Are you changing the world?
Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, says "I keep things focused. The speech I give everyday is: 'This is what we do. Is what you are doing consistent with that, and does it change the world?'" Pretty neat attitude.
Here's the full PCWorld interview:Three Minutes With Google's Eric Schmidt
See previous post: When you want to be a millionaire, you use Google.
February 01, 2002
January 27, 2002
The Internet is NOT evil
A UK group has called for an "International Internet Free day". They are asking people take the day "to meet friends and family and rediscover life in the 'real world'."
This attitude that the Internet somehow degrades the quality of "real life" is absolutely ridiculous. The Internet, like other technologies is more often used to enhance peoples live than to degrade it.
But, if I were in London, I could spend the day with this bunch of technophobes touring Royal Festival Hall, Oxo Tower Wharf, the Tate Modern museum, and Shakespeare's Globe theatre. But since I don't live in London, maybe I could just check these interesting places out on the web. Some, like the Globe, even have a virtual tour. ...or maybe I'll chat or trade emails and photos with my friends and relatives who live far away.
Can people over-use technology? Sure. Take a look at telephones, television, pagers, video games and hair color. As they say, moderation is the key.
A UK group has called for an "International Internet Free day". They are asking people take the day "to meet friends and family and rediscover life in the 'real world'."
This attitude that the Internet somehow degrades the quality of "real life" is absolutely ridiculous. The Internet, like other technologies is more often used to enhance peoples live than to degrade it.
But, if I were in London, I could spend the day with this bunch of technophobes touring Royal Festival Hall, Oxo Tower Wharf, the Tate Modern museum, and Shakespeare's Globe theatre. But since I don't live in London, maybe I could just check these interesting places out on the web. Some, like the Globe, even have a virtual tour. ...or maybe I'll chat or trade emails and photos with my friends and relatives who live far away.
Can people over-use technology? Sure. Take a look at telephones, television, pagers, video games and hair color. As they say, moderation is the key.
How to save 49 weeks of development time
If you're a developer or development team lead, you'll want to get familiar with Joel Spolsky's site. True to form, he's provided yet another article showing good development processes in action. His latest installment talks about why you should consider a code "scrub" rather than a complete re-write.
Other gems by Joel:
If you're a developer or development team lead, you'll want to get familiar with Joel Spolsky's site. True to form, he's provided yet another article showing good development processes in action. His latest installment talks about why you should consider a code "scrub" rather than a complete re-write.
Other gems by Joel:
- Good Software Takes Ten Years. Get Used To it.
- The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code
- User Interface Design for Programmers
January 25, 2002
Corporate blogging (or Blogging for Dollars)
Peter has some great thoughts about web logs ('blogs") and how they facilitate "free-ranging discussions hopping from page to page, with little structure apart from the hyperlink... Such discussions can be hard to 'follow,' but I think attempting to 'follow' them misses part of the point.."
I think it's likely to spur some good discussion. Personally, I've been looking into the use of weblogs within a corporate environment. I think they can help move "knowledge management" closer to something attainable.
I think what's really cool about blogs is the power they give people to share -- it's knowledge management at its most informal and chaotic. It's about a virtual community -- a community of communities if you will. I think there's a place for managed chaos in a corporate setting. Chaos is at the heart of much invention and innovation...
Blogging also has a aspect of reputation management as David Walker said on his site:
"Weblogs' users don't vote within the site; they vote by choosing the site as a reliable source of guidance. In effect, they say to the site's author: "you make the choices I'd make if I had time". The Webloggers become the makers and breakers of reputations within their (usually narrow) areas of interest. And the mass of Weblogs becomes another reputation management system."
In a corporate setting, a reputation management system could help people find subject matter experts and could help identify the most successful or valuable projects.
Peter has some great thoughts about web logs ('blogs") and how they facilitate "free-ranging discussions hopping from page to page, with little structure apart from the hyperlink... Such discussions can be hard to 'follow,' but I think attempting to 'follow' them misses part of the point.."
