From: Gleanings
To: Nostradamus
Subject: Gleanings: is it the age of aquarius yet?
OPENING THANG
Reading my Nua newsletter this morning, I realized that I’ve seen remarkably few prediction stories for January. This was also the year I saw very few “year in review” stories as well. Perhaps everyone’s so happy the world didn’t come to an end, they’re just laying low.
Here are my predictions
The layoff merry-go-round: A lot of people are going to get fired, or leave, and most of them are going to get hired again. However with so many people on the market they are actually going to have to work to find a job. People who should think twice about quitting: those with very little experience. Better to stick it out for another six months or so before throw your hat in the job hunt ring.
The market downturn: Is a downturn. It’s going to be good again, but not as great as before. Don’t be greedy folks. One thing is sure; recruiters are not going to be able to use stock-options to get people to work for less then market value (which is going to be less than it was). They will move to offering better benefits, like more vacation, as people are going to be less willing to spend their life at the office.
Micropayments: hah, like I’m going to predict anything about micropayments.
Europe: is going to continue to get more and more wired, and web workers with savvy and courage will move there to ride the wave of excitement that is similar to san Francisco in 93. And to get four weeks of vacation and great food.
Wireless: is going to continue to be a confusing mess for another year, and this will be fun for folks who like messing around in the unknown. Users however, will continue to use their cellphones for *gasp* telephone calls. My dream is they will be outlawed from doing so while driving.
The Web: will continue to show itself to be one of the most flexible delivery mechanisms ever. However, companies pressed for cash will change their attitudes and stop shoving proof-of-concept unusable sites out the door and start crafting carefully structured user experiences to improve brand loyalty and customer retention. and they’ll hire
Well, I hope so.
>>>Send me your predictions, and I’ll put them in the feedback section of the next newsletter.
EDITORIAL: 2001: THE YEAR AHEAD
By Kathy Foley
It’s January again and time to adopt a wise countenance, stick the
neck out, and make a few predictions for the year ahead. It’s not
the easiest of tasks and certainly has the potential to expose
would-be seers to plenty of ridicule but, bolstered by the relative
success of last year’s predictions, I’m going to give it a go once
more.
For the full story, go to:
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/analysis/weekly_editorial.html
IA MATTERS
How to evaluate IA (thanks vincent!)
http://argus-acia.com/white_papers/evaluating_ia.pdf
DESIGN MATTERS
Tog on Fitts
http://www.asktog.com/columns/022DesignedToGiveFitts.html
USABILITY MATTERS
Usability test that Sun did on the StartOffice package
http://whiteboard.openoffice.org/Usability/index.html
ART MATTERS
well, I think art matters, anyhow
Web Site Includes Commissioned Artworks, in-depth Background and Special
Events http://www.sfmoma.org/010101
NEWS
http://www.tomalak.org> passes on a fairly shocking misuse of customers trust. is it really a surprise that Americans are growing more and more suspicious when filling out forms?
http://63.210.24.35/reports/pdfs/PIP_Trust_Privacy_Report.pdf
Wired News: EBay E-mail Makes Users ‘Bidder’.
Auction site eBay has apparently decided that users of its service who said no
really meant yes. So, in an attempt to “help” its users, the company has
informed many of them, by e-mail, that their marketing preferences were
automatically being changed.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,41086,00.html
Interactive Week: From November 29, 1999; AOL To Users: Opt Out Again
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2400502,00.html
ZDNN: Privacy snafu enrages eBay customers.
Online privacy group TRUSTe said the eBay changes raise privacy concerns and
it plans to grill execs about it in the next few days. This is a change of
mind for TRUSTe, one of several groups that eBay briefed on the details before
changing people’s preferences. TRUSTe at first gave its okay.
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2673052,00.html
from http://www.nua.ie
ZDNet: Search engines cause ire among Net users
According to a new survey, poor search engines and information
overload are causing web-rage among Internet users.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356304&rel=true
NielsenNetRatings: Amazon, Toys ‘R’ Us top holiday etailer list
Amazon.com’s alliance with Toys ‘R’ Us paid off handsomely during the
holiday season–the online retailer clocked up a record-breaking 123
million shopping visits between the start of November and December
24.
http://www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905356308&rel=true