We’ve mentioned both the dogged efforts of IE 6 to stick around, along with the equally persistent campaigns of those attempting to rid the world of it.  Now it looks like Microsoft itself may be joining in the fight.  I read this morning that Microsoft will be donating 8 meals to Feeding America for every download of IE 8 during September.  And if you’re upgrading from IE 6, they will double the donation to 16 meals.

Sure it may just be another ploy in Microsoft’s attempt to improve their image, but for two worthy causes, who cares?  Let’s feed the hungry!  http://www.browserforthebetter.com/

Zendesk is freaking awesome.

I recently worked on a project that needed some way to organize and track questions, comments, and problems submitted by the site’s users.  After taking a look around at some options, we decided to give Zendesk (a customer support web application) a shot.

I was blown away.

Zendesk has obviously put a lot of thought into the overall user experience of their site.  Their website is clean and easy to understand, and there is a full API so developers can use the system as part of their own applications if more flexibility is needed.  It’s easy to see why companies such as Twitter, MSNBC.com, and Books-A-Million are using it.

However my favorite feature is actually the lack of something.  The entire system is completely usable without the customer ever having to fill out a signup form.  Jeremy has posted on Gradual Engagement before, but Zendesk has the best application of it I’ve seen.  Here’s how it works: whenever someone wants to open a support ticket, they send the system an email.

That’s it.

It may seem simple, but this is a drastic departure from the traditional web application approach of forcing the user to fill out a signup form, then asking them to login to the system, and finally having them fill out another form to open the support ticket.  With Zendesk, all correspondence can be sent to and from the user’s email without them ever having to visit the Zendesk site.

Behind the scenes, Zendesk creates a new user account whenever it receives a email from someone who is not in the system yet.  Then it tracks all the support tickets and correspondence from that email address, so that if the user ever does want to “create an account”, all they have to do is go to the Zendesk site and create a password.  Then when they log in their entire support history is already available. Sweet!

I love it whenever a web application introduces a new way of making life easier for the user.  If anyone has other examples of web applications that break out of the mold to provide a better user experience please post them in the comments!

Two weeks ago I needed a car.  I was beginning to hear death pains from my poor, overworked Mazda 626 (with 190,000 miles under its belt) and, being the Internet nerd that I am, I began my search online.  I found some dealerships online and sent a few quote requests.  Then I found Edmunds.com and I used it to send off a few more.

Soon I began to receive emailed and telephoned responses.  One was especially nice, noted that I had sent requests to his dealership through both his dealership’s website and the Edmunds website, and had a few vehicles in mind that matched my criteria.  My wife and I bought a car from him that day.  It was the end of my car search.

It wasn’t the end of the emails.

Two weeks later I’m still receiving an email about every other day from one of the dealerships that I didn’t visit.  This is an excerpt:

specials this weekend!   We have yellow tagged every car on the lot with a posted price in the windshield. Also, we have available 0% financing and if you lose your income Ford will make your payments up to 12 months!  This is peace of mind you will not find with any other company! We give you dent repair, key replacement and a personal assistant! Also, we have been selected to be a Motor Trend Certified Dealer.

Here are some of the specials!

2009 Fusions $4,000 OFF

No, I’m not joking.  This is a clear violation of the golden rule of online business: Thou shalt not annoy thy users. Here’s why.

1. They put me on their mailing list when I didn’t ask to be. This has to be the single most annoying thing anyone can do in online business.  Unless someone asks to be put on your mailing list, leave them off of it.  Asking for a quote on a vehicle does not equate “Here is my email address, feel free to abuse it any time you want to!”
2. They are emailing me way too often. Even if I had signed up for their mailing list, more than one email advertisement a week is overkill.
3. They didn’t listen to me. I haven’t mentioned it yet, but I had already told this dealership over the phone that I was no longer looking for a car.  So why would I want an email about the specials that they’re offering this weekend?
4. They abused font sizes and colors. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.  I agree that variations in font can call attention to certain parts of a correspondence, but this email is way overkill.  I don’t know what’s “special” and what’s the normal text.  I’m sure the author thought the whole email was special, but that is no excuse.
5. The email is unprofessional in general. Alright, so this is a lame point that goes hand in hand with the previous one, but I wanted to make a statement.  Business correspondence, whether in print or on the Internet, should be professional.  For most companies this means proper grammar and punctuation, clean formatting, and precise text.   If you wouldn’t print something on company letterhead, don’t put it on the Internet either.

I admit this post was mostly a chance to get some frustrations out, but you’d better believe I will never step foot on this dealership’s lot.   Hopefully this will help other businesses avoid the same mistakes.

Software developers realized years ago that we were solving the same problems over and over.  In order to keep from reinventing the wheel on each new project, programmers began developing self-contained, reusable ways of structuring sofware to solve common problems.  They dubbed them Design Patterns.

Ok, ok.  So that’s boring.  But what’s not boring is that some really smart user interface designers have started to take the design pattern idea into the realm of user interfaces.  I’ve found two websites that have catelogs of proven design patterns waiting to be used.  Some of them are simplistic, such as pagination and breadcrumbs, while some are more complex, but each solution has been time tested to solve common UI problems, ensuring a great user experience.

Check it out!

Infragistics Quince: http://quince.infragistics.com/

Yahoo! Design Pattern Library http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

I was paying my bills online yesterday when I realized I haven’t even owned a checkbook in over a year. So I started thinking, How am I now comfortable managing all of my finances online when only six years ago I wouldn’t even provide my real mailing address to sign up for Yahoo! Mail?

Establishing trust with your users remains one of the largest hurdles a new online service faces. Even though we depend more and more on the Internet for daily tasks like paying bills, keeping in touch with old friends, or shopping, stories of scams and identity theft fill the news leaving users suspicious, or at best skeptical.  Large companies such as Paypal.com and Amazon.com have built up a reputation over time that exudes trustworthiness, but how does a smaller company or start-up build that confidence?

Here is a short list off the top of my head of ways online companies have gained my trust.

1. You are trusted by another person whom I trust.

2. The information I have to give you to use your product is not very sensitive.

3. I’ve trusted you with a little, and you haven’t let me down.

4. You are transparent and detailed about how your are going to use my information, and what you are going to do to protect it.

5. You use a third party service I trust (such as paypal.com) to handle my sensitive information.

Disagree or have any other suggestions? Let us know in the comments.