I think it's likely to spur some good discussion. Personally, I've been looking into the use of weblogs within a corporate environment. I think they can help move "knowledge management" closer to something attainable.
I think what's really cool about blogs is the power they give people to share -- it's knowledge management at its most informal and chaotic. It's about a virtual community -- a community of communities if you will. I think there's a place for managed chaos in a corporate setting. Chaos is at the heart of much invention and innovation...
Blogging also has a aspect of reputation management as David Walker said on his site:
"Weblogs' users don't vote within the site; they vote by choosing the site as a reliable source of guidance. In effect, they say to the site's author: "you make the choices I'd make if I had time". The Webloggers become the makers and breakers of reputations within their (usually narrow) areas of interest. And the mass of Weblogs becomes another reputation management system."
In a corporate setting, a reputation management system could help people find subject matter experts and could help identify the most successful or valuable projects.
Why taxonomy is important
If you're struggling to convince business sponsors that building a taxonomy is important, you can probably get a few bullet points from Gerry McGovern's article on Clickz.com. He makes some excellent points about the challenges of creating a good taxonomy and why it's costly to business if done wrong. Here are just a few:
The first point about the "map" and "geography" is a great one. Site structure and navigation majorly impact site content. On the web, many second-level pages (right off the home page) are essentially navigation only pages -- 'branches" of the tree if you will. The navigation pages effectively become "meta-content". For example, the Yahoo World News page is really a branch page -- yet as meta content it provides the reader with an overview or summary of the day's news. No one wrote a summary, but aggregating microcontent on one page and providing navigation and structure to the leaves of the tree, the articles, provides a constantly updating overview.
On web projects, it's easy to focus either too much on the leaves or the branches. In planning a new site, where no content exists, it's common for team members to plan for a lot of branches without know how big the leaves really are. Sometimes they plan for a number of pages about "our unique business proposition", when in the end they end up with three paragraphs. Other times, when repurposing content or redesigning an existing site, too much focus is given to arranging the leaves, and branches are not well thought out. Those sites can end up with branches that are too short -- linking to too many pages from one page without proper introduction -- or they can end up with branches that are too "skinny" -- navigation pages that don't contain enough information about the pages they link to. It's difficult to get the focus right -- achieving a balance where each page from top to bottom works well. Often this requires restructuring existing content to make it work.
Many companies are moving in the direction of Corporate Portals...an internal web trailhead to all things related to the company. These often include a type of enterprise taxonomy, and can be very difficult to plan, implement and maintain. They require a lot of research, analysis and process -- even changing corporate culture to some extent. These taxonomies make the typical web site taxonomy look trivial in comparison. If you're looking at corporate portals or other technology to categorize web content, keep in mind that regardless of what the technology vendor says, the challenge of creating taxonomy has little to do with technology, and lots to do with unique user and business needs.
If you're struggling to convince business sponsors that building a taxonomy is important, you can probably get a few bullet points from Gerry McGovern's article on Clickz.com. He makes some excellent points about the challenges of creating a good taxonomy and why it's costly to business if done wrong. Here are just a few:
- Web site classification impacts both the "map" and the "geography." Classification is not simply about mapping content that is already on a Web site. It also dictates the very structure of the Web site.
- The organization often has a preexisting classification that is understood by its employees but not by its customers. A difficult decision needs to be made with regard to whether to design two classifications or create a single unified classification that is understood by both.
- Web site classification is an ongoing process prone to error. Each time a new document is published on the Web site, it needs to be classified. If the document is classified incorrectly, then it undermines the entire classification design.
The first point about the "map" and "geography" is a great one. Site structure and navigation majorly impact site content. On the web, many second-level pages (right off the home page) are essentially navigation only pages -- 'branches" of the tree if you will. The navigation pages effectively become "meta-content". For example, the Yahoo World News page is really a branch page -- yet as meta content it provides the reader with an overview or summary of the day's news. No one wrote a summary, but aggregating microcontent on one page and providing navigation and structure to the leaves of the tree, the articles, provides a constantly updating overview.
