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03.01.11 iCan’tMeet 0

admin to behavior,business,cyberSurreal,Experience,social web commentary,user-centered design,web 2.0 — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  
Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, smok...

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okay — i apsolutely needed to post about this one because it is apsolutely hilarious from a ‘live user testing’ scenario

aight

so here goes

i signed up for the free trial to a new web conferencing solution called iMeet … i think i actually clicked on an ad on LinkedIn + i was extremely excited because the visual design + the promise seemed to be everything that Dimdim was supposed to be … + after working for both WebEx + Dimdim over the years, i still think these technologies just aren’t quite right yet, they’re like still in the larva stage or somehting, right?

anyhow, it was cool to have the grand professional excuse to check out a myriad of competitive online conferencing solutions during my short but rocky stay at Dimdim { recently purchased by Salesforce dot com, NOT a direct result of anything i did for the Dimmrz } — i really got to dig deep + think about all the features + functionality i would want from a virtual meeting product … i even got so inspired by the crazy swirling activity ‘out there’, about all these meeting experiences, that i fantasized i would have the time to compare, contrast + blog about meeting software + put my design thoughts ‘out there’ through the website ‘binarAwardz‘ where we would not only do a product analysis, sort of spinning the wheels + doing the heuristic review of each site, but we would also give out awards to amazing Webinars { hence the ‘binar part of the domain name } in a very platform-agnostic sorta way

cool idea, right?

anyhow, when i saw the ad for iMeet on LinkedIn i knew i needed to click here

i need to know if they finally got it right, right?

i mean, what if they were able to do what we couldn’t do at WebEx or Dimdim? nobody really does this right, right? i mean, everyone uses Skype, + i think that Skype is probably the most elegant solution ‘out there’ to date { let me know if you happen to know of others that are really working effectively, both for ease-of-use but also somehow simulating some sort of real presence } … others i know of, that are in my virtual meeting radar, include: FuseMeeting + GoToMeeting, but i’m sure there are others too

so, 2 first impressions to share here for iMeet

firstly, like … + i don’t even know how to say this, but … so, everything looks so cool + pristine, i mean … its like this nicely designed experience that doesn’t even belong in a browser … just the sign up is cinematic … you know they were goin’ for that ‘Apple Design‘ shit everyone is looking for right now, you know? drives me a little crazy, but i guess there is a formula to this stuff + business owners are just askin’ for it { in more ways than 1 ;] } … so, here is this elegant promise that quite literally alludes to Heaven … there’s a beautiful, nebulous horizon, a sky full of desaturated clouds + little birds flying by … + as you sign up they’re putting you in your own box somewhere near the center of the screen … the metaphor is a little strange, but this is your iMeet product i guess, this is you on iMeet … so, they’re building this wonderful expectation up, this amazing + heavenly experience + then …

BLAMMO!

i can’t fncking sign in

yep

you got it

i don’t remember now if it was due to my own impatience, but for some strange reason the experience, almost assuredly due to its high level of Flashedness, the experience was lagging as it was building my iMeet Profile out + for one reason or another i didn’t get the expected email from the system + i couldn’t sign in with the credentials i thought i just established in the sign up flow

ho

ho

ho

WRONG

i mean, we’re talkin’ 2:13 am a few weeks back + i’m somewhat disappointed, a little motivated to get it working no matter what, + just plain exhausted + needing sleep … i think i emailed them, so on + so forth … no immediate response, but maybe 20 minutes later or more i was finally into an experience that i couldn’t even really fully test because the context of a ‘meeting’ includes more than me, right? + nobody else is ‘out there’ at 2:34 am that i can ‘poke’ or rattle awake to do some heuristic analysis with, which is too bad

i barely used iMeet

i might’ve logged in 1 more time

it just LOOKS so fncking cool

so

secondly, i tried signing in today, right? i forgot my password + follow the ‘forgot password?’ flow + i get this strange error message that makes no sense to the average human, but in DevSpeak it means that someone forgot to come up with a post-trial upSell message that could have encouraged me to ‘try again’ or buy a subscription to iMeet

huge wasted opportunity

but, whatevs, right?

