extension of the user-centered philosophy of design. |
| Thu 26 Sep 04:44 | Matt Round | Couldn't agree more with the article, I've been pushing 'friendly' URLs in my day job for around 18 months and it's been a success, both clients and developers prefer producing sites where the technology is hidden away. There's no reason for a CMS system to produce long, ugly URLs. |
| Thu 26 Sep 05:06 | Mac | One of my favorite URL's: http://webword.com/moving/crap.html |
| Thu 26 Sep 08:02 | Mike Boyink | I ain't buying it. Until I see from usability tests that people - non webby, non techhie, Joe-who's-a-machinist-by-trade-and-uses-the-web-a-half-hour-a-day kind of people even bother to look at a URL much less try to glean any valuable info about site structure or anything else from it, I ain't buying it. 'Only techie people glean information about the structure of a site by examining the words between all those forward slashes. ' http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/us-tricks/?dwzone=usability |
| Thu 26 Sep 10:42 | MadMan | I agree that URLs should be as short as possible, but I don't buy the notion that ordinary mortals hack 'em up like we tend to do. First of all, is something supposedly user-friendly like 'http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/09/ business/media/09DEAL.html' really that easy to remember? If you went to that story and read it, would you remember it in your head the next time you wanted to check it out again? I don't think so. JJG does an apples to oranges comparison. He compares a directory URL like http://microsoft.com/visio to page URLs. It's nice to have www.example.com/jobs lead to the jobs section, but beyond the first level, I wouldn't care. Page URLs generally do NOT lend themselves to be very memorable. There's no way in hell I'll remember http://www.macromedia.com/software/ dreamweaver/productinfo/product_overview/ or EVER 'guess' it. No bloody way. I'll add it to my bookmarks. I don't understand this line: But in our imperfect world, users have come to depend on URLs to communicate key information as they navigate through the Web. Yes, the URL gives me an idea of what the page is about, but chances are that if I've navigated my way to that page, I already know where I am, assuming, of course, that the site has been well-designed. ;) And reading URLs out on the phone? Goodness, don't we use email any more? :D URLs need to be short so they don't split into multiple lines in my email client. That's about all I can think of. I'll bet any money that the average bloke doesn't do 'URL hacking' like Webword readers would. Besides, URL hacking is usually done when we geeks can't find a better way of navigating to another page on a site. I'm waiting for Ron Zeno's rating for this article. :) |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:08 | boysen | Interesting topic, but I also agree that average users (whoever *they* are) don't pay attention to URLs. Heck, for some strange reason, every time I launch IE in my new WindowsXP OS, it comes up without the Status Bar by default. What's up with that? |
| Thu 26 Sep 16:41 | Jack Schonchin | Your minds are locked on present day. Think 10 years from now, or if you're the skeptical sort, 30 years from now. The vast majority of people will be sophisticated in maneuvering through the online world. Should we ignore URL construction because people are inexperienced, or plan and do what we know is right today so that it benefits everyone tomorrow? If we continue to ignore URL construction, your assumptions will prove true. No one will hack URLs because they will be so complex that trying would be a waste of time. You shape the future today. |
| Thu 26 Sep 17:56 | Mike Boyink | Yea, and? Surely 10 years from now we'll not *have* to worry about URL hacking for anything? When I can, I do structure sites such that the URL's make sense. But more for the fact that doing so makes the site easier to maintain on the backside. Regardless, I don't for one minute believe that navigation by URL will ever be desireable or even possible. |
| Thu 26 Sep 20:00 | Jack Schonchin | Ohhh, ok, technology will solve all our problems in the future. No worries. Stop planning for tomorrow. |
| Thu 26 Sep 21:41 | Mike Boyink | Umm..ya know I'm not one to put my faith in technology either. But I just can't help but think that if, 10 years down the road, we (and we meaning the public at large, not us browser-heads) still need URL hacking for *anything* then all this fuss and bother over user-centered design and usability testing will have ultimately failed. Especially when you listen to the true geeks talk about all the alternative ways of accessing the web. Sure would be a pain to hack a URL if it filled the entire sceen on my 'net enabled wrist watch...:) |
| Thu 26 Sep 22:52 | Brian | Design Not Found has a snapshot about URL 'design.' Worth a look (as is everything at Design Not Found). |
| Fri 27 Sep 09:01 | Mike Boyink | I agree that companies like Apple and MS need to pay great attention to the design of their URLs. But they have peculiar audiences. I still don't buy that this is a mainstream issue. Support it if you can, but pay much more attention to the design of your UI and the nav that most people are going to use. |
| Fri 27 Sep 11:46 | MadMan | Exact-o-mundo, Mike. :) If all your users have to find their way around is a URL, then I'd say you have much larger issues. Like a pretty useless site navigation. |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:22 | boysen | >Your minds are locked on present day. Think 10 years from now, or if you're the skeptical sort, 30 years from now. The vast majority of people will be sophisticated in maneuvering through the online world. I find this hard to believe. Here we are in 2002, ~8 years since the advent of the Web, I'm still watching people get completely flumoxed when a link targets a new window. 'Why can't I click the 'Back' button?!?!' I'm not saying we shouldn't plan for the future, I'm saying it's a dangerous thing to overestimate your audience's abilities Jack. |
| Fri 27 Sep 23:35 | Jack Schonchin | boysen, the last statistic I heard was that half of American has Internet access at home. That's still exceedingly low. Eight years does not reflect anything on peoples' abilities to use the medium in a sophisticated manner. Twenty years from now, assuming the medium is crucial to daily life, yes, I fully expect people to be hacking URLs. And I really do expect URLs to exist in some manner. I haven't heard anyone even hint of a suitable replacement. We'll always have addresses (e.g., some form of visible ID for points on the Internet.) |
| University bans 'illegal' links | Thu 26 Sep |
| The University of California at San Diego has ordered a student organization to delete hyperlinks to an alleged terrorist Web site, citing the recently enacted USA Patriot Act. (Jack asks: Read the regulations. Is a web site communications equipment? Is a link to a web site communications equipment? Are we perhaps looking at some hot-headed university administrators? Dang, /. got the link first, but wed rather discuss the issue here, right?) |
| Thu 26 Sep 16:08 | JB | I can understand why the University acted this way if the web site was set up by students and resides on the university's servers. It's a reaction to the patriotic hysteria that pops up in weird places and it is easier for the Govt to crack down on a university than 5 students. Seems the Act will be used as a censoring vehicle for a lot of things. Can anyone one say.... Chinese Censorship Authority. |
| Thu 26 Sep 16:47 | Matt Round | The recent case of Think of the Children, a satire on mob culture, shows how spineless hosting firms can be when faced with mild official disapproval (although the site's owner is now probably revelling in the attention this is getting). |
| Fri 27 Sep 23:07 | Fred Grott | University Officilas have always been dim witted and slow.. remember when the edu licensed Netsacpe version 1 came out? It took most universites 5 months to get someone who woudl read the license to realize that they coudl have the netscape browsers on pcs.. |
| Profile of a Perfect E-Commerce Customer | Thu 26 Sep |
| The perfect online customer spends thousands of dollars per year on a wide variety of merchandise and returns repeatedly to order more goods. For e-tailers, the quest for such a customer is like the search for the Holy Grail. No one leaps into the e-commerce waters as a fully formed mega shopper. Only over time do occasional Web surfers mature into first-time buyers and eventually repeat purchasers. |
| Fri 27 Sep 23:03 | Fred Grott | I think its more about gettinjg that new customer to take the plunge.. Some creative ways are used at Amazon.. I was not an e-commerce customer until earlier in the year when I received soem amazon gift certificates.. now I have over $600 in books from Amazon all oredred online as an e-commerce customer.. |
| Linux: It’s Growing More Popular, But Can It Do Windows? | Fri 27 Sep |
| Wharton management professor Gerald R. Faulhaber says ease of use is critical if Linux is ever to mount a serious challenge to Windows on the desktop. (Comments: This might require free registration to view.) |
| Fri 27 Sep 22:21 | John S. Rhodes | This is a test to see if Movable Type will allow me to post a comment. As you might know, it has been fruity all night. Sorry 'bout that. |
| Google News Could Change Online News Industry | Wed 25 Sep |
