Throughout all the social and political punditry around the presidential election last night, only Doris Kearns Goodwin thought about the candidates as human beings, saying something like, “…their eyes are puffy and throats are sore from campaigning and they’re now filled with anxiety as we play chess with their situation.”
Month: November 2000
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Just saw a seminar on e-commerce usability by Carolyn Snyder. Fairly interesting, I especially respect her for staring down a room for of New York CHI geeks and stating that the old Boo.com site “did some innovative things that came close to working.” On another occasion she flat out contradicted a guideline of Jakob Nielson, whose company sponsered the study. Perhaps the venue – the main conference room at Razorfish – inspires moxie.
On the topic of Boo, I found it interesting that even people who liked the site didn’t like Miss Boo, finding her annoying. Like the Microsoft Office paper clip, I continue to wonder why people hate animated avatars. Perhaps they insult our intelligence, expecting us to treat a cartoon character like an intelligent entity.
This makes me wonder how people would react to an anthropomorphized version of the usual web/windows interface. Imagine a mandatory text box that pleads, “Hey, don’t forget to fill me out!” Or a Buy Now button that seductively winks at you and purrs. -
Awesome birthday gifts – both my brother and my nephew and my sister and my other nephew called to sing Happy Birthday.
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the color of smoke
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“This computer can’t make cookie?! You call that state of art?!” – the Cookie Monster, this morning.