Video posted: Web Apps with Jared Spool

The video from our last WebPub meeting is now online at TechTV and iTunes. Due to some technical difficulties the recording starts a few seconds in to Jared’s presentation, however I’m sure you’ll find the content extremely enjoyable! Many thanks to the MIT HyperStudio and IS&T for sponsoring the podcast.

Here’s the summary of the topic covered:

Web Apps: The Collision of Design and Business with Jared Spool
Who has the best practices for web app design and what do they do to make world-class applications? Jared will share the latest research in the techniques and methodologies that can make a huge difference.

Surfing on your phone is a “cringeworthy process”

You’ve got to love Jakob Nielsen’s use of the English language. In his Feb 17th Alertbox article “Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998” he discusses the similarities he uncovered during a recent usability test of mobile sites:

• Abysmal success rates
• Download times dominate the user experience
• Scrolling causes major usability problems
• Bloated pages hurt users (not physically I hope)
• Unfamiliarity with a browser’s user interface limits the user’s options
• JavaScript crashed and problems with advanced media types (video, flash, etc)
• Reluctant to use websites on mobile devices
• Search dominance
• Old-media design

The article goes on to discuss screen size issues, arguments for separate mobile sites, ideas about mobile web’s future, and where to learn more.

Web 2.0: The Power Behind the Hype

Use Interface Engineering has another webinar on Web 2.0 coming up on August 16th — 1pm ET / Noon CT / 11am MT / 10am PT. Jared Spool is giving the talk. Here’s the outline:

In this presentation, I will teach you:

+ How Web 2.0 works with a tour of Flickr
+ How Folksonomies (also known as Tagging) can make
personally important information easier to retrieve by users
+ How Social Networking can enhance the users’ experience
+ How APIs expand the user experience
+ How RSS brings data to your users on their schedule

Pricing: $129.00, $99 for UIEtips Subscribers (form at the bottom of the page)

UPDATE: here are the presentation slides from Jared’s talk: http://tinyurl.com/2q3yeo

Website Relaunches…Bad Idea?

So you know your site has problems, and you know you need to redesign and reorganize it. Problem is, you are afraid to touch it in case you make things worse…what’s a web publisher to do?

You’re not alone. Our buddy Jared Spool wrote up on this back in 2003, and did another write up last summer. If you haven’t read them already, you should check them out:

The Quiet Death of the Major Re-Launch (May 20, 2003)
http://www.uie.com/articles/death_of_relaunch/

More on Why Major Relaunches are a Bad Idea (August 10th, 2006)
http://www.uie.com/brainsparks/2006/08/10/more-on-why-major-relaunches-are-a-bad-idea/

(thanks, Cecilia!)