August 22, 2003

Proof that search still sucks - even with Google

Here are some search keywords and phrases that have lead web browsers to this site via Google and other search engines:

- lap dancers
- how do monkeys communicate
- impact of architecture on health
- pictures of hitlers dead body
- some things that start with letter o
- spanish lap dancers
- elrond action figures
- fun colored 13" tvs

This site has nothing to do with these topics, yet it's a prominent search result for these word combinations without even making it a "phrase search" by putting them in quotes.

How could THIS site be the #2 site listed on Google when searching for "fun colored 13" tvs"?! I need to start offering advertising for electronics stores!

Search has come a long way, but it still fails miserably when it comes to helping someone find what they are looking for.

August 21, 2003

SAP Style Guide for PDA Applications

If you're working on mobile, handheld, or PDA applications, the SAP Design Guild has a nice style guide for PDA applications built using SAP. Also interesting is the "SAP Style Guide for Blue-Collar Worker PDAs" and "Touchscreen Usability in Short" from the Interaction Design Guide for Touchscreen Applications.

August 18, 2003

Online retail sales to skyrocket by 2008

"The growth will be sparked by a growing online consumer base, increases in new product categories and efforts by online retailers to optimize the online shopping experience, according to Forrester Research."

Here's a tidbit from the original Forrester report:

"As retailers invest in site design and usability testing, online shopping continues to evolve -- from an experience resembling a trip to a bare-bones strip mall to one more akin to shopping the Miracle Mile. Retailers have spent the past two years crafting better online and multichannel eCommerce sites: 84% of the top 92 sites now offer zoom on product detail pages, retailers like J.C. Penney and Lillian Vernon offer catalog quick shop features and online versions of their offline circulars, and Sears and Office Depot serve the Hispanic market with Spanish-language sites. In response, consumers open their wallets more often: Average online retail conversion rates have risen from 2.2% in 2000 to 3.2% in 2002, according to Shop.org's "The State of Retailing Online 6.0" Report."

From the Shop.org press release:

It took the catalog industry 100 years to represent 4.7 percent of retail sales. It took online retailers only six years to accomplish the same feat.” said Elaine Rubin, Chairman, Shop.org.


Related Posts:
The online retail experience will get better (and why you should be worried about that)
U-Pods - Support Groups for User Experience Managers

"U-Pods is a new organisation aimed at managers of usability facilities. " ... "the goal is to form a usability manager's support group where ideas and information can be shared. U-Pods will comprise a number of small groups (or 'pods') in which members from non-competing companies can benefit from the experiences and insights of their peers with respect to managing usability or human factors teams and establishing these disciplines in companies. Teams of five to six people is becoming the norm."

More about U-Pods

via Usability News