Posts
Amazon Takes personalization to the next level (and the next site
This is probably old hat, but it got my attention from the perspective of perceived security. I visited a site today which I had never been to, and lo and behold, halfway down the page it said “Hi Joe Tennis”!
now, I made the connection pretty quickly that I had an account with Amazon, and I ad a cookie which was being passed to their script on their server and they were drawing that graphic, not the site I was viewing.
My concern here is what about someone who can’t see the technical trail of crumbs which (so I assume) keeps my name private to Amazon.. Where do they think their name came from… The issue her is perceived security and trustworthiness.
You have to have an Amazon cookie or this to work, but have a peek:
.::Makovision.com::.Handpicked News For Internet Developers
What’s in your C.V.
And I don’t mean you curricula Vitae, here, Lou Rosenfeld just wrote a simple lay persons description of what a Controlled Vocabulary is and why you might like to take one to lunch.
WebReview.com: Cuisinarts, E-Commerce, and … Controlled Vocabularies
Lack of explicit links and Learned Helplessness, or, “Can Designers Think”
This is a classic case study in how NOT to hyperlink - and amazingly so coming from a great thinker in the field of Information Design.
The label says “For interesting details, click on areas where the cursor arrow changes to pointed finger.”
OK, so I float my mouse around seeking out the illusive hot spot(s). After about 20 minutes I find one… are there more? Do I want to invest the time to find out? Am I waring out the tendons in my wrist doing this finely dexterousness searching?
Most importantly, if I hunt for x seconds and don’t find anything, does my mind assume that there is nothing to be found and I move on, missing the real communication objective? That’s the key: don’t let implicit links lead your viewer to a place of learned helplessness.
CCT Map 1
Flash Accessibility tips… in Flash!
OK, this site ranks an A for effort, but lags in the usability department. If there’s one thing that burns me up, it’s people who simulate the look of a scroll bar, then remove functionality. I won’t go into it, but they’ve left UI standards behind.
They make each menu item a link to a separate HTML page - this is both good and bad. Good in that it preserves the sanctity of the individual page, but bad in htat I have to repeatedly load the Flash interface. I personally have no problem with an application acting like an application. So this is kind of a wash.
Truth be told, it looks like
::: Welcome to Flash508.com :::