As everyone in North America knows, today’s the day Apple launches its new smart phone, the iPhone. Apparently no one is working today b/c they’re all standing in line to get one.
What can the iPhone do? Play clip below.
Hello… Houston… we have a tech bubble. TechCrunch reports that one of the latest startups to gain funding is MizPee, a site for your mobile devices that lets you know where the nearest loo is located.
Consensus on the new site is “Huh?!?” (Read the comments). It seems most people just look for a Mickey D’s or an Irving station when they’ve got to go, instead of whipping out that cellphone and scrolling through search results.
Which brings us back to Web site usability, interestingly. Moral: think about whether people will use that Web interface before you sink millions into a Web site (oh, wait - it’s not their money they’re spending, it’s venture capital - forgot)
Looks like the whole Web 2.0 thing is bottoming out (remember companies that wanted you to buy pet food online and had sock puppet mascots?) The canary’s coughing. Deja vu, baby.
It’s official: we’re a Clicktale beta tester. We’ve set it up on a Client Web site that gets a lot of visitors to quickly gather data.
It records movies of a person’s visit to your Web site - you can see where the mouse goes onscreen, what links they click. Looks like it’ll be a useful tool for improving the user experience.
Marc Andreessen muses on his blog about switching to Mac after using a PC for the last 13 years. What does Andreessen, creator of the first browser - Mosaic - and a co-founder of Netscape, like best?
The most wonderful thing about the Mac in 2007 is that it has what Bill Joy refers to as the “it works” feature.
I’ve followed a similar path. After many years of using Windows, I finally got a Mac PowerBook Pro in February. Like Andreessen, who wanted ‘…to experience what most of the rest of the world was using…’ I felt pretty strongly about having a user experience that was similar to most Clients when surfing the Web.
Things finally came to a head for me, though, when: it took too long for my Windows XP machine to start up in the morning (10 minutes would be generous) ; it’s memory ran low (it happens to the best); and I realized I could run Windows apps on my Mac (that was the kicker - I use Parallels).
Not to mention the fact that I was planning on attending South By Southwest Interactive and would look like a total dweeb if I was the only one with a Dell (My fears were well-founded; I could count on one hand the number of PC laptops at the entire SXSW convention).
After a few months, it’s the little things about my Mac that mean a lot. I can’t explain it b/c I’ve never had the time to thoroughly investigate, but it seems like it’s easier/faster to do things like check my email. I’m betting that one fewer click for this or that activity is the reason, and after a while all those clicks I don’t have to make add up to a significant increase in productive time.
I’m trying really hard not to be a Mac snob, but that’s just it - I find myself trying really hard.
Can’t wait to see more of Clicktale, a new service in beta right now that could prove useful in improving Web site usability. It’s a service that records every mouse movement, every scrolling action and every click as people navigate your site.
Can’t wait to try it. Please let me be a beta-tester!
(Editor’s note: while the names of those involved in this tragic incident have been changed to protect the innocent - and shield the guilty from shame - the events depicted have not)
Recently a Web designer I know emailed me to ask for suggestions as to how to handle a request from a client, a magazine publisher in Southern Maine. The request was how best to put a PDF version of the entire magazine on their Web site. We’re talking 50+ pages, and even after compression that PDF weighs in at… wait for it… 14.8MB79MB!! (14.8 was, unbelievably, for just one section - updated 6/8/07)
C’mon, people.
Let’s put down the latte and think about this for a minute. Does anyone know anyone, high speed connection or no, who says to themselves “Hmmm…. I wonder if the latest version of Portland Digest is available via PDF download from their Web site? I better make sure I have enough printer paper for that one!”
You don’t? Me neither.
Why does this publisher want to bestow this glorious journalistic achievement on a supposedly adoring public? According to my pal the Web designer: Just because. Just because they can. Actually, they feel they want to ‘extend their reach’ beyond their local Portland-area readership.
Huh?!? I think I’ve got an idea for extending your reach online. It’s called HTML.
Most print publishers are completely flummoxed by the Web. They realize they need to have a “dot-com” (b/c everybody does, right?), but beyond that, most would rather not think about the Internet. It’s wreaking havoc with their offline product’s business model (and things are only going to get worse as advertising dollars move online), but most respond by sticking their fingers in the crumbling dyke instead of figuring out how to take advantage of the new business opportunities the Web provides.
Right now, most publishers consider the Web to be a place where they shovel content that they previously put out in print. To an extent, I think the reasons are cultural. Many editors and journalists are not technophiles, so getting a newsroom or editorial staff up to speed on the how their businesses can be enhanced through new and innovative online offerings takes time.
