I was a guinea pig this evening for user testing for a prominent news and investor website.
They actually paid me to do the test - even though I would gladly have done it for free.
User testing is a great idea to really get an accurate idea of how your users actually use your site. People often say they use a site one way but do something else - or they say they want X feature but in reality they never use it.
What made this testing unique was that they recorded my eyeball movements and click-throughs as I scanned various news and investing pages. So it wasn't what I said I would do, but more like what I would actually do.
The only problem was that the pages I click-through on didn't actually load so in reality I would have ended up on different pages and may have then gone somewhere else. I probably wouldn't have spent as long on the homepages and landing pages as the study encouraged.
At the end of the study, they showed me my results. My web visit usage was way more erratic and frenetic than I imagined. While the standard pattern, the researcher and other studies I have read, for our culture is left to right and up and down. I was surprised by how much back-tracking I did. I did manage to deftly avoid all banners, fluff and navs. (Hope these studies don't eventually prove that there is actually no point in banner graphics and kill a lot of necessary advertising revenue.)
And yes, I sheepishly admit I "clicked" on the legitimate news item with the word porn in it. And the only ad I looked at all was the Telus adds with those irresistibly adorable monkeys.
I wasn't familiar with eye-tracking studies that were so conclusive - so I'm excited to see the results.
The research was conducted by Sensory Logic. I'm looking forward to seeing more from them - even if I don't get paid for it.
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
It's all about me!
It's my birthday today, so this blog is all about me! (Even more so than usual.)
Master of my domain
First, as my birthday gift to myself, I registered my own domain, www.glenfarrelly.com
It redirects here for the time being.
Despite being in the Internet field for about eight years now, I never registered a domain. GoDaddy.com quickly turned up as the favoured domain registrar. I wanted a Canadian company but they (eg. 10Dollar.ca) are not as cheap ($7 per year) or offered as much extras. So far, so good with Go Daddy.
glenfarrelly.com will soon be the destination - for me, my mother, and possibly my wife.
For your viewing pleasure?
In honour of my birthday, I tried out Levi's personalized ad campaign. It's creepy, but unique. But you haven't seen anything like this before and after viewing this, you won't want to.
Glen stars in Levi ad - Rated "R" (terrifying)
Even more Glen
I've been cooking up a lot of stuff lately and over the years.
The Internet really does enable - even encourage - narcissism.
Master of my domain
First, as my birthday gift to myself, I registered my own domain, www.glenfarrelly.com
It redirects here for the time being.
Despite being in the Internet field for about eight years now, I never registered a domain. GoDaddy.com quickly turned up as the favoured domain registrar. I wanted a Canadian company but they (eg. 10Dollar.ca) are not as cheap ($7 per year) or offered as much extras. So far, so good with Go Daddy.
glenfarrelly.com will soon be the destination - for me, my mother, and possibly my wife.
For your viewing pleasure?
In honour of my birthday, I tried out Levi's personalized ad campaign. It's creepy, but unique. But you haven't seen anything like this before and after viewing this, you won't want to.
Glen stars in Levi ad - Rated "R" (terrifying)
Even more Glen
I've been cooking up a lot of stuff lately and over the years.
- My LinkedIn Profile
- My wiki project - Famous Torontonians
- My Movies Ratings on IMDB
- MySpace page
- My del.icio.us bookmarks
- My Diggs
- My volunteer work - maintaining Heritage Toronto
- My lens on Toronto history & culture
- My Amazon List of best Toronto non-fiction
- My favourite trip photos on Yahoo Photos
- My Wikipedia contributions - not many, yet
- My Quicken.ca/MoneySense.ca years - not much to show since the site was merged/purged with Canadian Business - but here's my RESP Calculator
- My first website, BonnieStern.com that I worked on professionally - I coded it (in ColdFusion), structured the site architecture & navigation, aided design and overall direction (surprisingly, while updated, it is still much like I left it in 2000)
- My online travelogues at Bootsnall (from 1999)
- My Wedsite
- My first online portfolio - embarrassing now
- My first job in the Internet - interning at Canadian Geographic, maintaining their website and writing online articles
- My school years at Classmates.com
The Internet really does enable - even encourage - narcissism.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Canadian success story fails
Toronto shopping blogger Bargainista had a post recently on the bankruptcy sale for Just White Shirts.