its their product + i can cry if i want to

but then, here’s the motherfncking kicker — here’s the bloody cherry on the experiential cupcake of missed opportunities + Freudian slippage supreme

being the UX dude that i am, i decide to find a way to get in touch with them + let them know about this crazyAss message:

Password undefined local variable or method `logger’ for CdpRest:Class #

… + how this could be a golden opportunity for them, right? if they change that message, they might have me for a little more

so, i hunt around for a contact form + after 6 minutes or so finally find some footer item, lamely tucked away + nearly invisible, but i find it … i fill it out + then realize after spending another 2 minutes or so that …

there is NO submit button

NO SUBMIT BUTTON

WTFffFfFfF?

right?

what’s iMeet tryin’ to say here? what’re they subliminally letting us know?

sure, they followed the nicey nice standard web convention of letting us get in touch with them on their website, but …

OoOOooOOOoOOOooOPS!

they don’t really want to hear from us

they don’t really give a flying shit in iMeet Heaven whether we iMeet on their site or on someone elses

they don’t really care about getting this right at all

welcome to the onslaught of Horrible User Experience 101

you got it wrong, bitch

wrong again, i’m afraid

+ despite all the efforts to create an utterly beautiful visual experience paradigm, to really get a casual + fun tone of voice goin’ on, to attempt to get some of these critical flows down pat, despite all that … you lose

but its not too late

just start by giving us a ‘submit’ button

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02.15.11 LinkedIn: look at all these rumors … 0

admin to LinkedIn Answers,professionalism,social web commentary — Tags: , , , , , , , ,  

My good friend and colleague on LinkedIn Dave Maskin — founder, owner and operator of WireNames.com { check him out } recently posted the following LinkedIn Answer:

The original question from Dave out on LinkedIn Answers.

The rumor is that Linkedin is about to become a paid subscription job board …

… and scrap the q&a, groups, our profiles and all discussions, as we know them, etc.

If that is the case, are we all simply wasting our time here, as, after their IPO, Linkedin will most likely simply disregard and wipe away the very people who have built this site up?

It’s their site and it’s free, yes that’s true, but do the owners of this site have any idea how boneheaded this move is, not to mention really rude to the millions who use the site daily…?

I found this to be a rather interesting rumor and decided to post my ‘Answer’ or reactionary response to add to the mix.

Here’s what I had to say:

I’m sure this sort of thing can happen to any of the social networking sites ‘out there’ that we all contribute to and participate on. I think it would be incredibly naïve ( but not outside of the realm of narrowminded thinking and possibility ) for ‘the owners’ of LinkedIn to suddenly decide to make the site a paid subscription service. Of course, they’re just trying to monetize this big, brilliant experience that services thousands upon thousands of professionals on a daily basis — and who can blame them?

But, key to all of this is a funny little thing about the social web. We’re all assuming ‘the owners‘ are some dudes in suits in an office in an office park in a city in a state in a country in the world — when in fact, ‘the owners‘ of the site are us. Yep, that’s right — WE own the site. After all, WE put our profiles up here; WE contribute to the crazy zillion status updates and hook our Twitter feeds into this experience; WE answer the questions ( or Answers or whatever their called — I think its now called ‘The Old Quora’ ;] ); WE post or apply to jobs; WE set up Groups; its all us all the time.

WE own LinkedIn.

And I’m sure that a certain percentage of LinkedIn participants would pay for these services on a subscription basis. But I think a LOT of people won’t. And they’ll just go to another social web experience or 3 ‘out there’ that offer the same thing — or some portion of the same thing — for free again.

