Sometimes you just have to give up on what obscure pursuits life serves you. I mean, small keyboards sure are interesting, but feeling guilty not mentioning the new Blackberry keyboard is just over the line. Anyway, it’s more phone than Blackberry, and not just the keyboard. But I like it.

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Dan Gillmor was here again. Not exactly right here, but in Copenhagen – in fact he still is, and tonight, he’ll be eating a chicken sandwich at the Laundromat Café, Nørrebro, joined by Copenhagen bloggers. Quite a few already signed up, and suspiciously many of them call themselves Knut Nägele. No offense, just stating facts here.

Thomas live-blogged his IT University speech.

Jonas saw him do that.

He also saw Gillmor.

..while that same Gillmor was shooting him.

Which brings us to the point of Gillmor’s new book and the reason he’s here. (It’s the chicken sandwich).
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You’ve seen them all. But that doesn’t stop the industry from making at least a few new ones every week. It’s about movie trailers – and probably the best bit of satire until now.

Oh, and the trailer right above is This The Excorsist trailer. Modified for educational purposes, of course.
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You only read on if the first few words turn you on. At this point of this paragraph I’ve already lost four out of the ten who began reading thirty words ago. Now? Seven. Many ad copywriters say they spend more than twice as much time on the opener than on the entire piece. Sadly, I’ve lost 90% of my initial readers in this paragraph.

Using Headline & Blurbs on News Homepages

Poynter Extra: Eyetrack 2004

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I study Advanced Practical Usability at night. Three to four hours a few times a week, sometimes if not often in weekends, but always with the most critical end-user panel. One user at a time. Always live. Always requiring the highest level of attention. So, as you will imagine; after a hard day’s work at the office, facing a lecture seems impossible.

Today’s lecture was a short, but exhaustive one. Two hours intensive training with a very challenging participant. Given task: Renew antivirus subscription. Duration: No limits.

What I learned

• Use imperative. Form fields do not necessarily mean ‘type here’. Use instructive words describing exactly what you want the user to do. Users can freeze up just as well as computers can.
• Use big buttons for default actions. Users likely loose their reading abilities if exposed to information overload. This is normal – not an IQ indicator. In case of emergency evacuation in airplanes, passengers use the floor lightning to help guide them to the exit. Web users look for big buttons. Hopefully, they meet at the exit.
• Forget ham radio lingo. Even if it looks and feels like plain, no-nonsense language, there has got to be at least an explanation of what it really is you want the user to do. Or how the patient younger family member is supposed to interpret it.

Today, I even got a mail from the critical end-user panel participant. That usually makes my day and makes it worthwhile. Today was no exception.

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This is depraved, so bear with me. And I don’t mean the misspelling.

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