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THE WEB CAN BE A BETTER PLACE TO SURF AND DO BUSINESS !

Last Updated: October 30, 2004

[September 30, 2002]

Gerry McGovern: Information technology: Trojan Horse of information overload - "Before you invest in fancy content management software, make sure your people have the skills to create, edit and publish quality content. Before you invest in fancy search technology, make sure your people are trained in how to search efficiently. Before you succumb to information overload, train your people to send less emails, and to be more succinct in what they send."

NY Times (free registration required): PC Makers Hit Speed Bumps; Being Faster May Not Matter

Baron Lane: How to ensure your Web site is customer-friendly and profitable - "All business Web sites are developed around a set of core requirements that are derived from a number of interrelated considerations - budget, development timelines, technology limitations, marketing needs and departmental politics. And the real defining benchmark of Web development and success - user satisfaction - is often guesswork at best."

[September 26, 2002]

The Skeptic's Dictionary: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator - "The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is an instrument for measuring a person's preferences, using four basic scales with opposite poles. The four scales are: (1) extraversion/introversion; (2) sensate/intuitive; (3) thinking/feeling; and (4) judging/perceiving. ... The MBTI is used in business to decide whom to hire and it is frequently used by managers as some sort of productivity tool. By getting people to 'understand' themselves and their co-workers better by knowing their personality types, it is hoped that people will be more productive."

Syllabus: Ready or Not--PDAs in the Classroom - "The question is what can one do with a PDA in the classroom? Is there any pedagogical benefit to having such a device in the hands of a student, or is it just another gadget?"

[September 25, 2002]

Adaptive Path: User-Centered URL Design - "But despite the universality of URLs, we often forget that they're not just a handy way to address network resources. They're also valuable communication tools. They help orient users in your architecture, and can suggest whether other options are available."

Digital Web Magazine: Keep It Simple: Fluid Thinking - "The fluidity of the Web is not the problem, it's the solution. If you accept that your site will never be viewed exactly as you want it, you understand the spirit of the Web and its standards."

Mantex: Internet Glossary - definitions of IT terms

LindowsOS 2.0 Desktop Screenshots (via Julian's Scrapbook)

Martin Dodge: Atlas of Cyberspaces - "This is an atlas of maps and graphic representations of the geographies of the new electronic territories of the Internet, the World-Wide Web and other emerging Cyberspaces. These maps of Cyberspaces - cybermaps - help us visualise and comprehend the new digital landscapes beyond our computer screen, in the wires of the global communications networks and vast online information resources."

Wired News: A New Way to Read, Not See, Maps - "A North Carolina university student has developed software that will further open up geographic research to the visually impaired."

[September 24, 2002]

The Skeptic's Dictionary: "Intelligent Design (ID) refers to the theory that intelligent causes are responsible for the origin of the universe and of life in all its diversity. ... Believing the universe or some part of it was designed or not does not help understand how it works. ... If we grant that the universe is possibly or even probably the result of intelligent design, what is the next step? For example, assume a particular eco-system is the creation of an intelligent designer. Unless this intelligent designer is one of us, i.e., human, and unless we have some experience with the creations of this and similar designers, how could we proceed to study this system?"

[September 22, 2002]

"Future Physical aims to explore how the creative use of digital technologies can enhance and extend human interaction."

"The history of hypertext begins in July of 1945."

[September 21, 2002]

The International Journal of Computer Game Research - "Our Mission - To explore the rich cultural genre of games; to give scholars a peer-reviewed forum for their ideas and theories; to provide an academic channel for the ongoing discussions on games and gaming. ... Our primary focus is aesthetic, cultural and communicative aspects of computer games, but any previously unpublished article focussed on games and gaming is welcome."

Macworld: Q&A with Steve Wozniak - "I also think Apple has a direction of looking at the world not that it's a computer but that it's an element of your life and a beauty in your home, that whole feeling of the product and you. It's that relationship that makes it not so much technology. It's pretty much like back to the early starting ideas of Apple of the computer as just a tool a person uses to do something."

The digital pocket gallery - "Files and folders are the 'digital pockets' of the internet artist. The hard-drive is an autobiography in coded form. Dreams, ideas and waste lie hidden in these cryptically labelled pockets that have become the maps and landscapes of our virtual lives."