| (Steve Outing) Sherman considers Google News to be a gift served up to the news industry, and he urges publishers to take advantage. Distribution of news can be served up by orders of magnitude, he suggests. It supports the news organizations with the best reputations because their content typically bubbles to the top of Googles story selections. Its also great news for small news sites, which can be exposed to a huge audience when their content occasionally bubbles up. (Comments: Is it a gift?) |
| Thu 26 Sep 01:52 | Jack Schonchin | It's not a gift. It has a novelty value. I check it just to see what Google ranks as top stories. That will get old quick. As a service presenting news and telling me what's important, it stinks to high heaven... 1) Distracting, often useless thumbnails 2) News not of interest to me 3) News I've already read on my regular news sites 4) Cluttered with story summaries. A link title tells me what I need to know. If it does not, the service has failed. 5) Cluttered with news categories I do not care about - sports, entertainment, health. 6) Slowed reading/skimming due to wide variety of text colors. Bolded black, unbolded black, dark grey, light grey, bolded blue link, unbolded blue link, bold green link, unbolded green link. Google has really blown it with this interface. More importantly, Google is bloating itself with feature creep, and with this news service, is diverging from simple interfaces. Google can be dethroned by a search engine that returns to the roots of simplicity. When I ask people why the use a particular engine, every single person -- whether they use Google, Yahoo, MSN or Netscape -- every one of them says their engine is the most effective. The truth is, they don't know. They like their engine for other reasons. I submit to you that Google is not popular because of its page rank. Yes, it is popular among us -- among tech savvy folk -- because of page rank. It is popular among regular people because of the simplicity and lack of banner ads. As Google gets heavier with features, it brings itself closer to a coup attempt. These side projects Google pursues annoy me. Stick to search. I'm ready. I'll leave Google for an engine willing to return to simpler times. |
| Thu 26 Sep 12:09 | John S. Rhodes | Jack, I would argue that Google is still focusing on search. However, the search is machine to machine, versus human to machine. Their backend is going out searching for news and information from news web sites. The engine returns a results page which we see as news.google.com...thoughts on this? |
| Thu 26 Sep 13:21 | Lyle | Google's news page was great up until a couple of days ago. The old design was simple, uncluttered, and could be scanned quickly with the eye to pick out the few stories of interest. Since its first launch back in January, Google News has been the first website I visit everyday. I'm definitely not a fan of the new design. The front page now has less variety than most mainstream Internet news sites. The story per pixel ratio has fallen through the floor, as has the the usefulnes per second ratio when it comes to being a general window on the latest news. For me, the front page of Google news is now on the verge of total irrelevance. As a news search page however, it still reigns supreme, and pure news search is all I'll likely be using it for (via the Mozilla Googlebar) for a while as well. |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:41 | Jack Schonchin | John, that's semantics. Technically, everything at Google is about search. My thoughts on this are what I've said here and in another thread... 1) Google is becoming about presentation, not search. It does search & data analysis to arrive at the presentation, but it's still about the presentation. 2) Google does presentation very badly. 3) Google is ready to be dethrowned. Side note: WebWord's front page link for this thread read 'Add Your Comment (3),' however when I clicked the 'Permanent Link,' there were only 2 comments. I had to click the 'Add Your Comment (3)' to see all three comments. |
| Fri 27 Sep 09:24 | Jack Schonchin | How does 'Google News' help Google's profitability? I didn't see advertising on those pages. I can't imagine why a company would want to advertise there. Before contemplating any project, Google should be asking, 'Why do we want to do this?' 'Because it would be cool,' is not an answer I would accept. |
| Fri 27 Sep 15:11 | Jack Schonchin | Another reason Google News sucks: At this moment, the top Google business story is linking to a SmartMoney.com article as its main link covering IMF protester arrests in Washington. The Google-selected article cites 290 protesters arrested. Then I jump over to CNN.com to see CNN's front page citing 500 arrests. Why bother with Google when I know it's not giving me the most current news? Google as 'news middleman' creates delay. |
| Fri 27 Sep 21:14 | Jack Schonchin | It gets worse. Here I am several hours later looking through Google News for the latest IMF protest article. The only place I find IMF mentioned is in a 15-hour-old article at the bottom of the U.S. page. Meanwhile, when I visit CNN I still find the IMF story getting front page coverage, with an updated tally of 649 arrests. In contast, the 15-hour-old Google article was so old its title read, 'DC Protests Expected to Draw Thousands.' OMG, Google News is lame. Wait, wait, I'm wrong. Google's front page had an IMF article in the *Business* section, titled 'IMF, World Bank Hold Annual Fall Meetings.' Damn, the article isn't even about the protests! |
| A to Z of WebWord | Thu 26 Sep |
| Cant find that old WebWord item? Maybe your memory is failing, or perhaps you cant afford to employ a chimp sidekick or monkey assistant to do your research. Then the A to Z of WebWord could be for you. Try the thin version and the fat version. YOU decide which one stays and which one goes. |
| Thu 26 Sep 12:34 | Lydia | I'm sorry, but I just have to say that picture with the monkey is just too cute! Was this a trip to the zoo or something? |
| Thu 26 Sep 13:25 | Jack Schonchin | Lydia, you misunderstand. Mac's parents were never potty trained, and so it was Baby Mac, too. Mac's family monkey was trained to pick up poop and fling it against the wall. (Easy training.) This way the open space of Mac's home stayed relatively clutter free. An orangutan would run a snow shovel along the edges of the walls to clean up the family's deposits. As for MadMan's monkey, well, let's just say MadMan has an overactive imagination. He saw Escape from the Planet of the Apes and felt it was his duty to save baby Milo. MadMan is no longer welcome at the Singapore Zoo. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:57 | MadMan | It's NOT a f***ing monkey. It's a chimpanzee - an ape. Monkeys have tails, apes don't (among other things.) Lydia, this page has the details about the photo. |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:18 | Lydia | MadMan, as cute as you and the chimp are, I was actually referring to the picture of kid-type Mac and his monkey. Isn't that one of those capu-whatever monkeys? (ok, ok, I can't spell it.) Sorry I wasn't clear on that. |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:30 | Jack Schonchin | Well EXCUSE ME MadMan, but I can't see the f***ing chimpanzee's buttocks to ascertain whether it has a f***ing tail. Us Neanderthals here in The States -- you can identify us by how we drag our knuckles on the ground -- call chimpanzee's 'chimps' and 'monkeys' interchangeably. We draw distinctions only for apes, orangutans and postal carriers. We might say, 'Damn dirty apes!,' 'What a funny orangutan!,' or 'You stupid box stuffer, stop giving me my neighbor's mail. Can't you read a f***ing street address?' If that's not good enough for you, I suggest you come on over to this side of the globe, yank my tail, buff my nails, take a civil service exam and show me how fast you can stuff my mailbox with unsolicited direct mail advertisements. Put up or shut up. |
| Thu 26 Sep 19:25 | Lydia | Um... okaaaaay. Mac, I really like your link - it's very useful to have all of the URLs arranged like that! Another bookmark! |
| Fri 27 Sep 04:43 | Mac | Lydia, the monkey picture is explained here MadMan, you'll note that I did refer to your companion as a chimp. I guess I should have just posted the monkey picture and left it at that. As an experiment I have applied the same type of A to Z presentation to Filberts Alertbox. View it here. |
| Fri 27 Sep 12:15 | Lydia | I like the thin version better, BTW. |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:49 | MadMan | I know you got it right, Mac. It was Jack who didn't. ;) Lydia, don't you love me any more? You find damn Mac cuter. That man is in his thirties. I'm much younger... :p |
| Fri 27 Sep 15:23 | Lydia | MadMan, I say produce some cute kid-with-animal pictures and we'll see! :) Even though I, too, am in my thirties, I actually still get told that I look like I'm in my twenties. I still get carded, dangit. |
| Boston scientists grow live teeth in lab | Thu 26 Sep |
| The scientists have already grown batches of tooth crowns, each about the size of one of the capital letters on this page. (Jack asks: Do they mean as big as the capital letters printed in The Arizona Republic newspaper, as published at their default size on the AZCentral.com web page as viewed in my particular brand web browser on my particular operating system, as resized by me on the AZCentral.com web site so theyre at a comfortable reading size, or as printed in the Boston Globe newspaper from which this article was originally derived? Inquiring minds want to know.) |
| Thu 26 Sep 20:20 | Jack Schonchin | Someone buy that reporter a 50 cent ruler, and an instruction manual to go along with it. |
| Fri 27 Sep 09:43 | Mac | Why not promote dental hygiene instead of coming up with ways of allowing us to replace our teeth every 5 years? |
