If today’s Thursday…
…then the themed supplement in today’s Guardian is on Technology, which often has something to interest me tucked in among the features on computer games, mobile phones and music downloads. (Not that there’s anything wrong with these topics, it just makes for an oddly various eight pages). Anyway, here are two items from today’s paper:
In the Tecnobile column, Gina Davies would like it to be known that she is "NOT A POLE DANCER". It seems that when people Google her name, they find a character from a best selling novel. Sound familiar? I have a similar problem: as I’ve complained elsewhere on this site, I am not the actor best known for playing Dale Arden in the Flash Gordon movies (and those nude photos are not of me).
There is also an interview with Jakob Nielsen, headlined "The web design guru that web designers love to hate". That line encapsulates the ambiguity of the expression "web design" Jakob Nielson is the expert on usability, on web sites that do the job, that allow visitors to find the information, buy the item, contact the person… He isn’t popular with designers whose priority is creative expression, graphic beauty or novelty, because he says that those things come second to ease of use. Which means that he is popular with Cornwell Internet! Quotation of the day: "Thus, websites should have almost no features: focus on the words."
Jakob Nielsen’s own site UseIt.com does just that; it has never been at the cutting edge of design, and now looks very old fashioned – but it’s easy to use and full of information. And, says Nielsen, that old-fashioned look has now become very distinctive!