So clean it shines!

When I did some work on 43Places.com last year, the rats nest of HTML/CSS was a constant struggle. Every HTML mock involved trying to figure out some manner of strange markup and nested styles. Sometimes I spent hours working through the puzzle. I’d often give up on the solving it and add more mess to get it done.

Now I’m doing some work on 43Things.com. The HTML/CSS is wonderfully clean (thanks 37Signals!). The difference is astounding. It’s dead simple to find an existing style I need and there aren’t any surprises when I add in something new.

Best of all, the Robots are paying me to design… not to muddle through code.

Excellent video explaining Web 2.0

Note: This video does not include tutorials for rounded corners or javascript animations.

Found via Cre8d Design.

.Mac is dead to me

I eagerly signed up at it’s inception. iDisk was fantastic. So was syncing between computers. Sure there were performance problems and a lot of the value was in future potential. But it was new. And this was Apple. ...They’d work it all out in due time.

A couple of years later, I’m still waiting for the performance to improve, I’m still waiting for stability to improve, I’m still waiting for customer support to improve, and I’m still waiting for the same user experience I can get with other apps that are free.

On January 10th my subscription expires. I’m going to stop waiting then.

I sub consciously added…

a signature to the bottom of a private Vox post—As if it was an email.

Frustration - A Story in 36 Steps

1. Read that Google Spreadsheets now support dynamic updates of stock information.
2. Get excited!
3. I can have all my stock info aggregated together! In a useful layout!!
4. (I don’t care about daily info so much. Online portfolio deals do.)
5. Read the help documentation for GoogleFinance().
6. Figure out maths involved.
7. Enlist Lane’s help with maths.
8. Play around with fields until the layout is optimal.
9. Add in 9 more stocks.
10. Adjust design till it’s readable and pretty.
11. Create next section for mutual funds.
12. Enter ‘WGGFX’.
13. Get a “#N/A WGGFX is not a stock symbol” error.
14. Go to finance.google.com to double check it.
15. It is a stock symbol.
16. Get confused.
17. Wonder what it is I’m doing wrong.
18. Try entering the symbol directly into GoogleFinance() (rather than referencing it in another cell)
19. No luck.
20. Try pulling information other than the price.
21. No luck.
22. Try the original way again.
23. No luck.
24. Try another mutual fund.
25. It doesn’t work either.
26. Search the help for “Mutual Fund”.
27. Your search – Mutual Fund – did not match any answers in our Help Center.
28. Search for Mutual Fund in the discussion group
29. Find two posts from users mentioning that they don’t work.
30. Realize I didn’t do anything wrong.
31. Realize Google was too busy hyping features to mention they were incomplete.
32. Realize how much time I just wasted – Trying to save time in the future.
33. Go to the international grocery.
34. Buy a tub of goats blood.
35. Return home.
36. Curse Google.

Site feeds are getting the shaft

Google’s Webmaster Blog officially recommends offering gadgets over feeds.

Q: Why is it better to create gadgets rather than create feeds?
A: First, gadgets are much more flexible. As a publisher, you control the format of your content. Second, gadgets are by nature more interactive. They can be built with flash, HTML or AJAX, and are generally much more interesting than feeds. Finally, your users can customize a gadget to their liking, making your content a lot more targeted.

Steve Rubel points out that Yahoo! is launching new sites without feeds (found via: Read/Write Web).

In the past few weeks Yahoo has rolled out three major new web sites – Yahoo! Food, Yahoo! Advertising and Yahoo! TV. They’re great sites, but none of them has feeds.

I can’t say I fully agree with either decision. I also don’t fully disagree. ...It’s something to think about.

Delivering on Support Promises

Back in the states, email based customer support has become the standard. Often times there is no phone support option. It’s pretty good too. It’s safe to assume you’ll get a reply within 24 hours or so.

Here in New Zealand, the option for email support is almost as common. And there’s always a phone option.

Even though email is widespread, it essentially doesn’t work. I’ve found email form black holes across a wide range of industries… from banks and lawyers to people who should know better, like ISPs.

All of these places have excellent phone support. I naturally feel a bit of dread before calling a support number. I’ve been trained, by support in the states, to expect the worst. But here there’s little to no phone trees. Minuscule hold times. And more often than not the person answering the phone can quickly help you.

Which makes me wonder: Why bother with the email*?

You’ll upset some customers who prefer it. That’s minor compared to promising answers in a time of trouble/confusion, then failing to deliver on them.

* Or any support you can’t follow through on. Don’t have resources for email or the phone? Only offer a user to user support forum.

Loveplum is a blog covering the many aspects of user experience. It is written by Jason Sutter.

More…

Search

• Site Feed
• Comments Feed
• Add to:
• Bloglines
• Google
• MyYahoo
• My AOL
• Technorati

Login