Bad interface design May 28, 2008
Posted by jameyo in presentism.Tags: user-experience, web-design
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I’m one of the few people still using go.com’s webmail service. Long story but I use it for a few subscriptions that I’d rather not clog up other, more widely utilized email accounts.
It’s always been a horrible service to use (no spam marking, slow) and its even gotten so bad I don’t even get spam there anymore! If the SPAMMERS don’t use it, then you know a service isn’t cutting it.
Today, I logged in for my bi-weekly flush and found they’ve managed to make a horrible design even worse!
Note that, in my 1024 x 768 resolution, I have exactly two messages visible in the message list. Of the messages I select, I can preview exactly five lines of text! My mail message that I come to the site to read, is presented to me in about 8% of the available screen! It’s almost impossible to read.
Nice work, guys!
I understand the need to generate revenue via ads. I’m accustomed to losing some content area for those ads. When the ads squish content down to a minority of the space available (and I’m talking about you, chron.com!) then your design has lost its focus.
I think in go.com’s case, they’re more concerned about getting me to visit one of their real sites when I’m done using their email service. Too bad they’re not concerned with the actual service they’re providing. It’s all AJAX-y but that doesn’t excuse the poor design. And it won’t make me visit their sites.
If you design websites, don’t do what go.com does. Make your bucks where you can, but remember why I’m going there (hint: it’s not so I can look at your ads).
Cheating March 10, 2008
Posted by jameyo in presentism.Tags: cheating, lifeskills, students
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While browsing teh interwebs today, I ran across an interesting piece about why kids cheat.
A fascinating topic and it’s made me stop and consider it all day. How many adults have you heard brag at parties about how they “got a little extra” on their taxes this year? Or ran that red light? I don’t condone cheating, but what kind of example do we truly set for our children?
A larger question is: why are we teaching content that can be cheated on? We’re not asking students to think if they’re able to cheat, are we? I can give you a list of facts and you can either learn it or find a way to bring it to the front when I call upon you to remember it. If I want you to learn it don’t I need to find something that will let you USE it? A project, perhaps?!
Call me crazy…
Getting ready…. January 31, 2008
Posted by jameyo in presentism.Tags: convention, edtech, presentations, tcea
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Next week is my favorite week of the year: the annual Texas Computer Educator’s Association conference in Austin, Texas. My schedule is full and I run around like an idiot, but I’ll never complain.
I’m presenting one workshop and two sessions. The workshop is a completely overhauled “Building Dynamic Websites using Dreamweaver, MySQL and PHP” six-hour session that I’ll be presenting for the fifth time at TCEA. I just presented the same workshop (with the new content) in Florida at the Florida Educational Technology Conference and it seemed to go pretty well. I’ve tweaked the session a bit, based on their feedback. Not sure if its full or not but it’ll be Tuesday from noon to 7 pm.
Update: its full. Its very clear to me that educators are ready to learn how to make advanced web pages and take advanced workshops.
Mardi Gras on Sixth Street is the likely apres-workshop activity!
Both sessions are Wednesday. At 11 am is a 45 minute session I’m doing with my colleague and friend from Ysleta, Ron Livermore, on Web 2.0 sites of note for educators. At 4:00 pm, I’m doing a 90-minute session on “Podcasting: Understanding your hardware options” in one of the Ballrooms. I guess they think a lot of people will be attending! Yay!
That last session is one near-and-dear to my heart. I’m an inveterate radio guy and good sound is important to me. I hope to transfer some of my some of my knowledge about hardware setups and options to educators looking to improve their podcasts. Topics to be covered include microphones (and proper technique), mixers, compression and options for recording on the move and in unusual situations (like Skype or phone).
I hope to see you there! Stop by and say hi!
Turning a page… March 18, 2007
Posted by jameyo in futurism, presentism.add a comment
The absence of posts recently is not so much an indicator of lack of interest or topics, but more a reflection of the changes going on in my personal life. Sorry about that; I’ll try to do better in future.
I have taken a new position in the interlude between this and the last post. I’m now the Director of Instructional Technology for the La Porte ISD, on Galveston Bay just east of Houston, Texas. I start tomorrow and I’m eagerly anticipating the challenges and opportunities that await me in this new position. La Porte is right on Galveston Bay and is a much smaller district than the one I left. A smaller district can do things that a larger one can’t and it provides a unique setting for me to move my way up the career ladder in instructional technology.
It’s my intention to blog about my experiences, learning about becoming a Director of Instructional Technology here on Abstract Virtuality. I hope it’s worthwhile for those that desire to follow along one day.