But, this is evolution on the web. Live, real, amazing evolution of systems. And evolution — or decisionmaking — on the part of people ( or ‘users’ they would call us, right? We’re ‘the users’, they’re ‘the owners’ … ha HA! Right! Sure, okay … tell me another one ).

So, what I suggest moving forward — use the site and use it wisely. Take screenshots of valuable contributions to LinkedIn as often as possible. Updates to your Profile. Content posted to Groups. Questions, Answers and assholes. Go forth and interact — realistically knowing that:

‘They don’t NEED to give us LinkedIn for free. They could shut down the site tomorrow — they could just … take it away … take it away from all of us. This sort of service — this site — and similarly any social web experience — can all go away or change or evolve at any minute of the day without even advanced warning.’

I mean, let’s at least give thanks and praise — LinkedIn is a wonderful experience. I use it daily and appreciate the connections I build and the way I can reach out to new prospects or partners. Its been great. And I appreciate it.

But we OWN you LinkedIn.

We OWN you.

Be nice.

12.29.10 Yoko Ono: John Lennon would have loved Facebook and Twitter 0

admin to behavior,community building,social web activity — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  
Recording Of Give Peace a Chance. 1969 with Ti...
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Okay, according to this distilled interpretation of an article from iVillage out on AllTop, supposedly Yoko Ono believes that John Lennon would’ve been all over the social web … here’s the quickhitter from AllTop:

Yoko Ono: John Lennon would have loved Facebook and Twitter

A little excerpt for you in case you’re staying here to read my thoughts about this proclamation:

“He’d love the internet and Twitter,” Ono shared in a new interview with The Daily Mail. “He’d be sending out pronouncements and messages and giving his opinion all the time on everything. He would be 70 years old, but he’d want to know everything that’s going on. We share that curiosity and energy.”

And then, most disturbingly hilarious — if you go out to the full article out on iVillage, the strangeness balloons out even further as clearly established right in the title of the article:

Yoko: John Lennon Would Have Loved Twitter — And Lady Gaga!

Oh Yoko … really?

All we are saying is give tweets a chance

I dunno, I read just the shorter thang out on AllTop and the Kawasakizian bits alone were enough to disturb me. Would Lennon have loved Viagra and Reality Television? What other Lennon trends can we extrapolate from Ono? Or could we potentially create a database from Lennon’s pre-death preferences to determine what Facebook Pages he’d ‘like’ in the depths of a postHumanic eveningtide?

The way things are going they’re gonna friend and poke me — yeah, that doesn’t have the same ring to it now, does it?

I guess my main reaction to the article and these comments from Yoko Ono is to wonder how social media would’ve changed John Lennon — and more importantly maybe, my perception of John Lennon as an artist, musician and socio-political force in the world. For instance, instead of having wonderful ‘Love In’ events with his artist-wife and little entourage, maybe these experiences would’ve turned to the ‘Tweet In’. Or maybe some sort of cyberSexual nearPorn online interpretation of such an historic event.

I think I pay little attention to the tweets, comments, likes and other social media artifacts left by celebrities, but do these lifeStreamed echoes of the modernday artist diminish the very notion of artisthood? There does seem to be this grand leveling going on in the world, partially due to globalization and then finally slammed home by the world-wide spread of the internet. And by ‘spread’ I guess I intentionally imply disease-like behavior of a medium and its junky-like usage of a collective subconscious internation.

Imagine all the comments
Its easy if you try
Almost automatic
People falling in line

Imagine tweets from Lennon with shortURLs of peace oh oh oOoOo

You may say that I’m facetious
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll tweet us
And the world will tweet as one

More important to me right now, beyond Lennon or any data-exhumed projections of what he might’ve loved, liked or tweeted — what would McLuhan say about all of this? If The Medium is the Massage and if McLuhan were alive and tweeting today, what amazingly insightful thangz would Marshall pick up on and express about how our tweetings influence and mold our behaviors? Lanier definitely seems a bit sour about where we are in the current moment, longing for the days when we didn’t start all new web designs by downloading and installing WordPress and an interesting template. Do we become our tweets? Do we become our Facebook Wall in some ways? Do we behave as our media suggest we behave.

