Mind on Marketing

Like most Americans, I’m horrified and sickened by the disaster in the Gulf (which is not, as some seem to think, a “natural” disaster). And I’m enraged by BP’s response.
BP CEO Tony Hayward’s performance this week in front of Congress provided further proof of BP’s sociopathic inability to empathize with the incalculable destruction the company [...]

Last month I received an email from someone pointing out many mistakes on my own web site. A couple of these were really bad mistakes. I have a section describing classes I’m offering at PVCC, our community college. I gave the same description for two entirely different classes, and got the date wrong on one [...]

In her all-day day session at EDUI2009, “Usability Testing Without the Scary,” Dana Chisnell laid out the entire process for usability testing. Breaking the process down into small parts that are easy to understand, Dana showed us how to be comfortable with the process, rather than intimidated. Here’s what she shared about creation of the [...]

The University of Virginia hosted an outstanding usability-focused conference yesterday and today, EDUI 2009. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia, in partnership with User Interface Engineering, produced the conference, featuring a star-studded roster of presenters (forgive the hyperbole, but this conference was an amazing value for the cost of attendance). Today [...]

Silicon Alley Insider published an important article warning about the perils of using the URL shorteners that are so common for Twitter and Facebook posts. Author Dan Frommer says they should not become a critical part of your comapny’s infrastructure because the short URL services “are fun by small, modetly funded startups that could easily shut [...]

Mashable.com points to an updated presentation that provides plenty of solid evidence on the effectiveness of social media: What The F**k is Social Media: One Year Later. It’s a nice little slide presentation with pithy data on social media and engaging visuals. It gives six good reasons why you should care about social media:

3 out [...]

Yesterday I met with the web team at the University of Virginia College of Arts & Sciences to review results of user testing we conducted to learn more about the usability of a design template for academic departments. We conducted the test at the end of April, timed to take place before students began studying [...]

This week I conducted user testing for the University of Virginia’s Arts and Sciences web site. I’ve been working with the web team for nearly two years. When we began working together, we were looking at what changes were needed to make the site easier to use. The site had recently been overhauled by the [...]

A colleague here in Charlottesville, Jason Hull, (Principal, OpenSource Connections) is a pioneer in using technology and a leader in our regional technology community. Last week I noticed his email signature in a message I received, and it’s a great example of how to promote your site, blog and network connections. Jason lists the URLs [...]

Seems silly to post this picture from the Tuesday Morning mailer that arrived this afternoon (I really do need to get back my life away from the screen), but I love the way the hose on the rug makes you think “huh?” and then you immediately understand this is one of those polypropylene (sp?) rugs [...]