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ISSUE #3
Date: Jan 12 1999 16:41:42 GMT
From: WebWord.com Usability Newsletter <WebWord-owner@listbot.com>
Subject: WebWord.com Newsletter #3
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WebWord.com Newsletter
"Usability & the Internet"
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List Owner
John S. Rhodes
John@WebWord.com
Supported by
WEB CARDS!
http://www.printing.com/affiliate.asp?site=WebWord
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January 12, 1999 Newsletter #3
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Table of contents
1. A new Moving WebWord article is online
2. A new expert interview is online
3. Feedback: "www.webword.com" versus "webword.com"
4. A money saving message from our sponsor
5. LinkAlarm: Visits but too few test drives
6. An excellent HTML reference book
7. "FREEstuff" versus "freestuff": My BIG mistake
8. The WebWord.com TITLE tag
9. Thank you...
10. Two sponsors
11. The Better Internet Bureau
12. Increasing the reach of this Newsletter
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ITEM #1
A new Moving WebWord article is online
http://WebWord.com/moving/hiddentruth.html
Web content is much more than simple text. You must
think beyond words, sentences, and paragraphs. It is
the "user experience" that is the true driving force
of your site's content. Furthermore, the interactivity
of your site determines the level of the your users'
experiences.
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ITEM #2
A new expert interview is online
http://WebWord.com/interviews/weinman.html
Lynda Weinman is a visual design expert. Find out
about her favorite development tools and Web sites.
She also has some excellent advice on how to manage
the visual design of a site to improve usability.
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ITEM #3
In the last newsletter, I posed a question:
Why do some Web sites require the "www" before
the domain name?
Here are the (edited) answers.
From Travis Burnside of QWK.net <http://QWK.net>
Making URLs work with and without the "www" before,
is just a simple matter of setting up the DNS entries
properly. Basically, the way it's set up is this
- "domain.com" is set up as the 'official' name of
the site. Then, also, an alias named "www.domain.com"
is set up to point to the official name. That way,
either address will work.
From Robert S. Dew
<http://www.Q.co.nz> "The New Zealand Quick
Reference"
The simple answer, in most cases, is laziness.
Whenever I set up a new domain I always make the
two options available. It doesn't take much more
work, but it does make the sites easier to use.
The "www" is only a convention that has grown up
with the web. The "www" portion of the domain name
allows for that name to point to a different machine
than the non "www" version, and when that happens
the two options are not possible.
From Wes Tanner
<http://corvette.mae.cornell.edu/myweb>
I believe that it is dependent on the main ISP link.
Some will automatically assume that anything you
search for on the net is preceded by the "www"
prefix. Other systems are not as "user friendly".
* * * THANK YOU for the excellent feedback!
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ITEM #4
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Drop-shipping is available worldwide.
http://www.ilynk.com/id.cfm?JR7112x0003
Dealers wanted! Sign up today.
http://www.dealerprograms.com/d.cfm?JR7112x0003
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ITEM #5
I have a quick question about LinkAlarm. I found
out that several people visited LinkAlarm but
did not sign up for the free 2-month test drive:
http://www.linkalarm.com/testdrive/?967516844
For those people that went to the site, can you
tell me why you didn't sign up? Were there problems?
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ITEM #6
People have asked me what HTML book I use...
Here is a link to my favorite HTML reference book.
The author, Danny Goodman, writes very well. This is
simply the most *massive* and useful HTML book I've
found. (Not recommended for beginners.)
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1565924940/wedwordcom
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ITEM #7
The problem with the free stuff page at WebWord.com
In the last newsletter (#2), I gave you a URL to my
new free stuff page. I said it was great and fun. I
encouraged you to visit. But, I made a mistake. I gave
you a broken link. Ouch.
Here's what happened:
I gave you the WRONG URL:
http://webword.com/FREEstuff.html
Here is the CORRECT URL:
http://webword.com/freestuff.html
Do you see the difference? It matters that "free"
is NOT capitalized. The correct URL *must* use
lower-case letters because that is name of the file
on the server. And, the system is case sensitive.
By the way, this is a problem that link checking
cannot find (e.g., Link Alarm), since it was a link
that was in an email. So, it is quite important to
check your email URLs. TEST EVERYTHING!
Finally, I want to say that *I* found this mistake.
I'm not boasting. Instead, I want to make the point
that you need to look behind the scenes and you need
to stay on top of your server logs. If this is a topic
of importance to you, I conducted an expert interview
with a Web hosting expert, Mr. Travis Burnside of
QWK.net, several months ago...
http://webword.com/interviews/burnside.html
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ITEM #8
The WebWord.com TITLE tag.
A WebWord.com reader wrote me:
"On your main page, the TITLE tag is like this:
<title>Usability, Web site design, and content
development -- WebWord.com</title>. Is there any
usability related reason for putting WebWord.com
towards the end of the title?"
Here was my response:
I tested several versions. I found that people who knew
about my site could easily remember that it was about
"usability". So, it took very little time to find in
their bookmarks. Also, for people that didn't know
very much about my site, "usability" sounded more
interesting than "WebWord.com".
I knew that as some people learned about my site,
they might remember "WebWord.com" better than
"usability". However, I asked several people to
*recognize* some things for me: "webword.com",
"WebWord.com", "WebWorld.com", "WordWeb.com" and
so on. People did very bad at this. I also tried
doing the same thing with usability: "usability",
"useability", "usesability", and so on. People were
much better at recognizing "usability".
Next, I asked (different) people to *recall* the
name of my site. If they learned it as "Usability,
human factors..." versus "WebWord.com -- usability..."
they did MUCH better. They really messed up
"WebWord.com", but they did quite well with
"usability".
What did I end up doing?
Based on this feedback, I decided to change the TITLE
tag of WebWord.com. After consideration and many
discussions with other usability professionals, it is
the right thing to do. It helps with the bookmarks,
it helps branding (since the WebWord.com name comes
before anything else in the title of the home page).
I feel that the page title is a *very* important
consideration. It requires serious thought.
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ITEM #9
These folks have helped to make WebWord.com
a better usability resource through their
excellent feedback. Feedback is gold.
Visit their sites and offer them comments.
Feel free to tell them I sent you.
John Shiple http://www.thespringfieldproject.com/
George Bray http://www.linkalarm.com/
David Smith http://www.top-10.com
bill http://www.inovdesigns.com
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ITEM #10
Two quick messages from our sponsors.
1. Why not get a free Web Cards sample? They are cool,
and they are free! You can't beat it! :-)
http://www.printing.com/affiliate.asp?site=WebWord
2. Are you a *serious* Webmaster? Do you want to add
some excellent banner advertising to your site? Do
you want to increase your revenue stream? Are you
sure? Then it is time for you to visit Teknosurf!
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ITEM #11
The Better Internet Bureau
http://www.better-internet-bureau.org/welcome/bib63int/
Here's how they put it:
"The Better Internet Bureau is an online, nonprofit,
organization dedicated to making the internet a safer
place, for people worldwide."
Does having your site certified make it more usable
(or less)?
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ITEM #12
Help increase the reach of this Usability Newsletter.
You can increase the reach of this newsletter in
a few different ways.
1. Pass this newsletter on to a friend or colleague
2. Send them to my home page to subscribe from there
<http://WebWord.com>
3. Promote the WebWord.com newsletter or Web site and
I'll add you to my Friends page
<http://WebWord.com/friends.html>
4. Use your ingenuity. (But don't spam.)
You make the WebWord.com Usability Newsletter possible.
THANK YOU!
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