These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.

Dance Bitch!

Just some random questions that come to mind as I think about what Lennon would do on Twitter or Facebook — or even Bebo. I mean, would he have 7 little start-ups ‘out there’ that somehow raised awareness of specific issues — social media does allow us to get the word out in a way not previously possible — without editors, ISSNs or any intermediary processes or policies { so far }, which does allow us all to become these amazing mini-forces for social advocacy and broadcast. But, uhm, what can we really do about it all? Do our expressions on the social web ever effect real change? Do they empower us? Or do they create another illusion of empowerment? You know? Like the concept of voting, democracy and all that.

This question seemed to hit me hardest right around the time of all these WikiLeaks. OoooOOooOh, we got them now, didn’t we? The data is OUT! All the dirt’s been revealed and, woah, guess what? There’s corruption! And we have proof! Its all right there, plain as day. And, uhm, so now, what’re we gonna do about it? What’s happening? It was all over the net a few weeks ago, right? WikiLeaks and movements to promote antidata — already some vicious means to prevent this sort of information from getting ‘out there’. But besides the broadcast of this proof of corruption, where’s it all going? Nowhere, right?

Nowhere Man

Lennon already knew what was goin’ down way back when, back when he was with The Beatles. And we didn’t need the full Beatles archives digitally available for purchase and download from the great musical commodifier iTunes to get it in our heads. Just place out some of the lyrics and we might parodisiacally see the general effects of our new means of subconscious expression:

He’s a real Nowhere Man
Tweeting from his Nowhere Land
Sending all his Nowhere Tweets to Nobody

Or not

Let me know what you think the potential of the social web might be for effecting social and poltical change. Have any amazing stories or cool proof? Let me know. I’d love to hear both extremes — an amazing success story or 2 { and that’s all we’d need to truly say it was all worth it in the end, right? maybe save a few lives through tweetings, yes? } &/or the horrible failures of the medium

Peace

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12.27.10 Random ‘Greatest Hits’ from Bokardo 0

admin to behavior,business,general,Joshua Porter,social web activity,social web commentary,user-centered design — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,  
New social web book for review
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Joshua Porter inspires when he writes about design for the social web … each + everytime.

I just recently dug an entry or 2 back on the Bokardo bloggosphere + found this interesting post about his talk in October at ‘The Warm Gun Conference’. In the mix of his presentation is what he calls The Delicious Lesson, which I think sums up a notion that might be very critical for people and businesses to all wrap their heads around when it comes to the social web:

Personal Value Precedes Network Value

I think of this concept with different terms. Its the main reason why I keep using the phrase ‘the social web‘ versus ‘social networking‘ throughout most of my posts here. And in some huge ways its why being a user experience design professional in this field is a powerful perspective to come from.

As an advocate for the user, for the human element most companies aim to engage by building out these new social websites, I continually bring the human perspective to the table and ask the all important questions, ‘So, why do I want to use this site? Who is this for? What’s in it for me? Do you really think there’s a business opportunity in all of this? And why? What’s most compelling to the user?’ After all, the social network alone will not magically ‘robot-buy’ whatever it is you’re trying to sell ‘em.

I mean, believe me … I don’t want to discourage the enormous amounts of work I could take on to build this site or that { typically too, it all comes with the ridiculous NDA signage up front ( as if the self-found CEO sh!ts gold for a living ) and the promise of sweatshop equity for all the preLaunch design initiatives you hang yourself with if so choosing to take this mission … give me the funded startups any day a the week, eh … the value of a designer is all in that stealth phase building of the platforms, systems and sites, not in the maintenance + such, although I’m sure the potential to earn a real living is all along it in the mix }, but I do want to find out the best way to leverage this interesting intersection between content, design and technology … and more importantly, for your business and mine, the MOST important intersection to leverage is that between the brand or business and the target audience { client, customer, prospect, user, subscriber, victim, what have you }.