| Fri 27 Sep 10:10 | Jack Schonchin | There are too many children who go completely without dental care. If I had such a childhood, as an adult I would gladly welcome being able to undue that damage. Myself, I have plenty of metal fillings because my teeth were never sealed as a kid and my doctor didn't use ceramic fillings. Metal fillings have the potential side-effect of eventually causing cracks in your teeth. I got a crown last month for exactly this reason. I would have loved an alternative solution of growing a new tooth instead of merely bandaging a messy situation. (In short, my parents were taking me to a dentist who was not following or using the latest technology. He was at least 10 years behind the times.) |
| Fri 27 Sep 14:03 | Lydia | Jack, I'm in the same boat. I always get compliments on my teeth, but one of my molars has a fine crack in it. Plus, I'm sick of looking at the filling. I'd definitely replace the tooth if I could. Plus, talk about the potential for white teeth! What is interesting about promoting dental hygiene is the usability angle of it: when I was a kid, it was just drilled into our heads (no pun intended) that we HAD to do this, HAD to do that. Nowadays, they make fun toothbrushes, encourage kids to chew sugarless gum, and arrange rewards for brushing teeth regularly. This is a much more attractive program, and is meeting with more success. The reason I have good dental hygiene now is mainly due to my sister, who needed braces and wore one of those scary headgear things for part of the day. |
| Fri 27 Sep 15:22 | Jack Schonchin | My dentist did something while I was getting a filling when I was about 18 that he should have done on Day One. He handed me a mirror so I could watch him drilling a hole in my tooth. Boy did that scare the fajitas out of me. |
| Could YOU be a Police Officer? | Tue 24 Sep |
| So one of the things well look for in your Initial Recruitment Test is how carefully you can observe scenes and how accurately you can record details. |
| Tue 24 Sep 07:35 | Lydia | I definitely agree that ethics should be involved in any career decision. If I had to repackage information I know to be unsavory, I'd quit. When I used to be in market research, I started at one outfit where the director actually altered a survey that was for a 40 year old male and said that it was a 19 year old female. My response was 'I'm giving you notice as of today.' |
| Tue 24 Sep 09:16 | Ryan | I don't understand, Mac - what principles and ethics do you have that would prevent you from improving the usability of a police website? I know that some police are corrupt (definitely a minority), but there are many, many more who are good people that are simply trying to earn a living. |
| Tue 24 Sep 09:30 | Mac | Ryan, I have some friends who are police officers and I do not treat them badly because of that. But I know (from personal experience) the the British Police Force is a racist, oppressive, corrupt, anti-democratic organisation. Some would argue that you can only improve the situation by working with the police. I would argue that this 'reform' process does not work and any efforts that the police make to appear to be more 'ethnically aware' for example, is just part of a whitewash PR exercise. I also know (and like) people who are in the armed forces, but that doesn't mean that I would work on improving the usability of a battle command and control system. Some people might decide not to work for McDonalds for ethical reasons. Some might not work on a site for the KKK. I am interested to know how other people apply their ethical beliefs to the work they do and how this affects their choice of work. |
| Tue 24 Sep 10:28 | Paulo | Tell me, Mac, you really think that organisations can't change? First thing I'd try to find out would be wether they are really interested in a fair process of recruitment. Why? Because oppressive organisations mostly survive due to a passive commitment of their members. A kind of silence that relies on complicities and dependances. An oppressive organisation may become even more dangerous if it's feeded by friends and relatives of other members. The more you make part of a 'community' the more you have to comply with it's norms. That's why a fair recruitment process may lead to change. Independant new members may be successfully socialized or not. If not they will shake the organisation, so maybe in the medium term, PR strategies may result in unpredictable outcomes. I would help them with the website and I'm make it in a way that would call the most unexpected applicants. :) |
| Tue 24 Sep 10:43 | jan | I think survival may well determine ethics: If I were faced with the possibility of my children starving, I would be much more likely to work with/for an organization that I might otherwise shun. Given the luxury of choice, I would prefer to work with/for companies that matched my morals and ethics. Side note: Stereotyping a whole organization based on personal experience seems to me to be another form of discrimination. We tend to find what we're looking for. If you think you will find only corruption and racism, then that is what you will see. Certainly, there are corrupt and racist people, but there are also fair-minded, honest people. The trick is to work with the fair-minded, honest people to bring about change. |
| Tue 24 Sep 10:45 | Paulo | Tell me, Mac, you really think that organisations can't change? First thing I'd try to find out would be wether they are really interested in a fair process of recruitment. Why? Because oppressive organisations mostly survive due to a passive commitment of their members. A kind of silence that relies on complicities and dependances. An oppressive organisation may become even more dangerous if it's feeded by friends and relatives of other members. The more you make part of a 'community' the more you have to comply with it's norms. That's why a fair recruitment process may lead to change. Independant new members may be successfully socialized or not. If not they will shake the organisation, so maybe in the medium term, PR strategies may result in unpredictable outcomes. I would help them with the website and I'm make it in a way that would call the most unexpected applicants. :) |
| Tue 24 Sep 10:49 | Paulo | I agree with you, Jan. We must be aware of our own prejudice. |
| Tue 24 Sep 11:17 | Deirdre in Seattle, WA | Most reasonable people wouldn't consider making such a statement about a group of people if 'they' were black, jewish, gay, etc. Why is it acceptable to paint a group as 'all corrupt' or 'all violent' just because of their uniform, their job? We're still talking about a group of human beings, and like any group of human beings you will find a wide range of both positive and negative traits. I sincerely doubt most people would be happy if there were no police. |
| Tue 24 Sep 11:37 | Mac | Prejudice: an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics I am not prejudiced and I am not talking about individuals within an organisation. Oganisations such as the police reflect the behaviour of the people who rule the society in which they operate, they are not just a random group of individuals. If I were to join the police in an attempt to change their behaviour I would soon come up against a situation where I would have to make a hard choice. For example during the miners strike a serving police officer would have to join in the politial attack on the trade union movement in a very direct way, no matter what their personal beliefs. Like it or not, the service had become embroiled in the politics of the situation. From :The Police Magazine At this point a serving officer would have to decide whether to stay in the police and condone their behaviour, or to leave the force. It always comes down to these choices in the end, and pretending otherwise is just burying your head in the sand. The question I asked is Where would you draw the line?. If any company/organisation can be 'changed from within', then I should join the 'British Nationlist Party' and see if I can work with the fair-minded, honest people to bring about change. |
| Tue 24 Sep 11:38 | Jack Schonchin | I have a problem working for any organization that, when a whistleblower calls attention to a problem, the whistleblower is punished, and the problem is covered up. That pretty much eliminates any government jobs in my future. Read the myth page. Apparently, if you can't swim, can't drive, are visually impaired, have tattoos, have a prior criminal record, and have prior debt -- you are a fine candidate to be among Britain's best and brightest. What worries me is the focus of the web site. It's stressing that the minimum requirements -- age -- fitness -- education -- height -- are easy to overcome. I'm sorry, but if someone is doubting that they could be a police officer, I don't want them being a police officer. What's a GCSES? I would feel more comfortable being approached by a cop with a college degree -- any degree -- than a cop who barely finished high school. |
| Tue 24 Sep 11:59 | Alan Fisher | Jack, GCSEs are the examinations sat by 16 year-olds in the UK (or most of the UK - Scotland has a different system). Typically, students will sit around 10 or 12 GCSEs, with basic subjects such as English, Maths, Science being compulsory and schools offering a host of other subjects according to their preferences. For students who aren't academically motivated or able, other examinations are available in more manual pursuits - car mechanics etc. The GCSE system covers a fairly wide range of abilities, but like you I would rather recruits to the police force had additional qualifications. The next stage of education in the UK are A Levels, which students sit at 18 before embarking on a university education (or not, in many cases). Perhaps A Levels should be the minimum requirement, although the numbers of applicants would probably be much lower. On the other hand, we might see a lower degree of institutionalised racism, which many UK police forces are accused of, and to which Mac refers. |
