Warmest Greetings,

Threadwatch Support Group for Work-at-Homeaholics  

:: Monday, October 31, 2005 ::

I was about to participate in an interesting thread at Threadwatch, when I realized that most of the people who did were men. The other thing I realized is that none of them do the laundry while they're working.

If you want to gain insight into the lives of folks in the search engine marketing industry (and its cousins), Nick posted about his personal experience working from home in Working @ Home. There was a great response to that theme.

Started Out Slowly

Working from home isn't for everybody. I've been doing it full-time since May 2001, when I was laid off from Verticalnet. There was little ramp up for me because I'd been freelancing at night and on weekends in SEO for a few years.

Back in 1996, despite being in charge of 13 web sites for the company I was with at that time, I didn't make enough to support a home and two kids by myself as a single mom. So, I freelanced in SEO. I worked so hard, for so many hours, that I finally ended up being treated for complete exhaustion and stress induced depression. I had become a walking zombie. But, that was in the 1990's. A life-time ago.

I was also extremely unusual for a divorced mother. I had refused alimony and child support, which meant I was responsible for my life and my kids when I had them. It was a "no fault" divorce, and in my mind, that meant nobody deserved to be punished. Instead, their Dad and I continued to raise and support our kids together (this fair treatment of each other provided a very stable environment for the kids, though we had two separate houses) and I was forced to support myself, even though I'd been a stay at home mother for 3 years and been out of the work force. I'm not sure, but it could be that the discipline of my self-imposed work or die theme helped me to adjust to working from home.

Lessons

Today, I choose to work from a home office. In fact, when I was house hunting, I purposely looked for a house where I could have a larger office. I also now have another husband, who commutes, and another child who lives here part-time, in addition to my own two kids. Life was easy before the addition of a husband, trust me. As a single mom, if I didn't want to do laundry, wash dishes, or make dinner, I could get away with it. As a wife, those freedoms are not only gone, but there's more laundry, more dishes and more people to feed.

I work from home, and run a business. I also work from home and run the home. It's no different than when I commuted. The expectations are the same and then some. The biggest differences is that I don't drive to work, but because I'm home, and accessible, I became the primary parent because it was easier on everybody. That means when the kids get sick, I get them from school, not their Dad. I'm the one who runs them to the doctor, dentist, most of the clothes shopping, (Dad will handle sports equipment, heh) and to and from their friends' houses. I'm on call for the whole neighborhood and THEIR kids.

The work day is interrupted and not on a real schedule because I learned some big lessons. My son was so upset that when he came home and I barely noticed his arrival that he began to act up in school. That led to discovering just how vital our kids need us when we're home. My daughter, who insists she's old enough to not need me, had me fooled until I was able to figure out I'm supposed to think that. Now, I drop whatever I'm doing when she gets home at 2:30, so I can check in with her, get the latest gossip and learn the name of the boyfriend of the week.

My husband swears he doesn't care if there's no dinner, but whenever I make it, they act like its Christmas. Granted, because of the kids sports schedules, we eat on the run often. I still have to stop working to make sure everyone has eaten real food and not ice cream.

There are some rules that keep me from going nuts. Like, everyone does their own laundry. Even my husband. If I'm slow and not too busy, I might fold someone's stuff, but other than that, forget it. I'm also the Maid. The only reason the place looks clean is because I'm forced to look at more than everybody else. I also have gardens to tend to, pets to run to the vet, school functions, food shopping, the dog to let outside to do this thing, and I'm the house accountant, so I manage all the bill paying.

Though my kids spend two nights a week with their Dad, their school is by my house, so they're here every day and during the summers every day. I feed them more and am the one who is more involved with their homework, communications with teachers and filling out forms (if you're a parent, you know about forms) and I'm taxi-mom.

What do men do when they work from home?

So, I thought it was interesting to read the Threadwatch thread. Kids were mentioned, but not in any detail, as if they're present, but not really a responsibility to factor into the daily activities of a work at home situation. They talked about watching TV and exercising. I have three pieces of exercise equipment just outside my office, and I'll be damned if I have time to get on any of it.

There was discussion about chairs. This is actually a serious issue. My back has suffered since I started working from home full-time. My husband bought me an adjustable chair, which helps. When I worked outside the house, we'd get breaks. There were meetings. There were gab sessions at someone's cube. There were 2 hour lunches. There was lunch, period.