When Joshua says Personal Value Precedes Network Value, I think what he’s saying is watch what the actual users start doing with your site once its launched { analyze and tweak accordingly for maximum, optimized performance }. Or at least really delve into all the primary, secondary and peripheral potential uses of the online experience you’re building and leverage that.

The point I’m most interested in is this: the social web is for the people. Businesses might be trying to sell something ‘out there’ on the webs, but ultimately most people are online to post images, comment, viralize content … that is, to be social. All of these interactions are what it means to be social on the web. Sure, we buy a book, rent a movie, make some purchases of one sort or another … but companies need to keep in mind the idea that sometimes the user is not excited about the modal window that comes up with some sort of inane internal advertisement to upgraded services on thisSite or that. Sometimes the business is actually the secondary or peripheral functionality of the system ( a lot of times the business is in the way ). And that’s okay. Seriously.

You’re not that important, Mr. Business. Step off. Back up. Pipe down. Play the right way and maybe I’ll talk about your vaguely interesting product that almost does what you claim it does. Maybe I’ll sign up for the newsletter with a fake email to get your whitepaper. Maybe, someday, I’ll even do what you intended to inspire me to do when you built your web presence across 65 different channels. Or maybe not.

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12.27.10 LinkedIn Answers Question: Prune your contacts 0

admin to behavior,community building,social web activity,social web commentary,web 2.0 — Tags: , , , , , , ,  
Perfil
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So, for those of you not in the know … I am a bit of a social networking researcher, on the experimental edge of what these new systems and interactions do … and specifically investigating in a playful way the sorts of potential good and bad behaviors that come with these bleeding edge terrains. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Bebo, Treestr — whatever the site might be, I am there to naïvely bump around in the dark closet of the social web to see what we can do with these little pockets of subconscia.

One of my favourite mediums diGiorno = LinkedIn Answers. Its probably one of the most dynamic areas on ‘the professional network‘, allowing users to post a question and get a response from the vast ocean of LinkedIn participants. It also happens to be one of the best ways to meet new active LinkedIn people that care to share their voice + take a chance with what might otherwise be a electronic Rolodex with some decent jobsearch and careerbuilding tools sewn in. But anyhow, I must’ve been feeling a bit feisty yesterday and decided to not only knock off a few ex-colleagues of mine from my LinkedIn Network but also publicly announce + encourage this sort of behavior. Get rid of that baggage + lean up the community of professionals you network with on a semiregular basis by tossing the driftwood aside … or at least the truly rotten apples that have been nothing but negative inspiration in your previous lives ‘out there’ on the job.

Here’s the original LinkedIn Answers Question I posted { I’m always confused about what to call this, but that’s what I call it }:

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/using-linkedIn/ULI/768001-214189

Pruning your contacts

I just found out how to remove contacts from your LinkedIn account. And I firmly believe that a healthy and happy network occasionally needs pruning.

In 2011, go out and get rid of 11 of your contacts here on LinkedIn. Its a polite, quiet way to inspire better behavior ‘out there’ and helps you bring up the collective value of your network by getting rid of contacts that provide only detrimental affiliations and bad energy.

I personally am tired of pretending some of these people that have been nothing but horrible to my career are even remotely fantastic. I just cut 2 and looking for 9 more to cut away and help set me free from the chains of pretense.

What do you think? Are there 11 contacts you can get rid of? Is everyone adding to the value of your network? Are there some people that aren’t even worth a click anymore. Get rid of ‘em. Join me in my crusade to make the professional network experience the most valuable and professional social web ‘out there’.

Peace!

Clarification added 8 hours ago:

I just got rid of another 9 contacts and I have to say, it was just too easy. And I bet from their perspective, they probably were never intending to ever contact me for project work or even for casual catching up anytime soon anyways.

