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| RUNNING WITH(OUT) THE BIG DOGS "Business is really not about competing. It’s about making money....We get rewarded by avoiding
competition—by building things that are truly innovative, creating markets where none existed before."
‘IT’S ALL GEEK TO ME’ An executive we know at an auction-hosting business says his company gets e-mails from individuals who have participated in "Dutch auctions" and clearly have no clue what the term means. One guy who bought a personal computer through a Dutch auction asked if he could trade in the computer for an English version. If not, he wondered, could he get a translator for it? (In a Dutch auction, the seller starts at a given price and keeps lowering it until he has buyers for however many items he has up for sale. All buyers get the lowest price that someone said he would pay for the item.) Hint: Let’s not use terminology that even a small percentage of customers might find obscure.
TIME AFTER TIME America Online customers who think signing an "opt-out" form means that personal information on them
and their on-line habits won’t be shared with advertisers, ever, had better think again. The on-line titan
has imposed a one-year expiration date on the agreements, so customers wanting privacy will have
to keep saying so every year. THE NAME GAME What to call the new decade? New York Magazine, which played a role in dubbing the ’70s "The Me Decade," suggests that we’re entering "The E Decade." Michael Wolff writes: "E is for electronic, for equity, for entrepreneur, and even for erotica. But most of all, E is for the greatest economic boom the world has ever seen." John Perry Barlow, a writer and lyricist, complains that too many people have settled
on the obvious name: "The Double-Aughts," which was the name applied to the decade at
the beginning of the 20th century. Because Barlow expects this decade to bring even more
surprises and chaotic change than the last, he suggests calling the decade "The Uh-Ohs."
MILES TO GO... Now that e-commerce has taken off into the stratosphere, you might expect the state of Web design to be humming along nicely. And yet, Internet users still find sites terribly difficult to navigate. To find out what to do about the problem, Context turned to an expert in customer-centered design. Jakob Nielsen, who was once the usability guru for Sun Microsystems, recently founded the Nielsen Norman Group with Invisible Computer author Donald Norman to help companies become more user-friendly. CONTEXT: How well are Web sites designed these days? NIELSEN: Poorly. They may look good, but the Web is not an environment where users go for viewing enjoyment. People go to business sites, in particular, for solutions: to learn about products, find out what the company is doing, look for jobs. Users want to accomplish something. Quite often that’s very difficult. CONTEXT: Is design getting better or worse? NIELSEN: There’s no improvement. That means it is actually getting worse because, as the Web gets bigger, the possibility for getting lost is increasing, and new users are increasingly less technically adept. Their ability to cope with problems is diminishing. My statement to companies, based on the many Web projects I have reviewed over the last seven years, is, "You are doomed." The first Web project that any company does will result in a miserable site. Intuition and experience from the old world lead people directly toward the wrong path for the Web. CONTEXT: What can companies do to avoid this? NIELSEN: The most important thing is to take usability seriously. Get real users in, and have them use a prototype of the Web site before it is launched. See where they click and where they don’t. See which things appeal to them, where they get stuck. See which things they cannot find. Rule No. 1 of e-commerce: If the customer can’t find it, he can’t buy it. CONTEXT: What are the most common errors? NIELSEN: Many home pages look quite nice, which is a strong attribute in print media, but speed is much more important on the Web. Companies don’t seem to understand that branding is different on the Web. Brand is defined by the experience the customer has while interacting with you in your environment. The traditional world was very much based on one-way communication to the customer, so many people interpret branding to mean a slogan, logo, or image. On the Web, we know from studies that users completely ignore all slogans and logos. They look at the middle of the page, at things they can do. Companies have to understand that design has major implications for whether users trust it and feel well-treated. The entire company—its only existence—is glowing pixels on the screen, so they have to be designed right. A classic example is shipping and handling fees. Many sites don’t outline the fees. They expect that customers are going to enter credit-card information without knowing what they will be billed. How can companies expect that? Companies have to take people’s fears seriously. Anytime a company asks for an e-mail address, something right next to the request should say how it’s going to be used. "It’s only going to be used to communicate with you in case of problems with your order." Or, "We will never again send you any e-mail unless you check this box and, if you do check this box, we will send you our monthly newsletter with specials." Notice, I said monthly newsletter. I didn’t say at any random time. The true executive mistake is not really believing in the Web, not really understanding that it will fundamentally change the relationship between companies and customers, change entire product structures and total organizations. Branding is changing to mean customer experience. Companies are in contact with customers 24 hours a day. Products turn into services, services turn into products. Everything is turned inside out. And remember, the Web we’re seeing today is a primitive version of the Web we will see in
five or 10 years.
IT’S A M@D, M@D, M@D, M@D WORLD Some years back, a friend suggested what seemed to us to be the ultimate headline. She hoped that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Louis Lipps would have a great game at the expense of Miami Dolphins linebacker David Shipp, so the next day’s headline could read: "Louis Lipps Sinks Shipp." These days, it seems everyone is a comedian, judging by all the e-mails we get. Here is our recent favorite, a list of old sayings updated to reflect the modern world:
AUCTION-ADVENTURE FIGURES? Morris Sochaccewski thought his prayer shawl and other religious items that had been stolen
from his car last year were gone for good. Then he took a friend’s advice and looked for them on eBay.
He found them. When he called the police, an officer logged onto the auction site and started bidding.
With a bid of several hundred dollars, the officer won one of the stolen pieces, and tracked the seller
down. Police expect the woman, who bought the goods at a local flea market, will help identify the
hot-handed thief.
I WANT MY 'ME' TV "In the TV industry, you spend millions of
dollars and countless hours trying to understand
your audience so that you can program to them. Let
the audience program to itself, and you’re going
to do even better."
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Home is where you hang your @.