On web projects, it's easy to focus either too much on the leaves or the branches. In planning a new site, where no content exists, it's common for team members to plan for a lot of branches without know how big the leaves really are. Sometimes they plan for a number of pages about "our unique business proposition", when in the end they end up with three paragraphs. Other times, when repurposing content or redesigning an existing site, too much focus is given to arranging the leaves, and branches are not well thought out. Those sites can end up with branches that are too short -- linking to too many pages from one page without proper introduction -- or they can end up with branches that are too "skinny" -- navigation pages that don't contain enough information about the pages they link to. It's difficult to get the focus right -- achieving a balance where each page from top to bottom works well. Often this requires restructuring existing content to make it work.
Many companies are moving in the direction of Corporate Portals...an internal web trailhead to all things related to the company. These often include a type of enterprise taxonomy, and can be very difficult to plan, implement and maintain. They require a lot of research, analysis and process -- even changing corporate culture to some extent. These taxonomies make the typical web site taxonomy look trivial in comparison. If you're looking at corporate portals or other technology to categorize web content, keep in mind that regardless of what the technology vendor says, the challenge of creating taxonomy has little to do with technology, and lots to do with unique user and business needs.
January 24, 2002
Web-based wizards and the Sorcerer's Stone
IBM's developerWorks site discusses the topic of web-based wizard interfaces. The author shares her learnings from designing and testing web-based wizards for nearly a year. She nicely covers the various project team roles involved in crafting a good wizard, including the roles of information architect and usability specialist. Reasons why you should not auto-tab in forms and why a controlled vocabulary is important are included and really make this article a gem.
Interesting book reference: Designing Effective Wizards: A Multidisciplinary Approach
"Nuts-and-bolts guide to designing wizards Includes checklists and examples The complete guide to wizard design. Practical usability and design techniques for successful wizard and software projects"
The Web Design Pattern for a Wizard by Martin van Welie provides a nice overview of what wizards are good for, the principle behind them, and the basics behind creating one. Not familiar with patterns? Try this past post for more information.
IBM's developerWorks site discusses the topic of web-based wizard interfaces. The author shares her learnings from designing and testing web-based wizards for nearly a year. She nicely covers the various project team roles involved in crafting a good wizard, including the roles of information architect and usability specialist. Reasons why you should not auto-tab in forms and why a controlled vocabulary is important are included and really make this article a gem.
Interesting book reference: Designing Effective Wizards: A Multidisciplinary Approach
"Nuts-and-bolts guide to designing wizards Includes checklists and examples The complete guide to wizard design. Practical usability and design techniques for successful wizard and software projects"
The Web Design Pattern for a Wizard by Martin van Welie provides a nice overview of what wizards are good for, the principle behind them, and the basics behind creating one. Not familiar with patterns? Try this past post for more information.
Who needs bookmarks?
Recent discussion on WebWord talked about how some folks are using Google instead of bookmarks. When I first discovered Google (they were in "beta"), I made it a personal mission to tell everyone I knew about it.
My new mission is to tell folks about Powermarks, a really great utility that is so much better than Google for returning you to your previous haunts. It's better than bookmarks because you don't have to think so much about organization. I mean do you really want to create a whole taxonomy for your bookmarks (aka favorites)? With bookmarks, I could never figure out where I put things, plus navigating through the various folders took too long. Powermarks allows you to do a very fast search of things you've "powermarked", and it also lets you add metadata (keywords) to each entry. It ends up being faster and more accurate than Google (really). Since all my hundreds of Powermark entries are for web pages that have already passed my "smell test", I can generally find something useful without having to scan very many search results. It's also great for those times when I think "didn't I read something about this once?" -- I can quickly find it in my powermarks.
Someone mentioned Powermarks once on CHI-Web or SIGIA, and It's really changed the way I work ever since. I can retrieve information much faster than I ever did before. For example, in a matter of seconds, without opening any new browser windows, I just looked up the URLs for CHI-Web and SIGIA. Since it's a desktop app, there's no network or page load delay...yes, native apps are still good for something!
