Minority Report

I'm going to a user experience conference in a few weeks. One of the dudes speaking is from Microsoft and he's there to talk about Surface. If they can pull this off....cool!

Don't Vote

Scorecard

I have my own model for looking at website quality, but the big boys a Forrester take it to a whole new level...They use 25 questions if four broad categories:



- Value = Can the user accomplish their prescribed tasks?
- Navigation = Heuristics
- Presentation = is it pretty and easy to use?
- Trust = Does the online presence create and foster trust?

A critique of the Forrester Website Review Methodology:
Sounds impressive, no? I had a closer view of how Forrester ranks websites from a heuristic usability perspective. The methodology is solid and references are dense, but when I map them against the 6 criteria in my model, it stacks up like this:

Accessibility (how easy it is to find the site?) = 0 criteria
Immersibility (how easy it is for the user to immerse the user in the experience?) = 16 of 25 criteria across their four axes
Content (depth, breadth, relevancy, recency) = 4 criteria
Capabilities (tools) = 10 criteria
Community (can users share and learn from each other?) = 2 criteria
Commerce (how good is the e-commerce engine?) = 3 criteria

In other words, their model doesn't take into account the importance of Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, and user cross-interaction. It focuses on 'how easy the site is to use', which is fine. But, it misses critical elements for an engaging, elegant, lasting user experience.

Yeah, they'll probably sue me...

OIM!

Oi! Too many acronyms, I know. Online Identity (or Image) Management is a relatively new term that encompasses Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, P.R. 2.0 and the optimization of an organisation's online branding. Agencies such as RadarDDB specialize in this type of thing...

The YouTube Election

I could say that I'm trying to make a point about the power of social media, but it's really about how scary our neighbours to the south are. John Stewart can make fun of 'the big, crazy brother that lives in the attic', but at least we're not overtly, proudly racist. When a great military leader and statesman labels Obama as a 'transformational leader', people should take notice. The point of all this? Politics aside, the immediacy of news means politicians and their spin doctors, like marketers, are no longer in charge on information, we are.

T = R + D

Trust me. Brand = Trust. Trust = Reliability + Delight. Read this book awhile ago, but have rediscovered it online. I asked a colleague yesteday: "Name your top three books on integrated marketing and branding".
Crickets...because there isn't one. We're making it up as we go along. But, a good start:
Blink; Tagging; Design of Everyday Things. (The last being a bit off-topic and obtuse, but still important).

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds

Stock Market Finance Widgets

Anyone whose picked up a newspaper or looked at their investments in the past few days? I looked at my portfolio again today and it's 'cratered'. I was reading this article today, and one of the blog comments related to this book. If we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

Mustard Gas and Roses

Yes, that is a quote from Slaughterhouse - Five. It relates to a passage where Billy Pilgrim starts drunk-dialing people.

The good ol' boys at Google now have a solution to drunk email. Mail Goggles. Brilliant!

Collaborative Digital Cartography

Sounds very important, doesn't it. Read this today. If you've ever used Google Earth, you'll know what all of this means. Another example of us 'teaching the machine and the machine is us'.

At business school, our consulting client was Ordnance Survey Ireland. I'm sure they're down at the pub because of this.

Continue Reading

This is a nifty little device. Although, you can read them on your phone now as well.

There is of course also the Amazon Kindle. I've used one of these - cool.

Super

Need an ego-boost? Check this out.