| Tue 24 Sep 12:28 | Paulo | Well, Jack, I can't agree with you. First, I only doubt of an applicant that doesn't have any doubt about being a police officer. Serious and mindfull decisions frequently involve many questions. I'm also afraid of 'elite' organisations that recruit only the very best and sing it out loud. Specially if those organisations have some sort of power. Police must be democratic, heterogeneous and open to the differences. If not, we better take our prejudice very seriously. About 'Prejudice' definition, well Mac, I'm sorry to tell you that you really have prejudice against an organisation and against the institutions that rule our society. Prejudice doesn't apply only to individuals as you also transcribed. Whether you discriminate or not individuals of those groups depends on whether you relate to them as individuals or members of that group. I don't have any doubt that you deal quite well with your police friends but that's only because you see them maily as persons. That's a good thing and that's how we all do. Same happens to the police officer in a strike. For him/her to follow orders is important that he/she looks at each strike participant as a member of an undiferentiated group. It would be very painfull for him/her to act if he/she sees every single participant as an individual. I agree that it's very difficult to change an organisation when you are inside it and you have little power. There are good places inside the organisation to make changes, there are good places above the organisation to change it and there are wonderfull places beside organisation (specially on the interfaces) to operate changes. |
| Tue 24 Sep 12:35 | JB | Jack The ultimate irony is that most police officers end up being overweight and stuck behind a desk. So the minimum requirements, I guess, are put in place to hold back the ravages of time and duty. |
| Tue 24 Sep 12:40 | Jack Schonchin | Alan, by 'sit' and 'sat' do you mean 'take' and/or 'complete?' For example, you used the phrase 'sit at 18' -- does that mean 'take the exam at 18-years-of-age?' So is the GCSE system just a series of tests you can take to prove competency is a particular subject matter? Or are you required to take certain GCSE tests before you leave the educational system? I presume GCSE exams are required to attend a university. I guess my real question is, why would I take the GCSE exams? What do I get from the experience? |
| Tue 24 Sep 13:01 | jan | Change doesn't happen overnight. And it will never happen at all if someone doesn't make the effort to bring it about. Where do I draw the line? I like to be able to look at myself in the mirror without cringing (appearance notwithstanding), so I guess I'd have to say that if I were asked to do something unethical, I'd be looking for a new job. I am fortunate to be working for an ethical company, though, so that's easy for me to say. Bottom line: You'll tolerate a situation until you get too frustrated, then you'll find a way to change it or you'll move on. I guess there's usability in life, too. :) |
| Tue 24 Sep 19:58 | Lydia | Regardless of the example Mac used, the question was 'would your ethics and principals determine whether you worked on a website.' This is a very meaty issue and I would love to see some discussion of that rather than the example used. Could we refocus on that? (If it helps, imagine the example is a website for the KKK, an organization known to promote oppression of minority races, among other things.) I like the point Jan brought up about having to choose between letting children starve or gritting your teeth and carrying on. That's a really hard one. It's easy for me to say 'I'd quit' because I don't have children to be responsible for, but what would I do if I did and there were no options? I guess then it probably would depend on the severity. For example, I might work for McDonalds, but I would NOT work for the KKK. That would be unconscionable and I couldn't look my family in the face if I did it. |
| Tue 24 Sep 21:49 | Che Tamahori | I believe that design can be a powerful force, for scultping people's conscious and unconscious reactions to products, ideas, and even organisations. When this is done to 'tart up' an unsavoury product or organisation, it is of dubious value: 'See these new cigarettes? They're cooler! Checked out the new Police Force? It's less prejudiced and more helpful!' But in this instance, design is not being used to add a sheen to the current problems of the Police Force. Rather, the project is to encourage recruitment into the police force. In doing so, there is the potential to effect change on the demographic/psychographic composition of the Police Force itself. On another note, I fail to understand the point Jack's making about non-swimming, tattooed, short-sighted candidates with a couple of juvenile misdemeanours under their belts? Why shouldn't such people be hired? Ultimately, you just want people that aren't thugs or fascists. And a nice bit of pink typography will drive them away more effectively than anything else I can think of... |
| Tue 24 Sep 22:47 | Mathew | I can see where you would not want to do work encouraging people to join the KKK, for example, because you would presumable believe that nobody joining the KKK is an excellent thing. However, the police service will probably remain necessary in our forms of society for the forseeable future. So do you then work to get the right people into the organisation instead? Interesting... |
| Wed 25 Sep 04:57 | Alan Fisher | Jack, Yes, your interpretation is correct. Sixteen year-olds take the GCSE exams, and must pass them (or at least, a certain number of them) if they want to progress to take the A Levels at 18. The exams are graded A to F, with A to C being pass marks. Similarly, universities will require an applicant for a place on a course to have a minimum number of A level passes in 3 or 4 subjects relevant to the course they want to attend. Actually, 'exams' is a bit misleading. Both GCSE and A Levels have a fair amount of course work which counts towards the final mark, with the exam at the end of the process typically only accounting for 50 to 60 percent of the total. |
| Wed 25 Sep 11:03 | jan | So perhaps the question is not whether you would work for an organization that seems morally corrupt, but whether you would work for an organization that seems morally corrupt, but which has the potential to change for the better. On that premise, it would seem pointless to me to work for the KKK as that organization's mission is unlikely to change. But you could effect change by working for the police force & helping to get people hired into key positions. Maybe the HR person who sorts the applications is actually the most powerful person in the organization, particularly if employees can rise through the ranks to positions of prominence. |
| Wed 25 Sep 15:42 | boysen | That same logic can (and should) be applied to any organization with which you might plan to work. My company has many serious process problems, but I am hoping that I can help improve them. |
| Thu 26 Sep 07:32 | Alan Fisher | I think you have to balance your personal opinions off against the potential benefit society might accrue from the work. So, I wouldn't work for a tobacco company - society would be better off without their products. I don't think I'd work for defence contractors or arms manufacturers either, although the world probably does need them, because of the needless arms sales to 3rd world countries. Also a no-no would be any political organisation whose values I disagree with, for example the Conservative party. BUT, I've worked for companies who make contributions to Conservative party funds, and felt uncomfortable about it. Am I a hypocrite? I'd work for the police, though. We need them, even though they are often prejudiced and racist. I might be outraged by incidents like the Birmingham 6 (Irishmen who were framed by the UK police for terrorist offences and spent the best part of 20 years in prison), but I'd be outraged if they weren't there as well. |
