My On-and-off Struggle with Instruction Manuals

“Who says we aren’t a nation of readers? Shucks. Before you can use a new electric skillet, you’re supposed to read its 12-page manual.” Marti Attoun —My On-and-off Struggle with Instruction Manuals (CS Monitor) Similar:Twitter, after 10 years, hasn't been a money-makerRake-thin and bearded, Dorsey radiates a…BusinessWhy We Fall for Fake News and How to…

Fast And Efficient Web Sites Will Drive Greater Customer Retention Than Expensive Rich Media Enhancements…

“New research reveals that 40 percent of Web surfers will visit a news or information site more often if its pages load faster.” Excuse me, but… duh! I guess you should ignore the August 2000 press release in which Jupiter advocated these “expensive enhancements.” —Fast And Efficient Web Sites Will Drive Greater Customer Retention Than…

The End of Homemade Websites

“Traditionally, each company has had to design and implement all of the services it wanted to offer its website users. This approach leads to incredible waste, unprofitable websites, and lowered usability…”  [Jakob Nielsen is talking about e-commerce, not personal home pages.] —The End of Homemade Websites (UseIT.com) Similar:Chapbooks — the latest assignment in my “History…

Why Metadata is Important

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…

The Need for Editors on the Web

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:Time’s Arrow, Part 1 (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 26) Data's head in a mine …Rewatching ST:TNG An archaeologist wh…CultureBWW Review: TWELFTH NIGHT Is Farcical Fun at Prime StageIn his…

Jakob Nielsen Drinking Game

“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…

Superstitions and carelessness

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:That Class Where Stanford Profs Projected…

Data Smog

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:Twitter was locked in a chaotic doom loop. Now it’s on the verge of collapse | Siva Vaidhy…I joined Twitter for…

First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Your Readers.

  (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:7 Tips for…

Bad Design Can Be Costly

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:More sections of #steampunk control panel. #blender3dart #blender3d #design #aestheticsAestheticsEach building in my #medievalyork simulation has four levels of detail (so that distant ob…AestheticsAll the…

Jakob Nielsen

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…

Some Features You May Need on Your Computer

On the tasteless side, but still very funny: “Some Features You May Need on Your Computer“ Similar:Lounge area of a steampunk villain’s lair. Still needs a light fixture or two. #blender3dAestheticsTwitter suspends Trump's accountTwitter suspended Donald Trump’s account…Current_Eventswhen someone say ur joke louder than u and get all the creditAmusingThe only snow alert you'll ever…

The Narrative Web

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:IPads in the classroom: The right way to use them, demonstrated by…

A Message in A Web Site: How Students And Their Parents Receive (or Don't) What Is Sent

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,…

Are Users Stupid?

“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:Newly acquired technology for teaching writing in the age of AI. (Not for high stakes test…AcademiaWhy No One Clicked on the Great Hypertext StoryIt’s not that hypertext went…