Internet For Real People
Sometimes I just go off…
Below is an email thread of my communication regarding a really bad user workflow. I need to point out, this is not sour grapes — I understand slim odds of winning anything of value. I’m mad that someone at Noah’s approved this. Here’s the summary: winning is not “instant,” there’s too much data mining,...
“Hey, B, we’ve just finished the poster for our big event…. so I’m going to have the artist send it over to you to put on the Web site, okay?” Sure, no problem. Your 20-inch by 40-inch, glossy, paper-printed poster is going to look great on the Web site. It’ll be 3% of its...
Business owners: your Web site might be talking behind your back. People naturally infer things from design, and the same holds true for your Web site. Example 1: I was visiting a Web site recently for a company that is supposedly all about networking: connecting people with other people. But their Web site sends...
For my clients, I do a lot of little stuff for free. Sometimes the client notices, sometimes they don’t. For example, I was reviewing the old Web site for a new client today, and I noticed that the folks who built their old site never put in a “favicon.” (That’s the little icon that...
Ok, need your opinions on this: do you mind waiting for heavy Web pages to load? It kinda drives me nuts (see Please Wait…Loading…), but maybe the rest of you don’t mind. Today I was on M&Ms Web site, to vote for Orange as my favorite color (poor Eric K, he’s in last place...
A client recently launched a new Web site that had been designed by a volunteer agency, but has asked me to stay involved to help with technical issues. The new site looks and works fine, except for some poor front-page communication, but under the surface… The other guys put a different Google Analytics code...
Two separate customer service issues today… both drove me a little nuts. Rant #1: Endless voice prompts. Called PayPal in regards to a transaction. After entering my account info, I get dumped into the voice prompting system — “you can say, ‘payments,’ ‘account issues,’ or ‘refunds.'” Aha… I’ve been in this trap before, and...
Last night after hours I get a message from a client: “Hey, my domain name is expiring tomorrow. Can you take care of that for me? Thanks.” Umm, thanks indeed. Thanks for missing the half-dozen or so messages that you’ve already received in the past month telling you that your domain is expiring soon....
I’m in WYSIWYG hell… and I’m not alone. (For those who don’t know, What You See Is What You Get — the acronym is pronounced whizzy-wig — is a term for any visual HTML editor such as the ones in Web-based email editors, blogs or content management systems. It’s supposed to let you do...
Thirty-six seconds. That’s how long it took to crack my password a few years ago. Years back, the IT guys at a company where I worked called me to ask if they could use my account passwords to run a test. They wanted to try to hack an account on the system, to test...