Stilgherrian » usability

Links for 04 June 2008 through 11 June 2008

del.icio.us — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:10:53 +0000

Stilgherrian’s links for 04 June 2008 through 11 June 2008, collected semi-automatically:

The Big Picture | Boston.com: "News stories in photographs", it says. Daily photo-essays of about 15 images, nice and big.
Earth's Seasons | US Naval Observatory: The times of the Summer and Winter Solstices, Aphelion and Perihelion for every year until 2020.
Stories We've Seen Too Often | Strange Horizons: A list of story plots and themes which this online publisher has seen far too often. Tr�s amusement.
The Sassy Uterus: Someone on Twitter said this was the best blog title he'd seen in ages. I visited and found myself reading post after witty post about… childbirth and raising a baby. Like I'd normally care!
Writing Style for Print vs Web | Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: Linear vs. non-linear. Author-driven vs. reader-driven. Storytelling vs. ruthless pursuit of actionable content. Anecdotal examples vs. comprehensive data. Sentences vs. fragments.
Graffletopia: A massive collection of stencils (templates) for the OS X diagram/graphics tool OmniGraffle.
Waiting for the Rapture | IEEE Spectrum: The singularitarians believe that in the next several decades we?ll have computers into which you?ll be able to upload your consciousness: immortality.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Sit up! You’re on the Web!

Stilgherrian — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:09:35 +0000

It’s either independent discovery or suppressed memory. Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen’s latest Alertbox column explains something I’ve been saying for years: that people sit up to use a website, and that changes their behaviour.

Unfortunately he’s been saying it for years too, so maybe I got it from him and then forgot.

Anyway, in Writing Style for Print vs Web he says:

I’ve spent many columns explicating the differences between the Web and television, which can be summarized as lean-forward vs. lean-back:

On the Web, users are engaged and want to go places and get things done. The Web is an active medium.

While watching TV, viewers want to be entertained. They are in relaxation mode and vegging out; they don’t want to make choices. TV is a passive medium.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t have entertaining websites or informative TV shows. But it does mean that the two media’s contrasting styles require different approaches to entertainment and education.

The differences between print and the Web may not seem as strong, but to achieve optimal results, each requires a distinct content style.

The very useful article then gives examples and good advice before spruiking his $1000+ per day seminars.

Nielsen is a smart man — though he isn’t always right on everything, as some of his fans believe. Still, if you’re considering the audience’s needs (and shouldn’t you always be doing that?) he’s spot on.

Of course I’m a complete hypocrite, because some of my posts have 1000 words of straight text. Rules were made to be broken.

5 Random Semi-Related Posts

Links for 07 May 2008

del.icio.us — Wed, 07 May 2008 22:50:51 +0000

Here are the web links I’ve found for 07 May 2008, posted automatically.

Is Your Consumer Using Social Media? | Advertising Age: Nine Profiles of Who Your Targets Are and Where They Might Be Online
Staralicious: The guy behind this Australian-run celebrity gossip site was interviewed by 2web Crew today. The podcast should be online soon
RedZee: A new search engine (still in Beta) with a very cute animation on the home page and an interesting visualisation technique inside. Will this slow things down and annoy regular users? Or does it actually provide something of value? No time to explore today
The Inquisitr: a new website about "Tech, Pop and Penguins", or something, from former TechCrunch writer and damn nice guy Duncan Riley. good luck, mate!
the global microbrand rant | gapingvoid: Hugh MacLeod's excellent overview of how you can leverage yourself into a global brand using The Power of he Internet.
How Little Do Users Read? | Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox: On the average Web page, users have time to read at most 28% of the words during an average visit; 20% is more likely.