My husband also bought a used motorhome last Spring because working from home has wrecked my head. I'm losing my social skills. I've become a recluse. The only time I see other adults is at my kids' sports functions. A trip to the gas station is thrilling. His answer was to get me physically out of the house and going somewhere. We ended up bringing the kids, their friends, the dog...but yes, these trips did lift my spirits. I learned to leave my laptop at home.

Although I work harder from home than I ever did off-site, the pace is mine and the rules of the office are mine. There's no micro-manager other than my own guilt if I don't meet my own set of expectations. I feel taken advantage of by the family, because they do things they wouldn't do if there was nobody here every day. But, I'm really close to my kids and all their friends refer to me as "mom".

Do I ever think about not working from home? All the time. I hate tax-time. I hate not having employee benefits. But everytime I think about corporate life and daily life inside a cube with employers who will have a bird if I need to take care of a sick child, I know I've made the right choice. When I worked for one company, I was forced to bring my son, and his broken collar bone, to work with me. Sure, he needed X-rays. They let me take him to get them, as long as I also came in to work.

I no longer have to tolerate management that tortures families. I'm really grateful for that. Now I only have to tolerate me.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/31/2005 03:40:00 PM

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:: Thursday, October 27, 2005 ::

Despite working late and cranked up doing several things at once, I happened upon this little thing and decided it shall be my offical "stop-and-smell-the-flowers-moment" for the day.

Not to be confused, however, with "stop-for-lunch", "stop-to-go-pee" and "stop-everything-to-go-read-threadwatch" moments that I wrestle with.

This moment is dedicated to Google's Gmail and, specifically, the "@" sign we use everyday.

In Guess what just turned 34?, in the Google Blog, it says,

"It's difficult to pin down the exact origin of email, but in October 1971, an engineer named Ray Tomlinson chose the '@' symbol for email addresses and wrote software to send the first network email."

The blog post, written by Paul Buchheit, Gmail Engineer, goes on to say that nobody kept a copy of the very first email ever written, nor did they record the exact date. How sad. We take email for granted. Something this momentous was blissfully lost in space and time.

We just honored and said our farewells at the passing of Rosa Parks in the USA. The day she refused to give up her seat to a white person on a bus was nailed down in history forever. Somebody thought it was important enough to record. Thank heavens this momentous event wasn't blissfully lost in space and time.

Which just goes to show how important it is to take time to slow down and be present in the moment. If you don't like something that's not working for you, you have the power to change it. That was the message Rosa Parks left for us. That's also the message the Google Gmail Engineer expressed in his blog entry, when he decided to make email better.

History happens when we're not watching. Change comes when we're paying attention, and finally recognize, what we really want.

God I hope I remember this later...

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/27/2005 09:51:00 PM

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:: Wednesday, October 26, 2005 ::

In my never-ending quest to find something in my daily feed search that hasn't been blogged to death already, I came across an alert that suggested my name had come up somewhere.

There are two SEO blogs that I rely on for comic relief. One is Chris and Gurtie's Gray Hat Search Engine News. British humor is light years ahead of American humor and this site delivers it well.

Gurtie had some funny things to say about referral log queries (always a fun way to pass time) and this is where I found the phrase "shagastic Kim Krause Berg" in their blog entry called Lummy! Look at the rankings on that...... No doubt they're desperately trying to garner the attention of Google's Matt Cutts rather than me. Self-esteem issues aside, my own personal reaction was to think, "How did they know?" In the 1960's and part of the 1970's, my hair was always cut in a shag. No doubt hair isn't what they were referring to, being British, naughty and all. Still, I got a few jollies out of the mention. Any association with the pink and orange days of old are fine with me.

The other hilarious blog is Scottie and Michael's In Search of Stuff. These two talented people are both technically skilled, they volunteer long hours at SEO forums, and in their spare time, write some of the best tongue in cheek, pie in the face SEO/SEM industry coverage on the 'Net. I'll be seeing Scottie Claiborne next week in Philadelphia where she'll be giving sane, practical talks on web site usability at the High Rankings Search Engine Marketing Seminar

Kudos for Cre8asiteForums

Still sifting through mountains of feed headlines, this one was a pleasant surprise for the folks at Cre8asiteforums: A very good forum. Steve J., the blog author wrote:

"The quality of information and discussion on this site is very high to put it mildly, I have, over the past few weeks, been there a dozen times to find advice and suggestions regarding specific web related problems. Every single time I have found exactly the information required."