The only Canadian e-commerce international success story will soon be unravelling.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong and there are other e-commerce website that have success beyond Canada.)
I searched, but couldn't find any details on the reason for Just White Shirts' demise (could it be their dorky name?). Their website does state that all says are final though due to their bankruptcy as of Dec. 13, 2006.
If anyone knows any details on this company, please share them.
I never shopped at Just White Shirts, as I once bought a shirt (from Sears.ca - the website I shop at the most after Amazon.ca) and it fit poorly and the colour was quite different, in a very bad way, from the website image. That ended my online shopping for clothes.
Nonetheless, there are so few Canadian e-commerce successes that it is sad to see one go.
The only Canadian e-commerce international success story will soon be unravelling.
(Please correct me if I'm wrong and there are other e-commerce website that have success beyond Canada.)
I searched, but couldn't find any details on the reason for Just White Shirts' demise (could it be their dorky name?). Their website does state that all says are final though due to their bankruptcy as of Dec. 13, 2006.
If anyone knows any details on this company, please share them.
I never shopped at Just White Shirts, as I once bought a shirt (from Sears.ca - the website I shop at the most after Amazon.ca) and it fit poorly and the colour was quite different, in a very bad way, from the website image. That ended my online shopping for clothes.
Nonetheless, there are so few Canadian e-commerce successes that it is sad to see one go.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Friday, January 12, 2007
e-Ventful Websites
A Casecamp participant, in promoting the event, alerted me today to the free website Upcoming.org.
Upcoming.org
It's an excellent Web 2.0 example (I hate that term, but it's a useful concept) but I think its functionality far exceeds the confines of just its own website.
Upcoming.org started in 2003 (again I'm discovering these things late - I feel like I've been in a como for the past 2-3 years). Many sites have done event listings and enabled organizing and promoting personal events (evite, for instance). The problem with these is that most websites just didn't have enough event listings or they only did a certain type of event (to use Toronto as an example, Toronto.com, Now and Backbone seemed to miss a lot of significant events and never broadened listings beyond their respective focus). evite et al were great to help host and promote events but didn't offer listings.
Event listings are no easy feet to do either. There are thousands of events going on in Toronto, probably in just one month. I hate to think about a city like New York. How did websites publish this before? I take it they'd have some sort of streamlined process, but ultimately every event must have had to some sort of manual review and some level of manual coding or inputing. A ton of work and explains why so many sites did events so poorly (badly organized, missing events, outdated, etc.).
What's cool about Upcoming.org, now owned by Yahoo, is that it greatly expands the potential and amount of listings.
Upcoming puts the listing creation into the hands of users to create private events or promote public events. Events are organized by city and type (eg. music, arts, festival, commercial, arts - they actually need more types to encompass trade events as for now they all go under "other")
Judging by the number and breadth of events listed, the site has critical mass, they just need to expand beyond their comparative ghetto. That's why I think their service would be way more useful if repackaged in Toronto.com. People already go to this site for this type of information and their editorial and community can add value beyond just a listing.
Upcoming.org does encourage community by having you flagging events that you are attending or considering. You can then see which of your friends are going or share events with friends easily.
Meetup.com
Another, cool event website is Meetup.com.
Meetup seemed to take the idea and basic functionality of Yahoo Groups (which I have loved and used ever since I found others, a group even, of people as devoted and talkative about Xena, Warrior Princess as I was).
The problem with Yahoo Groups is that it is a lonely world and while it's great to post and email other Xenaphiles, it's nice to actually meet people in person some time. Meetup.com is devoted to groups that actually meet in person. Many types of groups and in your city! Even web-geeks needs some human contact every now and then - or just a beer/coffee.
