The Only Ones With A Problem With Our Interface Are The Users

In a perfect world, we’d all create software and websites and knowledgebases and blogs and videos and e-learning and such that would be posted and then never be opened up to the most evil and destructive beings on the planet.
Users.
usersOur work would shine brightly, with buttons and links perfectly aligned, un-clicked and never seen, so that we’d never have to hear those annoying whining noises.  “I can’t make it do this” and “It won’t do that” and “It doesn’t have any of those” keep echoing in our heads at night, as we try to sleep.  Don’t they know that we’ve created perfection?
Users!
You can’t live with ’em.  And you can’t kill ’em, chop ’em up, wrap ’em in paper, and UPS ’em to random people from your phone directory.  (At least according to last week’s version of “CSI: New York” you can’t.)
So what’s a poor coder to do?
You might think about doing a little usability testing.  It’s not really that hard, and if you integrate it from the beginning of your project it can really improve the final product.  The problem is that you (and your little Red Bull drinking buddies) really aren’t the target users.  You know too much about whatever it is that your software does.  So you’ll need to buy a couple of pizzas for a user group, show them some mock-ups, and then SHUT THE HELL UP as they try to complete some simple activities.
Video tape the action, and then bring it back to deconstruct.  Work a little further, and repeat.  And repeat.  And repeat.
Don’t know how to do a simple UI review?  Point your mousie over to http://www.useit.com and listen to Jakob Nielsen, the God of web design.  Do what he says.
Or hire an expert.  There are lots of good people available to hold your hand and make sure what you’re developing actually works for the poor fools who give you money.
Then you can buy more Red Bull, games, and a membership on Match.com.  Maybe even move out of Mom’s basement.

Is Using Social Media Like Pulling Teeth?

One of my favorite evangelists in the Social Media space is Jeff Hurt (@JeffHurt on Twitter) the Director of Education and Events for the National Association of Dental Plans (NADP)– a small nonprofit headquartered in Dallas, TX.
Jeff_Hurt_10-14-2009_2-55-51_PMYou wouldn’t think of dental work and social media, but he’s done great work in getting a pretty stodgy group to use some really neat tools — and I ran across a great interview where he actually listed off all the tools that he and his staff use on a daily basis:

What social media sites/tools are you using?

  • Animoto Videos (free or low-cost video creation)
  • Blogtalkradio (interview members, speakers, board candidates, etc.)
  • EventCenter & EventPartner Webinar Platforms (which include webinar microsite, registration process, podcast recording features, text chatting)
  • Hootsuite (to schedule our daily tweets)
  • iCohere eCommunity (velvet rope eCommunity for members only)
  • Facebook Fan Page (for conferences and events)
  • Google Alerts & Twitter Search (for NADP as well as specific industry key words)
  • LinkedIn Group
  • Ning groups (for our own professional learning)
  • Social Collective Conference eCommunity (which also includes event registration, marketing and crowdsourcing features.)
  • Tinychat – to engage in conversations with general public about dental benefits
  • Tweetdeck (to monitor chatter on specific association keywords as well as government initiatives)
  • Twitter
  • Vovici for our research and surveys
  • Wiffiti.com
  • WordPress Blogs (conference blog, public outreach blog, advocacy issues regarding healthcare reform)
  • YouTube


How To Handle Tough Questions From Reporters

I got an email today from Ragan Communications with a lovely little video on “How To Handle Tough Questions From Reporters” that had most of the standard “fess up and take your medicine” sort of advice that your mom would probably give you.

