Google Hits Vanity Ring - this is on my Christmas list!
About Marci
I am a New York-based user experience designer. Here you'll find my musings on everything digital (and some things that aren't).
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How to optimize landing page performance
How to optimize landing page performance
I recently worked on a landing page project, which is not something that I’ve done before. This article has a nice list of that would have been helpful at the time.
Girls and games
Just read a good article on recent efforts by gaming companies to appeal to women, and how they often completely miss the mark. I’ve been into video games ever since the first Nintendo came out (I was obsessed with getting it after passing the first level of Mario at a friend’s house on her brother’s game system. I saved up my allowance for a year — bear in mind that my allowance was $1 a week — and when I had $50 saved, my parents took pity on me and sprung for the rest), and I’ve never once thought that the available section of video games was somehow not available to me because of my gender. I think that the one thing that has opened up video games to women (traditionally non-gamer women, that is) over the past few years has been Nintendo’s development of alternative interfaces (Wii, DS) as well as an emphasis on more open-ended gameplay (Nintendogs, Brain Age, Wii Sports). But it doesn’t seem like these improvements are enjoyed exclusively by women — boys like them too.
Moral of the story: by focusing on improvements to the overall user experience, Nintendo has made games more accessible to everyone who isn’t a gamer, including many women. Contrast this approach with that take by Ubisoft, as described in the above article, and you’ll see what I mean.
And if you ever catch me playing a game about raising a baby? Shoot me.
Via Jezebel
Design Shack
As I’ve been redoing this blog, I’ve realized how out of practice I am with CSS and web development in general. I haven’t performed this type of work in a job for years, and although I always noodle around on my own, my code-ninja skills are a bit rusty. Design Shack has a nice gallery of inspirational CSS-based designs that helped me get back in the swing of things!
Via Signal vs. Noise
Crackbook
Crackbook — Excellent spoof on Facebook
From the site: “Crackbook is an addictive social utility that makes you feel that you’re connecting with people when actually you’re just not.”
Via House of Naked
Demystifying Data Analysis
Nice article from Adaptive Path.
12 Effective Strategies Apple Uses to Create Loyal Customers
Interested analysis on how Apple creates its loyal (some say "cultish") customer base. Some of the techniques are excellent:
...While others are more questionable.
- Complete solutions: Apple’s products complement and complete each other. Buy an iPod, and you can download music via iTunes. For the average user, most Mac programs are produced by Apple. This sort of control over the entire user process, from hardware to software, strengthens customer loyalty. Apple users generally don’t have to stray to find products and solutions they want.
- Products that deliver: Apple carefully considers what consumers are looking for, so its products are a result of both extensive research and strong design. This meticulous planning is a large contributor to Apple’s high customer-satisfaction rates. It’s plain and simple: robust and easy-to-use products not only make your customers happy, but also
- New innovations: Although the architecture of Apple products is consistent, its portfolio is not. The company offers consumers a number of different ways to enjoy its products. By giving customers an opportunity to employ Apple in their living rooms, pockets and offices, Apple makes it easy to stay loyal to a brand they already like.
Via Inside CRM
- Proprietary formats: Apple products are often not compatible for use with other systems, at least where customer transitions are concerned. If a user has a digital music collection comprised entirely of .aac files, it’s not likely he’ll want to start from scratch with a new MP3 player that won’t accept them. Instead, this customer will probably look at replacing his old Mac with a new Apple model when the time comes.
- Outsourcing unpleasantness: With Apple products, the average consumer’s interaction with the company is likely to be low. Unless something goes wrong, you don’t have any reason to speak with an Apple customer service representative. Of course, the iPhone presented an opportunity that could have made Apple much more involved, similar to administering iTunes for the iPod. With a phone, interaction becomes multifaceted. You have to consider billing errors, quality of wireless service, contracts and a number of other factors that often lead to customer frustration. With the iPhone, Apple was wise to stick with building a good product and letting AT&T handle the service.
Birthday: Google is 10 Years Old
I heart Google.
I’m increasingly convinced that the only thing Facebook really has is critical mass.
I'm increasingly convinced that the only thing Facebook really has is critical mass.
7 User Experience Lessons from the iPhone
7 User Experience Lessons from the iPhone
The best explanation of "user experience" that I've ever seen.
Making the case for ethnographic research to inform design
Making the case for ethnographic research to inform design
A good article explaining a technique I've advocated for my entire career -- so many companies still don't understand this part of the user experience process.
According to an AP poll, basically no American reads any books anymore.
According to an AP poll, basically no American reads any books anymore. Well, the "typical person" claimed to have read four books, with half of respondents claiming to have read fewer and half claiming to have read more. God, was The Da Vinci Code too hard, guys? What about the work of Zane, did its hot pink covers not entice you? Or the Bible, or Danielle Steel? You people could not even manage Danielle Steel?
Ban on Window Peeping Is Sought
Ban on Window Peeping Is Sought
This is an assault on the primary rights of New Yorkers.
Rather than forcing people to constantly update [our] blog with full entries, why not pull from the
Rather than forcing people to constantly update [our] blog with full entries, why not pull from the content they're creating anyway? So [the aggregator] pulls in content from del.icio.us, Flickr, Twitter and other people's blogs and inserts it right into [the site]. In my mind, it's an example of passive activity, which I define as tapping into people's existing behavior in order to deliver, rather than asking them for the information themselves.
That’s It — I’m Getting a Bigger Monitor!
His essence was just too big for a MySpace page.