On Posterous
Compared to Twitter, posting to a blog is cumbersome. But my experience with Posterous, an email posting-based blog platform, demonstrates that blogging – and simultaneously posting to other social networks – can be quite easy.
Compared to Twitter, posting to a blog is cumbersome. But my experience with Posterous, an email posting-based blog platform, demonstrates that blogging – and simultaneously posting to other social networks – can be quite easy.
I'm in the early stages of working with a new client to improve the user experience of his company's Web site, and in turn, increase site traffic conversions.
This presentation captures some of the substance of our conversations – understanding what is happening on the site in its current state, why users responses to the site, and using that knowledge to improve the user experience and boost business.
There are a few too many slides, but it's a relatively quick scan:
Danny Sullivan talks with the man behind the Wolfram Alpha search engine, and reports back.
We're primed to greet the announcement of any new, major search engine as a potential Google-killer, but that's not an appropriate description for Wolfram Alpha. Rather, it's a "computational knowledge engine," or a service that aggregates public data, uses human editors to validate the information, and presents it in response to targeted searches or requests for calculations.
Per Sullivan, it's not going to replace Google, but it promises to be a powerful complement to it.
What's the next dominant UI metaphor?
"Every geek I know shares, to some degree, the notion that the 'desktop' metaphor for computers is outdated. What nobody seems to have a solid opinion on is what would take its place."
What follows is a brief history of the evolution of user interfaces, consideration of "artificially natural" hierarchical file systems, and a look at the significant challenges of migrating to the next UI metaphor.
You want find any answers here, but then this is the kind of problem that can make whoever solves it very rich.
Read Merlin Mann, then come back and see what he's writing about.
"Getting into Social Media is hard work, and you’ll have to be willing to put the effort in."
True, unless you aren't concerned about the results.
Interactive designers have become conditioned to thinking about the browser as the way of delivering interactive experiences. It's going to take a while to make a clean break from that way of thinking. We're no longer tethered to a desktop or wired connection, and online experiences are delivered by an array of devices and interfaces that surround us in different contexts and environments.
Ambient technology is here, as this article in Chief Marketer succinctly explains, and it's going to define how we design interactive experiences.
Friction between a company's sales channels can be a healthy thing. But too often it's something to be feared, because the mere possibility of upsetting traditional dying retail channels gives timid executives night sweats.
By way of my interest in bicycles, I came across this cogent, forceful opinion from one successful retailer. His take: It's time for industry titans to lose their irrational fear of the online sales channel, and realize that it just might give those dying retail outlets the boost they need.
I’m Ian Joyce, principal of August Communication Consultants, where I help businesses create good online experiences for customers, employees, partners and other stakeholders. I'm also a writer, and contribute the odd column to the Business Journal of the Triad.
You can follow me on Twitter, see some of my photos on Flickr, thumb (metaphorically speaking) through my retired blog, Ian@work, or read my musings on bicycling.
Send me email.