WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #52

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ISSUE #52
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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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November 29, 2000                   Newsletter #52
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Table of Contents

1. Special Announcement: Flash Usability Consortium
2. Rage Against the Machine
3. A Tough Nut to Crack: Returned Customer Email
4. Writing About Technology
5. The Intersection of Information Architecture 
   and Usability
6. A Letter to a Friend Just Starting in Usability 
7. What Can You Find at WebWord.com?

        
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ITEM #1

Special Announcement: Flash Usability Consortium

WebWord will be doing a lot of usability research next
year. Things are looking excellent on the usability
front because companies have come to realize that they
need to understand their customers and web site users
if they want to win online.

To help more companies benefit from usability research,
we have decided to set up our first usability consortium. 
The basic idea is that, for a reasonable fee, a company 
can participate in some of our general research projects. 
We have decided that we would start off by investigating
Flash usability.

Let me explain. WebWord is going to be investigating
Flash early next year. We are going to do a lot of hard
core research and we are going to be dripping with 
usability data relating to Flash web sites. We are asking
for $12,000 from companies that want to benefit from this
research. We'll be writing up several useful reports and
this information will only be available to companies
that are participating in the Flash Usability Consortium.
To further help companies, we will provide 20 hours of 
consulting to consortium members. This consulting alone 
is worth roughly $3,000. We really want to help companies
get a grip on Flash usability.

This is the first time we are going public about the 
consortium. This is the official announcement! If you 
are interested in joining the other companies in the 
Flash Usability Consortium, please let me know. If you
have any questions, fire away.  

(Note: We'll have a Shopping Cart Abandonment Consortium
running next year too. We are going to be doing research
to figure out exactly why users abandon their carts. Let
me know if you are interested in that research.)

Cheers,

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability
http://webword.com
john@webword.com
607-427-WORD (9673)


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ITEM #2

A new WebWord.com article is now online:
--> http://webword.com/moving/against.html

"Rage Against the Machine"

I've had several private conversations with people about 
companies that claim they do usability, when in fact they
do not. And, I've heard many stories about how usability 
professionals are increasingly doing development and 
design. (These are dangerous times!)

My primary comment is that usability is really all about 
psychology and research. If you are not getting real
data from your usability researchers and usability 
consultants, then you are being cheated. Similarly, if
your usability team is doing a lot a design work or 
coding, something is going wrong. Usability professionals
(generally) can't design their way out a wet paper bag.
We are researchers...

  By the way, if you want to read some of the comments
  on this article, you should visit this page:
  >> http://greenspun.com/com/webword/moving/against.html


You can read the new article here:
--> http://webword.com/moving/against.html


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ITEM #3

A Tough Nut to Crack: Returned Customer Email

Here is a business problem waiting to be solved. Assume 
that you have a web application that requires a user to 
register. Next, assume that the user is not Bugs Bunny
or George Washington. The user makes a real attempt to 
enter their personal information. Maybe they have an 
incentive because they are making a purchase. Finally, 
assume that all useful proactive measures are in place
to improve this data collection. 

  Here's the problem: What do you do if the user enters
  the wrong email address?

You might start by saying that you would call the user.
Let's get real, are you really going to call? That is 
pretty expensive and time consuming. You might do it, 
but the costs are high. Next, you might think about using
some variations on the email address. For example, if
the bad email address was "bigchicken@hotmial.com" you
might simply try reversing the "i" and the "a" in the 
address.

But these things aren't all that time or cost effective.
What should you do? I don't have an answer. I know that
proactive measures, such as forcing the user to enter
their email address twice, can be effective at reducing
problems. But, if you want to be customer focused, do
we really want to just give up if people fail? I really
think that this would make for a great tool, especially
large e-commerce sites that deal with this issue all of
the time.

This is a tough nut to crack. But, it is an opportunity.


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ITEM #4

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

"Writing About Technology"

I interviewed Dan Gillmor about three weeks ago. Dan is
a Technology Columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. He
is a really sharp fellow and I really enjoy his work. 
His interview is an easy read, and I encourage you to 
take a look if you are interested in this topic.


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


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ITEM #5

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

"The Intersection of Information Architecture 
and Usability"

I interviewed Alison J. Head about a week ago. She is
heavily involved in usability and, to a lesser extent,
information architecture. The interview is full of 
great comments and ideas about how usability and 
information architecture overlap. There is a lot of 
energy in Alison's interview and it is worth taking a
few minutes to dig out the nuggets of wisdom.

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


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ITEM #6

A Letter to a Friend Just Starting in Usability 

Below is some advice I gave to a friend a few weeks ago.
He just left one company to start work as the main 
usability person in another. Let me clarify that point. 
He is the first person in the company to be really 
focused on usability. He asked for some help and below
is the heart of my advice. Note that a few of my comments
are specific to his situation.

  --

  First things first. Do not talk about usability
  with any of the folks if you can help it. I
  would instead get a firm understanding of
  what they do and what skills they have.
  Focus on their needs. Be very careful about
  pushing usability at all. Indeed, I would
  refrain from saying "usability" at all if you
  can help it. Talk about testing customers
  and users. Talk about coding challenges.
  Talk about barriers. Talk about costs and
  standards and corporate culture. I really
  feel that usability should only come after
  you have a very firm grasp on the existing
  processes in the company. Solid!

  Second, I think it would be worth your
  time focusing on one area. For example,
  maybe standards or business rules. Improve
  those and build up a small series of wins
  to hang your hat on. Build trust at all cost.
  Sacrifice time and energy to this cause.
  It will pay you back again and again and
  again.

  Third, be sure that you have a personal plan
  in place to become the guru of usability.
  Ease people into it. When they talk about
  usability topics, be the expert. You'll find
  that people want you to the consultant.
  They might disagree, and that is healthy.
  You want to put a stake in the ground so
  you can always move the troops forward.
  You might also plan on being the warrior
  that is forced to go to management with
  some hard ideas.

  Fourth, expect rejection. Embrace it and
  turn it around. Use it as data. Show how
  failure to adopt your (usability) ideas
  results in more failure. Carefully but
  forcefully show folks what works. Be a
  resource: pass along articles, links, and
  ideas. Again, slow growth. Compound
  it. Build trust.
 
  Fifth, use data and be rigorous. Avoid
  any talk of common sense or design
  philosophy. Talk about data. Charts.
  Graphs. Sheets and sheets of data. Make
  it easy to understand and stick by your
  results. Then, test again. Do it on the
  cheap and show the ROI of your activity.
 
  Sixth, I like this material because it directly
  applies to programmers and project folks:
  http://joel.editthispage.com/  Joel has
  some great stuff that overlaps with our
  work on usability. It can smooth things
  over quite well.

  --

As a WebWord reader, I hope you find this useful too.
I wish people much good fortune when they enter into 
the usability arena. It can be very challenging, and 
very rewarding.


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ITEM #7
    
What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


WebWord.com Services
<http://webword.com/services/index.html>

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>

WebWord.com Store
<http://www.cafepress.com/webword/>

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

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

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


---- End of WebWord.com Usability Newsletter #52 ------





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