But really, in today’s world of social media tools, there are better ways to handle a reporter trying to nail you on a big story.
If A Reporter Asks About Your Mistress…
…post something on your Facebook page, talking about how you’ve adopted a deserving 27-year-old lingerie model who was so skinny that she might have starved to death.  Remember to link to photos to prove your case.
If A Reporter Questions Your Expense Account…
…tweet that your Gulfstream has been in the shop for the last time, and you’re purchasing Willie Nelson’s old tour bus and will be driving to all of your overseas fact-finding missions from now on.  Don’t mention the ganja in the master suite.
If A Reporter Hears About Your Un-Documented Nanny…
…blog that you’ve embarked on a new Rosetta Stone “full immersion” language lesson series where you get not only the DVDs and tapes, but an actual Spanish-speaking person to come to your house for 45-days to help you prepare for your trip.
If A Reporter Prints That Your Wife Has Left You…
…post a travel review to Yelp claiming that Delta Airlines booked a ticket for a woman with your wife’s name to Mazatlan, along with your pool boy and all your mutual funds.
If A Reporter Calls To Confirm That You’ve Been Laid Off As CEO…
…crumple paper near the receiver and claim a bad Skype connection.

Why "Best Practices" Will Blow Up In Your Face

If I hear one more highly-paid consultant talking about “best practices” I may just have to drop kick them through the uprights on the practice field.  The whole idea is such a crock that I’m amazed anyone takes it seriously.
Here’s a 30-second video of the “Best Practice To Light Your Charcoal Grill Quickly”.  Take a look.

Will you be using this technique soon?  I won’t — unless I want to lose my deck, my wife, and melt my Weber Kettle down into slag.
The point (he has a point?) is that the concept of “Best Practice” assumes that we all share the same conditions, the same metrics for success, and the same risk/reward structure.  The guy in the video was only interested in how quickly he could get that charcoal going — so, for him, it truly was the “Best Practice”.
In my field, learning, I see the same thing happen.  Someone comes out with a list of “Best Practices In e-Learning” with no context.  They suggest that you offer multiple methods for learners to take in the information.  They suggest that you include rich animations, videos, talking parrots and streaming video.  They suggest that you comply with SCORM, NORM, and NNPT. Not to mention offering versions for the deaf, the visually impaired, and those who are allergic to keyboard dust mites.
Uh huh.  My development budget is $250 this quarter.  Not gonna happen.
The whole concept of a “best” anything is a crock, anyway.  What’s the “best” car?  Well, I’m partial to the Jaguar XJS V-12, but it’s hard to haul plywood home in it from Home Depot.
xjsv12
So why do people keep publishing this dreck?  Because we want to THINK we can come up with some kind of one-size-fits all listing of answers that won’t require you to actually know anything about the discipline involved to be an expert.  Sure would be nice:
Jet Pilot
“Best Practice if engines go out, hit big red “fix it” button on control panel.”
Neurosurgeon
“Best Practice if patient acts nutters, stick long steel rod up nose and stir around.”
Hockey Player
“Best Practice to score goals, hit puck thingy into net thingy.”
The harsh truth is that there ARE no real “Best Practices”.  Unless you come up with an exhaustive list of conditions and specifications — developed by an expert who understands both the situation and the discipline — and even then, all you’re getting is an educated guess.
Fire your consultants.  Hire someone who’s actually done it, multiple times, successfully.

Turns Out That Great Content Grows Your "Google Authority"!

It’s always nice to hear that you’ve been barking up the right tree.  And now I’ve got proof — or “woof” — of that, from Chris Garrett, in a great post about how content improves your Google Authority.
High on the list of “negative influencers”:

“Thin or Spammy Content – Duplicate, scraped or feed content, or spammy gibberish is likely to get marked down. As you would expect, Google is aiming to promote the highest quality. They will use human checks, algorithms and watch the behaviour of their customers to see if what they are delivering meets expectations.”

Of course, there are other important issues — like links, traffic, and what your site looks like in general.  But you’ve got that covered already — right?

Using WordPress As A Content Management System

I’m a happy WordPress user for several blogs, but one of the best-kept secrets about this software is that it does so much more than just blogging. I ran across a great article on how you can also use it as a Content Management System (CMS) that opens up a whole new world of ideas:

WordPress is often thought of as little more than a blogging platform. But it’s capable of so much more. Through a little customization and the use of plugins, WordPress can easily be transformed into a full-featured content management system. Here are more than 25 sites who have done just that (and done it well).
This is the second article in the four-part series, “The Comprehensive Guide for a Powerful CMS using WordPress“.