Branding By Bob

Bob Massa floated out of Amsterdam to post at TW about branding in The Importance of Branding. He mentions the value of making anchor content that logically lands on a page that matches the description of that link. In usability-land, that's what is known as "the scent of information", coined by Jared Spool.

Anyway, in true Bob-style, he writes,

"My hope today is that I am able to de-mystify the concept of branding and show you how I see it and how I use it with little more than reading a few books and webpages in what I laughingly refer to as "my spare time". I also hope I can open a platform for a discussion about branding as it applies to small business operators and encourage those who really do have those degrees to offer their input. Those people, we can argue with."

It's worth a visit, if only to learn what "AVOID THE 3 SECOND BACK BUTTON BOOGIE" is all about.

And, in the "Nobody Cares Kim" Department

Things will slow down here at the Cre8 blog.

It's nearing the holidays, but more than that, my son's football team is going to Virginia Beach for a bowl game, so I'll be away for that. We're celebrating his 12th birthday while down there. I'll try to grab some photos. I'll be seeing the High Rankings crew next week.

Another excuse is that the colder it gets outside, the more I'm compelled to start baking. It's a family tradition to make Scottish Shortbread cookies for the holidays, but we cut the cookies thicker and decorate them with icing and gobs of nuts, chocolate chips, colorful jimmies and coconut (which makes for a nice white beard, but grosses out the folks who hate coconut flakes on anything.)

I'm also working on two new articles, and putting the finishing touches on the newly designed Cre8asiteforums, which we've been promising for a year now. And, thanks to somebody named Rand, who had to go and put the idea in my head, I have another Cre8pc project in the scribble on paper stage.

Meanwhile, in my office, I've begun to focus on accessiblity and forms user interface testing as an added service to my usability consulting services. Which, by the way, is very rewarding when you get clients who really care about their web site visitors and their "user experience".

I genuinely get excited about the sites I see in my work. In many cases their owners become friends who feel comfortable enough to stay in touch and show me what they're building next. Some of them are doing brilliant, innovative work, such as the stuff you can find at Text Link Ads by Andy Hagans and Patrick Gavin, and SEO Tools (Owner, Bob Mutch, is running some SEO/SEM specials on his main site - SEO Company) and one unfinished ecommerce project from Canada that I can't wait to show you.

For them, I shake my pom poms.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/26/2005 12:40:00 PM

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:: Wednesday, October 19, 2005 ::

I purposely don't read every Alertbox article shipped off to the Internet by Jakob Nielsen, because his commandments are not specifically business or requirements-based per project kind of advice.

My good friend and co-Administrator at Cre8asiteForums, Bill Slawski, illustrates how beautifully many of the most popular blogs do indeed break a rule or three, from the latest "Top 10 Mistakes" list produced for our reading arousal from Mr. Nielsen.

In Does your blog pass the Jakob Nielsen test?, jumping directly to Bill's scorecard post, Bill takes each of the 10 blogging design "mistakes" from the latest Alertbox list and does some checking around for validation of proof. Here is one of the examples:

JNQuote:
Descriptive headlines are especially important for representing your weblog in search engines, newsfeeds (RSS), and other external environments. In those contexts, users often see only the headline and use it to determine whether to click into the full posting.

Bill's response:
I'd like to know What's in Rebecca's Pocket, but you sort of have to actually read the posts, because one of the web's finest bloggers doesn't use titles for her posts. And she hasn't used titles since 1999 on her blog. And people read those posts, even without the titles.

Even more to the point:

Bill writes, "There's this great quote at the top of Rebecca Blood's blog right now that reads like this:

Quote:
Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity. — General George S. Patton""

Of all the public complaints written about Jakob Nielsen, there is one thing we can't deny. For two days I've been plowing through my many usability-themed feeds. In fact, every other post or headline covered the Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes. That's links, traffic and fame out the gazoo for the man.

Why?

