WebWord.com Newsletter Issue #60

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ISSUE #60

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                WebWord.com Newsletter
           "Industrial Strength Usability"
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                 Newsletter Editor
                   John S. Rhodes 
                     John@webword.com
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July 26, 2001                       Newsletter #60
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Table of Contents

1.  WebWord Version 2.0
2.  The Usability of Usability
3.  The Glassdog Barks
4.  Are You Tired of Jakob?
5.  What Can You Find at WebWord.com?

       
	4289 subscribers 

	Tell a friend. Pass this along to a 
	colleague. Recommend WebWord now!
	--> http://www.recommend-it.com/l.z.e?s=319991

	
	Usability Testing Services
	--> http://webword.com/services/index.html



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ITEM #1

WebWord Version 2.0


I recently made some major changes at WebWord. The biggest change is that
I moved WebWord over to a new web hosting provider and I installed
Greymatter. Greymatter is a web content management system that is
especially good at managing weblogs. Here is a list of cool things
Greymatter has done for me:

1. I can post news to WebWord from any browser, at any time, from any
place. I am free to leave my desktop computer behind. I can travel and can
post news on the run. Excellent!

2. You can now link to any news posting on WebWord. So, you can pass along
the URL to a friend or a colleague, or you can reference it from your web
site. This is very useful if there are comments associated with that
posting, which leads me to the next point.

3. You can now post your comments under each posting I put on WebWord. So,
you can voice your opinion. You can have your comment seen by hundreds of
people. Literally. Remember, WebWord gets over 1,000 visitors per day and
1,600-2,200 page views per day (I just reviewed my server log files). 

4. Greymatter has indirectly allowed me to build XML files for syndication
(RSS 0.92 and RSS 1.0 files). You can learn a little bit more about my
newsfeeds here:
>> http://webword.com/syndication.html

5. I no longer have to manually archive my news postings. Greymatter
automatically does archiving. Cool! There will always be 3 days of news on
the home page of WebWord, it keeps track of almost everything for me.


Greymatter was very easy for me to install. While it is true that I have a
lot of experience with Perl scripts and CGI, this was a very reasonable
installation. The creator of Greymatter, Noah Grey, offers Greymatter to
people for FREE. He is kind, generous, and I think he is a genius.
Seriously. I will be interviewing him very soon.

In any event, if you are interested in seeing Greymatter in action, visit
WebWord today:
>> http://webword.com

If you are interested in learning more about this amazing content
management tool, visit the Greymatter web site:
>> http://noahgrey.com/greysoft/


On a slightly different topic, I am interested in doing a lot more
publishing on WebWord. Specifically, I am looking for people who want to
write usability articles for WebWord. If you are feeling spicy, send me a
note. Unleash the author inside!  
>> john@webword.com

I'm also going to start looking for advertisers and sponsors for WebWord.
If you are reading this, you know that I reach a very good market through
WebWord. The site gets great traffic given its focus, the readers are
intelligent, and they are curious about products and services related to
usability, web design, project management, information architecture, and
so forth. Also, keep in mind that there are some great opportunities to
advertise in this newsletter (almost 4,300 subscribers), or maybe you want
to an exclusive sponsorship. I'm open to your ideas, comments, and
suggestions. The time is right to tap into the WebWord flow:
>> sponsors@webword.com


That's all for now. Thanks for letting me ramble on. Enjoy the rest of the
newsletter.

Cheers,

- John

p.s. 4,289 subscribers. We're getting close to 5,000!

John S. Rhodes
WebWord.com -- Industrial Strength Usability
http://webword.com
john@webword.com



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ITEM #2

A new WebWord.com interview is now online:
--> http://webword.com/interviews/spool2.html


"The Usability of Usability"

This is a really great interview with Jared Spool, the Founding Principal
of User Interface Engineering. Here is a quote to hook you:

"As far as I can see, the things that were done right in making web sites
more usable didn't happen in the usability community. It's interesting to
note that the most usable sites in our studies, such as Dell, eBay,
Amazon, and Edmunds have no real usability efforts to speak of. eBay has a
relatively new team that is only a handful of folks, Dell also has a small
team compared to the size and impact of their site. The others:
practically no usability team. Now contrast that with the organizations
which have the largest usability groups, such as Microsoft and IBM. From a
usability perspective, their sites don't do nearly as well. There are
substantial usability problems that permeate both companies sites
seemingly without resolution, even though the teams work very hard." 


You can read the new interview here:
--> http://webword.com/interviews/spool2.html



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ITEM #3

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


"The Glassdog Barks"

I recently interviewed Lance Arthur, the incredible force behind Glassdog.
I asked Lance several questions about design and, just as I thought, his
answers were great. Here's a small sample:


Question: Let's be off the wall. What is the color of the web? What does
it smell like? What does it feel like? Now, with those things in mind, do
you like the web?

Answer: The Web is black. Its a huge void waiting to be filled up. In
between every page on every site is endless space waiting for more and
more and more. It's a vacuum. It's neither warm nor cold and has no depth
to speak of. It smells like cardboard and plastic. It's the smell of a new
car. It's the smell of the polyform when you take it off your new Mac. It
smells like the future. When you reach out to touch the Web, it's
surprisingly hard. You expect your hand to go right through it like
spider's web or liquid, but your fingers press against a glossy surface
you can't even see. You press harder and it begins to yield, though not
easily. 

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


It is an interesting interview. Lance is creative and intelligent. Enjoy
it!


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ITEM #4

Are You Tired of Jakob?


I'm available for interviews. I tend to say outrageous things and I stir
up trouble. I rock the boat, and I'm ready to rumble. If you want some
cool sound bites, I'm the guy that you want to interview. Drop me a line,
let's start a conversation...let's get people thinking. Let's shake,
rattle, and roll. Let's talk! 

>> john@webword.com


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ITEM #5
    
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

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 #60 -----

      (c)2001 by WebWord.com and John S. Rhodes. 
                 All rights reserved.

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