WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #46

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ISSUE #46
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                WebWord.com Newsletter
           "Technology. Humans. Experience"
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                 Newsletter Editor
                   John S. Rhodes 
                     John@webword.com
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May 10, 2000                        Newsletter #46
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Table of Contents

1. SmartBorg: Short Review
2. Usability Conference Announcement (Part II)
3. WebWord.com Usability Interviews for the Palm Pilot
4. What Has Happened to WebRings?
5. The Impact of Technology on Punctuation
6. Discussion Board and Daily News
7. Statistical Garbage!
8. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?

        
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ITEM #1

A new WebWord.com report is now online:
--> http://webword.com/reports/smartborg.html

"SmartBorg: Short Review"

I recently came by SmartBorg, a metasearch tool that 
I thought you would find interesting. The idea is that
you enter a query and SmartBorg will tell you which 
search engine best fits that query. For example, if 
I enter "usability" into SmartBorg, it will tell me 
that I should use Direct Hit or Google. It is a good 
tool, useful to both experts and novices.

You can read the report here:
--> http://webword.com/reports/smartborg.html


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ITEM #2

Usability Conference Announcement (Part II)

I have a bit more information on the conference I
mentioned in the last newsletter. 

   THE CONFERENCE

   Website Usability Tools & Techniques:
   How to Optimize the User Experience

   July 20-21, 2000
   Marriott East Side, New York City

To read the new details head to the web site below:
>>
http://iir-ny.com/conference.cfm?EventID=M1127&CFID=155592&CFTOKEN=10760829
   
You can use the form below to register, if you want:
>> http://www.iir-ny.com/register.cfm?eventid=M1127


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ITEM #3

WebWord.com Usability Interviews for the Palm Pilot

I created a page where you can download the 
WebWord.com Usability Interviews e-book for your Palm 
Pilot for free. This is the same best-selling 
compilation that costs $3.95 at FatBrain. Remember,
all the interviews are also freely available at 
WebWord.com, but they aren't bundled together.

To download Interviews for your Palm Pilot, go here:
>> http://www.webword.com/webwordpalm.html

If you want to order a copy of the e-book (in PDF 
format) through FatBrain, go here:
>> http://www1.fatbrain.com/asp/bookinfo/bookinfo.asp?theisbn=EB00001426

If you would like to read the interviews one at a
time for free, visit the WebWord Interview index page:
>> http://www.webword.com/interviews/index.html

Please tell me if you would like me to convert more
WebWord.com content to a format you can read through
your Palm Pilot (or Handspring Visor). Send me an 
email at mailto:john@webword.com 


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ITEM #4

What Has Happened to WebRings?

A long time ago I heard about WebRings. The idea
is pretty simple. A web site will have navigation links
to and from other web sites that are similar to it. It 
is kind of like reciprocal linking except you don't 
really know who you are linking to and who is linking 
to you. However, you do know that these sites share
a common interest. Users can use the ring navigation to
rapidly move from one site to the next, absorbing or
ignoring similar content as they move.

But the idea seems like it is dead. No offense to those
folks that participate in WebRings, but it doesn't
really work. I did some extensive searching and found
very few sites that participated. Worse, I found no
"serious" sites that used WebRings. While "serious" is 
a negotiable word, I think you get the idea. Larger 
sites are jealous about spreading the traffic 
wealth. WebRings don't seem to work because only small 
sites use them. 

--- Sidebar ---

   You can find out more about WebRings here: 
   >> http://webring.com/

   The site is, ironically, owned by Yahoo!

--- Sidebar ---

But it seems like a good idea. It seems like many sites 
would want to be part of the system. It would seem like
it would drive traffic to a site. It seems like it 
would build community. Why don't users like WebRings?
Perhaps people do like WebRings, but webmasters and 
web developers do not. Or, maybe since WebRings is
owned by Yahoo! the idea is dead.

What do you think? Email us ( mailto:info@webword.com ).


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ITEM #5

Impact of Technology on Punctuation

Craig Marley, a Senior Technical Communicator, recently
wrote me this interesting email:

  John, I found your material and links to the "one or 
  two-space issue" very interesting.  Could you do one 
  on the comma within the quotation?  I know this is not
  even an issue really.  It is accepted that the comma 
  always goes within.  I think this is stupid. Here is 
  why:

  Fine when punctuation is part of the quotation. (The
  man called to his dog, "Come here Butch.")

  Not so good when the quotes are in mid-sentence.  
  (The program was essentially just a "soap," and the 
  acting was bad as well.)  I have never liked this, 
  and think the English should be defined as having 
  the period outside ("soap",).

  The issue becomes a real problem because of computer 
  technology. The following is correct English:
  
  (Type in this information "c:\fpwserv\database\upgrade312," 
  then press the Enter key.)

