Tag usability

KISS my metric

I’ve been noticing KISSinsights windows popping up on various sites that I visit. I’m not a fan. Why? It’s just another popup window I am determined to dismiss. Sure, it’s a pretty popup window and it appears at the bottom of the window, not right in my face as I’m trying to read something. But still, it’s a distraction.

I get why it’s there. I get the approach. But what I don’t get is why I should participate. What’s my incentive? I don’t mean to sound harsh but if you want to take my attention away from the reason I came to this web page, you’d better make it worth my while. OK, all it requires is for me to either make a selection and hit the SEND button or simply minimize the window. Sure, but again, what is my incentive? How am I helping exactly? And if I minimize the window, is it just going to appear again when I visit another page on the site or revisit this particular page?

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This Week’s Bad UI with Steven Frank

Steven Frank on the usability (or not) of his new Pioneer in-dash car navigation system.

Deluxify, a weblog by Juliette Melton

Juliette Melton blogs about usability and other interesting topics. She also has a photoblog with some beautiful photos.

Takeout Takeaways

AnswerLab researcher John Cheng discuss how The Sentinel applies valuable customer insights.

TiVo and Usability

I recently was gifted a TiVo. While I’ve used a number of TiVo’s at other people’s houses, it wasn’t until a week ago that I was able to claim one as my own.

I try not to watch too much television. I knew that if I ever got a TiVo, I’d learn everything about it and try to understand it well enough to continue watching less TV but now on my own schedule. So far it’s been great.

Tonight while setting up My TiVo on the net, I noticed a link encouraging people to sign up as a beta tester. Nothing new there. Then I saw a link looking for user testers. Awesome! I knew TiVo put a lot of energy into the remote and the software but for some reason I thought they were done with user testing. It’s encouraging to see TiVo conducts usability testing on a regular basis. If you live in the Bay area, sign up and help shape the future of TiVo.