Oh, and one of the really cool things the software does is synch your "powermarks" between PCs!
Recent discussion on WebWord talked about how some folks are using Google instead of bookmarks. When I first discovered Google (they were in "beta"), I made it a personal mission to tell everyone I knew about it.
My new mission is to tell folks about Powermarks, a really great utility that is so much better than Google for returning you to your previous haunts. It's better than bookmarks because you don't have to think so much about organization. I mean do you really want to create a whole taxonomy for your bookmarks (aka favorites)? With bookmarks, I could never figure out where I put things, plus navigating through the various folders took too long. Powermarks allows you to do a very fast search of things you've "powermarked", and it also lets you add metadata (keywords) to each entry. It ends up being faster and more accurate than Google (really). Since all my hundreds of Powermark entries are for web pages that have already passed my "smell test", I can generally find something useful without having to scan very many search results. It's also great for those times when I think "didn't I read something about this once?" -- I can quickly find it in my powermarks.
Someone mentioned Powermarks once on CHI-Web or SIGIA, and It's really changed the way I work ever since. I can retrieve information much faster than I ever did before. For example, in a matter of seconds, without opening any new browser windows, I just looked up the URLs for CHI-Web and SIGIA. Since it's a desktop app, there's no network or page load delay...yes, native apps are still good for something!
Oh, and one of the really cool things the software does is synch your "powermarks" between PCs!
January 22, 2002
Dialing for Doritos
When I read that Doritos will abandon their Super Bowl advertising this year and instead triple their investment in online advertising, you could say I was a bit surprised. Given that millions of people actually watch the Super Bowl just to see the ads (as many as 8% of the 120 millions viewers by some accounts), while studies show more and more web users have "banner blindness", I have to wonder what the snack food marketing folks know that we don't. I understand that web ad prices have plummeted and that the cost of 30 seconds time during the Super Bowl would buy year long exposure online -- even on major name properties like MTV.com. What I don't get is Doritos' campaign featuring a character named "Clive" and a fake "underground" site called fortheboldanddaring.com.
I'm sure most of their online target market of 12-24 year olds will hear about this fake site, and realize they are being targeted and being treated like total fools who can't see the difference between the real thing an a bad corporate parody of it. I'm also not sure how this underground site will help sell Doritos' products. Just like the Pets.com puppet didn't drive sales of pet food, my prediction is Clive and the related campaign will create a buzz, win lots of awards for the ad agency, but fail when it comes to the bottom line. Then again, I could be wrong -- maybe this is just so clever I don't get it.
I'm reminded of a quote from that epic "rockumentary" This is Spinal Tap:
"It's such a fine line between stupid and...clever."
When I read that Doritos will abandon their Super Bowl advertising this year and instead triple their investment in online advertising, you could say I was a bit surprised. Given that millions of people actually watch the Super Bowl just to see the ads (as many as 8% of the 120 millions viewers by some accounts), while studies show more and more web users have "banner blindness", I have to wonder what the snack food marketing folks know that we don't. I understand that web ad prices have plummeted and that the cost of 30 seconds time during the Super Bowl would buy year long exposure online -- even on major name properties like MTV.com. What I don't get is Doritos' campaign featuring a character named "Clive" and a fake "underground" site called fortheboldanddaring.com.
I'm sure most of their online target market of 12-24 year olds will hear about this fake site, and realize they are being targeted and being treated like total fools who can't see the difference between the real thing an a bad corporate parody of it. I'm also not sure how this underground site will help sell Doritos' products. Just like the Pets.com puppet didn't drive sales of pet food, my prediction is Clive and the related campaign will create a buzz, win lots of awards for the ad agency, but fail when it comes to the bottom line. Then again, I could be wrong -- maybe this is just so clever I don't get it.
I'm reminded of a quote from that epic "rockumentary" This is Spinal Tap:
"It's such a fine line between stupid and...clever."
January 21, 2002
Seek out the experts
The Royal National Institute for the Blind has a fascinating site, especially if you're doing any work around web accessibility. They have a very comprehensive list of access technology suppliers.