Because whenever he sends off a Don't Do This list, everyone looks to see if their zipper is down. He's figured out how to play the "I don't want to be caught with my pants down" card and tens of thousands of web site workers fall for it every time.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/19/2005 12:16:00 PM

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:: Monday, October 17, 2005 ::

Jakob Nielsen has written another list. This time, it's for weblogs and the little things you can do to make them meet usability standards. However, his article presumes you actually care about who visits your blog.

While reading Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes, I was reminded of some concerns I, and others, have had about blogs.

Some of which came to light when Aaron Wall wrote, Why Bloggers Hate SEO's. He raises some food for thought.

Are blogs nothing more than search engine algorithm chasing tools? Is every blogger really just an SEO in disguise? When it comes to content, quality is unimportant? Aaron feels that profit is the driving force behind blog ownership and everyone is drinking the kool-aid, whether or not they admit it, or realize it.

Easy Money

Why bother to be interesting, or user friendly, when the purpose of a blog is to get a piece of the advertising pie? Search engines don't care about "quality" content. That's now officially baloney talk. You're apparently happy as long as your web pages, with the 20 ads and pages of stolen content, (which many blogs are nothing more than) are nestled inside search engines. To give you that almighty and powerful, rank-boosting link and a few extra bucks, search engines are thrilled to have you join them, especially if you pay them for their generosity.

Nick's Threadwatch picked up on Aaron's article, and a discussion began called Why Bloggers Hate SEO's & Why Blogging is the New SEO. I had some strong feelings.

Some of them:

"People make money stealing and robbing from others all the time, but that doesn't make it my personal choice and I don't want to be tossed into the same pile as them, simply because I have a blog."

"I'm not willing to prostitute my sites just to make PimpGoogleDaddy rich, is all I'm trying to say. I'm not willing to walk out into the 'Net streets in my slut uniform looking for customers, just to make a buck."

Someone else wrote:

"Bloggers are really nothing but black-hats with an identity crisis, as they dont realize that this is what they are."

Okay then.

What Do You Want To Be Proud Of Building?

One of the smaller points I brought up has to do with responsibility. What are we creating, really?

Are you happy to fund your kids' university costs with money you earned selling viagra and drugs online? When you move to a bigger house, in a nicer neighborhood, do you admit you got the big bucks by stealing content from other web sites or operating online business scams? And, hey, when you got that job, did you bother to tell your new boss that the information you used to impress him/her and the instructions for how to use the $100,000 software you don't have the manual for, was fed to you by way of Internet Forums, where there are people willing to answer questions and teach for free?

Threadwatch folks didn't really want to talk about the Internet we're leaving to next generations, although "Lotso" pointed out it may not even be around in five years. Maybe we'll wreck it and nobody will trust it anymore.

Is it possible to generate a little revenue and combine it with original content visitors will appreciate and enjoy? Sure. Are such endeavors in the minority? This is what I hope to explore in The Internet and What it is that we're trying to create

What matters to you?

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/17/2005 01:49:00 PM

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:: Wednesday, October 12, 2005 ::

The deadline for early registration to the High Rankings Search Engine Marketing Seminar is Friday, October 14. Registering early will grant you a lower fee to this well-regarded event. And, you can add another 25% discount offered by Cre8asiteforums!

To be held at the
Philadelphia Crowne Plaza - Valley Forge in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Thursday, November 3 and Friday November 4, 2005, I can tell you a little about the area, since it's not far from my home.

For those who love to shop, the King of Prussia Mall is one of the largest in the USA. Nearby, for history lovers, is the sprawling Valley Forge National Park, where for six months, the Continental Army of the newly formed United States of America, under the command of General George Washington, endured the harsh, bitter cold, and low morale from December 1777 to June 1778. If you go for a walk or jog there, keep an eye out for the horseback riders who travel there to embark on a long, glorious ride. (Equestrian Christine Churchill may feel the tug of the trail!)

Flights are easy. The Philadelphia International Airport is a short drive from the hotel. If you have time to spend the weekend, consider visiting Lancaster, where the Amish continue to live in their traditional ways (no electricity, no cars.) My family visits there often because the food is always natural and delicious, and the Amish are gentle, peaceful, hard-working people. (I like to point out the "hard-working" part to my kids.) Washington, DC and New York City are nearby cities.

