WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #38

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ISSUE #38

6-January-2000

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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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January 6, 2000                     Newsletter #38
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Table of Contents

1. A Potpourri of Thoughts from an Intelligent 
   Internet Consultant
2. WebWord.com Guru Interviews Still #1 at Fatbrain
3. Wal-mart.com and URLs
4. ProWebSite...You Must Be Joking!
5. Job Opportunity: Fatbrain Needs Some Great Minds
6. Usability Versus the Customer Experience
7. WebWord.com Addiction Revisited
8. Welcome to WebWord.com Daniel Sloat
9. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


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ITEM #1

A new WebWord.com interview is now online:
--> http://www.webword.com/interviews/strom.html

"A Potpourri of Thoughts from an Intelligent 
Internet Consultant"

David Strom is a technology consultant with many
years of experience. His focus is on internet 
related product testing, networking, and 
communications. He's a web pundit worth listening
to. In this interview I ask a broad range of 
questions. For example:

* Is the Internet simply a network or is it 
   something more? 
* How will portable devices be used in the future? 
* How does broadband impact users? 
* Do you feel that companies have more control 
   over the web now? 

You can read the interview here:
--> http://www.webword.com/interviews/strom.html


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ITEM #2

WebWord.com Guru Interviews Still #1 at Fatbrain

I'm happy to say that the WebWord.com Interviews
have been the #1 e-book seller at Fatbrain for the 
last 4 weeks!

If you'd like to invest in the book, follow this link:
--> http://webword.com/ebook.html

As a reminder, if you have purchased the book I would
be happy to send you a Word 2000 or HTML version so 
that your links will work. 

Thank you for your support! Feedback is welcome.
Feel free to write a review of the book. I'd be
happy to publish it on WebWord.


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ITEM #3

Wal-mart.com and URLs

Wal-mart has launched their new web site. So, I
checked it out for a few minutes. Overall, the
site isn't too bad. However, it certainly is not
as easy to use as, say, Amazon.com. 

I usually paint broad pictures of usability problems.
I have a few specific things to point out this 
time. First, I went to the Shoes area of the site
using the navigation area on the left part of the 
home page. That worked fine. However, I was very 
disappointed with the selection (even though I wasn't
planning on buying anything). It was really a joke
how few items were for sale. I'm not sure why Shoes
is a major product category. Why waste the link on
the home page? It clutters the navigation. Lastly,
the URLs for the site are horrendous. Many folks use
URLs to guide their way through a site. While I know
that many database driven sites yield nasty URLs,
this still bothers me. It bothers plenty of other
people I know and this is a common complaint of users.
I wish I had more data on the damage poor URLs cause.

Any thoughts out there?


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ITEM #4

ProWebSite...You Must Be Joking!

As many of you know, ProWebSite hosted my site last
year. Then, they completely destroyed it and did not
take sufficient action to help me recover the site.
I wrote a report on this incident in November.
--> http://www.webword.com/reports/prowebsite.html

I don't really like being nasty, but I have to tell
you a bit more of the story. I really want this to 
be a lesson for you about your hosting provider.

Well, as it turns out, a very nice representative 
from ProWebSite did her best to make amends with me.
I finally softened a bit and wished her a happy 
holiday. And, I decided to relax since she told me that
they would credit my credit card account by $25 (the
amount they owed me). 

Well, I just got my most recent credit card bill and 
guess what happened. Instead of a credit of $25, my 
account was *charged* $25. This means that they now owe
me $50. And, since I did not authorize the charge, 
I'll bet that they broke the law. In any event, I wrote 
a nasty letter to ProWebSite and, again, demanded that
I get my money back.

I'm waiting for a $50 *check*. If I don't get it very
soon, I'll need to pursue this legally. What a pain
in the neck. 

The moral of this story: Please be sure that your 
hosting provider has better customer service and 
better policies than ProWebSite. And, be sure to do
research on them before you sign up. They are not all
created equal. They can cause you real grief.

Any thoughts on how usability applies to customer
service? Write me about it: john@webword.com


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ITEM #5

Job Opportunity: Fatbrain Needs Some Great Minds 

  Fatbrain.com is looking for great UI engineers that 
  want to join a highly motivated team that is creating 
  the next killer app on the Net. Great minds should 
  apply to ( judyk@fatbrain.com ). 


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ITEM #6

Usability and the Customer Experience

Several readers had harsh comments about my interview
with Don Norman "Thinking Beyond Web Usability" 
--> http://webword.com/interviews/norman.html

Many people also became confused by how Don used the
word "usability" in the interview. Mark Hurst 
clarified this issue quite a bit on 23-December-99
on his web site:

  "Usability is a mostly tactical discipline, developed 
  in the software industry. The generally accepted 
  authority on Web usability is Jakob Nielsen, who 
  writes the excellent useit website and who himself 
  has a background in software usability. 

  "Customer experience, however, is a strategic issue 
  that impacts all levels of the organization -- from 
  senior management to customer service reps -- and 
  all departments: marketing, technology, design, 
  human resources, and yes, usability. Customer 
  experience is the holistic, strategic issue that is 
  the basis of success or failure in e-business. To 
  my knowledge, Creative Good is the only company that 
  focuses exclusively on this issue." 

You can read his full comments here (Dec. 23 entry):

-->  http://www.goodexperience.com/


On a related note, you can expect that WebWord.com will
become more broad in scope in 2000. I feel that the 
"customer experience" is a very good level for WebWord
to be at now. WebWord has matured. Also, it will allow
me to expand my offerings to you in the form of better
reports, interviews, and articles. 


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ITEM #7

WebWord.com Addiction Revisited

I'm surprised that more people have not subscribed to 
the WebWord Addiction. It is my daily newsletter. As
you probably know, I add new news to WebWord.com just
about every day. If you don't have time to stop by the
site, you can subscribe to the WebWord Addiction and
get your news fix. If you want to subscribe, go here:

--> http://webwordaddiction.listbot.com/

If you have ideas about the daily news, let me know 
at john@webword.com


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ITEM #8

Welcome to WebWord.com, Daniel Sloat

Dan Sloat has joined the WebWord.com effort. He'll 
be working with me on some very special projects. 
Expect some *big* things from WebWord.com in 2000.

If you would like to contribue to WebWord.com 
in some way, let me know. Book reviews, web site 
reviews, and so forth, might get published here.

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ITEM #9

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 #38 ------

(c)1998-99 by John S. Rhodes. All rights reserved.

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