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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: September 30, 2002 Email Newsletters Pick Up Where Websites Leave Off (useit.com) -- "In any case, from an interaction design perspective, Netscape is a pale imitation of IE, and Macintosh is a higher-priced dolled-up variant of Windows. The differences between Web browsing platforms are like those between Indian and African elephants and not like the differences between crabs and eagles."
Reader Comments...
I am surprised at the reasons given for not unsubscribing to newsletters. I have not noticed users being afraid to unsubscribe because they think they will get more mail. I also found it interesting that the overwhelming message of the article was that newsletters should be brief and easy to read. This is an interesting guideline because, while I agree with the "easy to read" part, I feel cheated if I get a newsletter with only a little bit of content. Am I alone in this? Also, and I say this not to start a Mac/PC debate but because I am honestly puzzled, I spent a few seconds frowning over his "Macintosh is a variant of Windows" statement, but I figure he doesn't know better because he says "The Macintosh" when he obviously means "The Macintosh OS." He also put the cart before the horse on the Netscape/IE comparison. I assume he was around when all of this stuff first came out, yes? Or is he talking about the perceptions of the average user today? Posted by: Lydia on October 1, 2002 12:32 PM
Lydia...you bring up a good point. A newsletter should be written for the audience that it is addressing. You should know what you end user wants and not presume. His comments about email newsletters (all ten of them) received highly emotional responses. Well, I ask…did the user subscribe to them?, were they contentious email newsletters?, were they so far removed from the user that they had no idea what it was about? How do you measure emotive response?. Did the user wet their pants for some and not others?, did they roll around on the floor screaming?…did he measure pupil dilation and compare that against a mean? I am actually quite confused about where this article is trying to go. High task completion in subscribe and unsubscribe…Isn’t the success measurement and thus its level of usability more tied to informing or getting user to undertake the call to action? Arrrrggggg…. Am I simply ranting?…I hope not a these are genuine questions that I have. Posted by: JB on October 1, 2002 02:21 PM
No, JB, you really articulated a lot of the same thoughts I was having when I read the article and I am relieved someone else was thinking the same things. So many things were presented as fact, but none of the methodology was revealed. I guess he was just trying to peak interest so you would buy the report (which I assume reveals the methodology), but it is very frustrating. Posted by: Lydia on October 1, 2002 03:11 PM
I'm glad Lydia said something about Mac/PC and IE/Netscape. I remember when Mosaic came out (had never occurred to me that you could have graphics on the same page as text) and then Microsoft trying to get into the game. Used to be that Netscape was the browser to have. I really like Mozilla, but one of its builds made it so that when I started the browser, a dialog box with a huge X close box in the upper right corner would show up and nothing else. I had to wait for a new version and then use IE to download the full install. On a side note, I wonder why Mozilla has built-in ad stopping, but not IE. Posted by: Morris Cox on October 2, 2002 01:19 AM
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