Archive for July 2003

A new meryl.net blog is open for business. Bionic Ear Blog chronicles a profoundly deaf person’s journey into a new era…

PayPal has eased the process of sending and receiving money for auctions, e-books, services, and anything that requires sending money to and fro. While I believe it’s user-friendly (except for the part where they upgrade you and you have to fight with them to change your status), 37signals has taken it on to create a 37BetterPayPal. Do you think it’s better? About the same? Tawk about it… commentez vous?

Creative 404: Cannot find Weapons of Mass Destruction. You can actually get to this page by going to Google and entering “weapons of mass destruction” then clicking on the I’m feeling lucky button. Thanks, Don!

Take the jargon quiz to see how well you know your tech stuff. It’s the one I got a perfect score. Hi-tech babble baffles many is the reason why I enjoy writing about technical topics and putting them in everyday terms so nontechies can understand it.

Whew, boy! Grok has a lot to say in its latest issue. First, it takes a shot at the Giants. No, not the baseball or football team. The Giants as in the Web sites like Amazon. Boring Giants challenges you to look at the big sites and see if you find something in common. What do you think? I’ve turned on the comments for this.

FAQ. We almost always know where to find it, in the top level navigation. Is that a good thing? See what Grok says in The Facts about FAQS.

Good issue. Good for debate, too. Talk away.

Before you jump to conclusion that this is about good Web sites with a lot of technical stuff, it’s not. That would be a geeky Web site. Nerd is an “unstylish, unattractive, or socially inept person” per Merriam-Webster. With that cleared, the rest should speak for itself.

Here’s how reporters know when they’ve reached a nerdy website.

• They enter on a page that says “welcome to my website,” then they have to click again to get to the homepage. Even nerdier is a message that says
  “website under construction–please return later.”
• The home page is plastered with an annoying “wallpaper” background that
  usually consists of the company’s logo repeated over and over again, with
  text slapped on top of it. Or a big, clunky graphic covered with text.
• They can’t find contact information–including an address, phone number
  or email address–on the homepage.
• They can’t find a button that says Media Room, or Press Room or About Us
  and have to go searching to find what they’re looking for.
• They try to search quickly but can’t because the website doesn’t have a
  search function.
• They see things that rotate, spin, move, jump, dart, flash or crawl
  across the screen.
• Without warning, they hear music and a voice that welcomes them to the
  site.
• They see a little box on the homepage that shows the number of people
  who have visited the site. Retail stores don’t have a flashing sign that
  tells how many customers have come through the door. So unless you’re
  McDonald’s, you shouldn’t either.
• They find a site built in frames, which many older browsers don’t
  support. Many search engines don’t index them properly either. Frame
  scrolling bars waste precious space.

Reprinted from “The Publicity Hound’s Tips of the Week,” a free
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Use the 5Es to improve usability and it’s not just for Web site. The advice yields from Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication.

In the US, this weekend is 4th of July weekend celebrating America’s birthday. Everyone is off to have fun through cook outs, swimming, traveling, and watching fireworks. So, here’s something fun and a flash from the past for those who played video games in the ’80s like Donkey Kong, Q-bert, Pac-Man, 1942, Joust, and more that I can’t remember. Grand Master Peter has put together a lot of creative MAME Flovies (Flash Movies).

MAME is a video game emulator that allows you to play the old video games. Using the screens from the old video games, Grand Master Peter created videos. Enjoy and Happy 4th!

There have been a few studies looking at HTML vs. text in e-newsletters and what readers prefer. Another one indicates people want Just Plain Text, Please. The best thing to do is offer both options to readers, but that’s not always possible.