Finally, if you must make just one choice, Longwood Gardens is an incredible place. It is 1,050 acres (425 hectares) of gardens, woodlands, and meadows; 20 outdoor gardens; 20 indoor gardens within 4 acres (1.6 hectares) of heated greenhouses and 11,000 different types of plants. Truly, it is stunning.

A 25% discount on your seminar fee is offered by Cre8asiteForums, on behalf of High Rankings. It's a real pleasure to help promote this search engine marketing seminar. I've attended it myself and found the speakers to be warm, informative, ready and happy to take questions and, because of the limited space allowed, attendees get a chance for some one-on-one time with the High Rankings gang.

Top that off with myself and my co-hort from Cre8asiteForums, Bill Slawski, being there and well, we would love to meet you!

If you don't make the October 14 date, don't despair. You can still treat yourself to the 25% discount offered by Cre8asiteForums. Here's how it works:

Register here.

Enter CRE8PC for your discount code.

You will receive a 25% discount on your registration fee.

For more information on what you will learn at the Search Engine Marketing Seminar, visit the Agenda. If you can not attend the whole event, but can still drop by, there is an optional SEO cocktail party!

Is your web site ready for search engines? Is it ready for holiday sales? Are you absolutely sure it's user-friendly? Do you wonder what software is the best choice for tracking traffic, rank and conversions? It's all in this seminar, and much more.

See you there!

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/12/2005 11:12:00 AM

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:: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 ::

Is it human nature to discuss the web sites we dislike and ignore the ones we do like? It seems as though someone will blog, post in a forum or send an email about a web site that impressed them, but that's often the last you will hear of that web site.

Several times a month I hear about how ugly Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox usability-themed web site is (to the point where I no longer read the complaints.) FLASH sites are good for several rounds of bashing and inspection, as what happened in Does this website score high with you on Usability?.

Do ugly web sites sell? Despite our personal tastes, apparently they do.

At Cre8asiteforums we're looking at Beauty and The Beast Web Site Design.

Prompted by Why Your Site Doesn't Need to be Pretty by Jamie Roche, I thought I'd ask forum members their thoughts on the matter. I don't happen to think my own sites are "pretty", but they function and I make a living with them. So, apparently, does Amazon.com, who have a confusing web site property and I'm still pathetically loyal to them.

The "Get Rich Now" sites with long pages of screaming headlines must work, too, because they never go away.

One wonders at the power of gross.

Writes one member:

"Some months ago I was asked to consult on a site for a new software product. This product sold for nearly $2k but it also included a training seminar. Because of the seminar, there were some concerns about "overbooking" if things went TOO well but, hey, we're talking $2k per pop so it didn't seem like that would be a real concern. (snip)

On the other side of the team was a high-pressure direct sales group that also wanted to market the software through their newsletters. These guys hawk self-improvement books, courses, and such and are big-$$ so I'm told. They pressed hard for a one-page site that just repeated the BUY THIS NOW!! message on-and-on down the page. The page, even to my tastes, was horrific.

The software company's decision-maker went with the BUY THIS NOW!! approach. They had to close the offer in just a few days --overbooked."

Starting Out Innocently Enough

So, how do web sites get to be Internet nightmares? It's nice to see a forum question pop up about planning a web site design, rather than reviewing final products, which we do a lot of at Cre8asite.

In this new discussion, Building a website from scratch, the question is how to keep it simple without looking too plain? He'd like a little bit of class, along with good functionality.

As do many of you. However, as we continue to study the human factor in relation to web site design, we learn there is much more to it than color, positioning, and readable fonts. There is more to web design and even application design than appearances. But for now, consider your favorite sites and why you return to them over others. There are many reasons, but one that you might not recognize may surprise you.

It's when a web site conveys that it cares for you.

In nearly every interaction with any entity in the universe that has a human being behind the wheel, if that human offers something of value, there will be someone ready to accept it. Everyone needs to be cared for. Everyone wants something. Everyone needs something. And even if they don't necessarily need it, they will reward feeling cared about.

Closely related, are sites that benefit something you value. It matters not to you what the site may look like. What you feel is important is what the folks behind the web site are doing to help a cause you feel warrants your support.