[September 20, 2002]

Gerry Gaffney: The Obscure Interface - "User interfaces, whether internet-based or 'traditional' applications, are often difficult to learn and use. There are many reasons for obscurity at the user interface layer ..."

Jonathon Delacour: "Does anyone regard the standard weblog monthly calendar as even vaguely useful?"

Stephen Downes: "Get Off the Web - "If you don't like the internet the way it was designed and the way it was built, if you just can't earn the sort of return you want for your costly-to-produce content, get off the web! Take your snide remarks about webloggers and free content and build your own network. You don't even need to install new hardware: the existing infrastructure will do just fine, you can deliver your services over existing modems. Sure, you would have to write new client and server applications, but these are pretty simple and you can write them with your desired business rules built into them."

"CNN.com has launched a new design that provides better navigation, larger photos, personalized weather, a new 'User Picks' feature, and more depth in specific subject areas, including technology, entertainment and world news."

[September 19, 2002]

New Architect: Progress Paralysis - "Web-site style guides need more depth, detailing not only the surface features, but also the rules behind content display, navigation systems, and interaction. In addition to visual design, the style guide should also discuss the full spectrum of behavior. Provide guidelines on general points, like how your global navigation bar depicts a user's current location, as well as specific issues, like whether your pull-down menus need a Go button."

"Identify a font with the Identifont - online typeface identifier. Answer a few questions about the letters in your sample and see a list of typefaces that match!"

[September 18, 2002]

GrokDotCom: Myers-Briggs Personality temperments explained for online web design - "Knowing who your visitors are is going to influence everything you do on your website, from how you structure your selling process, how and where you place different categories of information, what calls to action you provide, how you write your copy, all the way through to the colors you choose."

GrokDotCom: Personality Types and how to design your website

Usability News: User Centred Design Techniques help win Boujou an Emmy

Color Calculator (via Flazoom) - "Sessions.edu has launched a first-of-its-kind series of Flash tools called ILUs (Interactive Learning Unit). The ILUs are Interactive tools that help student and professionals in their design work. The Color Calculator is the first application in this series; it provides the user with the ability to identify color schemes or harmonies for any design project, by controlling a series of menus and tools."

ZDNet: Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Is this the best we can do? - "With everyone looking for the next killer app, here's a hint: Make it easy. The first company that figures out how to free us from our collective computing straitjacket will strike financial gold. This will require big thinking, the kind that breaks molds and challenges conventional wisdom."

[September 17, 2002]

Wired News: Mac Heads Immortalized in Pixels - "Now an enterprising graphic designer from upstate New York has updated and democratized portraiture with a cut-rate service that turns ordinary people into icons for their computer desktops."

Embrace your computer problems (via Bruce Sterling)

PC Components Clocks - "Support Your Local Computer Parts Recycler!"

[September 16, 2002]

Editor & Publisher: Don't Hide Your Multimedia Content! - "... let the Web user know what they will get if they click on multimedia links. Especially for video but also for Flash or other multimedia animations, there is legitimate concern by online users about how large such content is and how long it will take their computer to download the content and display it. If a low-bandwidth user, especially, doesn't know enough about what they'll get, they're likely to hesitate before clicking."

[September 15, 2002]

Richard A. Hudiburg, Ph.D. (1996): Assessing and Managing Technostress - "When humans interact with computers there may be several potentially negative outcomes. Various terms have been employed to describe these outcomes: computer stress, computer anxiety, negative computer attitudes, computerphobia, and computer aversion. These terms have appeared in the research literature of human-computer interactions. ... Will future generations of librarians and others experience less technostress because they have grown up during the computer and information age?"

New Scientist: "Making music out of computer code is helping programmers to catch the bugs that can cause software to go awry."

[September 13, 2002]

In My Experience: Obsolescence is a relative term. - "... about Zeldman's Neilsonian like decree that 99.9 percent of web sites are obsolete."

Adrian Holovaty: A blind computer user's thoughts on news Web sites - "As I have argued time and time again in this blog, it's sadly ironic that the same news organizations that historically have trumpeted freedom of information tend to produce Web sites that make that information inaccessible."

Adrian Holovaty: Why news sites don't use XHTML and CSS

NY Times (free registration required): Flash presentation of proposals for rebuilding Ground Zero.

