Another great term: ‘Voodoo usability’
In the latest of Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox newsletters, I ran across this terrific phrase: voodoo usability. As Nielsen explains it, “Most sites employ horribly misguided methodologies that do not assess real usability. Sometimes the methods are simply worthless; other...Trendspotting leads to new words
Fellow independent Joanna Turlej pointed me to Trendwatching, an interesting site about – what else – trends. As you can imagine, the spotters at Trendwatching come up with new words all the time to describe the trends they see. They credit Faith Popcorn, probably...Great web site advice
I was catching up on my Bloglines feeds and came across some great advice from Seth Godin on building great web sites. I particularly liked this one, which mirrors how I feel about sites that use fancy Flash bits for no apparent reason other than they can do it and...Communications ain’t necessarily PR
A mailing sent this month by the Toronto chapter of IABC that would normally include the monthly newsletter, Communicator, instead contained a sheet of paper that said, “A new and improved Communicator is coming this fall.” The notice included this line:...
IABC session inspires fresh writing
Thursday and Friday saw me in downtown Toronto at IABC’s two-day writing conference, which featured a number of well-known presenters who have wowed audiences at IABC’s international conferences. Here are some of the things I learned/was reminded...Social media etiquette
I’m struggling a bit with what to do when contacted by someone I don’t know — say on LinkedIn or Melcrum’s Communicators’ Network — asking to add me as a contact. On LinkedIn, you can edit the note sent to include some context (such...Make sure quotes earn their ‘wiggly marks’
I’ve ranted before about the bad things that happen to good quotes at the hands of executives, so I was pleased to see my sentiments echoed in an article (sorry, I tried to link to it but it may be one of those limited-time-access things) by the impassioned...
Social media believe it or not
Those of you who are early adopters and enthusiastic fans of blogging, podcasting, Twittering, Second Life etc. etc. will be appalled. I had dinner recently with three friends, two of whom had no clue about Second Life. Not one was aware of Twitter. They had little...