November 2000

Waaaaaaaa…Nice 404 whoa, then hit ‘refresh” – brilliant!

From InteractionArchitect.com: “A category of “skeptical Internet users” has abandoned searching the web. The skeptical Internet user has made a return-on-investment evaluation of his Internet experience, and has come to the conclusion that the return on some sites is just not worth the investment of his personal time and energy.” I’m not surprised. Back when…

Sometime last year I set an ideal goal of cycling over 2000 miles this year (which works out to a doable 15 miles 3 times a week). Some unexpected professional and personal commitments came up and, interesting, I’m on track to do the same 700 miles I did last year. I think my goal this…

Just Stop It It’s interesting that Nike, in spite of pledging to improve working conditions in Asian factories, only reacts when they’re caught in the act (this time, by the BBC). Nike’s “Transparency 101” program finally pledges to publish their PriceWaterhouseCoopers monitoring reports, but only the reports from South America are online. Not that it…

“…And you shall enjoy, together with the Levite and the stranger in your midst, all the bounty…” – Deuteronomy 26 “Who can make an accounting of their gratitude?” – Kennth L. Patton Just attended a wonderful interfaith service to celebrate Thanksgiving hosted by my town’s Clergy Association. First off, I think it’s so cool that…

Internet Relationships I have a friend, Chris, who I haven’t seen in years. We’re not really friends; we used to work together years ago and got along OK but never really hung out. But when he left that company he went on to become an email administrator. He used the servers as his disposal to…

I didn’t realize how important it is to keep your feet healthy. Muscular-skeletal problems with your feet can, over time, work their way up the “kinetic path” to your knees, your hips, and then your back, causing pain and arthritis along the way. So be good to your dogs!

Disturbing Search Requests. Brilliantly points out the stupidity of search engines. I’m not surprised most of these came from Google, which is actually more of a link popularity measurement device than a search engine.

Just received an email from my client gushing about how great the work is, saying, “…we can see our dream coming to life, enhanced tremendously by your team.” Damn that feels good.

Cubists Launch Unnavigable Web Site – hilarious, via Elegant Hack

The Ceiva looked like a great alternative to Sony’s memory stick-driven photo frame, which is twice as expensive. But the Ceiva requires a $50/year subscription just to load your photos into the frame – a real drag. This is a product, not a business, so I wish they weren’t trying to float an entire company…

Finally something academic on voting and usability: Disenfranchised by Design.

For people who think a lot, the act of connecting and exchanging intellictual capital is wonderful tradition, from Plato to online forums. Now someone combined the salon and ecommerce on the Idea Exchange

Tog dissects the Palm Beach Election Ballot. I plan to keep a copy of the ballot in my bag, and when a client asks why we need to do user testing I’ll just put it out.

A real-world web navigation case study of the eGreetings site, via Mersault*Thinking