Experience Planner

My inbox was all a buzz today about the new Cuil search engine that launched, masterminded by ex-Google engineers, that, according to reports, boasts a search index that’s three times higher than Google’s. So I spent a little time checking it out.

You can tell right away Cuil looks much prettier than Google. But when you look past the pretty dressing, what do you get?

I was underwhelmed as I looked more closely at my search results. While I see the potential, the design does not lead your eye around the page to understand the hierarchy of the search results. And I missed Google’s “Did you mean … ” feature when I misspelled common search terms on Cuil. And there isn’t an “Advanced Search” feature to be found.

And while Cuil is promoting the quanity of pages they index, they are falling below Google on quality. The search results for some of the brand names I searched on appeared to be relevant, but as I went on to search lesser known terms, I got irrelevant results.

I do really like Cuil’s Explore by Category section to suggest related searches, and the tabs at the top do help narrow your search. These are great features that are easy to use.

As Google said themselves, it’s great to see more competition come into the search space. And I do like that Cuil is more concerned about user privacy. I’m looking forward to the competition pushing the industry to keep getting better.

…so users bounce off your site like water off a duck’s back.

Recently, I discovered an interesting approach to navigation: www.triaminic.com

How quickly can you find the navigation? Time yourself and let us know how you did!

As professionals in the digital industry, we’ve been on high-speed Internet connections for quite a while, at both home and work. So I found value in a recent CNN article that reminded me there still is significant opportunity for growth. According to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project, 55% of Americans have broadband, and 10% have dialup at home. The 35% of Americans who still don’t have access to the internet from home are primarily those with lower incomes and the elderly. 

Since it’s my job to create the best digitial experiences for users who are already online, unfortunately I’ll need to figure out how I can help those who don’t have internet access another day. My immediate concern is ensuring we design and develop sites that those still on dial-up can use.

Small Percentage, Mighty Number

A colleague of mine made a valuable point that when you only look at the people online, 95.7% have broadband and only 4.3% have dial-up, according to a recent MAGNA Global study. But that 4.3% on dial-up still represents 3.2 million Americans. The MAGNA study forecasts that the number on dial-up will continue to fall during the next few years, but according to the Pew study that won’t happen until prices for broadband become more reasonable for lower-income Americans.

In the meantime, 3.2 million Americans is a small percentage, but a mighty number. Let’s not forget about them as we plan our digital experiences. While sites can be optimized for high-speed connections, dial-up users should still be able to access key pages and functionality without the page hanging up or taking an unreasonable amount of time to deliver. What if it’s a checkout page for an e-commerce site? That’s too many customers to ignore. Plus an increasing percentage of users are accessing the same sites from their mobile phones, with even slower connections.

Your Site’s Dial-up Percentage

Of course, your site analytics are the tell-tale factor to determine how many of your site users have broadband vs. dial-up. A site like Wired.com probably won’t optimize for dial-up users as Knitting World would.

And that’s just the U.S. As another colleague of mine pointed out, if your site has global reach, it’s important to look at the broadband vs. dial-up adoption rate in your target countries. Chances are that will bring your broadband percentage down too.

Championing All Connections

I look forward to the day when everyone is on broadband connections from their homes, and I can access the internet while I’m on a plane or riding in a car. And the day when page load times aren’t much of a factor. But until then, I want to be a champion for all users, big connection or small.

My iPod is dying.

It’s at that sad point where I can only use it when it is hooked up to my computer or external power source. It freezes often. It drives my computer absolutely up the wall. They’re, as the nerds like to say, not compatible anymore.

I’m pretty down about it.

It’s a color screen iPod–when it came out 2 or 3 years ago, it was called photo iPod and was quickly overshadowed by its svelte, sexy sib, the video iPod. I got it for my birthday. Like a lot of the best things that I have, I wanted it for years before someone got sick of hearing me ramble on about it for the 1,537th time and gave it to me as a gift.

Of course, little did they realize that while they had alleviated their annoyance factor, everyone around me (especially my coworkers) had to listen to my holy-crap-you-don’t-have-an-iPod-go-out-and-buy-one-this-thing-
changed-my-life-they-do-free-engraving-you-can-have-poo-and-farts-
and-stuff-engraved-on-your-iPod rant (soon to be followed by a loud proclamation that the iTrip wasn’t a perfect solution, but a pretty good value).

So, for real, the iPod altered my perception of music. I always loved mixed tapes and I’m a person who likes to listen to music by emotion state, so the ability to make a playlist on iTunes and on the go with my iPod — well, let’s just say that I am like freaking Grandmaster Flash. Only with no cutting and no scratching. And probably a little depressing. Whatevs, I love the ability to put together a playlist worthy of concept album status (in my own mind).

So, I’m bummed, b/c I’ll miss Little Guy and his constant presence in my life. And I’m super unhappy with Steve Jobs for his Tyrell-like move. 2 or 3 years old and already biting the dust.

And yes, I could get the battery replaced.

But have you seen the 32 GB iPod Touch?!