| Fri 27 Sep 14:36 | Lyle Kantrovich | Great topic... Unfortunately ethical decisions aren't usually easy to see as black and white. Ethics Quiz: - Would you work on a website for the KKK if it represented them truthfully? [Good(?) and bad] What if it said things like 'We think murdering black people is okay.' - Would you take on a web project for the KKK and then purposely do bad work for them and sabotage their strategy and goals (e.g. build a bad UI/design, make bad recommendations on content, etc.)? - Would you work on a project for a charity that did great things for sick children but wasted money and resources? - Would you work for an organization trying to eliminate a 'corrupt' police force if a result was less protection from criminals? - Have you ever given less than 110% effort or done less than your best work on a project? Isn't that unethical? Are you truthful in proposals and clearly communicate that you will deliver less than your best effort? If so, isn't that unethical? When you look at organizations, the 'ethics' can get a bit messy. In the end I think you have to hold true to your own values and character - refuse or quit work that is incongruent with your core principals. If someone is a bigot and does work for the KKK does that mean they are unethical? In my book, they are being consistent with their own ethics. I would disagree with their ethical position, but at least they are being consistent with their values. In some countries, bribes are a common and accepted practice in business circles - I don't agree with taking bribes to gain business. If I work in a country whose culture says bribery and kickbacks are legal and okay, should I take bribes? Personally, I don't think so. I don't think my values should change based on geography. Would you quit your job if: - Your manager told you to lie to a client - Your manager lied to a client - Your manager made someone else lie to a client - Your company charged the government double what it charges in the private sector - Your company covered up an accounting error - Your company disclosed an accounting error they covered up 10 years ago - Another department was laid-off when your's should have been laid-off instead - Your manager fired someone wrongfully - You fired someone wrongfully and then realized it later Others: - If you're Jewish, and your company gives you Christmas and Christmas Eve off, do you still take off work? - If you're anti-war and peace loving, would you work for a Steel company, knowing a small percentage of their products eventually end up making guns and military equipment? - If you think taxes are too high and unconstitutional, do you still pay them. If you think people should pay higher taxes to help the down-trodden more, do you send the government more tax money than you're required to pay? Wouldn't your head explode if you tried to extend your personal ethics out to every possible eventuality and consequence of every action? Know and stay true to your core values. Focus on the things you have control over or can directly impact. Your values should drive your decisions, and in the end your decisions reveal your values. |
| The Virtue of Engineering Cynicism | Thu 26 Sep |
| Programmers always deal with metadata, not data: The programmer doesnt know what text the user will type into a particular box, but she does know that the text is supposed to represent a zip code, a phone number, etc. |
| Fri 27 Sep 05:17 | Mac | Hmmmm. A very one dimensional, dilbertesque view of programmers that is superficially recognisable but misses the critical problem with programmers in relation to usability: Programmers are alienated from their users. We take refuge in our code because we have some control over it. We are allowed to control how we do something but not what we do. Man must cease to be the consumer and become a productive human being who is aware of and responds to his world creatively. Freedom in the Work Situation - Erich Fromm |
| Fri 27 Sep 13:58 | Lydia | I liked what he had to say about how optimism gets twisted among developers: 'is their optimism surfacing: deal straightforwardly and not only will the deal go through, but it will be a stronger deal in the long term. And, except for when they forget to mention the strengths of their products, the engineers are, of course, right. ' I feel like this sometimes, and when I get slapped down I feel strangely offended and I take it personally. I work on this, of course, because it is never intended to be personal, but it's difficult to deal with. I am basically an optimist, and I'm being turned into a realist. |
| Is it about time to put heuristic evaluation to rest? | Wed 25 Sep |
| At least 60-70 % of the usability problems predicted by it are not encountered by test users - depending on the evaluator. The case with computer science students evaluation results are even more discouraging (80-90 %). These were results from the HCI literature and from my own experiences. I would argue that the use of this kind of hit-and-miss method does no good to the usability of any product. It is just a good guess and in many cases not even a really educated guess. (Comments: Indirect credit goes to Ron Zeno. It is a few months old, but worth looking at again.) |
| Thu 26 Sep 05:11 | Mac | Is usability floundering, or can people see any signs of maturity? At least we seem to have got over the 'question nothing' attitude. |
| Thu 26 Sep 09:03 | John S. Rhodes | I've been thinking for a while that usability is on the decline. If nothing else, it is blending into other areas such as programming, marketing, and requirements engineering. Oh, and if you are interested in this topic, you should probably read Trouble in Paradise: Problems Facing the Usability Community. (Mac, what do you think of that URL?) |
| Thu 26 Sep 09:18 | Ron Zeno | It continues to flounder... The bottom line: the influential professional organizations and individuals have placed themselves in positions where they benefit from the field's current and continued immaturity. Nothing will change until they face their hypocrisy. 'At least we seem to have got over the 'question nothing' attitude.' As much as I'd like to think so, it's so rare as to be unnoticeable. |
| Thu 26 Sep 10:26 | Kung Pao | Ron, I'm interested in hearing what the hypocrisy is and why it is so. You post very intelligent stuff. Do explain more. Do you think people like UPASSOC are useless? |
| Thu 26 Sep 10:31 | Paulo | Where are you living, guys? Usability is a very new thing in Portugal, so new that most people never heard about it but there's something that people know: a few years ago, computers, software applications and internet were much more difficult to use that they are now. Maybe in some places usability is not an issue anymore but I'd like you to think of how important is that we can use software applications that avoid human errors instead of promoting them. I bear in mind all the Reno's comments about the Dilbert's cartoon. I'm very concerned about the issue and I think Reno raises extremelely important questions but if we are going to assume a critical position about usability we must be very aware of a wide range of realities. |
| Thu 26 Sep 10:35 | daniel szuc | I have just completed 2 HEs for customers. The value for me and for my customers is not to use as a 'stand alone' activity but as a *lead in* or *input* activity to prepare for usability testing with real users. All the smaller issues uncovered using an HE can hopefully uncover major use issues that you need to confirm via usability testing. On John's point think it has to be *sold in* as a supporting activity to all disciplines for a more refined product at the end. |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:45 | Ron Zeno | Kung Pao: Don't you think that it is hypocritical for a professional organization to promote and depend upon the continued immaturity of their field? You mention UPA. What are they doing to advance the field, as opposed to just promoting it as it exists? John: There's no commonly accepted definition for 'usability' and the notion of a 'usability community' is a granfalloon. Without defining these terms well, it's hard to have a meaningful discussion about the problems of usability and/or the community. Daniel: Yes, I agree on the lead-in value, but are you really conducting heuristic evaluations, or are you just reviewing the products based upon your own expertise? Do you actually have a list of heuristics you work from? |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:47 | JB | Simply, I agree... when empirical studies find that usability experts cannot agree on what are the major problems with a site AND then cannot determine what the impact will be from fixing certain things - many times making things worse - I, as a business owner shrug my shoulders and say.... so I guess I just use common sense. usability=accountability. Until this formula is realized, this industry will stagnate. Sorry folks, just my opinion. |
| Thu 26 Sep 12:04 | John S. Rhodes | I think usability is alive and well around the world. However, usability as its own thing, and as a profession, is getting weaker every day. In my opinion, two things are happening. Usability ideas are starting to get pushed into the corners or organizations. Also, development firms are using more and more usability ideas in their work. Not that they are doing it right, but they are on track and progress is being made. The second thing is a few experts are dominating the field as it stands, with little new research being generated by the community. Too many zombies are simply following the 'research' and advice of the gurus. As always, the universities are doing work, but it isn't having much of an impact on the regular grunts. Here's a little challenge: Name three brilliant usability things you have seen in the last 12 months. These things could be research findings, truly innovative ideas, outstanding tools, or something else. What is new in usability? Not much. Want to keep playing the game? Name three brilliant things you have seen with Flash in the last year. Much easier! Even when you throw out all the Flash crap out there, there is plenty of cool new stuff. Innovative. Groundbreaking. Useful to users! |
| Thu 26 Sep 13:17 | JB | JS I put this to you...do you think that usability is going mainstream...everyone talks about it and acknowledges it importance. But because it doesn't give the ROI results that business mangers need to justify spending dollars, they go to courses themselves to learn the fundamentals and thus usability professionals lose business and therefore the perception of the death of usability |
| Thu 26 Sep 18:37 | Ron Zeno | Name three brilliant usability things you have seen in the last 12 months Easy. There is always some good research each year in the CHI Conference proceedings, from SURL, and from similar high-quality publications and labs. they (business mangers) go to (usability) courses themselves to learn the fundamentals Not the competent managers, they have much higher priorities. They're not a part of the usability granfalloon, so they find it easy to realize most of the promises from the usability community is hype. There's no need to bother considering ROI. |
