Last week, i saw an ad for jeans on the back of a bus. Not so unusual. It had a picture of a bored and pasty youth, a Wrangler jeans logo, and a url. This one: http://www.myspace.com/wranglerjeans. Apparently, Wrangler is male, 101 years old and would rather not discuss his sexual orientation. His interests are a bunch of photos that, when clicked on, open the MySpace page again in a new window. Wrangler has a website: http://www.wrangler.com but it seems they want the kids to interact with them via their MySpace page. I think this comment (from Melbourne band The Emergency) sums up the success of this particular effort:
Hello there a pair of jeans!
I remember when I got Wranglers for $35 at Myer, just a few short years ago. They seemed to be made much better then.
Oh well, you're much more popular now, I guess being popular is the most important thing in the world.
Another comment thanks Wrangler for the ad. Now, businesses running ad campaigns in social spaces isn't unusual, but it is generally unpopular with communities. I understand that businesses are experimenting in this area and most haven't found ways to offer something of value to the community that also promotes their product. I'm just surprised that Wrangler chose to use its external poster advertising to promote this page. I'm guessing it didn't pay off.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Tagging: A report from Pew
The Pew Research Center (a US think-tank/research group) is conducting an Internet and American Life project. They've released an interesting report on tagging, along with some other things. The reports are free.
Friday, February 16, 2007
An interersting & inspiring blog
If you haven't seen it before, you might really enjoy the strongly user-oriented Creating Passionate Users.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Usability Consultants: Discussion
On Wednesday we discussed the pros and cons of enagaging external usability professionals, rather than just doing usability testing/assessment ourselves.
Why Engage Usability Professionals?
There are many reasons to hire usability consultants to help out with projects. For one thing, they're set up to get the right users for testing, which is a great help. You may have specific issues you want to test with users, such as a new taxonomoy, the introduction of advertising, or the placement of elements on your page. But one of the biggest reasons that came up in our discussion was the fact that a consultant legitimises things in the eyes of management. We could say the same things as a consultant and have them dismissed - because of internal politics, perhaps, or because of a lack of understanding of or trust in what we do. A report from a consultant is free of associations with internal politics, and it carries the weight of inherent financial value. Sound cynical? Maybe it is, but there was certainly feeling in the group that sometimes we hire usability consultants to tell us what we already know.
Are we science?
We also spoke briefly about methodology and the non-scientific nature of usability work. Should we use two different consultants to get more through results? If there's no right answer, how much does the methodology influence the outcome? (There's an interesting discussion on this in Jared Spool's Spoolcast # 2.)
Not only is this not a science, but the goal posts are moving all the time. As technology and attitudes to technology change, we must continue to test, because what was true for yesterday's users probably isn't true of today's. One example: Not that many years ago, people were very suspicious of a site that asked them to log in - they didn't want to give any of their personal information to the Internet. Now, people have more trust in the technology, and logging in (even using credit cards) doesn't bother them. So our test results and our assumptions need to be constantly questioned and updated. Lucky we like a challenge.
Why Engage Usability Professionals?
There are many reasons to hire usability consultants to help out with projects. For one thing, they're set up to get the right users for testing, which is a great help. You may have specific issues you want to test with users, such as a new taxonomoy, the introduction of advertising, or the placement of elements on your page. But one of the biggest reasons that came up in our discussion was the fact that a consultant legitimises things in the eyes of management. We could say the same things as a consultant and have them dismissed - because of internal politics, perhaps, or because of a lack of understanding of or trust in what we do. A report from a consultant is free of associations with internal politics, and it carries the weight of inherent financial value. Sound cynical? Maybe it is, but there was certainly feeling in the group that sometimes we hire usability consultants to tell us what we already know.
Are we science?
We also spoke briefly about methodology and the non-scientific nature of usability work. Should we use two different consultants to get more through results? If there's no right answer, how much does the methodology influence the outcome? (There's an interesting discussion on this in Jared Spool's Spoolcast # 2.)
Not only is this not a science, but the goal posts are moving all the time. As technology and attitudes to technology change, we must continue to test, because what was true for yesterday's users probably isn't true of today's. One example: Not that many years ago, people were very suspicious of a site that asked them to log in - they didn't want to give any of their personal information to the Internet. Now, people have more trust in the technology, and logging in (even using credit cards) doesn't bother them. So our test results and our assumptions need to be constantly questioned and updated. Lucky we like a challenge.
Web 2.0 video
This has been doing the rounds of the blogosphere, but here it is so you'll be able to find it. It's s video describing Web 2.0 and why it's important. Thanks Mia for sending me this one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE&eurl=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE&eurl=
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