The Royal National Institute for the Blind has a fascinating site, especially if you're doing any work around web accessibility. They have a very comprehensive list of access technology suppliers.
Wall Street Journal Redesign
The WSJ Online has redesigned their site...and it appears they are moving in the right direction. The redesign "tour" hints that they are moving their online layout to be quite different from their print heritage:
"Newspaper readers and Web users don't always have the same needs. So we've reorganized our navigation in a way that works better online. We've moved some sections and pages, and given some of them new names that more directly describe the subjects they cover. "
They seem to have improved their article format by adding a related links sidebar -- a much under-used feature on most web sites. After all, what is the web without links? You guessed it...without links it's pretty much newpaper content trapped in a browser. :-) Great "related links" can add tremendous value (see Strategic Linking Techniques by John Rhodes of Webword.
Another change is the move to 2 site maps. One is really an index that they call an alphabetical site map. The second is a typical site map (if there is such a thing) listing the site's sections and primary pages under them. See Jakob's recent Alertbox article for a good discussion of site map usability.
[thanks to Christina at ElegantHack for the WSJ pointer]
The WSJ Online has redesigned their site...and it appears they are moving in the right direction. The redesign "tour" hints that they are moving their online layout to be quite different from their print heritage:
"Newspaper readers and Web users don't always have the same needs. So we've reorganized our navigation in a way that works better online. We've moved some sections and pages, and given some of them new names that more directly describe the subjects they cover. "
They seem to have improved their article format by adding a related links sidebar -- a much under-used feature on most web sites. After all, what is the web without links? You guessed it...without links it's pretty much newpaper content trapped in a browser. :-) Great "related links" can add tremendous value (see Strategic Linking Techniques by John Rhodes of Webword.
Another change is the move to 2 site maps. One is really an index that they call an alphabetical site map. The second is a typical site map (if there is such a thing) listing the site's sections and primary pages under them. See Jakob's recent Alertbox article for a good discussion of site map usability.
[thanks to Christina at ElegantHack for the WSJ pointer]
January 18, 2002
New "Polar Bear book" on the way
A second edition of the definitive book on Information Architecture for the web is underway. It should be out this summer -- around July, according to Lou Rosenfeld, one of the book's authors, in comments on his web log yesterday.
A second edition of the definitive book on Information Architecture for the web is underway. It should be out this summer -- around July, according to Lou Rosenfeld, one of the book's authors, in comments on his web log yesterday.
January 17, 2002
Information Architecture primer
Keeping hearing about "IA", and want to get up to speed? Check out John Rhodes' introductory article on the topic over at WebWord. He breaks it down into three basic components:
Keeping hearing about "IA", and want to get up to speed? Check out John Rhodes' introductory article on the topic over at WebWord. He breaks it down into three basic components:
- Orientation - determining your current position
- Navigation - helping people figure out where they want to go
- Routefinding - the art of finding the best path given your skills and equipment
January 16, 2002
How many ways can you fail...let me count the ways.
From USA Today: Designs that made consumers, reviewers cringe. What's amazing is how many of the products covered had huge design budgets and professional designers and engineers at the helm. Would be interesting to find out what they would do different if they knew then what they know now.
From USA Today: Designs that made consumers, reviewers cringe. What's amazing is how many of the products covered had huge design budgets and professional designers and engineers at the helm. Would be interesting to find out what they would do different if they knew then what they know now.
Agony of defeat for accessibility at the Olympics site (again)
Shirley Kaiser reviews the 2002 Olympics web site for accessibility on her blog, Brainstorms and Raves. I found it escpecially ironic (in a bad way) that even the Paralympics site doesn't follow accessibility guidelines. The Paralympics are the Olympics for athletes with a disability.
Shirley Kaiser reviews the 2002 Olympics web site for accessibility on her blog, Brainstorms and Raves. I found it escpecially ironic (in a bad way) that even the Paralympics site doesn't follow accessibility guidelines. The Paralympics are the Olympics for athletes with a disability.
