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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: August 30, 2002 Promote Usability by Saying Thank You (upassoc.org) -- we have not teamed with our natural allies and that we have been too inwardly focused within our field. (Mac comments: Who would you say thank you to?)
Reader Comments...
"Use a credit card to pay just $15 to cover materials and shipping." I give thanks to Aldus for creating Pagemaker and to Adobe for creating Photoshop, tools that allow me to create my own certificates of appreciation. I give thanks to Staples, Inc. because it provides me a store where I can buy high-quality official-looking blank certificates that I can use out-of-the-box, or modify to appear even more impressive. I give thanks to Microsoft Corporation for creating Microsoft Word, which allows me to write a memo of thanks to whomever I please. I give thanks to my mother for not being addicted to alcohol, cigarettes or crack during her pregnancy so that I have a fully functional shoulder blade, arm and hand that I can use to personally thank people with a handshake.
I applaud the initiative to try and do something different, but if I got one of these I would be scratching my head and thinking why? Take me out to lunch if you want to say thanks...damn...you charge enough :)
Certificate of Abuse I showed this to some developers. They made fun of usability and the friends of usability. Next time I'll just mumble something about Flash or Uncle Jakob and walk away. Posted by: John S. Rhodes on August 30, 2002 01:27 PM
The problem is that a certificate is only as prestigious as the person or organization that gives it to you. If you're giving an award to curry favor with someone more powerful than you, I think you're embarrassing yourself.
Thanks John, now I can't get "Friends Of Dorothy" out of my brain. Posted by: Mac on August 30, 2002 01:56 PM
Bravo Jack! I'm finding it very difficult to determine why anyone at UPA would think this is a good idea. Some of it reads like bad satire. However, I did notice an annoying amount of self-promotion for UPA and one of its members!
How about resources on how to better 'sell' usability into corporations? Perhaps there are already pointers provided by UPA on this. Posted by: daniel on August 31, 2002 01:00 PM
Back to Mac's question. I guess I would have to thank Filbert for being the first person to give a name to this thing called 'web usability.' (Not that he coined the term, just that he was the first person I came across online.) Do you think Filbert would put my UPA certificate on his wall? Posted by: Jack on August 31, 2002 09:27 PM
A few weeks ago some of us decided not to mention Filbert by his real name, or link to the articles he posts on his web site every other week because we felt his articles have been increasingly less useful in teaching usability issues, and more aimed at selling his company's research reports. e.g., the good thing that spurred his rise to power now longer exists. He is less King Richard and more Prince John. We long for a Robin Hood to take up our fight. We do not wish to do anything further to promote this person as a usability guru. Posted by: Jack on September 1, 2002 08:55 AM
So how did you come up with the name Filbert? Webster's New College Dictionary shows this: [ME Hey! It truncated my comment. This is what I was trying to say: So how did you come up with the name Filbert? Webster's New College Dictionary shows this: [after St. Philbert (d. AD 684) whose feast day in late Aug. coincides with the ripening of the nut.] I'm guessing that you did not intend to canonize He Who Must Not Be Named (shades of Harry Potter?), so perhaps you chose the name because of the nut? :) Posted by: jan on September 4, 2002 03:38 PM
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