As for the Giant PDF, if they do insist on putting this Godzilla-sized monster online (shudder), I hope that at least - for the love of usability, people! - they put the filesize in the link text so I’ll know I’m not supposed to click on it.
Mobile dating services are sprouting up to help people find a match while they’re sitting at the bar.
MeetMoi.com is one. You enter your ZIP code into your cellphone and soon you receive profiles of other daters in the vicinity. In theory, if your blind date’s a bust, you can get on the horn and call in a replacement while the night is still young.
Sounds like a great idea - if you live in San Francisco. In Portland, Maine, you might end up like the only guy in town w/a fax machine (no one to send your message to).
I could be wrong - I haven’t personally tested the service (I’m married, after all).
Think about it: when’s the last time you saw a cell phone ad that featured the user interface? Well, that’s just what Apple does in three new spots out in advance of the release of its anxiously-awaited iPhone.
I have one guess as to why Apple decided to show off the phone - at a base price of $499, the company had to show people why it’s worth shelling out the extra moola (they sold me). Second guess: the user interface is so different from other cellphones that the ads serve as a brief tutorial on how to get the most out of the device.
When you add features to a Web site (or Swiss Army Knife), does it make it easier to use? Umm, no.
There’s an interesting phenomenon that takes place during the development of any type of product. More and more features are requested and often packed into the product to satisfy customer demand, but when the product is launched, many of those features are never used.
It’s called The Feature Paradox. It’s like the old 80-20 rule: 80 percent of people will use 20 percent of an interactive Web site’s features. But they always seem to want those other features, those bells and whistles - like some insurance policy - in case they’re ever needed.
If you’re responsible for redesigning your company’s Web site, you might want to remember The Feature Paradox and avoid adding functionality that will be used only in edge cases. Focusing on usability - how people in your organization will use your Web site - can help keep you from spending excessive time and money on features that people will rarely use and which in some cases might not even contribute to a project’s ROI.
(Tip of the hat to Typestorming)
Portland Diner is a restaurant directory we created and we’ve been playing around with it for awhile now. When it was first built, no other local site would let you search for a “Thai place in Yarmouth that has ‘Royal‘ (or something like that)” in the name.
In other words, you might know where the place was and maybe part of its name, but no site would let you track it down.
Portland Diner takes care of that. And it’s a good learning tool for Web-heads; we’ve been letting people kick the design, CSS and programming around - a Portland Web designer’s sandbox, if you will.
We’re planning on adding some additional features, such as the ability for anyone to add a review, and for restaurant owners to add a menu and maybe photos of the dining room. Stay tuned, and in the meantime - Bon Appetit!
Here’s a pretty big sign that Flash does-not-a-Web-site make: MTV recently scrapped the Flash version of their Web site and launched an HTML version.
After a nine-month run, MTV admitted that the Flash site was “something of a headache” for viewers. The company says page load times have been “drastically reduced” (no more ‘loading…’ messages). You can read more about the MTV site redesign on the MTV Labs blog.
They don’t mention other short-comings of Flash, such as the inability to bookmark specific content.
No this is not about hiring a Web Designer for Pemaquid - though that’ll happen soon enough - it’s about how to select the company that’s going to build or redesign your site.
Recently I was reading an article in which the question was whether a potential Client should pick a Web design firm based on how much experience the Web design company had in the Client business’ industry.
I’d wager that that misses the point. When selecting a Web design firm - whether your business is in Portland, Maine or Portland, Oregon - the most important thing is not how much the designer knows about your industry, it’s how much they know about Web design.
There are plenty of firms out there w/marketing expertise in a particular industry, and they even may have built lots of sites, but all the industry savvy in the world will not help them understand the psychology of how people surf a Web site and how to make that site engaging and easy-to-use - a resource for its audiences.
One thing I (still) see all the time on Web sites is Click Here!! As in: “Click here to read more about this amazing story…” or “Click here to register…” or “Click here to purchase…”. Click here … Click here … Click here.
This has got to stop, people.
If you’re developing content for a Web site, there are more effective ways to write your link text.
First, remember that people scan Web pages for links that are labeled with keywords they are looking for. A page loaded with “click heres” doesn’t support this quick-scan activity.
Second, “Click here” doesn’t say anything informative. Use verbs (er, other than ‘click’, please) that call to action. “Buy”, “Register”, “Shop”, “Search”, “Find” all work much better. Category labels also work well (”Shoes”, “Coats”, “Hats”, “Shirts”, etc.) and help readers distinguish between the different choices.
Third, editing out “Click here” will help tighten up the copy - always a good thing.
Finally, if we’re talking about a hyperlink, isn’t it already obvious you can “Click here”?
So, please be kind to your Web site visitors. Don’t tell them to “Click here” (they’ll figure that out). Tell them what they’ll get when they do click.
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