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Usability Newsletter!
ISSUE #23
25-June-99
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WebWord.com Newsletter
"Usability & the Internet"
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List Owner
John S. Rhodes
John@WebWord.com
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June 24, 1999 Newsletter #23
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Table of Contents
1. Server Side Includes
2. The Failure of Customer Support on the Web
3. Death of My Computer (Drumbeat Update)
4. Business Listing: Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
5. List of Windows Shortcuts
6. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?
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ITEM #1
A New WebWord Report is now online:
<http://webword.com/reports/ssi.html>
Want to learn more about server side includes (SSI)?
They are a great way to add content to your site
dynamically. If you make frequent changes to your site,
such as news or updates, SSI can save you an incredible
amount of time and energy. In this report I give you
some pointers to resources. I also have compiled the
answers to several questions that were asked in the
Link Exchange Digest. If you have dabbled with SSI,
then this will definitely clarify several things for
you. Several tips and tricks are provided.
Read the report for the details:
<http://webword.com/reports/ssi.html>
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ITEM #2
The Failure of Customer Support on the Web
A recent Servicesoft Survey indicates that there is a
gap between web-based service claims and customer
reports. So, when web sites claim they offer service,
they don't. They fail, and they fail more often than
they realize.
Of the 100 sites surveyed, 96% offered some form of
Internet service including e-mail, inquiry forms, a
posted toll-free number and FAQs. However, none of the
sites surveyed currently offer sophisticated Internet
customer service options, such as knowledge-driven
self-help or live customer interaction. So, information
is there, but interactive support tends to be lacking.
Fine. Perhaps this is a concern, and perhaps not. There
are more important issues to consider.
A whopping 43% of the surveyed sites don't show a 1-800
number on their site. This stunned me. Forget about the
fact that technology is behind, people can't even
contact companies by phone. Another shocker was that
45% of the sites (i.e., 45 out of 100 surveyed) do not
respond to email at all. Some sites even send out email
autoresponses indicating that they never return user
messages! Of those sites that do offer 1-800 numbers,
by the way, only 23% offer 24x7 service (clearly a
failure for those companies that are global).
Let me sum up by saying that the 100 companies were not
small and unknown. They included folks such as Bank
America, Chase Manhattan, Bloomingdale's, Dell, FAO
Schwartz, Egghead Software, and JC Penney.
This is an extremely clear indicator that companies
are failing on the web. Here's the report:
<http://www.servicesoft.com/news/990614-ics-survey.html>
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ITEM #3
Death of My Computer (Drumbeat Update)
Many of you read in the WebWord.com Usability Newsletter
<http://www.webword.com/archive/issue016.html> that
Drumbeat 2.0 killed my computer (I'm actually still
suffering because of what it did). Stuart Batterham was
kind enough to forward me a message that the Drumbeat
folks sent him (he had similar problems as me). Here's
what they had to say:
"Thank you for contacting Elemental Software. We have
received your message and will respond to you as
quickly as possible. In most cases (over 80%) support
requests are resolved within two working days.
"Microsoft has recently released MDAC 2.1, which fixes
many ODBC errors (i.e. 80004005 errors). Get the latest
version from: http://www.microsoft.com/data/download.htm.
If this resolves your problem please let us know so we
can close your request for support.
"In the mean time, please consider these other ways to
get an answer to your question:
1. Since many of our users contact us with similar
issues, we post many responses on our Web site. The
answer to your question might already be there. Feel
free to check the Drumbeat Knowledge Base at
http://support.drumbeat.com. Or, visit our Web
Builder's
Lounge at http://community.drumbeat.com. This
is a
friendly discussion group where you can learn helpful
tips and techniques from other Drumbeat users.
2. The Drumbeat Learning Center
http://learn.drumbeat.com includes a variety of
resources to help you quickly learn Drumbeat and its
operations. Check out our brand new feature, DrumNotes
http://DrumNotes.drumbeat.com. DrumNotes are
pre-built
examples and how-to documents showing you how to quickly
deploy the most requested Web application functionality
- such as Password Protection, Look-up Lists, New Custom
Windows, and many more!
3. You can also get valuable enhancements to Drumbeat
from our Element Exchange http://exchange.drumbeat.com,
your FREE on-line source for extending Drumbeat
capabilities. You can integrate a wide variety of
additional functionality via standard and custom
components by downloading them right from these pages.
4. The Drumbeat partners program provides additional
resources to the Drumbeat community. We are currently
featuring WebAssist.com. WebAssist offers technical
discussions and expert assistance through their own
Drumbeat-built online forum. WebAssist also offers a
range of training courses for all levels of Drumbeat
users. Visit WebAssist at http://www.webassist.com.
"We'll always do our best to help you enjoy Drumbeat,
the tool that made PC Magazine say, 'nothing else
even comes close'.
"The Drumbeat Support Team."
(Use this information as you wish. There is plenty to
sift through. Until I hear some good news about DrumBeat
from a trusted source, I can't recommend it to you.)
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ITEM #4
Business Listing: Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc.
Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A), specializes
in design consulting for clients who want to improve
how their software appears and performs. AM+A designs
information visualization and user interfaces for
products and services that enable people to find and
use information effectively. We have designed user
interfaces for mainframe, client-server, desktop,
kiosk, mobile, interactive television, and
inter/intra/extranet products and services.
Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A)
<http://www.AMandA.com>
<mailto: JoAnn@AMandA.com>
* This listing was provided free by WebWord.com to give
you exposure to consultants and businesses doing HCI,
usability, and human factors work. If you would like
to be listed, contact me <mailto:john@webword.com>.
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ITEM #5
List of Windows Shortcuts
PCFuel has a very handy little list of Windows
shortcuts <http://pcfuel.com/tips/shortcut.htm>.
Shortcuts can help you save a ton of time. The fewer
times you have to leave the keyboard to find the mouse
the better off you will be.
While I think the tips are great, I am rather unhappy
that my friend Sean Murphy (the PCfuel Webmaster)
has used a design that doesn't work for 640x480 users.
Some people have older monitors and his design forces
you to view the site at 800x600 (or higher), unless you
feel like scrolling horizontally. Ugh!
Enough on that, the shortcuts are worth seeing, even if
the format isn't that pleasing.
<http://pcfuel.com/tips/shortcut.htm>
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ITEM #6
What Can You Find at WebWord.com?
Articles (Moving WebWord)
<http://webword.com/moving/>
Expert Interviews
<http://webword.com/interviews/>
Recommended Books
<http://webword.com/books/booksindex.html>
Newsletter Archive
<http://webword.com/archive>
Usability Reports
<http://webword.com/reports>
Recommended Web Sites
<http://webword.com/hotsites.html>
Free Stuff
<http://webword.com/freestuff.html>
Friends
<http://webword.com/friends.html>
---- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #23 ------
(c)1998-99 by John S. Rhodes. All rights reserved.
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