This is goes way beyond designing for the visuals. And, it's at the heart of the new wave of technologies you're hearing about.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/11/2005 12:15:00 PM

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:: Wednesday, October 05, 2005 ::

Hurry, hurry! October 7, 2005 is the deadline for the early-bird registration fee for the next High Rankings Search Engine Marketing seminar, to be held at the Philadelphia Crowne Plaza - Valley Forge in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, Thursday, November 3 and Friday November 4, 2005.

If you don't make that date, don't despair. You can treat yourself to a 25% discount offered by Cre8asiteForums. Here's how it works:

Register here.

Enter CRE8PC for your discount code.

You will receive a 25% discount on your registration fee.

You'll Also Get

Best of all, when you come, you will get to meet Kim Krause Berg and Bill Slawski, Cre8asiteForums Administrators. Okay, just kidding. But, we are going to be there, so make sure to bring your camera. We don't come out of hiding that often.

And, There's More!

Information on the seminar, featuring many familiar names including Jill Whalen, Scottie Claiborne, Karon Thackston, Debra Mastaler, Christine Churchill, Dan Thies and Matt Bailey, can be found at High Rankings™ Search Engine Marketing Seminar

It's the perfect setting to learn about search engine optimization and marketing, as well as web site usability, tracking traffic and writing better content. Questions are encouraged and there are many opportunities to obtain help for your specific web site. This is not something you always get at the larger conferences.

Says Jill Whalen, of High Rankings:

"We realized early on that small businesses desperately wanted search marketing strategies, but didn't know where to start," said Jill Whalen, founder of search marketing firm High Rankings TM and a recognized expert on SEO. "They also didn't have an extra pile of cash lying around to hire a professional search optimization expert. What they did have, however, was the drive and initiative to improve their online business through SEO and SEM…and that's why we developed the seminar."

"We're teaching businesses how to take control of their search engine optimization strategies, themselves," noted Jill. "All of our seminar speakers have experience in getting their clients to the top of the search engine results. They've been putting their clients' web sites at the top of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and more for years—and people who attend our seminar will have the opportunity to learn how they did it, step-by-step, so they can achieve those same results for themselves."

So register soon and remember to include the "CRE8PC" discount code to get your 25% discounted rate offered by Cre8asiteForums on behalf of High Rankings.

(Note: Today's sub-heading titles idea covertly stolen from the zany and hilarious team of Scottie and Michael, in their In Search of Stuff blog entry called Tap The Knowledge Of The Undead For Increased PROFIT)

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/05/2005 05:38:00 PM

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:: Tuesday, October 04, 2005 ::

As I delve deeper into special needs web design, I'm finding its best practices are sometimes confusing. One example is whether or not it's helpful to use both the Alt and Title Attribute behind images, or pick just one.

The well-respected Webnauts Academy have launched a new forums on accessibility. Topics include "Accessible Site Building, Optimization and Testing", "Usable Site Building, Optimization and Testing", " Search Engine Friendly Site Building, Optimization" and more.

One interesting find from these forums is the Google and Accessibility resource. Best of luck Webnauts.net as they embark into the wacky world of Internet forums.

Easy Learning

I appreciate easy to understand resources. For accessibility, there's an unfortunate stigma that whatever must be done is going to be a pain in the neck to implement.

That's why I like lists. Here is one from one of my favorite sites, called Your Total Site. It's an Accessibility Checklist

I've found this document very helpful too. Guidelines for Accessible and Usable Web Sites: Observing Users Who Work With Screen Readers. It's illustrated and not overly technical.

Lastly, if you're familiar with "Mr. Ploppy", you know that Todd Mailcoat (aka "Stuntdubl") is good at compiling resources. He's gathered together a list of Mr. Ploppy's Usability and Accessbility Tools, some of which you may not have heard of yet.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/04/2005 12:30:00 PM

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:: Monday, October 03, 2005 ::

One of the most difficult jobs of any developer is meeting everyone's expectations, including the people who are expected to use what you build.

End-users of web sites and Internet-based software have become bulls in a pen, ready to ram the fence at anything that distracts them, causes frustration, scares them, is hard to see, hard to use, and well, stupid enough to jump into their pen without at least a discount coupon.