January 15, 2002
This site best viewed in a movie theatre
"Say you went to the video store and rented "Apocalypse Now," a movie that truly deserves to be seen in a theater on a big screen with surround sound. But, not unreasonably, you wanted to watch it at home on your 21" TV. You put the tape in your VCR and saw: "To view Apocalypse Now you must have a 54" or larger screen equipped with Dolby® Digital SurroundSound."
"Would you be impressed with Francis Ford Coppola's artistic vision? Or would you be angry at his arrogance?"
"Say you went to the video store and rented "Apocalypse Now," a movie that truly deserves to be seen in a theater on a big screen with surround sound. But, not unreasonably, you wanted to watch it at home on your 21" TV. You put the tape in your VCR and saw: "To view Apocalypse Now you must have a 54" or larger screen equipped with Dolby® Digital SurroundSound."
"Would you be impressed with Francis Ford Coppola's artistic vision? Or would you be angry at his arrogance?"
Design Not Found
One of my favorite sites lately is "Design Not Found": a site dedicated to "the best and worst of contingency design." They point out good and bad design elements. For example they show how Amazon helps users who enter the wrong URL, or how Apple further frustrates users who are already having trouble.
What is contingency design? Here's the answer from the Design Not Found FAQ:
"Things go wrong online. Contingency design is the way the creators of the site right the ship. It includes error messaging, instructive text, information architecture, programming, and graphic design. Successful contingency design helps wayward surfers succeed at their goals in obtaining information, completing a transaction, or other tasks. Poor contingency design results in frustration and lost visitors."
Although I really like Design Not Found, I have to say the company that created Design Not Found, 37signals, has a home page that is pretty...uh, shall we say "overly-creative".
Update: 37signals redesigned their site and the old home page can be seen here.
One of my favorite sites lately is "Design Not Found": a site dedicated to "the best and worst of contingency design." They point out good and bad design elements. For example they show how Amazon helps users who enter the wrong URL, or how Apple further frustrates users who are already having trouble.
What is contingency design? Here's the answer from the Design Not Found FAQ:
"Things go wrong online. Contingency design is the way the creators of the site right the ship. It includes error messaging, instructive text, information architecture, programming, and graphic design. Successful contingency design helps wayward surfers succeed at their goals in obtaining information, completing a transaction, or other tasks. Poor contingency design results in frustration and lost visitors."
Although I really like Design Not Found, I have to say the company that created Design Not Found, 37signals, has a home page that is pretty...uh, shall we say "overly-creative".
Update: 37signals redesigned their site and the old home page can be seen here.
January 14, 2002
Usability is lacking in the consumer electronics world as well.
An LA Times article, The Curse of Complexity, shows how bad usability is becoming in electronics like TVs, satellite receivers and stereos.
Pretty good article, even with the obligatory 2 cents opinion from Jakob Nielsen. You have to wonder if Jakob accepts every possible interview opportunity...seems like he's the only usability "expert" professional writers can locate.
An LA Times article, The Curse of Complexity, shows how bad usability is becoming in electronics like TVs, satellite receivers and stereos.
Pretty good article, even with the obligatory 2 cents opinion from Jakob Nielsen. You have to wonder if Jakob accepts every possible interview opportunity...seems like he's the only usability "expert" professional writers can locate.
January 13, 2002
Divining standards from the most popular sites?
The Web Developer's Virtual Library (WDVL) presents an interesting survey of the most popular sites on the web. They compare the sites' designs, looking at fonts, colors, links, navigation, titles, page width, use of JavaScript, CSS and page download size.
While I'd never jump to the conclusion that being one of the most popular sites means you have the best design, I would concede that it means you probably haven't committed as many design sins as Boo.com. [Maybe we should just call design flaws "boo-boos"...]
I also think that many developers who are not experienced in the intricacies of UI design and usability should, whenever possible, copy aspects of well established designs rather than try to invent their own "creative" solutions.
I think it's interesting that Disney differs greatly from many of the other sites. I'm sure Jared would have a few words to say about that given that he seems to rip Disney in almost every interview, article, class, and book. You'd think Disney was the only bad site on the web.