| Thu 26 Sep 19:30 | JB | So Ron, is that to say that competent mangers make a conscious decision to not further educate themselves? |
| Thu 26 Sep 23:11 | daniel szuc | Ron: Yes work against a list of heuristics/principles. Also use *task scenarios* as agreed with the business, to assist guide the evaluation and to identify issues the business believes that may be impacting the product. The issues are sorted by heuristic/principle and the potential *show stoppers* or *major issues* are used as the *input* to the usability testing sessions. Also a good tool for validating the task scenarios. Also use my own my own experience yes. |
| Fri 27 Sep 10:52 | Ron Zeno | 'is that to say that competent mangers make a conscious decision to not further educate themselves?' (Education? Where did that come from?) Competent managers make a conscious decision not to waste their time with low-priority issues, with hype, with scams - which is what we've made usability appear to be. |
| Typophile | Mon 23 Sep |
| The collective consciousness of Typophile is attempting to create the letter... (Comments: Via Legends of the Sun Pig.) |
| Tue 24 Sep 04:05 | Mac | The conferees did what birds do: they flocked. But they flocked self- consciously. From: The Hive Mind (linked to on the letter page) This is great. When I see this stuff I start to dream about how collective content will be formed on the net in the future. Oooh, that sounds a bit utopian, but you know what I mean. |
| Tue 24 Sep 09:26 | Joshua Kaufman | Mac, does it look anything like the WikiWikiWeb? |
| Fri 27 Sep 06:53 | Mac | Joshua, yes I think Wiki is an interesting start, but the barrier to contribution is too high for it to really take off. |
| Realtors to Internet: Drop dead | Wed 25 Sep |
| The National Association of Realtors is considering a rule that could severely limit the amount of information potential home buyers would be able to find on the Internet. ... I wonder why the real estate industry should be exempted from the democratization of information that has changed so many other industries, from healthcare to finance. (Jack laments: Home buyers and sellers lose in the restriction of information. It seems the gatekeepers want to shackle the gates so were forced to use them as middlemen every step of the way. Why should they care? They get their cut of the sale either way.) |
| Wed 25 Sep 23:06 | Jack Schonchin | When I researched my house I used three methods: a) My realtor faxed me prospective houses (detailed MLS print-outs). The faxes came about every other day and were a very small sample of all properties being listed. b) I received e-mailed MLS data (one-line summaries on each new property) three times a day. The e-mails were a free service of a realty company I was not using. This service allowed me to drive by houses on my lunch hour or straight after work, or I could e-mail my wife and she'd check the properties herself. We enjoyed not being hassled with trying to reach our busy agent, waiting for her to fax us information, waiting, waiting, waiting for everything. c) Regardless of how we identified a potential house, we always walked through a house with our realtor. The realtor was never cut from the equation. If MLS data was restricted, our job hunt would have taken three times as long. I might have even given up and resolved myself to apartment life. Buying a house ranks right up there with buying a car and doing your taxes. The idea that MLS data might become restricted, to me, reinforces the unsavory stereotypes of the profession. Restriction = not acting in the best interest of buyers and sellers. |
| Wed 25 Sep 23:32 | John S. Rhodes | Jack, thanks a million for telling everyone what 'MLS' means. Here are some possibilities: Me Like Sugar Mommy Loves Sally Mr. Larry Sax Moo, Little Silkworm My Life Savings Movie Love Stain Mazda Like Subaru Make Lumpy Sing Microphone Limp Song ...not very funny. I'm tired; not clever right now. |
| Wed 25 Sep 23:34 | Annoying Puff Cat | Definitely bad, Mr. Jack, not to define the acronym for me and Charlie The Knuckle. |
| Wed 25 Sep 23:59 | Kent | MLS = Multiple Listing Service An MLS is a computer database containing listings of real estate available for sale through various realtors. |
| Thu 26 Sep 01:16 | Jack Schonchin | Silly me, I thought some of you might actually read the article. MLS is used in the third sentence. Are you guys discussing the articles or just responding to user comments? |
| Thu 26 Sep 04:39 | Alan Fisher | I read it, so I know what MLS is. Now, could somebody tell me what a 'realtor' is? And what is 'real estate'? Is that the opposite of 'imaginary estate'? Only joking. While no-one in Europe uses these terms, most of understand what Americans mean when they use them. But if you're going to start asking for explanations of terminology, where do you draw the line? Back to the article. How can any profession believe that these sort of restrictions are going to do anything other than hasten their demise. Embrace the technology, make it work FOR you. And finally - it looks like realtors have as bad a reputation in the USA as estate agents have in the UK. Wonder why? |
| Thu 26 Sep 09:39 | Jack Schonchin | The why in my case is that my realtor: 1) Put a rosy glow on everything we saw 2) Discounted any concerns we raised about a house 3) Tried to convince us each house was perfect for us 4) Did I mention the rosy glow? 5) Made a lot of money because she knew how to fill out forms that seem to be as complicated as tax forms. I don't have a negative view of Certified Public Accountants and their ties to taxes. I think maybe the issue is that anyone can become a realtor with a little effort. It's considerably harder to become an accountant. So the quality of person you get in the realty field may widely vary. |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:36 | JB | Short of buying your house on eBay...realtors still have all the power. So what you find out details about the house and prices in the street...it is public data - the internet makes it easier to find. I think this is today’s first official knee-jerk reaction (admittedly a very slow 3 year one) Hey Jack….did Google get back to you about the revamped news thingy you sent them the other day? |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:48 | Jack Schonchin | JB, no, I no longer expect responses from Google. My feeling is that there's a level of arrogance at Google that rivals my own. |
| Thu 26 Sep 13:21 | JB | Pity on two levels. One they seem not to care about feedback and two they have very poor customer service. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:52 | boysen | I was disappointed by the attitude of the Realtors but maybe if we get the information out about this topic, consumers will no longer tolerate the current Realtor practices. Is is just me or is 7% just too high? BTW, I like Realtor.com but it could be sooooo much better. |
| Thu 26 Sep 18:55 | Adam Kalsey | I started to post here and it started to get way too long, so I posted it on my site instead: 'I have a fair amount of information and opinion on this subject. I was Product Director for a company that made real estate software. We made MLS software, transaction processing software, and were in the process of creating software that would allow realtors, brokers, and the MLS to put their homes on the Web.' http://kalsey.com/blog/2002/09/internet_mls_discussion.stm |
| Calif. Man Rescued After Four Months at Sea | Wed 25 Sep |
| Pham said he survived on turtles, fish and sea birds and drank rainwater. He tore off the boats wooden paneling to make an occasional cooking fire and learned to extract salt from sea water to preserve extra food for lean times. By the end of his ordeal, hed lost about 40 pounds (18 kg) and a tooth. (Comments: Do you think you would have survived?) |
| Thu 26 Sep 02:07 | Jack Schonchin | No problem. I'd sit back and conserve energy while Pham caught us those tasty eats. Then, when the bait ran out and Pham could no longer catch sea life -- no longer serving a useful purpose for the good of the ship -- I'd eat him. He's 62. I'm considerably younger. His meat is aged to perfection. |
| Thu 26 Sep 04:16 | Mac | 'If you are scared you will die.' |
| Thu 26 Sep 09:32 | Ryan | Things like this always remind me of the Shackleton expedition. (See the IMAX, read the books, yada yada yada...) |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:50 | JB | Or that soccer team whose plane crashed in the Andes... |
| Thu 26 Sep 12:39 | Lydia | Wow, that is really amazing. I always find stories like that very inspirational. I don't think I would have survived, mostly because I probably would have gotten scared and would have given up. I don't know if I would have been able to kill birds and turtles, even! Hm. I certainly could have stood losing the weight, though (ha ha). |
