I recently started a blog on Frank Miller’s “300″ movie to test out a few new things that I’ve learned about (e.g., Google Custom Search, Amazon aStore, Feedburner).
I decided to add another video of the 300 trailer to my 300 blog, just like I’ve done using Google Video a couple of times. Instead of using Google video, however, I decided to try out YouTube, which I don’t like as much because it seems like the video quality is lower. In any case, I searched for “300″ and found the trailer I wanted. I clicked on it to test it out and…
“This video has been removed due to terms of use violation.”
What? That makes no sense. So, I tried again and failed again. The video, which is a movie trailer (i.e., advertisement) is gone.
Based on the search results page, the 300 trailer had been viewed nearly 300k times. That is absolutely free advertising for Wanrer Bros so it just doesn’t make sense they’d remove it.
I know I must be missing something but I will tell you this. If Warner Bros did ask YouTube to kill the video, they are insane.
p.s. If you want to see trailers and videos of Frank Miller’s and Zack Snyder’s 300 movie, be sure visit Frank Miller’s 300 Movie Fan Site. It’s being updated all the time with awesome content.
Thought Affects Movement, Movement Affects Thought — “How we move (or imagine moving) our bodies changes our thoughts. And if there’s a mismatch between thought and physical action, brains don’t like it. Whether you’re designing interfaces or instructional materials, you can’t afford to ignore the research on this.”
Related: Richard Restak’s The Naked Brain: How the Emerging Neurosociety is Changing How We Live, Work, and Love
Usability in the Movies (Jakob Nielsen) — “User interfaces in film are more exciting than they are realistic, and heroes have far too easy a time using foreign systems.”
I love movies so I thought that this article was fun.
Jakob Nielsen should be removed from the galaxy — “There is no correlation between having a UCD team and producing good stuff. Some UCD teams produce garbage; some companies manage very well without.”
What do you think?
Anatomy of a Successful Social Network — “Usability should always be prioritized over revenues. When a user chooses to spend 20 minutes of their life on your website, they could be spending that time anywhere else, but they chose your site. Don’t reward their loyalty with spam.”
Proof that the search for “great search” isn’t over just yet — “So, there’s no question in my mind that, if you can focus more of your information workers’ time on competitive productivity, you should have an easier time achieving your business’ goals.”
Flash, AJAX, Usability, and SEO — “Get with the program, developers and marketers. Don’t assume your target audience wants an enhanced experience, not even advanced Web users. Analyze your target audience’s search behavior. Don’t skip SEO’s usability aspect.”
Nothing too special in this article. It offers the typical introduction to usability and why it is a good idea for your company.
It also has a dark side: Get with the program, developers and marketers. The problem with this comment is that it sets up a false dilemma between usability and marketing. Many usability professionals falsely believe that marketing is anti-usability. Many marketing folks think that usability is either fluff or that it’s just focus group research.
The truth is that marketing and usability go hand in hand. Both camps have a lot to learn from each other. The tone of Get with the program, developers and marketers is negative and I don’t like to see it. Marketers, on behalf of all usability professionals, I apolgogize for fighting with you guys!
Do You Suffer from Familiarity Blindness? (John S. Rhodes writing for Apogee) — “The more important something is in some domain, such as usability, the more likely that you will neglect to tell others about it once you master it.”
This is a fun little article I wrote on an old topic.
Read it now…
Tag Cloud in Chinese websites — “Tag cloud displays tags in a website which emphasize some of the tags by showing them with larger font sizes, and/or in darker colors. Moreover, tags in a tag cloud are usually arranged in alphabetical order. Tag cloud seems to work in the English world as a means of visualization as well as an extra means of navigation – what about in the Chinese world or more specifically, what about in Hong Kong?”
It ain’t so simple…
“First of all, alphabetical sorting does not work at all for Chinese characters.”
“Secondly, it can be challenging to show Chinese characters of different font sizes in a proper way.”
“Thirdly, a tag cloud on Chinese website would not consist of only tags in Chinese.”
Read the full article now…
Your Usability Quote of the Day — “Rich Internet Applications are like the passionate, interesting Scottie on Star Trek but the web browser is Spock; technologically sound but devoid of feeling.”
Interesting rant about Rich Internet Applications (i.e., Flash and Ajax).
Bush Administration Doesn’t Favor New Money Design — “An effort to force a redesign of the nation’s currency so paper money could be more easily used by the blind would be too expensive and could cause undue hardships on the vending machine industry, the Bush administration says.”
The redesign amounts to changing the size of currency so that blind users can easily discriminate between denominations. However, this would make it tough for vending machines to handle those different sizes. Entirely new systems would need to be developed and deployed. Either way, the cost will be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Simplicity — “I think it is a misattribution to say, for example, that the iPod is successful because it lacks features. If you start to believe that, you’ll believe, among other things, that you should take out features to increase your product’s success.”
No offense, but few people are savvy enough to even begin talking about removing features to increase the chances of success. Only the best designers and usability professionals understand the possibilities of success by removing features. Most people buy the party line which Joel is selling: More features, more profit.
Take at look at 37signals’ Getting Real. You’ll see how Joel’s setting up a strawman. 37signals isn’t trying to remove features to succeed. They say start small. They say scale later. They say let customers tell you what they want. They’re not saying that you should remove features to succeed.
Joel’s grade on Simplicity: F
