UI Geek

It’s bad enough that Apple keeps trying to sneak Safari...

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:11:00 -0700

It’s bad enough that Apple keeps trying to sneak Safari onto my computer at every opportunity, but this broken message, “WhichDescription()”, doesn’t do much to reassure me that their product / installer has been thoroughly tested. In fact, it did not work, so now I’m trying Tools > Download Only, as suggested by another message box. They didn’t say what to do after that…

Fail.

Frustrating Tech Support Experience

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 23:16:53 -0700

I am trying to deal with my ISP’s support department, via their online “chat live with us” service. Somehow they’ve determined at the “high server divsion” that the horsey mailing list I’ve been on since about 1995 is spam, so they’ve blocked it. Not like “sent to my spam folder” - I mean blocked like I never see that anything was sent to me. Blocked like bouncing and removed from the mailing list, as if my email address were bad. I’m not very happy about this. My email volume has been down lately, and I wonder what else is being blocked that I can’t see.

Meanwhile… Their online chat is better than nothing, but the technology they are using is not good. A particularly annoying thing is that there is no “bing” sound (or anything like that) to let me know when the CSR has “said” something. So I have to watch the screen while I wait for them to respond.

I think I finally got the right info, but only on the second try. They said to report it to one address the first time. Now I’m to send a message to a different group, with details so they can investigate.

Once the CSR ends the session, I can still read the now-dimmed text, but there is no way to copy/paste it for reference. Guess I’m supposed to transcribe it or do screen shots.

@MercMostViewed Gets News Mostly Right on Twitter

Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:53:19 -0700

@MercMostViewed Gets News Mostly Right on Twitter:

While looking for information on the Trabing Fire in the Santa Cruz mountains, I found the Twitter user mercmostviewed. Following their tweets gets you a couple of links every few hours to articles that visitors to the Mercury News site found interesting. Nice.

I follow a few local (San Diego area) news organizations, and one in particular pushes out about 5-6 posts once or twice a day. Just guessing that’s when someone has a minute to sit down and decide what’s important enough to share. Invariably it’s something I’ve heard about already by other means, and the situation has been over for hours.

What I’d really like to see is an honest local breaking news Twitter feed. Not “There was a 75 acre fire near you this morning, but it’s out now” but “First responders are heading to a fire near you - view map.” That would be helpful information.

An Experiment in Blogging

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:45:00 -0700

I was introduced to BlogCatalog recently by Erica O’Grady. I’m not sure if it works with Tumblr… Let’s find out. I’m supposed to include this link in my blog. Here it is:

http://www.blogcatalog.com/directory/internet

With a little luck this blog will be reviewed and listed on BlogCatalog.com in a day or two.

[Update: Both the Tumblelogs I submitted to BlogCatalog were approved later that same evening. I spent a little time poking around on the site, and found some other blogs I’m now following. Looks like a pretty cool service.]

When the "Larger Image" Isn't.

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:16:00 -0700

Arrgh! UI Geek Peeve #242: If you’re going to provide a link to a “larger image” make sure it brings up an image that is… wait for it… larger! And not 5% larger, either. Large enough to make it worth my while to bother with it.

It’s one of a thousand little details that say a company doesn’t care spit about customer service. Why should they invest the time of one programmer on setting up some vastly complex rule like: if bLargeImage, then DisplayTheLink, else Don’t, when they could just throw same-sized images into the mix whenever they don’t have large ones, and let thousands of site users waste their own time instead. (OK, that’s some horrendous pseudocode, but you get the idea.)

Here’s how the user experience goes: I see a little image. It’s interesting for whatever reason, and I’d like to know more. I notice a “larger image” link, or mouse over it and get “the finger” so, hopeful, I click. I wait. Another window opens, or something pops up. An image loads. And it’s the same image I just saw, or one maybe 5% bigger. Of no use whatsoever. “Rats!” I think, Charlie-Brown-like. “Tricked again.” Now I have to aim the mouse and close the window to get back to browsing.

I was interested in your product, and now I’m annoyed.

I'm done. Now what?

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:05:03 -0700

I’ve been working with a bunch of sites recently that take you through a process like signing up for email or taking a quiz, then leave you stranded on a confirmation page, with no clear path to follow.

Would it kill them to provide a shiny, inviting, “Go Shopping!” button or something?

Instead, I’m expected to figure out what’s next, or just wander off to some other site.

Nice job of keeping people informed during a mess. Oops. Except...

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:59:00 -0700

Nice job of keeping people informed during a mess.