In other words, as people who use computers get better at doing it, web sites and software applications have to be smarter too.

We've gotten past blinking text, spinning logos, blend effects and navigation menus that break out into 15 more staggered levels. Today we have Investments in User Experience.

"Recently, a number of product releases (albeit in beta) from Microsoft and Yahoo have highlighted a significant investment in interface design.

* Yahoo! Mail’s upgrade is predominantly being evaluated on the merits of “desktop-like” interface.
* Much of the buzz around Microsoft’s Office 12 release is focused on UI improvements.
* Microsoft’s Max team is trying to drive innovation through user experience design."

Design without concern for how it will look or perform is out of the question these days.

Writes Daniel Kuoin, in his critical evaluation of web fonts for Typography and the User Interface:

"When it gets down to brass tacks, choosing the right screen font for your user interface can be summed up in a few words: Verdana, and sometimes Tahoma. Of course I'm being facetious when I say that, but only partially; indeed, when building Web applications, the choice almost always comes down to one of those core Web fonts, sometimes with a corporate brand face in a supporting role. Yet it's important not to draw a priori conclusions and limit your options without reason. Finding the opportunity to employ a unique typeface will change the entire character of a product, in as subtle or dramatic a fashion as you design."

His introduction to the article nails what I've been observing.

"There is a quiet issue that nags at the computer industry. While processing speed and computational flexibility have grown at incredible rates, our displays, the most human-facing elements of our digital lives, lag behind."

I don't think we're lagging behind as much as learning what works, and for whom what will work and enhance the visitor experience the best. The learning process is slowing us down, not our desire to do right by end-users. (If you're a font fanatic, his article is a must-read.)

Nick Finck is interested in customer experience and writes his thoughts in The State of the Experience. He leads with:

"When I started creating sites in 1995, the only experience we were concerned about was if there would be an online experience at all."

That's the year I also started out. To this day I'm haunted by conversations that went like this:

Person one -"We need a web site."

Person two - "Why? We publish magazines. People read them when they get them."

Person one - "We need a web site for them."

Persons two - "Why? What do we put on it that they don't already get, for their paid subscription?"

Person one (who by now I'm sure you figured out is the CEO) - "We need a web site. Our competitors have one."

Many web sites back then were Internet versions of something that was birthed in print format first and forced to work online, just for the sake of having something there. There was very little thought or concern for who was expected to use it.

Navigation is crucial to everything from cell phone design, to airplane cockpit, to web sites. It remains one of the most common reasons for abandonment issues. To help you understand this better, see Navigation - our visitors' travel guide by Chris Heilmann. It's an excellent piece. Chris writes,

"On the web, we know nothing whatsoever about our visitors."

and then he goes on to explain, with good detail, all the kinds of end-users generally left out of the design process.

Are we learning anything?

Yes, if you have tons of money to spend on case studies, usability studies, human factors experts and developers who cut their baby teeth on user centered design. That means most of you reading this are still being boinked in the bull pen. Case in point, Jakob Nielsen's 2005 Top 10 Web Design Mistakes, where he writes:

"This year's list of top problems clearly proves the need to get back to Web design basics. There's much talk about new fancy "Web 2.0" features on the Internet industry's mailing lists and websites, as well as at conferences. But users don't care about technology and don't especially want new features. They just want quality improvements in the basics..."

Which brings me to the disgruntled member of Cre8asiteForums who visited the Gap's highly touted, newly redesigned for better usability web site.

"The web site locked me out while I was doing a purchase and was not back up for three days. This is after their launch."

Or my experience with my cell phone company that lets you make changes to your plan online. According to the web site, changes go into effect 24 hours after you submit them. I had removed some features, and expected a smaller cell phone bill as a result. Not only did the removal of features NOT take effect, but the addition of some others never did either. So much for online use and customer satisfaction. The application worked as far as the front-end, but did not work on the back-end.

User centered design includes QA testing and usability testing. How can we expect the public to get excited over hyped up technology when basic needs aren't yet met?

And he builds good web sites too

Sometimes being creative and trying something unique works. Such was the case when RustyBrick's Barry Schwartz asked his lovely girlfriend, Yisha, to marry him.

I wish you both every possible happiness.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 10/03/2005 11:56:00 AM

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