While I registered with Meetup four months ago (I even joined the Toronto Web Centric Meetup Group) I haven't been able to actually been to a meeting yet.
Here's the rub... the Internet has enabled not only great social networking but also bringing unique, and yes often bizarre, groups together. It enables organizing public & private events and promoting them. But it still hasn't found a babysitter for me! Can't leave my two-year-old with Net Nanny.
Upcoming.org
It's an excellent Web 2.0 example (I hate that term, but it's a useful concept) but I think its functionality far exceeds the confines of just its own website.
Upcoming.org started in 2003 (again I'm discovering these things late - I feel like I've been in a como for the past 2-3 years). Many sites have done event listings and enabled organizing and promoting personal events (evite, for instance). The problem with these is that most websites just didn't have enough event listings or they only did a certain type of event (to use Toronto as an example, Toronto.com, Now and Backbone seemed to miss a lot of significant events and never broadened listings beyond their respective focus). evite et al were great to help host and promote events but didn't offer listings.
Event listings are no easy feet to do either. There are thousands of events going on in Toronto, probably in just one month. I hate to think about a city like New York. How did websites publish this before? I take it they'd have some sort of streamlined process, but ultimately every event must have had to some sort of manual review and some level of manual coding or inputing. A ton of work and explains why so many sites did events so poorly (badly organized, missing events, outdated, etc.).
What's cool about Upcoming.org, now owned by Yahoo, is that it greatly expands the potential and amount of listings.
Upcoming puts the listing creation into the hands of users to create private events or promote public events. Events are organized by city and type (eg. music, arts, festival, commercial, arts - they actually need more types to encompass trade events as for now they all go under "other")
Judging by the number and breadth of events listed, the site has critical mass, they just need to expand beyond their comparative ghetto. That's why I think their service would be way more useful if repackaged in Toronto.com. People already go to this site for this type of information and their editorial and community can add value beyond just a listing.
Upcoming.org does encourage community by having you flagging events that you are attending or considering. You can then see which of your friends are going or share events with friends easily.
Meetup.com
Another, cool event website is Meetup.com.
Meetup seemed to take the idea and basic functionality of Yahoo Groups (which I have loved and used ever since I found others, a group even, of people as devoted and talkative about Xena, Warrior Princess as I was).
The problem with Yahoo Groups is that it is a lonely world and while it's great to post and email other Xenaphiles, it's nice to actually meet people in person some time. Meetup.com is devoted to groups that actually meet in person. Many types of groups and in your city! Even web-geeks needs some human contact every now and then - or just a beer/coffee.
While I registered with Meetup four months ago (I even joined the Toronto Web Centric Meetup Group) I haven't been able to actually been to a meeting yet.
Here's the rub... the Internet has enabled not only great social networking but also bringing unique, and yes often bizarre, groups together. It enables organizing public & private events and promoting them. But it still hasn't found a babysitter for me! Can't leave my two-year-old with Net Nanny.
The Apple of my iPhone
I'm not a Mac fan (despite the urgings by converted zealots such as Ingrid). However, I reluctantly admit I am really excited about Apple's new iPhone. I can't wait to be able to talk and surf the Net everywhere! (Okay maybe not EVERYWHERE.)
There's been a lot of media attention to this issue already, but Business 2.0 has an interesting article on the iPhone battle between Apple and Cisco.
While the actual legal trappings aren't that important, the article explains how this case is really over the future of telephony (eg. VOIP) and the Internet and how this might play out.
Read the full article:
iPhone war: more than just a name
There's been a lot of media attention to this issue already, but Business 2.0 has an interesting article on the iPhone battle between Apple and Cisco.
While the actual legal trappings aren't that important, the article explains how this case is really over the future of telephony (eg. VOIP) and the Internet and how this might play out.
Read the full article:
iPhone war: more than just a name
Thursday, January 11, 2007
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