Client conference call, with a need to discuss multiple images from multiple subdirectories. Want to EASILY go back and forth between these images, not necessarily sequentially, but based on the conversation. (BTW, I invited them to my PC via GoToMyPC, and I gave them access to my keyboard and mouse.)
NOT SO HOT SOLUTION
What opens by default for me, Windows Photo Gallery, doesn’t have perfect, predictable back and forth action, doesn’t provide for one click hopping to an image that’s not next in it’s concept of “order”, and doesn’t seem to go between multiple directories. Oh, it also doesn’t always seem to scroll all images in the subdirectory I’m in either.
COOL SOLUTION
Open up Firefox. This probably works in IE, but I’m a Firefox Fan, so that’s what I’m describing here. Drag the first image to a tab. It opens in all its glory, displaying the image name on the tab (an argument for meaningfully naming your images.) Open another tab (Ctl-T). Drag the next image to tab. Open up another tab….you get the pattern here, right? Want to display an image from another subdirectory? Go to that subdirectory, drag the image to a tab.
Now, my client and I can both see all the images I have open in Firefox, and we can easily go back and forth between them. And, because I gave my client access to my keyboard and mouse virtually, they can easily interact with these tabs, too, without having to know or touch my subdirectory structure.
One more Firefox tip you can use for this situation? You can use Firefox as a way to navigate through your subdirectory structure, too. Just go to the URL address bar, and type in c:/ and press enter. Watch what happens! It shows your C: drive directory structure. Change drive letters to access other drives. Navigate up and down the structure. Open up a new tab, and drag an image you find in this tab to the new tab. Okay, the TRUTH is that you don’t even have to open a new tab. Just drag it next to another tab, and it opens a new one on its own.
Now, this solution is completely self-contained. Enjoy your new Firefox Collaboration Station!
Coming Soon: Another Great Client Call Tool, and Firefox Tab Pollution Solution. Want to know when I’ve written them? You know how it works…subscribe to this blog.
Welcome to Part I of an exciting series of IV, where we’re going to convince you that, whether any of us like it or not, it is INDEED, as you may have suspected, contrary to everyone denying it….that’s right, it is all about how you look.
There’s an article here I hope you’ll read. The BBC put this on their website in January, 2006. That may have been a long time ago in the world of the web, but it definitely still applies.
Summary of the article? Users make decisions about websites in 1/20th of a second; a mere blink of an eye. And they seem to stick to those decisions.
Researchers in Canada showed volunteers websites for only 50 milliseconds each. Those users then rated the websites in terms of aesthetic appeal. Turns out the decisions they made in that 50 milliseconds didn’t change much when they were given a longer amount of time to mull those sites over.
Researchers also believe there’s a halo effect in place here. If a user likes the way a site looks? That same user believes the content and offering of the website will be worthwhile as well. After all, who wants to be proven wrong about his or her decision?The competition is intense right now, and your website is most likely a major piece of your marketing material. Whether we like it or not, it IS all about the way we look. What does YOUR site say in 1/20th of a second? And, if a visitor stays longer, is he forced to change his mind about that initial positive impression he had?
1/20th of a second isn’t long enough to read anything. It’s only long enough to have the briefest of glimpses. Color, imagery, volume of content. I daresay I can’t imagine a user absorbing more than that in 1/20th of a second.
Don’t look at your website right now. Instead, look at your company. What three things are true about your company that you want everyone to know? How can those be conveyed visually, with color, images, and volume of content?
In Part II, we’ll talk about colors and user reaction to various colors.
In Part III, we’ll talk about imagery. What should it convey? Should it shock, soothe, invite, excite?
In Part IV, we’ll talk about the volume and characteristics of your content. Why your users are visiting your site should drive your content.
Subscribe to this blog so you don’t miss the next 4 parts!
I’m up early, figuring out which presentations to attend at Innotech. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far. You’ll notice, I’ve picked two presentations for almost every time slot; an excellent dilemma to have.
7:45am
Lessons Learned from Internet Marketing Experts No dilemma here - there’s only one presentation.
9:30am
Requirements At The Speed of Thought
Connecting Business and Creating Opportunity Through Technology and Social Media
10am
Lead Nurturing: Are you Ready to Abandon One and Done?
Landing Page Optimization - An Interactive Clinic
11am
SaaS and the Evolution of Enterprise Business Applications
Beta Summit II - Demos of Austin’s Hottest Technologies This was one of my favorites last year.
