Digg Avatar Colour Is Important — “Standing out does two things: Makes the item more memorable, and re-collectable at a later stage. Appeals to the human ‘instinct’ to ignore the mundane and monotonous (as that is ’safe’), and take notice of the buck of the trend (as that is ‘new’ and hasn’t been ‘evaluated’ for it’s ‘acceptance’, yet).”
I agree that the avatar color influences Digg users. From my own experience, those avatars with bright colors grab my attention. Who knows what really happens after attention grabbing.
Components of User-Centered Design — “Knowing your target audience is important, but what about the others that are finding you. Are you looking for a niche or do you offer something for everyone. By knowing the search behaviors of users you may find a new group of users that you can convert into buyers. Are you casting your line or throwing a net? This is not the answer to User-Centered Design, rather, it is just the start. Looking at your website from the keyboards of your potential visitors is the first step in a successful website. Develop a strategy, then figure out how to accomplish it!”
Why Simplicity Is Essential to Web Design (Gerry McGovern) — “…we don’t pay for visiting a site with our money; we pay for it with our time. The longer we spend on a Web site, the more we pay, so there is a strong motivation to spend as little time as possible.”
The caveat is that people love to spend time at entertainment web sites. If there’s a great free Flash game available, you don’t mind spending some time on a site. In other words, people *can* be motivated to spend a lot of time at a site. Context matters.
I wrote a posting about India etiquette 2-3 years ago that prompted this response:
“WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR LEFT HANDED? DOES THAT MEAN THAT YOU ARE WRITING WITH YOUR POOP HAND?”
Now, you have to realize that this is not a spam comment. Instead, this is a real comment by a real WebWord reader. I see the comment above as strong affirmation that what I do on WebWord is worth everyone’s time. It’s good stuff.
The problem is that to keep a blog good, you have to consistently and constantly update it with great postings. Otherwise, why bother?
I have to admit that I’ve done a terrible job updating WebWord recently. Honestly, I carry around guilt that I have not posted anything recently. I have not posted anything in a long time. Nothing! Not even a good (versus great) blog posting.
Interestingly, this blog posting — what you’re reading right now — is probably pretty good. It’s probably not great. The reason it isn’t great is because this posting doesn’t really focus on usability whatsoever.
Then again, maybe this is about usability…
I think of usability very broadly. In fact, I hardly say “usability” any longer. Instead, I tend to talk about user experience (UX). So a stale blog drives a poor user experience and that’s not good for anyone.
Let’s jump to the conclusion now…
If you want to write a great blog posting, Rule #1 is keep your blog fresh. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
