July 22nd 2008 Posted to
internet
CNN Sucks At Math
Looks like CNN sucks at Math. For them, 8 < 10 = FALSE
Author Archive
January 19th 2008 Posted to
internet, mobile
Free Advice #1 Avoid Stupid Search Results
I am not sure if the usability gurus will agree with me or give this advice 3 skulls on their next bestseller book. The problem is that stupid search
Poor results are a waste of time for your users. It is obvious that if someone searches for “dogs” and your site presents results related to “cats” is completely useless for your visitors and make things really difficult to pic a second parameter to narrow your query.
Inaccurate search results is a very know topic and have been extensively discussed in the past. This advice focus on search result interpretation, or how you site´s internal search engine will deal with the content that should be presented to your visitor.
The mistake that will be illustrated in this advice that I consider the most boring one and represents a waste of time is the “1 result found page”. The Weather Channels demonstrates this problem very well on their website. Every time that I want to view the weather forecast for Curitiba, the city where I live, they came up with the 1 result found page. So, if I used a very accurate query argument that produced only one result, why they have to show that useless page? It would be much easier and time saver if they display the forecast for Curitiba instead of that.
Now, suppose you are in Brazil and using your brand new unlocked iPhone or any other mobile device connected to the Internet via EDGE or GPRS and your GSM Carrier (Claro, Oi, TIM, BrT or VIVO) is charging you for every KB transferred over the network? That useless “1 result found page” just cost you a few cents.
The curious part is that if this problem was properly handled, they could have saved some development time and avoided coding a function called “Local weather in 1-click” that is placed on a not very visible position.
December 30th 2007 Posted to
internet, life
Simplicity Sells
I as always say, KEEP IT SIMPLE ! Watch this presentation given by David Pogue, New York Times technology columnist. The message is that when it comes to tech, simplicity sells.
December 14th 2007 Posted to
internet
You should hate flash web sites.
First things first. Adobe Flash is a nice tool, but not to create websites. You should not trust a Designer or a Design Company that build their own page using only, 100% width x 100% height, flash animations. You may ask, “why not?”. Simple, it only proves that they don’t know how to write good quality HTML code following the standards. That is not the only reason, I can list a few more:
- It does not render well on mobile devices or small screens.
- If you have special needs and use a screen reader, you will have problems.
- Should I mention that stupid music that plays loud and make your co-workers look at you with a not-so-happy-face?
- Wait 20-30 seconds while the content loads, no thanks.
- If the intro animations is good enough and worth be seen, why the pseudo-designer adds a ’skip intro’ button?
- A few flash functions does not work well on Linux browsers. Even Opera for Windows has some difficulties to handle it properly.
- Zero, nada, niente Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for you. Your site content will not be searchable on Google and other engines. Your competitors will.
If you love flash, at this time you are probably cursing on me. But, as I previously stated, flash is a nice tool if used under the right conditions. “The right tool for the right job” concept.
There are lots of good examples out there.
- Youtube embedded movie player
- Sydney Opera House Map
- SlideShare.com, the Youtube for PowerPoint
- Flickr slideshow viewer
So, if you are thinking on creating a flash site, or a web designer is trying to sell you one. Think twice!
