WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #43

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ISSUE #43

23-February-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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February 23, 2000                   Newsletter #43
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Table of Contents

1. A Sitemap on Every Page
2. WebWord.com Discussion Board
3. Open Topics: WUBOR and International Usability
4. Open Company Information
5. What is WebWord.com Exactly?
6. Flooz, Tower Records, and Godiva
7. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


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ITEM #1

A new WebWord.com Report is now online:
--> http://www.webword.com/reports/sitemap.html

"A Sitemap on Every Page"

Peter Van Dijck wrote me about how he uses a 
sitemap on *all* of his web pages. He has a small
site about Columbia, and at the bottom of every single
page, there is a sitemap. In his report, he presents 
some very interesting statistics. The majority of 
his visitors use the sitemap. For the details, read 
the report. 

You can read the Report here:
--> http://www.webword.com/reports/sitemap.html


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ITEM #2

WebWord.com Discussion Board

As many of you probably already know, WebWord.com now
has a discussion board. In just a bit over 1 week, 
there are now 50 participants. The board has been 
surprisingly active with over 27 messages and 10
discussion groups (10 topics at this time). I admit
that I have written several of the messages and I
have started most of the topics, but I'm certainly
not the only person participating.

The one thing I really don't like is that people have
to register for the discussion board. Several people
told me that they were upset about this. I apologize
for the pain. At some point in the future, we'll 
bring things in house and open up just about everything
to everyone. You can preview the topics now, but
you can't do much else in that mode. 

If you'd like to preview the board, or if you'd like
to join a lively community of people, head here:

--> http://www.vicinities.com/webword/


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ITEM #3

Open Topics: WUBOR and International Usability

We've been very busy at WebWord.com, behind the 
scenes, which I'll talk about more in Item #4 below.
I wanted to let everyone know that the Web User Bill
of Rights (WUBOR) is still being worked on. I'm 
getting close to drafting a document to pass along to
Sean Lindsay (the co-author of the document and editor
of DisabilityTimes.com). When that is ready to go out,
I'll let you know. If you have suggestions, pass them
along to me at john@webword.com

We've also been working on figuring out how usability
is seen around the globe. Who is looking at it? What
are the core issues? And so on. I'm really quite 
surprised to find very little. In fact, I have had
a hard time finding general web design information
as it relates to global issues. I'm talking about
cultural issues, language barriers, and that sort of
thing. If you have suggestions, resources, or ideas,
please pass them along to me at john@webword.com

Thanks.


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ITEM #4

Open Company Information

People like to know how WebWord.com is doing, so I
tell them from time to time. Also, it is in line with
our Open Company Manifesto ( which you can find here:
http://webword.com/moving/opencompany.html ). It 
spells out why we do this. 

Here are some statistics on WebWord.com:

2074 Newsletter Subscribers
167 Daily News (WebWord Addiction) Subscribers
50 Discussion Board participants
Average Number of Hits Per Day 1,025 
Average Number of Page Views Per Day 821 
Average Number of User Sessions Per Day 448 
Average User Session Length 9:37 


I think the most interesting number is the Average
User Session Length. People are spending a lot of 
time at WebWord. (Thank you!)

I am trying to help you to understand what we are 
trying to accomplish and where we are going. You'll 
see the vision take shape over the course of this 
year. I'll share more and more as we move forward.

I hope our openness is refreshing. In our line of
business, it is an odd thing to disclose all of this
information. However, we feel that linking to news,
linking to competitors, and listing jobs for other
companies is a path to success. We do not feel it is
foolish to keep our readers and subscribers well 
informed about usability, human factors, web design, 
and the general user experience. If possible, we'd
like to become an industry reference site, but I'm
getting ahead of myself. I'll speak more about this
in a future newsletter. In the time being, perhaps
you'll be interested in Item #5 below.


p.s. If you'd like to get daily news updates from
WebWord.com, you can go here to subscribe: 

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


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ITEM #5

What is WebWord.com Exactly?

I am often asked this question, but up until recently
I have kept a low profile. WebWord.com was originally
my personal web site. But it has rapidly grown in 
readership and in scope. As the numbers above indicate
we are a news source and a place for people to learn
about many things. This will always be true. We want
to help as much as possible.

However, there are now three people working at 
WebWord.com, mostly behind the scenes. We do web
consulting, interface design, and more. We'd like to
say for now that we are available to take on your 
projects. Yes, we write proposals. Yes, we help
people understand their customers. And yes, we do 
various web development. There is a lot in the works,
and we expect to see things grow at an insane rate.

Many people didn't know we did this kind of work. 
But we do, and our subtle approach has been effective.
We have seen that providing information and helping
people is our key to success. 

In any event, now you know that we can take on your
projects. Over time I might be a bit more blatant 
about this, but I'd rather stay on the course we
have charted for a time. If you have questions or
comments on this editorial, throw me an email at
john@webword.com -- Thanks.


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ITEM #6

Flooz, Tower Records, and Godiva

A very kind colleague threw me $25 worth of Flooz. 
(Thanks Mark.) Flooz is basically a gift certificate
that can be used at many different web sites. The
idea is interesting. It is like getting a gift
certificate to an entire mall or shopping outlet.

So, I went shopping at Tower Records to get a video
tape (Monty Python). First, I have to say that the
selection was rather large, so that was good. And, 
the search engine dished up many possibilities. But,
the ordering of the results was really quite a 
problem. They didn't make an awful lot of sense. And,
DVD's were mixed in with VHS. 

Next, I tried to find the top 50 best-selling video 
tapes. No luck! I tried again and again to find a way
to get a list of bestsellers, either in general or in 
specific categories. This activity burned up about 1/2
hour of my time. 

Finally, after finding a tape I wanted, I went to 
figure out how much the shipping would be. Well, they
wanted me to register first so I could proceed to the
checkout. Argh! I just wanted to know if my gift
certificate would cover the item and the shipping. 
They wanted me to register to find out the total 
cost. My overall experience at Tower Records: UGH!

So, I left. I went to Godiva to get some chocolate.
It was a great experience. All information was there
and things were well labeled. Also, the colors were
nice at Godiva. I felt better about shopping there
versus Tower Records. I don't normally notice that 
I "feel good" about a web site, but Godiva captured
the experience. Especially in contrast to the bleak
Tower Records site. 

Godiva and Flooz both did a great job with the follow 
up email confirmations. The experience was a good
one overall, but it wasn't as easy as going to a mall
or department store. 


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ITEM #7

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>

Weblog Archive
<http://webword.com/weblog/index.html>

Usability Reports 
<http://webword.com/reports>

Recommended Web Sites
<http://webword.com/hotsites.html>

Free Stuff
<http://webword.com/freestuff.html>


---- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #43 ------

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