BLOG by zaiss

Meghan passed along an interesting article that made me feel particularly validated in my choice of profession. Why is good design matter? Because nobody wants to be this guy…

What does it mean to blog about a blog about an article? No fresh ideas? Too much time on my hands? Just curious, it’s not going to stop me from doing it.

Jenn blogged today about one of Jakob Nielsen’s Alertboxes from the past year. At the time I had decided to let the point drop, but now that it’s been brought back to the forefront of my mind I can’t just let it drop.

Usability of movies? Really?! His list of 10 usability “issues” in movies are technically correct, but I’m not buying the reason why we should care. Admittedly, the typical computer user isn’t like me (thanks Bonnie), but I just can’t accept that someone sits down to watch 24, and gets up thinking, “Gosh I’m a failure. Why can’t I use a computer like the people in the shiny box?”

I think it’s easy to get carried away with this trend, and it can have dangerous consequences. It’s like how, after four years of high school debate, I could have chosen to argue with everyone and brutally win every argument. In fact, a friend of mine did just that. And he was a royal jerk when it came to anything even remotely political.

The same is true with usability. “That movie isn’t usable.” “That blog isn’t usable.” “That newsletter isn’t usable.” To an extent, it’s our job, and we should pursue it (and aside from the movie one, I do appreciate Nielsen’s insights). But at the same time, for anyone who has worked in a culture where usability is looked at with a touch of dread (”Oh no, here comes the Designer” and lots of caveats like “Of course, this isn’t as good as if you did it”), calling out usability problems of every little thing can really frustrate people.

Ultimately, when it comes to movies, I say suspend your disbelief and move on. Unless the dialog about technology is so bad that you simply can’t stand it. On that note, I have to say that today’s Penny Arcade wins the award for best comic I’ve read in a looong time.

I got an interesting email today about a new customer portal that Verizon Wireless is setting up. Front and center was a screen shot of the new, sexy interface along with a list of compelling features. What are they? Your guess is as good as mine…

That’s exactly how they showed up when I checked my mail in both Firefox and Safari. Nothing like white text on a white background to get across the critical part of your message!

Looking back at my last post, you may think that those are just two pictures that I painlessly added as part of my standard blogging routine. Indeed I do try to add pictures as often as I can to break up the message, but last time it was anything but painless.

I got the image of the turkey from my mom in email. I downloaded it and looked at it. Mac Preview opened it without difficulty. I opened it in Photoshop to retouch it slightly, crop and scale it so it fit in the blog post. No problems there. Then I went to upload it to my blog, and this:

Ah, bad design, how do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways…

1. What security guidelines? Where are these posted? Did I set them accidentally, or are you enforcing them on me?
2. Where can I go to examine and potentially change the security guidelines? Tell me what about the image is violating it so I can make the change.
3. And while you’re giving me a solution, you can take away the semblance of a solution you have now. “Try another.”?! Maybe Apple should try this marketing technique… “Hey, we don’t have an iPhone for you today. Try another phone!” I’m sure that would be just as successful.

It turns out that the image had something wrong with it - I uploaded it manually, but still wasn’t able to get it to show. When I went to delete it off of the web server, it said, “I can’t find the file you want to delete!” Yet, sure enough, a 136kb file is still sitting on my web server. What a strange little image file.

Sure, I get to see a bit of wildlife around here. Perhaps the occasional duck…

But it’s not holding a candle to what my parents send me from Hummel Park. I’ve posted a few of these shots before (see here and here), but the latest shot makes me wish that ducks had a little more character.

See what I mean? Ducks are cute, but they never make you laugh quite like turkeys can.

A while back, I received a new credit card in the mail, and I thought there was some kind of mistake…

The card was missing any sort of branding! Doesn’t it look naked without it?? A few weeks later as part of my credit card bill, I got what I think was some sort of explanation:

Wow… ended their affiliation with my association? I realize it’s just saying that they aren’t partnering with my bank anymore, but it sounds a little worse than that. But also I wonder - surely FIA has other sponsors that they could use to brand a credit card… something subtle? Or on the other end of the spectrum, perhaps a Hello Kitty card? Not really subtle, but at least it would be something other than a plain, blank silver card.

