n]–noun
| 1. | a period of suspension of work, study, or other activity, usually used for rest, recreation, or travel; recess or holiday where one remains in the same locale as one's residence. |
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Friday, July 10, 2009
The Staycation
Staycation: [stay-key-shuhn]
–noun
Am rested and ready to face whatever challenges are ahead.
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n]–noun
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Wednesday, July 1, 2009
What Bejeweled Blitz Taught Me This Week
If there is no clear obvious path, does that mean any forward movement will result in mistakes?
Sometimes, yes. But more often than not there are always options, resulting in more options. The truth is that there is rarely a clear and obvious path to take.
You can only make decisions with the information you have at the time, and most of the time, you are being timed.
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Sometimes, yes. But more often than not there are always options, resulting in more options. The truth is that there is rarely a clear and obvious path to take.
You can only make decisions with the information you have at the time, and most of the time, you are being timed.
Send me an email
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Return to Your Basic Instincts - Breathe In and Out, and Put One Foot in Front of the Other
This morning I woke up in a nervous flurry of thoughts. Lists started scrolling through my brain - don't forget to do this before you do that, but oh yeah, there's all of this stuff too. It took about 15 minutes, but I finally gave in to the most basic instinct - I closed my eyes and focused on breathing.
Five minutes of that and I was good to go. The lists of "stuff" no longer seemed impossible. In the calm I could prioritize against most critical vs biggest bang for the buck vs will make someone else happy. I look forward to checking things off, one by one, and embracing that feeling that you get when you are focused instead of allowing oneself to be overwhelmed.
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Five minutes of that and I was good to go. The lists of "stuff" no longer seemed impossible. In the calm I could prioritize against most critical vs biggest bang for the buck vs will make someone else happy. I look forward to checking things off, one by one, and embracing that feeling that you get when you are focused instead of allowing oneself to be overwhelmed.
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Friday, May 29, 2009
Sometimes You Just Need to Pick up the Phone
It's so easy to misinterpret what others say - everyone, no matter how hard you try not to, makes subconscious assumptions about what others already know. We use it as a starting point for where our email or chat begins. We use it when we decide what kind of context is going to be wrapped around the conversation. Even more importantly, not everyone went to the School of Writing Email for Business Communication, and there are about a million things that can be cause for misinterpretation - from one's general writing style to one's phrasing.
While I am a huge proponent of keeping logs and threads so you know exactly what transgressed, I have found that the best way to skip over the back and forth is to simply pick up the phone. The trick is to make sure you have an email go out directly after the call that identifies what was discussed as well as any action items agreed on. That way, the right people are still clued in and if any followup needs to happen, it's in writing and you can continue on your way with having a paper trail. This works internally, with customers, and in your personal life. Customers will appreciate that you reached out and you'll be a hero because the issue will be resolved quick-style.
Give it a try.
Happy Friday, all.
Annie
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While I am a huge proponent of keeping logs and threads so you know exactly what transgressed, I have found that the best way to skip over the back and forth is to simply pick up the phone. The trick is to make sure you have an email go out directly after the call that identifies what was discussed as well as any action items agreed on. That way, the right people are still clued in and if any followup needs to happen, it's in writing and you can continue on your way with having a paper trail. This works internally, with customers, and in your personal life. Customers will appreciate that you reached out and you'll be a hero because the issue will be resolved quick-style.
Give it a try.
Happy Friday, all.
Annie
Send me an email
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
My Best (and only) Facebook Tip For You - Use Your Facebook Privacy Settings
It's happening, whether you like it or not. Facebook is creeping into your daily life... for personal, and work.
I use Facebook a lot. I use it as a tool to keep in touch with friends, to reconnect with old friends, to make networking connections, to maintain relationships with co-workers who are on the other side of the country or world, and to evangelize the things that I hope my growing community will also be interested in.
The problem with this is that you've now got a hodgepodge of contacts being dumped into a single portal. You don't necessarily want your networking connections to have access to the same things your best friend has access to. Solution? Hop over to Facebook's Privacy Settings and go to town.
Facebook's Privacy Settings give you the control to manage who is able to see what. All you need to do is create a few lists and associate them with whatever rule.
Step 1: Decide On Your Parameters
You're going to be deciding who CAN'T view - so think about for a minute what kinds of lists you want to make. I have:
Step 2: Create Your Lists
Once you've decided on how you want to create your "can't"
lists, Click on the Friends at the top left. Looks like this:
Then select "Create New List"
Now you simply click on the Friends you want to be a part of
that list, and click Save when done.
Repeat until you've created all the lists you want.
Step 3: Modify Privacy Settings
This is the last step. Click on "Privacy Settings" on the top right of the browser screen:
Click on Profile. Here you'll see a bunch of options.
If select the drop down for Wall Posts, then select "Customize".
Click on the text box under "Except these people", select the + sign to the right and select the lists you want to be added to the exception list.
That's it! Customize as much as you want. You can add multiple lists, and you can block specific friends from viewing certain pieces of data. Happy customizing!
Annie
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I use Facebook a lot. I use it as a tool to keep in touch with friends, to reconnect with old friends, to make networking connections, to maintain relationships with co-workers who are on the other side of the country or world, and to evangelize the things that I hope my growing community will also be interested in.