UGSMAG

UGSMAG is a Canadian hip hop magazine. The home page is laid out in a grid, with featured articles along the left two columns and news on the right. The color scheme and design choices reflect the young, independent audience they attract. The lack of a category list (other than the top nav, which simply lists “News,” “Features,” and “Interviews”) and archives lend the page to looking more like a traditional news or magazine website than a blog.
usmag
Subtle changes to individual article pages, such as removing the category labels, the use of a drop cap initial character, and moving the date from it’s usual blog-centric location under the title to the upper-right hand corner of the page all also contribute to the site looking more like a magazine and less like your standard blog.

Read more…

Post Office Idol — Voting For The Stars!

Fox Television has just announced a new reality show called “Post Office Idol” where customers at every post office in America will be given the opportunity to vote for their favorite employee each week.  For a low fee of $5 per call, fox_realitythey can choose which employee was the most helpful, gave the best service, or got the line moving the fastest.  Multiple votes are allowed by the same customer, as long as each vote is accompanied by the $5 payment.
At the end of each week, the employee with the highest score gets 50% of the total cash take, with the balance going to Federal Defecit.  The employee with the lowest score is immediately terminated, and the first job applicant in line is hired to take their place.  The game begins again on Monday morning.
Other shows already in the planning stages are “DMV Hero”, “Funeral Home Hero”, and “That Place You Have To Go To Get Your Insurance Physical Hero”.  Advertising is selling at well over $1 million dollars per minute.
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OK — I’m fibbing, just a little.  Fox doesn’t have this show on the fall schedule, yet.  And I’m not really recommending that we terminate employees of the Post Office just because they have a bad day — except for the one that was waiting on me today.
But I’m wondering what your learning and training products might look like if the consumers of your service actually had to call in and vote in front of God and everybody on what they thought.  If three celebrity judges listened to you talk about your content on stage in front of millions, live — and then made jokes about what they saw.  Would you make the grade?  I know that I’d have damp armpits.
But hopefully, some of us would make customers look like this:

Click to see video
Click to see video

I'm Busy Failing — Don't Bother Me!

I’ve written previously in this space about my belief that as educators (or teachers, or trainers, or facilitators) we often treat “failure” in exactly the wrong way with learners.  Through the K-12 experience, we pretty much dwell on what you did wrong and punish you for it — with bad grades, remedial classes, dunce caps and other types of pain.
After that, in the real world (I observe that place, but refuse to live there) we also punish you if you fail.  Trying something new means the risk of making a fool of yourself, being told that you should have known better, that you wasted resources or time.
Gen-next learners spend a lot of time on video games.  Failure there is the standard mode of learning.  Your car crashes, your airplane gets shot down, or your soldier gets blasted by the bad guys.  That’s just an expected part of the learning process. So you push the “reset” button and try again, having learned something.
I ran across this great video from Honda called “Failure:  The Secret To Success” talking about how they built their incredibly successful team by failing, again and again.

“Honda is now the sole supplier of engines for the Indy Racing League.  We’d really prefer to have some competition in the series, but perhaps the Honda success drove some of them out.  Maybe they’ll come back.”  Tom Elliott, American Honda

What would your classroom or e-learning site look like if you encouraged and demanded that your participants fail over and over as they participated?  If it was an accepted and expected part of the experience, rather than an “exception” that you immediately tried to locate and stamp out?
Pretty much exactly the same experience as when you learned to ride your first bike.
bike

Amusing Myself During Conference Calls

I spend a lot of time on conference calls — living, as I do, in the middle of a small southern state — and am often pretty bored with not much to do. Typing on the keyboard makes noise, and if I hit the “mute” button I often forget to turn the mic back on when I want to talk.
But I have found that fooling around with Photoshop is nearly soundless, and sometimes quite amusing. I now have a lovely new avatar for Twitter.
dickhead_mar09v5
So — be honest. Should this be the image that goes up at the top of the blog?