Vimeo, You Mock Me

Let me start by saying I like Vimeo. The video host has great features (like the thumbnail chooser), a personal attitude and slick interface. For our purposes, we like Vimeo because they focus on controlling privacy - you can share a video with just one person. We use it to share rough cuts of videos with clients. Vimeo does a lot of things well.

That is why I'm both perplexed and disappointed by an experience lately. We tested the privacy system to see what happens when we share video with someone who is not a member.

Sachi is a member and added me (using an old email address) to her list of people with access to a video. I received this email:

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THIS is User Assistance

Government web sites must have to work really hard and spend tax payer dollars to come up with such poor online experiences. My bet, in this case, is that the person writing the user assistance did not know or did not bother to find out what "managed by managers" actually means. I see this every year and it always amazes me.

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A Community Indicator: Share

I know you may be tired of me talking about the March of Dimes Share Your Story Community, but it's growing into an incredible resource and I'm more and more proud to have been involved all the time. I'm sure Nancy White has a lot to say about this too...

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RSS is Not Enough: Integrating Email Subscriptions

I'd like to invite you to help me with a not-so-hypothetical situation. Let's say I have a new blog and I think it is essential that people can subscribe via RSS and/or email so that in either case, the person is notified when new entries are posted.

I’m looking for the simplest way to handle these subscriptions. Here’s one thing to consider:

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Why Simplicity Matters

One of my favorite presenters at WebVisions was BJ Fogg form the Stanford's Persuasive Technologies Lab. (blog) Will has a quick run down of his presentation.

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Worst User Assistance EVAR

I was filling out a business license renewal form for Common Craft and came across this perfect example of how not to do user assistance. I clicked the blue question mark in hopes that I would discover what "managed by managers" means. Instead, I get a lesson on using radio buttons.

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Rely on Actions, Not Words

I’ve been through a whirlwind of usability testing and focus groups for the past 3 weeks. We tested 3 concepts across 15 users and 2 focus groups. It’s a good thing we’re using paper prototypes or we couldn’t do it- we can barely keep up on paper.

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Paper Prototyping

Blogging has been light lately and it always makes me feel a little bad. I feel this sense of neglect, like I’m not doing my job or something. In actuality nothing could be further from the truth.

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Making Personas More Powerful

Reach Customers Online pointed me to George Olsen's article on Boxes and Arrows: Making Personas More Powerful: Details to Drive

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Don't Listen to Users!

First Rule of Usability? Don't Listen to Users (Alertbox)

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