| Thu 26 Sep 13:48 | Jack Schonchin | What, no one is going to mention the Donner Party? January 3, 1847: 'Mr. Fosdick became very weak; had to wait for him.' January 5, 1847: 'Mr. Fosdick having given out, remained with his wife about a mile back from them.' January 6, 1847: 'One of the emigrants, believing that Mr. and Mrs. Fosdick had died during the previous night, sent a person back to the place, with instructions to get Mr. Fosdick's heart for breakfast; .... The person ... met Mrs. Fosdick on the way to Mr. Eddy's camp. ... Mrs. Fosdick had been with her husband during the previous night, which was bitterly cold; and after his death, she rolled his body in the only blanket they possessed, and laid herself down upon the ground, desiring to die, and hoping that she would freeze to death. ... But the return of the morning's light brought with it an instinctive love of life, and she now proposed to go back to the body of her husband, .... Two individuals accompanied her, and notwithstanding the remonstrances, entreaties, and tears of the affected widow, cut out the heart and liver, and severed the arms and legs of her departed husband.' From January, 1847 diary entries. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:15 | Robert | I too have a sailboat and find it very strange that anyone would go to sea with out some type of backups. Looking at the news reports, he lost the Engine, sail, rudder and radio. Just one backup handheld radio, backup battery, flares (required on every vessel) or even a small $150.00 EPRIB could have ended these months ago. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:26 | John S. Rhodes | Robert, good points. My perception of this guy has changed! At first I thought he was a tough guy; a real sailor. However, now I think he is an unprepared buffoon. Hmmm...how about this. I think he is a clever yet unprepared buffoon. |
| Thu 26 Sep 14:31 | John S. Rhodes | 'What, no one is going to mention the Donner Party? Jack, that page generated not one, not two, but THREE pop ups. Argh!! |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:21 | Lydia | Well, does the fact that he was unprepared make him any less of a tough guy? Perhaps he isn't a Grade-A sailor, but you gotta admire the tenacity. |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:33 | Jack Schonchin | Sorry John, I have a pop-up stopper and Proxomitron running at all times. Unless my speakers are on, or a link doesn't work, I'm oblivious to the presence of pop-ups. Join me. It's bliss. |
| Thu 26 Sep 15:49 | Bernard | He sounds like a seriously tough, 3rd-world mentality kind of guy. Probably didn't have backups because he doesn't absolutely need them to sail so why waste the money. It's the same mentality that drives people from less wealthy countries to handle dangerous chemicals without protection or to drive little cars without anti-lock brakes. Four months is a long time to watch TV without cable, though. I don't know how he made it. |
| Thu 26 Sep 18:01 | Mike Boyink | Wow - I didn't know I had it so bad. 6 vehicles and not an anti-lock brake setup in the bunch. Funny how lacking technology that isn't yet foolproof can so quickly become a sign of a 3rd world mentality... |
| Roll Your Own Browser | Wed 25 Sep |
| The purpose of this article is to introduce you to the concept of customizing, or creating, your own browser using the wonderful toolkit that is Mozilla. (Comments: Only for geeks. Yawn.) |
| Thu 26 Sep 12:43 | Lydia | Actually, Phoenix looks pretty cool - it's supposed to be very light and zippy. I haven't had time to download and tinker, but the documentation looks promising: http://mozilla.org/projects/phoenix/phoenix-release-notes.html |
| Dissecting Nielsen Series:1.Outsourcing Web services | Wed 25 Sep |
| (CHI-WEB) This is not an attempt to slander the undisputed king of Usability. I have as much respect for Jakob as everyone else. There is no other person who comes anywhere close to his contributions. However, I’m extremely concerned about the article and its implications. I believe Jakob should either withdraw the article or at least make necessary amendments. I do not represent Satyam, TCS or the software community. (Comments: Via Elegant Hack.) |
| Thu 26 Sep 03:09 | Mac | Has Filbert managed to hack into webword and disrupt the front page? |
| Thu 26 Sep 03:11 | Mac | Explanation of previous post: When I looked at the webword front page this morning it ended halfway through this item. I generated the URL for this page and added the comment above. This forced a regeneration of the front page that appears to have solved the problem. |
| Thu 26 Sep 05:18 | Suman kumar | What I dont understand is, Jakob doesn't realise that though Offshore development is a big thing, very rarely does an offshore country gets to be a part of the product, right from the requirements and architecture stage. There could be exceptions, but majority of the projects are ONLY coding or maintenance/management contracts. By this logic I dont see how India needs or should train 400000 usability pros. Tell me something, how many software products you use are manufactured in India? |
| Thu 26 Sep 05:52 | MadMan | I can almost see the 'MadMan, what do you have to say' invititation in that post. OK, I'll post something in a few hours. |
| Thu 26 Sep 09:41 | Ron Zeno | See the comment at Elegant Hack. As much as I encourage others to critique, Manu Sharma's I didn't find any of his four points to be well-argued. |
| Thu 26 Sep 11:43 | JB | I do agree with his over arching concept, but if the cost of programming a site is significantly less, in say China, and the quality is just as good why not have it done there. I always thought that by the time you got to the programming stage you had already undertaking all the necessary testing required, paper prototyping etc... it's simple code work. And because you then have a site...who says you can't keep testing it with users from the country it speaks to and then have your foreign talent make the coding changes. Applicaiton is not cheap and I peronsally beleive that you can split the two aspects of development clearly in two. Has he gazed into his crystal ball and seen his clients switching to overseas usability folks? |
| September 11, 2002 | Tue 24 Sep |
| All this written, my life has absolutely gone on. My children are growing, I still laugh and smile, I have flown on airplanes and I have worked. |
| Tue 24 Sep 22:45 | Jack Schonchin | I'm scared that we learned nothing from the tragedy and are charging head-first into another one. |
| Tue 24 Sep 22:48 | John S. Rhodes | The world would be better off if we resolved issues with nasty pranks and practical jokes. |
| Wed 25 Sep 01:55 | daniel szuc | Are humans programmed to destroy? Are we missing an important element in our genetic make up to promote peace and discussion without harming others? *ponders* |
| Wed 25 Sep 04:49 | Alan Fisher | A wonderful piece of writing, but it made me wonder. Is Jonathan a gifted writer who happens to be working in a job which isn't related to writing like this? Or are there many other people who went through what he went through and can reflect and express themselves like he has? One of the things I find amazing, looking back, is how many ordinary people expressed themselves like this. Do we need tragedy to awaken this in ourselves? Jack - I agree, the western nations appear to be learning nothing from what happened and (even worse) don't appear to want to try to learn anything. Depressing. |
| Wed 25 Sep 11:43 | jonathan | Alan, You're definitely too kind by calling me a 'gifted writer' but I appreciate the words. Writing has always been more of personal thing for me and never part of a career, to answer your question. 9/11 forced me to write stuff out and the result was a much more effective way of dealing with my experience than just talking about it (which grew tiring after the first week). I don't believe we actually need tragedy to awaken this but for me, it was certainly a good catapult for it. jonathan |
| Wed 25 Sep 15:04 | Lydia | Sometimes, I feel like people need a reason to stop and reflect, almost as if they feel ashamed to slow down and do it when there isn't a 'good excuse.' That's too bad. |
| Wed 25 Sep 15:53 | boysen | >Are humans programmed to destroy? C.S. Lewis talks about how Evil could not exist without Good because Evil basically is taking something good and twists it. I do believe we are all predisposed towards sinful acts from what is termed 'original sin' but that's a topic far removed. |
| Wed 25 Sep 19:36 | Jack Schonchin | Did anyone else see the footage of Bush reciting the 'fool me once' proverb? (MP3 version) The Comedy Central Daily Show footage (requires Real Player) had me in tears -- tears of laughter and tears of sadness. (Click the 'shame on you' link that is currently in the upper right-hand corner of the page.) Even us uneducated folk know the proverb. I think it was Scotty on the bridge of the Enterprise who said, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What's this have to do with 9/11? Faith in our leaders. |
| 99.9% of Proper Grammar Is Obsolete | Wed 18 Sep |
| (Digital Web) In the forward-thinking Internet environment, where user preference and societal norms drive innovation, carefully constructed sentences are starting to disappear. As users evolve, becoming accustomed to one anothers abbreviations and time constraints, grammar continues to deteriorate. (Comments: Thanks mm.) |
| Wed 25 Sep 14:22 | jan | Lydia, you can avoid the their/they problem if you make your subject plural to begin with: Users can pull out their manuals and read them. That'll take care of most instances. But I do use him/her, he/she occasionally. I don't like it, but I do it as a bow to political correctness. PC stuff annoys me, but I live with it. |
| Wed 25 Sep 19:26 | Lydia | I do like that method, Jan. I try to use it whenever possible, but too much can make the piece sound kind of passive, so sometimes I'll go back to him/her, or just avoid mentioning people altogether. For internal documentation, I always use 'he' or 'him' due to laziness. |
| Dilbert does interface design | Mon 23 Sep |