Oops. Except that the link and button don’t work. I’m sure they are working very, very hard to get it up and running again.

Because it won’t last forever, here’s a screenshot....

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:51:43 -0700

Because it won’t last forever, here’s a screenshot. June 6th, 2008, 10:50 Pacific Time. Amazon.com is down.

Amazon.com is down.

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 10:50:18 -0700

Amazon.com is down.:

It’s not everyday you see that.

Their poor Web team! I’m sure they are a bit frantic right now.

Is istwitterdown down?

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:45:16 -0700

What does it mean when you try to go to http://www.istwitterdown.com, and the page won’t load?

Darn this evil Plurk!

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:09:57 -0700

There are still a lot of things I do not like about Plurk, but darned if it isn’t addictive. It’s constantly showing you updated little messages that say how many new plurks there are to see, and how many responses you’re going to miss out on reading if you walk away. It even shows the number of unread responses in the tab in Flock (an awesome browser), when you’re trying to do things in other tabs. “Oh, there are 16 responses you could read right now.” It pulls you in.

I’ll give it props for being more participatory than Twitter. Little conversations pop up, and continue for a while. It’s easier to interact. You can read what others are saying in response to people’s plurks.

Right now it’s kind of like a bad movie. I know I’m wasting my time, and should just shut it off, but I’m intrigued enough to hang around and see how it’s going to turn out, and I’ve gotten attached to some of the characters.

Drat. 17 unread messages. Then I’ll go to bed, really.

Go Plurk Yourself

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 19:02:15 -0700

I’m still pretty sure I don’t really like Plurk, but it’s like one of those movies-on-TV you can’t turn off. I want to see how it turns out. Check it out. If you get there via this link you’ll automatically be my friend. (Ooohh!!) http://plurk.com/redeemByURL?from_uid=10161&check=-819193639&s=1

Playing with Plurk

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:08:00 -0700

So far I think it’s kinda fun, but not better than Twitter. Cuter, yes. A few rough usability edges, but I’m sure they are still working on the details.

I don’t like the horizontal UI, and using it seems very mouse intensive.

Give it a try: www.plurk.com

Update 30 minutes later: I give up. It’s physically difficult to use (lots of scrolling, mouse-aiming, and clicking required). It ran into trouble and failed to remember about 1 out of 5 things I tried to post. I know it’s new, and they’re trying. I’ll give it a shot again another time.

I've been blogging about Tumblr.

Fri, 30 May 2008 18:29:05 -0700

I've been blogging about Tumblr.

Check, check, check, check, go.

Fri, 30 May 2008 14:00:43 -0700

I detest Web apps where you have to select things using check boxes in a column, then pick an action from a drop-down list to apply to all the selected things.

Trying to figure out what the check boxes in Outlook’s Web interface might be for. There’s a check/uncheck all meta-check-box at the top, but no clue about actions.

Help site visitors do what they want to do.

Fri, 30 May 2008 11:09:08 -0700

You would think it would be easy enough for companies to think of the top 3-4 things visitors to their Web sites might want to do, then help them do that. For instance: check their account balance, or find a store location. But so many companies don’t bother. What are they thinking?

I installed Windows Live Messenger about an hour ago. It took...

Fri, 30 May 2008 09:57:00 -0700

I installed Windows Live Messenger about an hour ago. It took many minutes to actually install, and it’s working fine, but this is still running. It says it’s Done, but the progress indicator is still spinning. My only option is to Cancel and when I do it asks if I’m sure I want to cancel the installation.

This is a little detail that really should’ve been nailed down. Not a huge deal, but definitely a bad experience for the user.

D’oh! Even worse… On second glance, I see that the first thing is Done. That Done word appears to be associated (by proximity/alignment) with the green bar, but it isn’t. So the installation isn’t really done. Now I can either cancel it, or let it run forever. Broken.

Update: After just over an hour it finished, and dumped me in a Sign-In page.

Expand All, Everywhere

Fri, 30 May 2008 08:13:33 -0700

When I am appointed Queen of Usability in The Universe, every place that could use an Expand All option will have one.

I just hate having to poke through lists, FAQs, etc., expanding each little point as I go. I came to the page to read the information - don’t make me fuss around to see it.

Coolest Thing Ever

Thu, 29 May 2008 21:59:18 -0700

This is the coolest blog-thing ever. I’m off to tell all my friends. :-)

UI Geek - Linda Eskin

Thu, 29 May 2008 21:51:51 -0700

UI Geek - Linda Eskin:

My site, after vastly simplifying it. Needs a bit of work. I think I’ll add Tumblr to it!