Metadata “collects critical information such as heading, summary, author name, date of publication, classification, keywords, etc…. Without metadata a document is left floating in a cyberspace filled with 550 billion other documents. The chances of it being found by the right person at the right time are greatly diminished.” Gerry McGovern —Why Metadata is Important…
There’s way too much information online. What really matters to readers is quality, not quantity. Gerry McGovern —The Need for Editors on the Web Similar:This morning I awoke to YouTube’s live footage of crowds circling a mosque in Mecca. For m…MLA Citations: Your attention to detail establishes your credibilityMore than a million people die on…
“Every time he excuses his own refusal to observe the rules he dictates to everyone else on the grounds that he ‘knows his audience’, take one drink…. Every time he quotes statistics from an unrelated study to prove a point about Web usability, take one drink.” Jakob Nielsen Drinking Game Not that I’m condoning the…
Good web designers are a dime a dozen — just like the former armies of professional typists and word-processor operators, whose specialized tasks were eventually absorbed by the average office worker. Frank Yu, Gorilla Asia —Apocalypse Soon: Is the Web-Development Fairy Tale Over? Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing…
cause many boating deaths. “[I]f you believe an accident occurs because of the hand of God or because George opened the can of beans with the label upside-down, then that gives you every reason to not read safety literature or continue learning about fishing.” National Post —Superstitions and carelessness Similar:More than a million people die…
Too much information? “[T] this weed in our informational landscape has just sprouted–it is only about 50 years old. Up until then, more information was almost always a good thing.” David Shenk —Data Smog Similar:This morning I awoke to YouTube’s live footage of crowds circling a mosque in Mecca. For m…More than a million people…
(Watch them instead.) “Create a few alternative designs, show them to a group of users, and ask which one they prefer. Wrong. If the users have not actually tried to use the designs, they’ll base their comments on surface features.” Jakob Nielsen —First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Your Readers. Similar:More than a…
: “Every report you ever write from this day until the day you die should start out by saying something nice about the product or service you are reviewing. Then you can get down to business.” Tog —How to Deliver a Report Without Getting Lynched Similar:MLA Citations: Your attention to detail establishes your credibilityMore than…
Microsoft Word requires at least 30% more keystrokes and 100% more mouse moves to accomplish certain editing tasks than would an optimal word processor. Forbes —Bad Design Can Be Costly Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing my coding skil…More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet…
learns something from my freshman comp students. On March 13, 2000, I e-mailed web guru Jakob Nielsen to tell him that six of my freshmen spent 8-30 minutes on his site without finding a plain-text “search” link on the home page. A week or so later, I noticed that Nielsen changed his page, making the…
On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:My crowd simulation handles 2000 capsule NPCs at 130fps. I’m really pushing my coding skil…More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the…Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now…
The point is not that we should add stories to our sites to ensnare narrative-starved readers. The point is that the reader’s journey through our site is a narrative experience. Our job is to make the narrative satisfying. Mark Bernstein —The Narrative Web Similar:This morning I awoke to YouTube’s live footage of crowds circling a…
Look for an “escape from frames” or “turn this frame off” link. Right-click on a link (or, on a Mac, hold down the control key while clicking) and select the command that will let you “open link in new window.” —Frames: Finding the URL of a Framed Document Similar:This morning I awoke to YouTube’s live…
A study of just four users of the Bowling Green State University website finds “that parents received the message better than students, regardless of professed ability to use the computer, both students and parents have trouble finding the sections intended to carry their messages, even when directed to the areas intended to carry their messages,…
A blurb is a short paragraph that previews what’s on the other end of a link. You’re reading a blurb now. If it helps you decide whether you should click the link, then it has done its job. Dennis G. Jerz —Blurbs: How to write them for your web pages Similar:MLA Citations: Your attention to…
“Typically, when project managers observe their design undergoing a usability test, their initial reaction is: Where did you find such stupid users? Jakob Nielsen —Are Users Stupid? Similar:More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the…Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold…
may be crappy, but its CEO claims to have patented the search engine. Kieren McCarthy.AltaVista Similar:MLA Citations: Your attention to detail establishes your credibilityMore than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the…Stapler jam during a midterm exam.The Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)Is AI making us…
One example of metacontent: “People often pass around news articles via e-mail. Some even do it compulsively, in part because it’s so easy…” NY Times (registration required) Similar:This morning I awoke to YouTube’s live footage of crowds circling a mosque in Mecca. For m…More than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the…
The lessons I learned in just over an hour showed me how poor most Websites are and just how easy it would be for companies to perform their own usability tests to fix a lot of the problems.–David Lidsky, Healing the Web Update: Dec 2014. I originally blogged the above back in 2001. Lidsky’s brief article, written as the…
Top 10 Tips: Write a meaningful subject line; keep the message short and readable; avoid attachments; identify yourself; don’t flame (and more). Jessica Bauer. —Writing Effective E-Mail Similar:MLA Citations: Your attention to detail establishes your credibilityMore than a million people die on roads every year. Meet the man determined to prevent the…Stapler jam during a…