September 2002 Archive
Experience Design: We’ve Set the Bar Too Low
Parrish Hanna writes about the move From Satisfaction to Delight over at Boxes and Arrows:
At this point in experience design’s evolution, satisfaction ought to be the norm, and delight ought to be the goal. So how do we do this as experience design professionals? If the word “experience” is in your title or department, it implies you’re considering these issues. You’re planning and designing potential customer experiences-the interactions an individual has with your company, its product and services-at all times and in all places of awareness. You’re creating perceptions, setting the tone, building a relationship, and enabling dreams.
Correction to RSS Entry
Correction: Joshua Kaufman reader Rogers Cadenhead points out that some of the RSS joke participants do have RSS feeds. My apologies for the inaccurate entry.
Phoenix Is Preparing for Takeoff
I love Web standards and especially open-source software that conforms to standards, but since Mozilla arrived, I’ve been disappointed with it’s speed and gratuitous features (I don’t use any of the extras on any browser that I use). So I was happy to hear about The Phoenix Project, which is working to create a zippy version of the Mozilla browser. See Dave Hyatt’s quiz to see if Phoenix is the right browser for you.
Let’s Go FOAFing Now, Everybody’s Learning How
I spotted this yesterday at the recently found Pixelcharmer (Check out that keen blog archive taxonomy!). It’s called FOAF, or the ‘friend of a friend’ project. Here’s the lowdown from RDFweb:
The basic idea is pretty simple. If people publish information in the FOAF document format, machines will be able to make use of that information. If those files contain “see also” references to other such documents in the Web, we will have a machine-friendly version of today’s hypertext Web.
Sounds simple and quite nifty, but it only works if people use it. Thus, the FOAF-a-matic, a Javascript application which allows you to create a FOAF. After creating your very own FOAF, just place it on your website where it’s publically accessible and your an official FOAFer.
Stay tuned to this feed for Joshua Kaufman’s FOAF…
TrackBack: You Down With That?
Sometimes I wonder if making up a catchy entry title helps draw more readers…
Anyways. I’ve had TrackBack since June, and I can count the number of time I’ve actually pinged other blogs on one hand. I’m sure there are other TrackBack enabled blogs who are blogging on similar topics, so why isn’t it used more? Usually I simply forget to send the TrackBack ping even if I write an entry soon after reading about the topic on a TrackBack enabled blog. So from here on out, I’m not only going to make it a point to send TrackBack pings, I’m also going to search DayPop for related entries to ping.
RSS vs. The Web
I meant to say something about the whole RSS joke last week. (I thought Leslie Harpold was in on it too but I can’t find her pseudo xml page. Anyways, you get the idea.)
What were their real reasons for the joke? Michael Sippey suggests that it may have been a “sly comment on the depersonalized nature of rss-based ‘site’ syndication.” Jason Kottke notes those who think everyone’s site should be accessible via an RSS reader have a limited perspective. And Anil Dash wonders why isn’t there a way to syndicate his entries without butchering the way they look?
None of the participants have real RSS feeds on their sites. (Update: Soon after this entry was posted, a reader pointed out that some of the participants do have RSS feeds.)
I agree with Jason Kottke’s point that it’s limiting to believe everyone’s site should have an RSS feed. However, it doesn’t hurt to have one. It doesn’t take anything away from the design to have one. It just gives readers another option for getting to the content. And isn’t The Content what blogging is all about? Sure, the way your entries look and the minimalist design of your blog is important, but without the content your blog is just a shell of a website.
The Game Neverending
Eric Costello of glish.com reveals what he thinks is the “Next Big Thing”, The Game Neverending.
The website doesn’t provide any of the details and only describes it as “a web-based massively multiplayer online game of social, political and economic interactions.” I was intrigued, so I signed up as an alpha tester.
Collective Font Design
The collective consciousness of Typophile is attempting to create a font. Join the project and decide which pixels should black and which pixels should be white.
(via k10k)
Bringing Activism to the Design Community
Adam Greenfield tells us about ActionPixel, an online resource connecting activist groups with designers who have some free time. In addition, they provide a monthly feature about an activist cause and an activist design newsfeed.
Enhanced Thumbnails
Xerox PARC has developed this neat visulization technique called Enhanced Thumbnails “to find relevant content quickly within documents and document collections.”
They’ve developed a demo application showing how Enhanced Thumbnails can improve Web search and a Web browser that uses the technology, called Popout Prism.
(via ia/)
Apple’s Scary Season
As a new iMac owner, I get a little worried when I read news like this:
Market share is down, Microsoft is upset, and Quark is nowhere to be seen.
(via UXblog).
Need a Weekend Project?
Why not make your very own powered model aircraft? Powered by flies! I’m not kidding!
(via In My Experience)
Haiku Contest
I’m happy to report that I won the Consolation Champs Haiku Contest. Thanks to James McNally for sponsoring the contest and picking my haiku.
UCD List Annouced
William Hudson, moderator of CHI-WEB, has announced another moderated list, UCD, which will be concerned with “user-centred design, user interface design, web design, HCI and usability with no geographical or organizational boundaries.” He says membership is limited to 500 members, so if you want to join, get hoppin’!
(via IDblog)
Unhelpful Google 404
I’m surprised that Google has such an unhelpful 404 page.
Someone at Google should read What Makes a Good 404?, from the 404 Research Lab. And you should too.
Side note: Yes, I’m aware that my 404 page isn’t that great either. An update will be in the works when I finish the Unraveled design, and who knows when that will happen?
See Back Side of This Web Page For More Info
This is a little dated, but too good to pass up. Lyle Kantrovich points us to the product page for Symbol’s 2800 Series device and explains what not to do on a product description. They’re using the same copy on their web site that they use on their product packaging.
Unfortunately, I see this on many web sites that I visit, but it’s usually not as painfully obvious as it is in this instance. The simple solution for this blunder is to hire a web content editor or at the very least ask the web developers to proof the copy for irrelevant words or phrases.
On The Pursuit of Simplicity
Luke Wroblewski writes about the process of building easy to use websites over at Design Interact.
(via ia/)
Keep It Simple
Peter-Paul Koch has a new column over at Digital Web called Keep It Simple. This month, he tells his personal story of moving from a comlex site design to a simple site design, and asks the types of questions that he’ll be discussing in future articles.
In the next months I’ll share my thoughts on simplicity in this column on Digital Web Magazine. Why do people make complex sites? When does a site become too complex? How should you judge whether a site needs to be complex? What techniques should you use to avoid complexity?
(via WebWord)
Joshua Kaufman Switched
It was just a matter of time before it happened.
Today I bought a new 17” widescreen iMac! Yeah! Due to their huge popularity I probably won’t have it for at least two weeks (I ordered it online) but that gives me time to start learning. So… Where do I start?
First, I think I need a book that fully covers OS X. The Missing Manual has received many good reviews. Any other suggestions? What about web resources? What are the best community websites for asking questions about Macs?
Amazon Blooper
I went to Amazon.com this morning and noticed a little moving button that said “Learn how you can get $30.” I was curious to see what their latest super special was, so I clicked it and arrived at a page that said:
Before September 1st? I had to do a double take on my taskbar clock to make sure it was actually September 3rd, as I thought it was. I would expect Amazon’s editors to do a better job for a promotion that appears on their homepage every time the page is loaded, wouldn’t you?
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