Critique Wall.com

Kelly K. Spors has a good plain language article in today's Wall Street Journal about Search Engine Optimization, unfortunately it is only available online to WSJ.com subscribers. If you find yourself needing to explain how search engine rankings work to a lay-person this article is useful.

Supporting the article is a video interview with Adam Lasnik from Google. To learn optimization insights straight from Google, watch it (and an advertisement) below.

Want to deploy Flash 9 SWFs on your site? On our site, Google Analytics statistics show Flash 9 at only 59% of visitors.

That's not quite the 80% we like to see before deploying new technology. But don't worry, Disney's much talked about new Disney.com will help. The 995 pixel wide, media (video) heavy site requires Flash Player 9 to view any content. Users without the latest Flash Player are greeted with this graphic:

Icons, like cars and refrigerators, have planned obsolescence.

It is interesting that the need to create visual stimulus for new product desire outweighs the value of the existing user knowledge and recognition of previous icons.

In the short-run, the change from one icon set to another for the same activities hampers usability because users cannot quickly transition to associating new icons with the products they use in their everyday workflow.

Do you remember the transition to Adobe's CS icons? It was a radical departure from the previously learned icon system. Where did Venus go? Quick, switch to Illustrator! Is Illustrator the conch shell, flower, or butterfly?

Cameron Moll was in Orlando to speak at a conference and took time out this past weekend to speak at Valencia Community College for students and those of us that couldn't make it to the conference.

He presented a variation of his Good Designers vs. Great Designers talk which is full of condensed design wisdom which he delivers well. If you're a good designer you'll ponder the good vs. great slide in his post. If you're a great designer you'll download slides and the audio and experience it yourself.

Cameron, thanks for visiting Orlando.

Marketplace commentator Tim Bedore has funny and wise things to say about World Usability Day.

"If we consumers demand better-designed products from industry, we might get them."

Read or listen: Marketplace: How about Make Things Easier Day?

Last night Haley Johnson came all the way from Minnesota to speak to the Orlando AIGA chapter. She's an illustrator/designer, self-described as a designaholic. She has done an amazing amount of work on brand design and development and often works on royalty compensation model. She doesn't have any business collateral of her own, saying "I'm so busy, where would I fit you in?" Apparently she doesn't speak often and made jokes about the lecture being in an old courtroom because she felt like she is being judged, but she is obviously a well respected and proven force in the design industry. Go hear her if you are every so lucky to have a chance and look for her upcoming article in January's Communication Arts.