The Web Developer's Virtual Library (WDVL) presents an interesting survey of the most popular sites on the web. They compare the sites' designs, looking at fonts, colors, links, navigation, titles, page width, use of JavaScript, CSS and page download size.
While I'd never jump to the conclusion that being one of the most popular sites means you have the best design, I would concede that it means you probably haven't committed as many design sins as Boo.com. [Maybe we should just call design flaws "boo-boos"...]
I also think that many developers who are not experienced in the intricacies of UI design and usability should, whenever possible, copy aspects of well established designs rather than try to invent their own "creative" solutions.
I think it's interesting that Disney differs greatly from many of the other sites. I'm sure Jared would have a few words to say about that given that he seems to rip Disney in almost every interview, article, class, and book. You'd think Disney was the only bad site on the web.
Usability web sites du jour
The National Cancer Institute's Usability site is a great reference. I especially like the way they try to sort through the clutter of sometimes conflicting usability guidelines available by assessing the amount and types of evidence to support specific guidelines.
Also, what's up with our buddy Keith over at UsableWeb? Looks like he's been too busy with the new day job at IBM to do much updating. He even calls it a "stale" site himself . I'll have to pester him about it at CHI. ...but if your just starting out, there's no better place to immerse yourself to learn about usability as it relates to the web.
The National Cancer Institute's Usability site is a great reference. I especially like the way they try to sort through the clutter of sometimes conflicting usability guidelines available by assessing the amount and types of evidence to support specific guidelines.
Also, what's up with our buddy Keith over at UsableWeb? Looks like he's been too busy with the new day job at IBM to do much updating. He even calls it a "stale" site himself . I'll have to pester him about it at CHI. ...but if your just starting out, there's no better place to immerse yourself to learn about usability as it relates to the web.
January 11, 2002
When you want to be a millionaire, you use Google
It's not a surprise, but more validation of something I've known for at least a few years: that Google is the best search engine out there.
"Google is so fast and accurate, it is used by millions of viewers of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Google's statistics show spikes in usage after each question." -- from an article in USA Today.
It's also worth pointing out that it's not JUST Google's technology that makes them the best --it's their design. Their interface, speed, accuracy and pure utility have all been "baked into" their design. The technical stuff (e.g. server farm) is just there to support the design.
Note that while some engines like Norhern Light are conceding that web advertising doesn't work, Google is proving that a better design can work. And it can provide something that both users and businesses want. In the last year I've probably clicked on more ads in Google's search results than on all other web sites combined...and I find stuff I like and need...therefore I click again in the future. Google doesn't annoy me with animation, popups or other trickery. They don't imply that the content I want is less important than some stupid banner ad that says "punch the monkey and win!". Rather, they deliver relevant ads with real content and build my trust.
Can you say "best practice"? I thought you could.
How would you feel if Google just vanished tomorrow? I think I'd feel like I lost a leg.
It's not a surprise, but more validation of something I've known for at least a few years: that Google is the best search engine out there.
"Google is so fast and accurate, it is used by millions of viewers of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Google's statistics show spikes in usage after each question." -- from an article in USA Today.
It's also worth pointing out that it's not JUST Google's technology that makes them the best --it's their design. Their interface, speed, accuracy and pure utility have all been "baked into" their design. The technical stuff (e.g. server farm) is just there to support the design.
Note that while some engines like Norhern Light are conceding that web advertising doesn't work, Google is proving that a better design can work. And it can provide something that both users and businesses want. In the last year I've probably clicked on more ads in Google's search results than on all other web sites combined...and I find stuff I like and need...therefore I click again in the future. Google doesn't annoy me with animation, popups or other trickery. They don't imply that the content I want is less important than some stupid banner ad that says "punch the monkey and win!". Rather, they deliver relevant ads with real content and build my trust.
Can you say "best practice"? I thought you could.
How would you feel if Google just vanished tomorrow? I think I'd feel like I lost a leg.
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