I suppose that isn’t as bad as my second card… when I went to pay my bill this month, this is how they listed my account:

Does that remind anyone else of my favorite Futurama episode?

You may have read previous posts where I urge you not to host your website with Bliksem Hosting… but in case you haven’t, I figure a reminder can’t hurt. Anyway, a good year after I posted that entry, I decided that it would be smart to follow my own advice. It’s true that I transferred my hosting plan over to Site5 (a fabulous hosting company), but I wasn’t able to transfer all of my domain registrations over to them.

So they remained with Bliksem, or more accurately, with some second company called eNom. But the interesting part is that they neglected to tell me that my domains expired. Nothing like awful customer service to cause me to spring into action.

I needed a cheap place to host my domains (and for some reason Site5 couldn’t transfer them), so I went to GoDaddy since they had the best prices. But the checkout process threw me for a loop…

That’s strange. I see an Update Cart button and an Empty Cart button… where do I buy this stuff? Maybe I’m too used to Amazon (silly me getting used to a solid, common design) – it turns out that the button I was looking for was clear at the bottom of the screen, and still cut off!

And did I mention my screen resolution is 1680 x 1050? Here’s a fun fact to know and tell - not being able to find the checkout button is one of the leading causes of abandoned shopping carts in e-commerce apps. Sure, you’re saying I should have read each bullet as a step and gone through all of them in order… but that’s not how shopping carts have worked in other sites.

GoDaddy made it up to me though – two days after placing my order, I got a call from one of their representatives to follow up on the transaction. That was pretty nice! One step above Site5 even; although, I’m sure they did it to try and talk me into buying a hosting plan. Still, I appreciate the thought.

Yeah yeah, so I couldn’t quite take a day off. Independence Day is a great day for a post about forgotten Presidents, so how could I resist?

One thing that I find interesting about checking the Digg headlines is the interest that the “mainstream” audience takes in knowing geography and history (especially given how poorly America tends to stack up in those areas). You may recall that a few months ago I mentioned the Geography quiz as a fun way to pass the time when you’re sick. These days I’m to the point where I can find any country on the map… except in Africa. Africa’s tough, but I’m getting there.

Anyway, another quiz surfaced recently on Digg asking you to identify our presidents. You have 10 minutes to enter the last names of all 43 Presidents. The nice (yet not-so-accurate) part comes in with Presidents who have the same last name - since typing the name once gives you all Presidents with that last name. I remember Harrison quite easily (it helps when you grow up in a neighborhood with streets named after Presidents), but I associated it with William Henry Harrison. I got Benjamin Harrison for free. Not that I remember him, but it looks like I did. Lucky me.

My favorite part comes in when you’re done - you can check out who the most forgotten President is. The winner? Chester A. Arthur!!

Yet another dubious honor. These results aren’t permanent - in fact, the percentages are always changing. Personally, I don’t see how people can forget the administration which gave us the Tariff Act of 1883. You should take the quiz and try to make a different President more forgettable. Franklin Pierce is close on Arthur’s tail…

It’s Sunday, and I just discovered a handy feature in how this blog is setup - if I post-date a blog entry, it won’t show up on the blog until that date! That’s pretty neat. So even though you’re reading my 4th of July post on the 4th of July, I’m actually taking the day off from blogging today.

Happy Independence Day!

I don’t really consider myself much of a photographer. More like an amateur picture taker. Point and Click! That’s why I was so surprised today to get an email from the folks at Schmap Seattle Guide asking to use (well, consider) one of my flickr pictures in the third edition of their guide.

Now, I don’t really know the woman in the picture. This was more a shot of opportunity that 5 other people also took advantage of while this tourist was posing with the the Pike Place Fish Market worker. Just look at the lower left corner of the picture.

While this an opportunity to get my name out there for my stellar slightly below average amateur photography, I still worry about submitting the picture. I can’t help but picture this woman coming back to Seattle in a few years, seeing a photo of herself in this guide with my name on it. Would you be freaked out? I think I would.

Edit 8/3/07: I kept my photo in the competition, and it made the online magazine! Check it out!