Pocket Calculator Nerd Watch Museum (via Mike's List)

[September 11, 2002]

ClickZ: Use Usability to Best Advantage - "If you're an analyst, you might not think usability applies to you. It's probably not your responsibility. But you should know that a usability test can provide much secondary information that can spark ideas or shed light on customer behavior and thinking."

Adaptive Path: Site Navigation: A Few Helpful Definitions - "Every site has structure, and visitors will form their first and most lasting impressions of that structure by looking at the links, buttons, tabs, and other controls that form the 'navigation.' As designers, we're very concerned with creating a navigation scheme and interface that makes it easy for the user to understand what they can do and where they can go. But collaborating with your team on the design of a navigation system can be difficult unless you all share the same vocabulary when talking about the different parts that make up the navigation UI."

Karl Dubost: How to achieve Web standards and quality on your Web site? - "Here you will find easy, painless techniques and ideas to improve your Web site quality and make your Web site valid. This document is intended for HTML users, developers working on Web applications, and Web masters."

[September 10, 2002]

Mercury News: Archaic computer systems hamper war on terror - "The federal government has wasted billions of dollars on poorly designed, customized computer systems that are incapable of communicating with each other. ... Many analysts inside and outside government believe that if federal agencies had a greater ability to share information and access to better technology, they might have foiled the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks."

IHT: IT managers cite security and competition when choosing a Linux system

[September 8, 2002]

Nathan Ashby-Kuhlman: When is a link an endorsement? - "The Web needs some kind of interface enhancement to distinguish between kinds of links, connote endorsement or lack thereof and help the reader determine which links are interesting."

Ethical Principles For Offering Internet Health Services to Consumers

Guardian Online: Working the web: Newsreaders - "It's awesomely useful. You don't get the pictures, the layout or the advertising of the real version, but the meaty bits are there for the chewing. And this means you can grab the contents of 100 sites in one bite, and taste exactly what's new. Your morning is no longer spent trawling your bookmarks for interesting stuff, your phone bill is lower, and you can feel smug in the cutting-edginess of it. Is there anything better for an Online reader such as yourself?"

Digital Web Magazine: 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete - "They work in yesterday's mainstream browsers because the first four to five generations of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer did not merely tolerate non-standard markup and browser-specific code; they actually encouraged sloppy authoring and proprietary scripting in an ill-conceived battle to own the browser space."

[September 6, 2002]

Michel Fortin: Want A Sticky Site That Sells? Forget Content! - "Look at it this way: a book is limited by its front and back covers. When the book is done, it's done. The web, however, is not. If your content does not strive at getting the reader to do something, whether it's to buy, subscribe, join, download, call, email, fill out a form, click or whatever, then you need to seriously rethink your content and the words you use. Here's my explanation of the difference between content and copy. Content informs. Copy invites. Even if content invites a reader to keep reading, it's still selling an idea. It's still calling for action. And it's still copy."

David E. Sorkin: "Stupid linking policies"

Technology Research News: Net traffic mimics earthquakes - "Earthquakes and the Internet may seem very different, but they do have one thing in common. They're both complex systems whose behavior is currently very difficult to predict."

[September 5, 2002]

Digital Web Magazine: An interview with Steven Champeon and Shirley Kaiser of the Web Standards Project (WaSP)

Guardian Online: Government sites 'not practical enough'

ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals

[September 4, 2002]

User Interface Engineering: Flash Strikes Back: Creating Powerful Web Applications - "With the advent of Flash MX, developers now have the power to create web applications with more sophisticated client- and server-side interactivity. In this article, we highlight web applications that truly demonstrate Flash's benefits over traditional HTML-based applications."

WinWriters (via andersja's blog): A Usability Test of Web-based User Assistance - "Recently, WinWriters used the web-based registration process for its annual Online Help Conference as a case study to test several models of user assistance for the Web. We conducted a series of usability tests to:

The tests provided some clear conclusions as to user preferences. We have described the tests and summarized the findings here."

Gerry McGovern: Information architecture: learning how to classify - "If you are a knowledge worker, a key skill you require is how to classify content. Classification skills are needed in order to better organize content on your computer, for your emails, and for how you compose documents. If you have responsibility for a website, classification is an essential skill."

WebmasterBase: The Art of eCommerce Web Design

Computer Architecture Simulators

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