Well, if nobody else takes me up on this rather provocative expedition in pruning I at least feel like I’ve made some honest and helpful decisions that clear my head and contacts a bit and gently send certain people a superfacetious ‘thank you’ for a job well-done. Just a few less people to feel guilty about if they call to potentially ‘reach out’. I’m sure there are a few more I could easily prune away as well, but let’s just see what lies ahead in 2011 ;]

So anyhow …

I’m assuming this is ‘bad behavior’ on the social web. We don’t want to burn any bridges now, do we? But what happens when the behavior of that connection to a previous lifetime just seemed totally inhuman and indecent to you? Why not promote the truly incredible + talented people we love by demoting the ones we don’t anymore? Seriously? Forget about the social rank and reputation system of the previous Spock social network { ‘Single Point of Contact and Knowledge, now long gone, it seems, from the web }. We don’t need a new social web experience to ‘make it happen’, right? Let’s do it on the social webs we already weave. Let’s lead the way by shedding any evildoers or detritus from our little networks. Why should they silently benefit from the web hooks and affiliations from my network any longer? I mean, I guess I’m talking the real assholes here, right? Lurkers are okay I guess, those folks that barely update what they’re up to + just poke around to see what the really active set are up to.

In some ways, as pointed out by one of the people answering my LinkedIn Answers Question, strangers or relative newcomers to my LinkedIn Network might be safest from such scrutiny + LinkedOutings. After all, these are the potential collaborators in all future-facing initiatives … those that haven’t muddied their own names yet. But I have to say this … for me at least, this is liberating stuff. Taking away the connection to some of these despicable losers is like shedding the remnants of a negative cloud from some darker chapters of my life. Getting rid of the toxins in some ways I guess. In others, like taking a sh!t.

So, my friends … get rid of 11 contacts from your LinkedIn Account today. Let’s start off 2011 right. A little lighter. Less negativity. More efficient energy streams. Let’s do this sh!t right! Let’s set up 2011 to be the bestest, most funnerest year of work in the social web ever!

Peace!

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12.19.10 eXperience as Persona 0

admin to Experience,Experience as Persona,Persona,user-centered design,web 2.0 — Tags: , , , , , , , ,  
Persona literally means "mask ", alt...
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okay, okay … hoo hoo hoo! … i like JUST came up with this idea { which might’ve been subtly planted in my head months ago by my good colleague Sir Colin Owens at Dynamic Media Institute and Shapemix } … hot off the on-demand online presses! here goes …

user experience professionals of all shapes + sizes { IAs, IxDs, VDs, HCIs, ETCs } typically research, design, develop + use personas as a means of evaluating an experience during all phases of design … each organization creates its own rules + methods + the process of using personas is about as scientific as psychology typically gets, right? they become a conduit for design professionals to try out an experience from a different vantagepoint, from the unique perspective of ‘the other’ … + hopefully these personas map to some meaningful demographic of user that the organization targets as a potential customer, client, user, etcetera

a lot of critical insight can be gathered by just trying on a persona, using a bit of acting + improvisation { + imagination } + then trying out the experience du jour

well, what if … as user experience professionals … we leveraged personas in an entirely new way … what if we created a series of personas for the experience itself, i guess as a means of evaluating online apps + site experiences, + then assigned the persona, or the attributes, properties + states of the persona to the experience as a way to guide the design + development or refinement of a system under scrutiny …

here is the original idea as sent out to colleague Mike Fritz earlier today:

we evaluate an experience: a website, an online application suite, a mobile experience, whatever … it can be anything and everything, an entire holistic experience … and then we create a set of personas to map the experience to … we try to empathize with the application and express, in our own way, how the experience might feel

maybe the experience is sick … sick and dying, perhaps?