1pm
Making the Business Case for Rich Internet Applications As we’re using Flex, an RIA tool, I’ll definitely be going to this one.
The Social Media Revolution Is Underway: Here’s How You Can Capitalize On It This is Brett Hurt from Bazaarvoice’s presentation. He’s a good speaker, and an excellent example of a successful entrepreneur in Austin.
2:30pm
Commercial Advantage of Ruby On Rails We’re working with Ruby on Rails, too, so this one is required.
Web 2.0 and Collaboration in the Enterprise: Successes and Challenges
3:30pm
You have MOSS Installed…Now What? MOSS is Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server…I’d really like to see this one…
Strategies for Planning and Building an Online Community But I wouldn’t think of missing this one. Jon Lebkowsky, who I wrote about in my Twitter blogs, is one of the presenters on this panel.
As you can see, there’s a large number of excellent choices for this conference. My hat’s off to the people who put this together.
I spoke recently at the Women’s MBA lunch, a group organized by Lisa Cummings, owner of Fine Homes Austin. Lisa gave me the scoop on a great source of information, available right there on my phone.
No more waiting for your web browser to load on your phone! Text 466453 (GOOGLE), and tell it what you want to know. Google will even tell you how to use this service by texting help to itself.
Get an address for a restaurant, find a zip code or phone number, get directions, do a currency conversion, find a price for a new treasure…the possibilities are endless.
4 Site Owners - 4 Great Reasons to make copies of your site at periodic intervals.
* Site Owner 1 lost her entire site, including a wonderful online journal of her once-in-a-lifetime journey when she accidently let her domain name expire.
* Site Owner 2 lost her myspace site - myspace shut it down. Eventually they turned it back on, but what if they hadn’t? Poems, friend links, blog entries, pictures…all gone.
* Site Owner 3’s ISP went out of business. Woke up one morning, his site was gone, and his email address didn’t work.
* Site Owner 4 found HER content on someone else’s site! She’s VERY organized - she had copies of her content at different times, so she was able to prove to the site owner that the content belonged to her. The site owner had purchased writing services from a third party, was horrified to see that the writer had stolen material and then sold it to her, and promptly removed the material. What if Site Owner 4 hadn’t had proof?
One of the beauties of a website is that it’s not “final.” It’s not like a brochure or a business card, where you have thousands printed, and then to your horror, you discover that there’s an extra “w” in www.yoursite.com, or when you copied your source business card file to use for your new employee, you forgot to change the email address to theirs! Instead, a website is fluid. You can change it, or have it changed, all the time. It’s dynamic. But the downside of all this fluidity is that it’s hard to remember to keep “snapshots in time.”
The content is also much more available to anyone else who wants it. A quick copy/paste, and it’s theirs. It almost doesn’t feel like stealing!
Our advice this month is to keep a copy of your website, or have your web development firm keep a copy of your website.
1. When you make a revision, keep the old information
2. Keep your graphics
3. Keep copies of your downloadable files
4. Keep copies of the backup code
If you have a web development firm working for you, it’s worth it to pay them to burn you a CD at points in time during the year, especially before and after major revisions. Make sure it includes any database data, if your developer or you have access to this.
Then, if your ISP goes out of business, your web developer flees to Alaska, someone copies your content and you need to prove it was yours first, or you lose your site for some other reason, you have what you need to get back to where you were or to take action if necessary.
ICANN = Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
They’re the people in charge of the domain names. They set the standards for things like what comes after the dot. .info, .com, .org, .tv, etc. They’re meeting today to decide a few things:
1) Can domain names use characters other than the currently-allowed Latin characters?
2) Can other words come after the dot, instead of the limited set that’s allowed now? In other words, while the left side has always been a free-for-all, now the right side might be, too. So, wildwood.interactive, or mybusiness.isgreat would be possible domain names. The exceptions would be that trademarked names couldn’t be used after the dot.
This might be a great new influx of income for the domain registrars and maybe even the trademark industry. It might also be a great opportunity, now that short, easy domain names are so hard to come by.
Of course the other consideration in the dot discussion is to remember that now we’d all have to remember where the dot goes.
…What do you think? Myself? I don’t know about “dot.”
Welcome to Part I of an exciting series of IV, where we’re going to convince you that, whether any of us like it or not, it is INDEED, as you may have suspected, contrary to everyone denying it….that’s right, it is all about how you look.
I spoke recently at the Women’s MBA lunch, a group organized by Lisa Cummings, owner of 
ICANN = Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
