==================================================
                WebWord.com Newsletter
           "Industrial Strength Usability"
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                 Newsletter Editor
                   John S. Rhodes 
                     John@webword.com
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May 29, 2002                        Newsletter #68
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Table of Contents


1.  Advertising Experimentation
2.  Removing the Ws from URLs
3.  Hyperlinks in Email 
4.  Google Voice Search
5.  Usability for Senior Citizens 
6.  Lack of Formatting Control in Email
7.  What Can You Find at WebWord.com?


       
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ITEM #1

Editorial: Advertising Experimentation

I decided to experiment with advertising in this edition
of the WebWord Newsletter. Above you will see a sponsor
message. Apogee Communications was kind enough to pay
us $100 to place an advertisement that is going to reach
over 6,000 people. That is less than $0.02 per person.
Since Apogee is a usability and communications company 
and this is obviously a usability newsletter, the match 
is almost perfect and the price is right.

As you probably know, I like to experiment. I think it 
is important since it helps me to continuously improve 
WebWord. I'd like to know what you think. Do you mind
the advertisement? Do you plan on visiting the web site 
or contacting Apogee Communications? What is good and 
bad about the advertisement? Perhaps we can help Apogee
improve their advertisement. Please send me a note if 
you have an opinion.  

  John S. Rhodes
  john@webword.com




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ITEM #2

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


"Removing the Ws from URLs"

In this article, however, I will go one step further 
and recommend that sites should be set up to work 
with or without the Ws, but also have the Ws 
automatically removed from the URL using a server-side 
technique I will henceforth refer to as "removing the 
Ws". I will detail why I feel this is a more appropriate 
solution and explain how this can be done.

(This is a WebWord guest article written by Jeff Lash.)


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



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ITEM #3

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


"Hyperlinks in Email"

Email usability can be dramatically increased or 
decreased by how URLs are designed and placed in 
messages. An example of one problem is described in 
detail in this article. Also, a couple of simple tips 
are provided to help you improve the URLs in your email 
messages.

Note: Take a look at the feedback (see below) from Jakob 
Bruhns. It explains the (new) linking methodology I am 
trying. So far, it is working great.

<URL: http://webword.com/readers/bruhns.txt >

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




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ITEM #4

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


"Google Voice Search"

Google Voice Search allows you to make a telephone call 
to Google with a search query and get the results on a 
web page. The purpose of this article is to briefly 
describe the user experience and investigate the 
usability implications of this tool.

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




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ITEM #5

Usability for Senior Citizens 

Jakob Nielsen wrote an article about older users of the
web. The article is somewhat useful and offers up some
reasonable advice:  

<URL: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20020428.html >

The reason that I think it is interesting is that it
generated a lot of comments on WebWord by readers. When
people feel strongly, they are not afraid to voice their 
opinions. Take a look:

<URL: http://webword.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=71 >




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ITEM #6

Lack of Formatting Control in Email

People have told me that the formatting of the WebWord
Addiction is not very good. For those people that don't
know, the Webword Addiction is the (almost) daily
newsletter that I send out to well over 2,000 people.
Of course, I want the formatting to be good for every
single person, but that is not possible. It is also not
very realistic.

To get an idea about how bad the newsletter looks in 
various email clients in various environments, I asked
WebWord Addiction readers to send me screenshots of
what they saw and to provide me with their basic system 
configurations and email clients. Here are three examples:


Outlook 98 on Windows NT 4.00 SP6
<URL: http://webword.com/images/addiction_r1.gif >

Outlook Express on Windows ME 
<URL: http://webword.com/images/addiction_r2.gif >

GroupWise 5.5.4.1 on Windows NT 4.00
<URL: http://webword.com/images/addiction_r3.gif >


The bottom line seems to be that you just don't know
what you are going to get. I have no idea why the 
newsletter shows up with double spacing. I'm certainly
not adding that information to the newsletter deliberately.
I've tried many things to get the content to show up 
exactly the same in all email clients on all systems,
but that doesn't work any more than trying to get a web
site to look the same in all browsers on all systems.

I honestly can't seem to find a really good "best 
practices" for newsletter usability and design. I've
tried to keep this newsletter and the WebWord Addiction
both very simple. It works in general but obviously it 
is not perfect. What a shame!

On a related topic, can you imagine the havoc I would 
unleash if I tried to send out an HTML only newsletter? 
Companies that only send out HTML newsletters are smoking 
crack in my opinion. I'd love to be wrong but I just can't
imagine it working well since it is so hard to get a 
plain-text newsletter to work under the varying 
circumstances I've just talked about. It is tough.

If you think you have seen a great plain-text email
newsletter, send me a copy. Be sure to explain why
you think it is so great. What works, what doesn't?

--> good.newsletter@webword.com

Depending on the results, I'll try to summarize the
best ideas in an article or I'll post something on
WebWord. Be sure to let me know if I can quote you.




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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/

Career Center
>> http://careers.webword.com/

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 #68 -----

      (c)2002 by WebWord.com and John S. Rhodes. 
                 All rights reserved.