  However this is technically wrong.  What you really 
  want the user to do is type the exact material within 
  the quotes, which DOES NOT include the comma:
  
  (Type in this information "c:\fpwserv\database\upgrade312", 
  then press the Enter key.)

  This is the CORRECT instruction.  As far as I am 
  concerned, English punctuation, including the comma, 
  should only be within quotes if it is a part of the 
  words within the quotes.  The overall rules of 
  sentence structure should not dictate that a comma 
  should go within the quote.

  English punctuation rules be damned!  If enough 
  people do it one way, that will be defined as the 
  "standard" for English. It happens all the time with
  words. Why not with punctuation?


--- Sidebar ---

   You can read WebWord's "One Versus Two Spaces 
   After a Period" report here:
   
   >> http://www.webword.com/reports/period.html

--- Sidebar ---


Craig brings up a couple of very interesting points. 
Do you have any thoughts on this? Tell us about it!
( mailto:info@webword.com )


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ITEM #6

Discussion Board and Daily News

A lot of people would benefit from the interaction 
going on in the WebWord.com Discussion Board. There
are a lot of good people there answering questions. 
There are also several interesting questions. It does
require registration, which is definitely a hassle. 
It can't be avoided using the service we have it hosted
through (which is free). To get to the discussion board
go here:

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


I also would like to remind you that you can get daily
news delivered by email. As most of you know, WebWord
is updated just about every day. There are links to 
all kinds of usability resources, news, and tools. To
subscribe to get the WebWord.com Daily News, go here:

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


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ITEM #7

Statistical Garbage!

I recently pointed to some news about how important
logos are. There were all kinds of numbers thrown
around and some "interesting" conclusions were drawn. 
Here's what I captured from the site:

  Wondering Why The Guy In The Next Cubicle Just Got 
  Promoted? (via Dack) -- "For instance, the survey 
  found that 37% of people who have a coffee mug with 
  their company logo on it have been promoted within 
  the last 6 months, compared to just 8% of those 
  people who did not have a coffee mug with their 
  company logo on it." (Hmm.)
  >> http://www.iswag.com/news4.html

Now, if you read the report and don't think much about
it, it seems very exciting. But, as you might expect, 
there is a dark underbelly. Here's what Sean Boisen had
to say:

  I'm sorry, but this is statistical garbage. It's one 
  thing to count: quite another to give evidence that 
  the correlation (which is suggested with every 
  factoid in this article) is predictive or meaningful. 
  I don't doubt their counts, but i doubt that there's 
  any statistically significant _association_ between 
  owning a mug with a logo and getting promoted, and 
  this silly article gives no such evidence. This is 
  statistical abuse of the first order, and 
  self-serving at that, coming from people who sell 
  logo-ware.

Well, I challenged Sean to really explain the problems
with the study. He was equal to the task. Here are his
follow up comments:

   - correlation is not causation. Just because there's
   a correlation between mug logos and raises doesn't 
   mean i could go buy a mug and get a raise (it might 
   be that the reason i bought the mug was that i was 
   feeling good about the company _after_ i got a raise, 
   quite different from the kind of causality they 
   suggest)

   - to be meaningful, samples need to be random. 
   Surveys like this are often highly biased because 
   they only include people who took the trouble to 
   respond. These responses may be inherently out on 
   the tails of the normal distribution (for example, 
   because they have some axe to grind)

   - not all differences are significant. Intuitively, 
   38% vs 8% might look significant, but there are well
   established techniques for measuring whether they 
   are, and they don't provide them. 

   By the way, this flame aside, i'm really enjoying 
   WebWord. There's a lot of good stuff there that i'd 
   never find otherwise...

Sean makes several very good points. I am often very 
disapointed with the research conducted. I am even 
more upset with surveys being touted as usability 
research. 

Every so often, I'll read about an opinion poll that 
indicates that users like so and so or such and such. 
What hogwash! What people say and what they actually 
do are two entirely different things. I might say that 
I would prefer a Lexus to an Accord. You might then 
conclude that I would buy a Lexus. But that is not 
true. I might buy the Accord because of limited funds.
Even when people are telling the truth, 100%, you 
cannot assume that you understand the underlying 
usability. Preference is not the same as performance.

Bottom line: Beware of abusive research. 

Thanks Sean!


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ITEM #8

What Can You Find at WebWord.com?

Articles (Moving WebWord)
<http://webword.com/moving/>

Discussion Board
<http://www.vicinities.com/webword/>

Expert Interviews 
<http://webword.com/interviews/> 

Recommended Books
<http://webword.com/books/booksindex.html>

Newsletter Archive
<http://webword.com/archive>

Weblog Archive
<http://www.webword.com/weblog>

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 #46 ------

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