maybe its a really strong and slick experience, one that young kids and older sports fans will understand and love using

maybe its a beautiful experience … something poetic and gentle that a predominantly female audience will gravitate toward

maybe its a playful experience … for children, GenY, + for most modern internet users ‘out there’ that want to enjoy how they interact + have fun

or maybe the experience is clinical + analytical … perfect for those that just need the system to provide ‘just the data, maam‘ instead of throwing in lots of animation, bells + whistles … but not perfect for a broader audience or the general public

i think using personas in this new way could provide an interesting opportunity { hopefully for my own business even, imagine that } to provide a quick litmus test + let a team or company know they’re on the right track or maybe just a little off … it might be a way to reveal a potential new target market to consider … it might, well … i’m starting to feel a bit like Will Ferrell in that couples therapy scene of Old School right now, which is totally hilarious + all, but you get the picture, right? you understand the valuable assessment methodology this eXperience as Persona mapping could provide, right?

i’m like totally psyched about it … time to register a new domain name ;]

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12.19.10 forgiveness 0

admin to Boston-area,cyberSurreal,user-centered design,web 2.0 — Tags: , , , , , , , , ,  
NASA and Department of Defense personnel famil...
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okay, okay … i don’t want to unsell what i do or anything, or diminish it in any way … the forces ‘out there’ to undervalue or subvert the importance of developing an excellent presentation mode along with the proper user experience design and implementation should never be overlooked or undermined … but …

in running through a certain unnamed website’s app experience { one that is certainly not pretending to be ready for prime time } i can’t help but reflect on the following:

websites need to work … and more than work, they can never NEVER never annoy the user | viewer | participant … if i haven’t stressed it yet, unless you’re building a complete parody of most of the online experiences ‘out there’, i’m saying NEVER … think of the fncking 90s era Heart song, where one of the Wilson sisters screams so eloquently in back-up vocal accompaniment ‘NO NEVAH!’ …

NEVER

i think the name of the Heart song was, uhm … Never ;] … it definitely wasn’t from These Dreams

so here’s the deal + the main reason i bring this up … i’m running through the experience that has thusfar been done up by a development team + i’m thinkin’, ‘Not bad, not bad. The layout … well, its looking a bit like a spreadsheet ( not good ). The colors … pretty decent, but the content isn’t quite popping yet ( still not ‘good’ yet ). I guess I’m also trying to think of how this experience will translate to the mobile domain too … which i know is one of the business objectives of the organization … and here the site is nowhere near where it needs to be ( not good, right? ), but that’s beside the point

here’s where i’m starting to get a little annoyed with the experience … some affordances that are implied, well i just can’t get to them … the modal window convention implied by the system as a sort of ‘pop up’ to more information clearly presents what looks like a link ( should it be something more substantial? a button? an icon? ), but when i move my cursor over to click it the entire modal goes away … this seems to happen consistently throughout the experience … if this were a live app, i would have left the experience right away, within seconds, even as a beta user

imagine how the app feels

seriously

imagine how the app feels

the experience is almost literally epileptic, ya know? my perception of the app, as a user, is that the whole thing isn’t working … that it will most likely continue to sputter + eventually fall down into some sort of seizure state … if the app could see my face, witness my reactions to this strange behavior built into the system, how would it feel?

the app is lonely + confused … as much as this little beta would love to see happy eyes + a crazy willingness to click around + explore, he sees something more akin to horror + disappointment, confusion + frustration

this is a young app … think of it as a child, right? the dev team, they’ve been swaddling it, nursing it, taking care of it, teaching the little beta what to do, when to do it + how, + a lot of love + care + nurturance have gone into the design thought, the systems + backend + how that connects through the middle-tier to the face { traditionally called ‘the interface’, right? } … + now, here we are, facing the baby app + all we can say is ‘oh, look at the little links’ as a means to politely skirt the myriad issues we perceive