The problem with this is that you've now got a hodgepodge of contacts being dumped into a single portal. You don't necessarily want your networking connections to have access to the same things your best friend has access to. Solution? Hop over to Facebook's Privacy Settings and go to town.
Facebook's Privacy Settings give you the control to manage who is able to see what. All you need to do is create a few lists and associate them with whatever rule.
Step 1: Decide On Your Parameters
You're going to be deciding who CAN'T view - so think about for a minute what kinds of lists you want to make. I have:
- No Status Updates and Links
- No Wall Posts
- No Photos Tagged of Me
- No Personal Info
Step 2: Create Your Lists
Once you've decided on how you want to create your "can't"
lists, Click on the Friends at the top left. Looks like this:
Then select "Create New List"
Now you simply click on the Friends you want to be a part of
that list, and click Save when done.Repeat until you've created all the lists you want.
Step 3: Modify Privacy Settings
This is the last step. Click on "Privacy Settings" on the top right of the browser screen:
Click on Profile. Here you'll see a bunch of options.
If select the drop down for Wall Posts, then select "Customize".
Click on the text box under "Except these people", select the + sign to the right and select the lists you want to be added to the exception list.
That's it! Customize as much as you want. You can add multiple lists, and you can block specific friends from viewing certain pieces of data. Happy customizing!
Annie
Send me an email
Friday, May 22, 2009
Making the Connection Between the Web and Your Storefront Experience - Sephora Gets It Right
On Wednesday I received an email from Sephora saying "you purchased this in our store, how about writing a review online?" I've purchased things in the past from Sephora, but have never received this type of message before so am assuming it's a new strategy.
This is a huge win for Sephora. Bridging the brick and mortar with the online community creates an elevated engagement level that so many companies are trying to achieve. Not only that, but Sephora does such a good job on their website of offering "products you might like" as a result of your actual purchase (online or in-store) that they are truly driving you to buy more with their suggestions.
I look forward to seeing how Sephora develops their online community. I see clear opportunities - videos on application and skin preparation would be a great starting point, with live-streaming of in-store facials and makeovers from Pros being next.
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Thursday, May 21, 2009
Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design
Notes to self.
Shneiderman's Principles of Human-Computer Interface Design
Use the Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design:
1. Strive for consistency
* consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations
* identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens
* consistent color, layout, capitalization, fonts, and so on should be employed throughout.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
* to increase the pace of interaction use abbreviations, special keys, hidden commands, and macros
3. Offer informative feedback
* for every user action, the system should respond in some way (in web design, this can be accomplished by DHTML - for example, a button will make a clicking sound or change color when clicked to show the user something has happened)
4. Design dialogs to yield closure
* Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions shows the user their activity has completed successfully
5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling
* design the form so that users cannot make a serious error; for example, prefer menu selection to form fill-in and do not allow alphabetic characters in numeric entry fields
* if users make an error, instructions should be written to detect the error and offer simple, constructive, and specific instructions for recovery
* segment long forms and send sections separately so that the user is not penalized by having to fill the form in again - but make sure you inform the user that multiple sections are coming up
6. Permit easy reversal of actions
7. Support internal locus of control
* Experienced users want to be in charge. Surprising system actions, tedious sequences of data entries, inability or difficulty in obtaining necessary information, and inability to produce the action desired all build anxiety and dissatisfaction
8. Reduce short-term memory load
* A famous study suggests that humans can store only 7 (plus or minus 2) pieces of information in their short term memory. You can reduce short term memory load by designing screens where options are clearly visible, or using pull-down menus and icons
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Shneiderman's Principles of Human-Computer Interface Design
Use the Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design:
1. Strive for consistency
* consistent sequences of actions should be required in similar situations
* identical terminology should be used in prompts, menus, and help screens
* consistent color, layout, capitalization, fonts, and so on should be employed throughout.
2. Enable frequent users to use shortcuts
* to increase the pace of interaction use abbreviations, special keys, hidden commands, and macros
3. Offer informative feedback
* for every user action, the system should respond in some way (in web design, this can be accomplished by DHTML - for example, a button will make a clicking sound or change color when clicked to show the user something has happened)
4. Design dialogs to yield closure
* Sequences of actions should be organized into groups with a beginning, middle, and end. The informative feedback at the completion of a group of actions shows the user their activity has completed successfully
5. Offer error prevention and simple error handling
* design the form so that users cannot make a serious error; for example, prefer menu selection to form fill-in and do not allow alphabetic characters in numeric entry fields
* if users make an error, instructions should be written to detect the error and offer simple, constructive, and specific instructions for recovery
* segment long forms and send sections separately so that the user is not penalized by having to fill the form in again - but make sure you inform the user that multiple sections are coming up
6. Permit easy reversal of actions
7. Support internal locus of control
* Experienced users want to be in charge. Surprising system actions, tedious sequences of data entries, inability or difficulty in obtaining necessary information, and inability to produce the action desired all build anxiety and dissatisfaction
8. Reduce short-term memory load
* A famous study suggests that humans can store only 7 (plus or minus 2) pieces of information in their short term memory. You can reduce short term memory load by designing screens where options are clearly visible, or using pull-down menus and icons
Send me an email
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