| Jack apologizes to anyone who is psychologically affected in a negative manner by Scott Adams outlook on life. (Jack Comments: Now a discussion of changes made to news.google.com) |
| Mon 23 Sep 08:05 | daniel szuc | Off the topic of Dilbert, but onto UI design, check out the new feature on Google - http://news.google.com/ Thoughts? Perhaps a nice one for discussion John? |
| Mon 23 Sep 08:11 | daniel szuc | Interesing stuff - http://news.google.com/help/about_news_search.html |
| Mon 23 Sep 08:12 | Timo | I preferred the old google news design. Now it looks like they are copying other news portals rather than offering their usual brand of simplicity. |
| Mon 23 Sep 08:15 | Timo | and moreover have been doing this for years. |
| Mon 23 Sep 08:17 | daniel szuc | I do like the alert of *when* the link was added e.g. 10 minutes ago. Don't think I have seen this before. |
| Mon 23 Sep 09:18 | Jack Schonchin | Satan has infiltrated the Google ranks to produce the news interface from Hell. They are at the edge of the abyss. This is their defining moment. Their only hope is for redemption before this behemoth leaves the larva stage known as 'beta.' Google isn't just about good search results. It's also about the simple interface. Now Google looks like everyone else - bloated with maggots feasting on the decaying flesh of the damned. |
| Mon 23 Sep 09:51 | Jack Schonchin | To say it in a manner that will not offend my critics: 1) Complex interface, reminiscent of many other news sites. 2) Google is shifting from search engine to content presentation. This is a fundamental change in focus. a) Version 1: I search for news links. b) Version 2: Google shows me news links. Sure, I can still search for news, but the obvious shift in focus is toward presentation. 3) A news site incorporates 'news judgement' in its ranking and handling of news. Google is handling news by way of engineers, with the false assumption that mob mentality is good (mob = the majority of news sites). In some vague way this reminds me of the magazine cover discussion. If Google ranked magazine covers we would primarily see celebrity covers because those covers represent group think of the majority of magazine publishers. 4) Now that Google is in the Presentation Game, how long will it be before Google adds weather forecasts, movie showtimes, etc.? It will begin with services such as weather.google.com and movies.google.com. Google has just been taking its time turning itself into Yet Another Portal™. (I made those links active for the benefit of future users reading this message in the WebWord archives, so that they can more easily visit their favorite source for weather and popular culture.) If Google wants to do something powerful, it should provide a backward view of news. Scour the entire web and rank news stories based on what news articles individuals are linking to. That has a better chance of bringing minority opinion to the top. The most important stories I read are rarely on CNN's or MSNBC's front page - or they are there for only a few hours and then buried. |
| Mon 23 Sep 10:20 | Jack Schonchin | Lest my 'minority opinion' remark be misunderstood... minority opinion is significant because of 'group think' that exists in today's news organizations. More importantly, there's nothing new in Google's mirroring group think. I can already obtain that by visiting any news web site. Big whoop. So my real point with that remark is that Google is being unoriginal. |
| Mon 23 Sep 11:06 | Joshua Kaufman | I agree that the new Google News is a fundamental change from search to presentation. However, News is fundamentally different from Google's other services because it's time dependent (like Movies and Weather), and presentation is key with time dependent services. In Google Web Search, Google Images, Google Groups or Google Directory, the user is searching for web pages, images, group listings and directory listings that are related to a search term. In the case of Google News, I believe that most users be much more inclined to browse than search, which is probably why they they've stuffed so much onto one page. Yes, the interface could be greatly improved. I just wanted to explore the basis for the big switch in the context of Google's other services. |
| Mon 23 Sep 11:52 | Jack Schonchin | News is time dependent, yes, but I was already served by the search box. I got timely news through the search box. If I wanted to be shown news -- instead of search for it -- I would use my preferred news web site. What we're discussing is fundamental change -- because Google has shifted to a different user purpose - a different audience. That's why I make the distinction about this being a presentation. It is another gleaming example of feature creap away from Google's main purpose - being a search engine, not a directory, not a portal. The larger issue is sustainable development. If Google wants to court investors, it will have to break Rule #6 -- 'You can make money without doing evil.' Why? First, my definition of evil is not as simplistic as banner ads and in-your-face Flash advertisements. Evil is also degradation of service. Google is compelled to keep churning out new services, or 'bigger and better' services, to keep investors happy. That is a fundamental fact of corporate culture. You must also be growing in size, services and profitability. At some point Google will 'jump the shark' into evil. Will there be a time when Google says to itself, 'We're damn good. Let's keep what we have and refine it. Make what we have better, and not build more. If we build more, it will be only after considerable, heart-wrenching thought and debate.' Will that happen? No. Google will ruin itself. Google is powerful. It is a corporate creature. It's only a matter of time, despite anyone's best intentions. |
| Mon 23 Sep 11:55 | Jack Schonchin | Damn, I got me a spider monkey to edit my posts, but all he does is fling poop. In the second to last paragraph: You must always be growing in size, services and profitability. |
| Mon 23 Sep 12:03 | Jack Schonchin | Come on, how long will it take for someone to simply say: So what? |
| Mon 23 Sep 12:32 | Lydia | Timo, thanks for the link. I do find the new format very disconcerting. I've always really liked Google's simple layout. It's nice to have things arranged by category and get all the news up front, but what a headache inducer that packed-to-the-gills site is. Screw it, I'll get my news elsewhere. |
| Mon 23 Sep 13:30 | Mac | Gnews: Have been using the Beta 5 to 10 times a week for the past few months. Dont like the new one, but I'm not sure why yet. Need to ruminate on it. Onto Original Topic: Real Life Dilbert 'Designed' Interface I haven't make anyone sick (yet) with my lurid unprofessional looking interfaces. But does it matter if I produce 'roadkill' interfaces if they work? |
| Mon 23 Sep 13:48 | Jack Schonchin | Mac, this goes along with my 'people will put up with a whole lot of ugly if they get the information or service they want' statement. (I can't find that thread. WebWord needs a comprehensive on-site search option, even if it's slow. I can't wait a month for Google to catch up.) |
| Mon 23 Sep 14:49 | Lydia | Mac, when I think of interface, I think of the way someone interacts with the program, so I separate that from design. Therefore, to answer your question 'But does it matter if I produce 'roadkill' interfaces if they work?' I would rather use an unattractive program (or visit a plain website) than a slick one that frustrates me when I try to get anything out of it. A well-functioning program (or easy-to-use website) is a must for me. It draws a parallel to the way many people feel about customer service: you may have the most frustrating service or product on earth, but if your customer support is excellent, I am more likely to stay your customer longer than I will for a company with a good product that doesn't think I'm important. |
| Mon 23 Sep 15:05 | Matt Round | 'I haven't make anyone sick (yet) with my lurid unprofessional looking interfaces. But does it matter if I produce 'roadkill' interfaces if they work?' Yes. It matters a lot. The choice of colours/fonts/layout affects readability, usability (where/how to look/click) and the whole impression a system gives the user (whether you or the users are aware of it or not). The 'Real Life Dilbert 'Designed' Interface' would benefit immensely from a better colour scheme (lots of fully saturated primary/secondary colours almost always looks bad), good consistent styling and a tidier layout. I'm certainly not saying it's bad, or should be filled with overbearing graphics, I'm just saying it could be better. |
| Mon 23 Sep 16:01 | JB | We need to remember the new design is still a beta. If you feel strongly about the change (the old is better from a scanability view point), voice your concerns direct to Google. I do believe they still listen. |
| Mon 23 Sep 16:13 | Jack Schonchin | I sent them the URL to this discussion. We shall see. Before they were big, I always received a response. I have not received a response in (?) more than a year, and some messages I feel strongly deserved some form of acknowledgement. (I'm also still waiting for my promised Google t-shirt. I suppose I'll receive it when I'm 65, when it is found hoarded away with a ton of other parcels in some deceased postal worker's house.) |
| Mon 23 Sep 19:53 | John S. Rhodes | Jack wrote: 'WebWord needs a comprehensive on-site search option, even if it's slow.' WebWord needs a lot of things, Jack. |
| Mon 23 Sep 20:23 | Jack Schonchin | Freeware Perl search scripts are easy to come by. You used to have an on-site search. It was slow, but in cases like this would surpass Google in usefulness. Just providing feedback. |