i know that in my assessment, in my efforts to influence the look of the site, i will also need to include observations + recommendations regarding these misbehaviors … i’m the tattle tale … + this is touchy terrain in some instances … i mean, after all, this is the baby that the developers have been holding, feeding + playing with every day for the last several months + now everything i have to say, every tiny bit, seems to say more about them, the developers { + their ideas about an experience, about this experience }, than the actual system, working or not, that i am commenting on

so, here goes

we’ll see how it goes … its always an interesting exchange … i know that my interactions with the overseas development team at my previous place of employ were utterly devastating … in a rather innocent email exchange where i simply tried to espouse the value of user testing and iterative design methodologies as a means to avoid broken componenture, the oversensitivity of the developers there + their rather shortsighted, purely selfish emotionality about my comment { think of it this way, be defensive + continue on with a sh!tty user experience — or — keep an open mind and use testing as a means to scientifically prove or disprove interactive areas of an experience, hopefully optimizing the overall experience, thereby helping the user satisfaction + potential ‘buzz’ surrounding the product, services, etcetera }

well, anyhow … long story just a little longer … i hope to eventually share my heuristic assessment of this + other experiences i evaluate once the beta is launched + things are cool … until then, my friends … i bid you adieu

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11.29.10 Social Networking Intervention 0

admin to cyberSurreal,general,social web commentary — Tags: , , , , , , ,  

everybody’s talkin’ about it … everyone’s doin’ it … social media permeates our daily existence in such a profound way

check out this video short from Josh Dolby and Caught You Pickin’ … totally hilarious work, i think you’ll enjoy it ;]

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11.29.10 the problem with Dropbox 0

admin to behavior,business,web 2.0 — Tags: , , , , , ,  
Katy Perry
Cover of Katy Perry

so, its the exciting beginning of another project, another partnership, another cool collaboration … you talk over the preliminaries with your business partner on the other side + start up all the usuals … a GoogleDocs Spreadsheet to help itemize and manage the status of all the nitty gritty tasks, some paperwork goin’ back ‘n’ forth over email { there’s usually an NDA involved, right? gotta make sure the crazy valuable + unique ideas of the client are protected from any leaks on your part … just sign right there please, yes yes }, and of course, the penultimate necessary evil, The Dropbox

these are exciting times + there are SO many opportunities to collaborate in new, wonderful ways … the proliferation of free tools is simply INSANE! … and one of the key tools most organizations take advantage of nicely is Dropbox … companies used to own servers, needed to purchase machines and hosting, all that good stuff … + as client, partner, business owner or otherwise, in order to do business you needed to get to know the servers, the organization, the structure of the directories, how files are named, the fundamentals of starting to understand each other, the very beef and potatoes of rolling the sleeves up + beginning a nice collaboration together

here’s the issue

here’s where i’m comin’ from

if every client, every friend, relative, + random strangers in the street want to get it all goin’ on w/ me by setting up a new Dropbox, its fncking mayhem! my machine becomes the server for these relationships … in fact, it becomes the servers, + it needs to be able to accomodate this everflowing, neverending memorySpace dataLoad that, to be honest with you, is completely disconcerting … i mean, i guess i could just pack it up + get some training in some other industry vertical, but uhm, i have the superSilly sneaking suspicion that the veryFirst class i take in whatever avocation that new realm may be will end up starting with more fncking GoogleDocs and Dropboxes

what happened to FTP? how about some of these cloudish fileSharing sites like YouSendIt { + others } that are less of a repository + more of a temporary holding spot?

i dunno, i know i’m barking up the wrong iTree here … we all LOVE The Dropbox, right? its easy … its affordable … we ‘get it’ … but what happens at the end of project? typically i still have all those beautiful files stuck up in my MacBook Pro, right? the afterlife of these files, this sort of wishy washy pitter patter of megabytes upon megabytes of info just sits there waiting for a major electronic catastrophe to hit the modern Western world …

what’s your take?

guess i gotta keep it in the clouds, eh?

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