Once upon a time, there was online shopping

Once upon a time, there was the dotcom boom and its visionaires dreamed of how the internet is going to change the way we shop. Business-to-business sales quickly picked up whereas business-to-customer lagged. For some reason, customers didn’t hop on the excitement of the new internet train the way the visionaires expected them to.

It worked for some goods like books (Amazon) and computer hardware (Dell), but for the most part consumers remained absent despite elaborate attempts to trick them into the WWW. I remember some writer being enthusiastic in the advent of the Pentium III processor how it will allow her to rotate 3D representations of the clothes she is going to shop for online. I remember the TV report on the warehouse that employs skaters with a webcam while the customers sits at home and directs them towards the desired good. Looks like neither approach has picked up a whole lot of success.

However, this week I have noticed how my own shopping behavior has changed. It hasn’t changed into what the visionaires with their simplicistic models dreamed of, but into something that uniquely fits me.

As I am done with my university I am looking for the next challenge. Newton has encouraged me to learn how to play the guitar. He sent me a long email with explanations and links concerning the Fender Telecaster and the Stratocaster. Besides wikipedia articles I also checked out YouTube and the company website. However, there was no information relating to me as a potential Swiss customer. So the next logical step was to step out and tour the local music shops in Solothurn. Back home and rich with experiences I watched some more YouTube and also caught up with my wikipedia reading (Epiphone, Ibanez, and Washburn). Soon I am going to write an e-mail to Newton asking for his advice again.

Clearly, those visionaires who believed I will order my goods alone based on some “customer-experience” website have been wrong. Those who believed that I am going to use the variety of sources the internet offers to support my decision making have been right. E-Mail connects me with my pal and his unique experience. The company website shows me the range of their products. Wikipedia explains the company’s history and its embedding in culture. YouTube lets me observe the instruments in their natural settings with real users. And the friendly local dealer has the real things hanging on the wall, lets me experience their color, weight and size, and will eventually come up with a good deal for me.

This is how shopping is supposed to be.

How to keep your relationship happy

In the context of my finals I also read quite a bit of literatur concerning behavioral couples’ therapy (BCT), also known under the former name of behavioral marital therapy (BMT). One of the reasons BMT changed to BCT was to reflect the shift of view that not only two married heterosexual people form a couple. On the other hand, lots of acronyms exist for this form of therapy reflecting the researchers drive to increase the efficacy of this form of therapy. Generally said, BCT is one of the best researched fields of clinical psychology.

Therefore, I was especially eager to see what keeps one’s relationship healthy. After all, you can follow either the advice from one of those books by a self-proclaimed expert or you may refer to scientifically researched literature. So what does this literature say? Schindler, Hahlweg & Revenstorf feature the 10 Golden Rules to keep one’s relationship healthy:

(1) Express your gratitude as often as possible. There is no “too much”.

(2) Take the initiative and collect ideas.

(3) Be transparent to your partner. Let him/her understand how you think and feel and why.

(4) Express your needs when they arise to avoid an accumulation of frustration.

(5) Provide a hand for a solution in case of opposing needs. Initiate a conversation and don’t stop until an agreement has been reached that can be transfered into everyday’s life.

(6) Prepare yourself to get disappointed.

(7) Try to fight the idea “It’s not my turn for xyz again, it’s the other’s!”.

(8) Cancel a conversation when it errupts into fighting and wait until the conditions for a constructive conversation are good again.

(9) Don’t target your partner’s weak spots on purpose.

(10) A fresh start is always possible, when both are ready for a change of their part. It may be a good idea for you to start with it.

Schindler, L., Hahlweg, K. & Revenstorf, D. (1998). Partnerschaftsprobleme: Diagnose und Therapie. Berlin: Springer.

Efficiency in 3D

In the field of usability studies, rapid prototyping is a very helpful tool in the initial stages of software development to develop a good customer centered screen design. In other words: when it comes to designing what should be seen on a computer screen, paper and pencil is king because everybody can participate and bring ideas tinto the process.

According to Wired Blogs, rapid prototyping is now available for furniture - and you don’t draw it on a paper anymore, but directly into the room.

The necessity of standard interfaces

I love American Football and American Football games, especially since it’s so hard in Europe to follow the TV broadcasts. It is possible, but you pay yourself silly with monthly fees for some premium TV channel deal. Hence Madden NFL from Electronic Arts is the way to go.

My first Madden NFL was when I got the 1998 edition for my Playstation (1) on my birthday. It took me five minutes to read the booklet and after that I was ready to play. It was very easy, the X button was used to hike the ball and throw it while the other buttons were used to target the various receivers down the field. Perfect for a shotgun player like me.

As the graphics got slightly outdated in the following years I bought two versions when they were on sale for my Windows computer, the latest being 2002. It was simply awful. The problem lies in the miriards of gamepads that exist for Windows computers and the game’s inability to support them all. You basically had the choice to either buy the specific pads mentioned in the booklet or try to find out what happens when you push buttons on your non-standard pad. I even have a Microsoft Sidewinder pad, but I was not able to play the game properly as my pad wasn’t the specific type of Sidewinder recommended in the booklet. Making a pass was something beyond my control despite repeated attempts to figure everything out.

On Tuesday I bought in another sale Madden NFL 2007 for my Playstation 2. Initially I hesitated a bit because of my bad experience with control interfaces and Football games, but I figured that if they didn’t change the controller settings for the Playstation the fifty bucks are definitely gonna be worth it. At home I sat down and beat the NY Jets with the NE Patriots 55 to Nothing within 20 minutes. The only challenge was to get a feeling for kicking the ball with the Playstation 2’s new analog controllers, but now slanted kicks work even better.

Conclusion:

(1) Never change an excellent controler interface.
(2) The more complex the human-game interaction, the more controller standartization is needed.

Design in Web 2.0

Buenalog features an interview (in German) with Professor Veruschka Goetz that mostly deals with design and the Web 2.0

The interview basically features two main points: socialization and typography. Concerning socialization Prof. Goetz supports the optimistic stance that the Web 2.0 is some form of maturation mirroring the increasingly active user rather than just the passive recipient.
Concerning typography she explains how today’s Web still mirrors books and other items of our analog world in a large part. Well, it’s not really surprising since interaction with a new type of medium profits a lot (in terms of learning speed) from possible analogies and black letters on a white background will always be king, no matter if one deals with Web 2.0, 3.0 or 99. The only medium I can imagine to break this law is a device that feeds information directly into our brains.