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Don’t Make Me Think


I ran across Steve Krug’s book on web usability back at the beginning of March, as I was preparing presentation material for our corporate summit on knowledge management.  The book is appropriately titled Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability. Originally published nearly five years ago, just about the time the dot-com bubble was evaporating into the ether (anyone want 100,000 options for a now-defunct software-turned-DSL company?).

So what’s with the title? It’s Krug’s first law of usability: Don’t make the visitor think. Websites should give us choices that don’t require deciphering. After all, who’s got time for reverse engineering someone’s convoluted navigation system? Labels that aren’t crystalline descriptions of what we’ll discover when we click on them? Or a more common problem — a mess of links, buttons, menus and options all vying for my click?

We ended up sharing this book with a number of our knowledge managers. Although the rules are somewhat different for an internal enterprise system where the "visitors" are actually employees who are expected to use the system, Krug’s book offers advice that can make the experience more productive and, well, happy. 

I did hear some dissenting opinions. "Every website on the Internet is different. People are used to finding their way around many different websites, each with different navigation options, labels, buttons and so on."  I suspect once they have a chance to absorb this book, they’ll understand that successful websites avoid frustrating their visitors. Successful websites may indeed look different, but more often than not, they follow well-established patterns. As Krug reminds us, "Conventions are our friends."

I was also asked if I’d be applying some of what I’ve learned from this book on my own websites, BigBlueBall in particular. The short answer is "yes." The slightly longer answer is, "yes, but it’s going to take some time." Thankfully, there are some really wonderful members at BigBlueBall with an endless supply of creativity and suggestions for simplifying and improving the site. Cheers to those who speak up, share their opinion, and make their voice heard!

 

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Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium

Picked up a copy of the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s new double-CD, Stadium Arcadium, at Best Buy today for $11.99. I’m a little more than half-way through disc one (Jupiter), and it’s good to hear some fresh tunes from the band. I head a DJ on 91x say that some people have complained that Stadium Arcadium is too slow, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. No Best Buy nearby? They have it online too, with free shipping, or if you prefer, Amazon has it has it for $11.96. That’s only 42 cents per track!

Be sure to check out Torture Me and Wet Sand.  Now for disc two…

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Revving the Liveplasma “Discovery Engine”

I serendipitously ran across Liveplasma today while reading a news story on CNET|News.com. The news story had a “big picture” section with a network diagram showing the relationships between stories, topics and companies. Clicking on any node refocused the diagram to reveal additional relationships. The concept was interesting, although the content appeared to be woefully incomplete and out-of-date. But I was intrigued enough to click the “powered by liveplasma” link, where I discovered a much more appropriate application — the liveplasma discovery engine.

The engine concept is sound, and on the liveplasma website more appropriately applied to information that isn’t subject to change as frequently as news. In this case, music and movies. You begin by typing the name of an artist, band, movie, director or actor, and network nodes (designated by colored bubbles) begin to glide around the screen, arranging themselves by affinity to your search. Click on any node to change the focus of the network.

I was impressed with the accuracy of the links, although it’s not flawless. Looking at Jethro Tull, for example, produced several duplicate networked relationships to two Ian Andersons, two ELPs and two Martin Barres. But the relationship it generated I generally agreed with. As a method for discovering related information, Liveplasma offers an interesting paradigm that could find application in other areas. Try it and let me know if you agree.

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Mini-Review: L’Auberge Espagnole

What do you do after a week full of 20 hour days, jet lagged, after way too much public speaking, with a east-coast/west-coast flight ahead of you? Some might suggest a stiff drink and a long (albeit uncomfortable in coach) nap. I chose to dip into my slow-moving Netflix queue and pulled out a winner: L’Auberge Espagnole.

The setting: seven grad students from seven countries sharing a single apartment in Barcelona.

The main character: a young French kid named Xavier, gone to sharpen his Spanish to help him land a plum government job back in Paris.

Funniest moment: When Wendy’s boyfriend arrived for a surprise visit from England. You’ll have to see it to appreciate it. I literally laughed out loud, an odd experience on a airline at full capacity. 

The film is less about micro-parallels to the EU than some reviewers have suggested, and more about living with your eyes wide open and learning from each other.  Worth watching.

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What the hell is a “plog?”

plog.png
Stopped by Amazon to pay my month usage tax (don’t ask) and had to look twice and rub my eyes to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Yep, right there on the Amazon home pages was my very own plog.

Of course after got over the initial shock, I had to ask — what the hell is a plog? Sounds worse than a blog, for God’s sake!

Thankfully, Amazon kindly provided an answer:

"Your Amazon.com Plog is a personalized web log that appears on your customer home page. Every person’s Plog is different (hence the name) and just like a blog, your Plog is sorted in reverse chronological order. Each post also gives you the opportunity to provide feedback to the sender as to whether you liked the post or not. This feedback loop means your Plog becomes even more relevant and interesting over time. Your Plog will appear if you are logged into our web site and is visible only to you."

The whole thing sounds stupid to me, and raises an important question. If "blog" is short for "web log," wouldn’t "personal web log" be more appropriately abbreviated "pblog?" Oh no, that would be really stupid.   

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Coming up for air

I’m back from an excellent trip to Greenville, SC for our second enterprise “summit” on knowledge management. I’ve just about recovered from the long days preparing and presenting and a string of 20 hour days. Over the 2-1/2 days, I was up front and presenting for about nine hours, not including the barcamp-styled “KM Camp.” It was great to get together with others who are passionate about knowledge management and the value it can provide today. Many of them I talk with regularly, either via phone, email or IM (Paul, Rob, Gabi, Hank, Sara, Robert, Bob, Derek, Donna, Sathiya) but nothing can beat the value of face-to-face interaction. Many more were people I met for the first time (Miranda, Crystal, Harry, Adam, Dave, Cathy, Peter) — some of them very new to their role and just beginning to “get” what KM is all about.

Knowledge management provides a way of tapping into the intelligence of the corporation, and application translates into real, measurable value. The “smarts” of the enterprise can be reflected at least in part by market value, and based on what I experienced last week, I’m very optimistic about the future at Fluor.

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Playing with SuprGlu

SuprgluWhen I was a kid, I remember those super glue commercials on TV — the one’s where they glue a guy’s hardhat to the bottom of a steel beam, and he’s hanging onto the hat, feet dangling in the air. There was something inherently cool about super glue that made kids especially want it. It opened up all sorts of possibility for fun. “Pssst… watch me glue this penny to the ground and we’ll see who tries to pick it up.”

Suprglu isn’t quite the same, but it does aim for stickyness. Suprglu is an personal aggregator. You’re connected. You’ve got your Flickr account. You’ve got a blog. You use del.ico.us and digg, 43places. You track your playlists on Last.fm. What’s left? Suprglu!

Basically, Suprglu is a meta-site. You continue to use all your other social media sites to post photos, save bookmarks, blog, etc., but you configure Suprglu to pull them all together in one place. You give it a style and Suprglu does the rest. It’s an interesting concept, but it struck me as something that can already be done with most blogs (and a little elbow grease). The advantage, of course, is that Suprglu makes it really, really easy.

I like the fact that it creates a single page with all the various feeds aggregated from their various sources. But I’m still not sure I need or want this. I’d much rather do this right here on my blog (and in fact, I have done bits of this in the past). Why send people to yet another place?

On the darker side, this will make the stalkers job MUCH easier. Remember kids, what you post online hangs around for a long, long time.

Check out my SuprGlu site.

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