Posted in The-rest on April 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »
A designer who we had done work for just sent me a contract their client had sent them to sign. It was headed ‘Assignment of Intellectual Property(IP) Rights’. It would assign all IP rights in the software to the client.
I had to check the date on the email but it was April 3rd not the 1st. We use the identical software on all our client’s sites, so the whole idea of giving the IP rights to one of them is a total non-starter. We would be out of business. (more…)
Posted in The-rest on March 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »
I have just downloaded Vista SP1. The wretched program warns you that it will take an hour. I watched it for a while and got bored, so I took the hint and went out for a cup of coffee. When I got back there was a ‘click here to proceed’ thing! It then took about an hour while I twiddled my thumbs.
Why????
In any event I would say it was worth the wait. The machine is noticably slicker. Listing directories and copying files in particular much faster. Or should I say much less slug-like.
Posted in The-rest on March 17, 2008| Leave a Comment »
This month we have an outstanding useability column from Jakob Neilsen. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/designer-user-differences.html
There are two important insights
Like a japanese haiku these two statements can be used for lengthy meditation and should be burned on the heart of every designer. Too many sites are built for the designer, not the user; an exotic, barely understood being. A person who doesn’t know how to run a search on Google, let alone manipulate a strange scroll bar or fly-out menu.
Learn.
Posted in The-rest on March 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »
If you want a good laugh at other people’s expense go take a look at http://www.telebid.com/. It looks like a very cool auction site with some real bargains. There is a 32″ flat screen with 49 minutes to go for £197. What is the catch? (more…)
Posted in The-rest on March 6, 2008| Leave a Comment »
This from the Google website
“Unfortunately, we’re unable to interpret the meaning of changes in our legal documents for you. If you have questions or you need legal advice on interpreting the terms, please don’t hesitate to contact an attorney.”
Uh!
Posted in The-rest on February 27, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Jeremiah Owyang in his blog, asks the following question: “What if they leave negative comments on my site/blog/forum? “. The answer is that it has to be handled well, not covered up or removed.
I have always believe that a customer complaint can be a huge opportunity if handled well.
You routinely buy something from (say) a web site and next day it turns up regular as clockwork. Then something goes wrong. If handled badly you will never go back to that store. If handled really well you will not only go back, but you will tell your friends about it. Why? Because now you know that if something goes wrong in the future these guys will deal with it. It has actually made you happier because before you maybe always had a nagging doubt.
Of course repeated mistakes or mistakes on the first order cannot be recovered from. You just plain need to get your act together.
Posted in The-rest on February 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Firefox has been incredibly successful in digging into Microsoft’s market share. But many believe every thing they hear that’s bad about Microsoft and everything they hear thats good about Firefox. I know a few people who are like that about the USA. This site is devoted to expolding those Firefox myths.
Posted in The-rest on February 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Someone has figured out the ten most common passwords. How? I thought they were supposed to be secret. Maybe the ten most common among people who will tell you there password if you ask. Who knows.
Anyway – few surprises. After ‘123’ and ‘password’ the third was ‘liverpool’. Number 9 was ‘arsenal’. So if you want to guess a password try some football teams.
Posted in The-rest on February 22, 2008| Leave a Comment »
You may have got a mail from someone in ‘the contactthem’ network. It is nicely worded and invites you to make up to $4,800/month (c £2500)to place an ad on your web site.
It turns out that this is not pay per click but an affiliate marketing scheme. You get a commisssion on sales made by people who click on the ad. My experience of such schemes is that you rarely make that sort of money from them. Simple math.
The merchant is selling something for say £20 and you get 5% commission. Assuming a very generous 10% conversion rate and a very generous 10% click through rate and you can easily see that you need 250,000 visitors to generate that much money. So they only work for very high traffic sites.
So how can they make such claims? The answer is pyramid selling. Some of the ads are for the contactthem scheme and you get a percentage of any income from affiliates recruited via that link.
Will it work as advertised? You be the judge.
Posted in The-rest on February 20, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Jabob Nielsen’s regular useability column is always an interesting read. I like the analogy he gives for his number one rule – stick to standard checkboxes, radio buttons and so on.
“If you change the appearance or behavior of these units, it’s like suddenly injecting foreign words into a natural-language communication. Det vil gøre læserne forvirrede (or, to revert to English: Doing so will confuse readers). “
I have noticed (like Neilsen) that the most common victim is the humble scrollbar. I have no idea why, but every designer seems to think that scrollbars are really ugly and need reworking. Neilsen observes that these “almost always cause users to overlook some of their options.”
He continues:
“If Jakob’s Law is “users spend most of their time on other websites,” then Jakob’s Second Law is even more critical: “Users have several thousand times more experience with standard GUI controls than with any individual new design.” “
Bob Browning's blog 