Like a plus-sized dress on a skinny runway model, Windows just doesn’t fit when it’s loaded on a netbook.

Wired has written an article discussing the direction many operating system developers are taking in creating netbook-specific operating systems. The Windows operating system has never been known for it’s streamlined performance, and when running on a netbook it just can’t deliver.

With a decline in PC sales, consumers are looking for a budget-conscious alternative when all they want is email, Facebook, and Instant Messaging.

Continue reading at Wired.com

Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets.

It is with deep regret that we inform you of certain cost-cutting measures that will be taken in the coming days so that we can remain competitive. But first some good news. We are happy to report that Bring Your Child to Work Day has been renamed Bring Your Child to Do Work Day. We hope you will contribute unstintingly to the Gummy Bears Overtime Fund.

Now for the harsh realities. We will no longer be serving complimentary cold cuts and soda on Cold Cuts and Soda Day. Stairs will go up, but not down. Please do not use the fire extinguisher unless there is no water in the toilets. Anyone wishing to put out a medium-to-large fire must first fill out form X34J (if in stock). Mr. Johnson and Mr. Green, you will be sharing a desk chair, although you may keep separate desks. With regard to our annual retreat, spouses of non-management employees will be considered luggage. The letters “K,” “Q,” and “Z” are costly and should be used sparingly. Anyone who would like to volunteer for the human weather-stripping experiment, contact Nan Newberg. Also, as of next Wednesday, there will be no Wednesdays.

Read More at The New Yorker »

The form was simple. The fields were Email Address and Password. The buttons were Login and Register. The link was Forgot Password.

We may have all seen this sort of form on any number of e-commerce sites. It’s there to help returning customers checkout quicker and direct new customers to sign-up to speed along future purchases. Seems harmless right?

I’m not here to enter into a relationship. I just want to buy something.

New users often resent having to register for your site just to make a purchase. When you enter a brick-and-mortar store they don’t force you to register for their mailing lists before you can complete your transaction. Of course they ask – that’s to be expected.

Later, we did an analysis of the retailer’s database, only to discover 45% of all customers had multiple registrations in the system, some as many as 10. We also analyzed how many people requested passwords, to find out it reached about 160,000 per day. 75% of these people never tried to complete the purchase once requested.

Because many of the returning customers could not remember their email addresses and passwords used when originally signing up they resorted to creating a new account which in turn artificially inflated the database of users. Even many of the customers that requested their passwords did not go on to make a purchase presumably out of frustration with the process.

The Solution?

The designers fixed the problem simply. They took away the Register button. In its place, they put a Continue button with a simple message: “You do not need to create an account to make purchases on our site. Simply click Continue to proceed to checkout. To make your future purchases even faster, you can create an account during checkout.”

Such a simple solution with the added benefit of eliminating a needless button.

And the results

The number of customers purchasing went up by 45%. The extra purchases resulted in an extra $15 million the first month. For the first year, the site saw an additional $300,000,000.

So $300,000,000 from realigning the way your form worked to cause less headache for your users. Are there any places on your site that might be costing you money? Not sure? User testing and asking your customers would be a great way to find out.

Read the whole story

Having been recently featured in an article by Smashing Magazine entitled, “Clear and Effective Communication in Web Design” it was brought to my attention that I had a misspelling in the header of this website. The header. The thing for which I was being recognized. Ack! Always spell check.

In closing, I leave you with a kitten who “checks your spellling spelling…”

Photo by lolhaxors

One of Gmail’s most popular add-on features, the Tasks list, has arrived on your web-enabled mobile device. If you have an iPhone, an Android phone or any other mobile with a real web browser, just surf to http://gmail.com/tasks and you’ll see the new mobile interface.

Video games remain big business, and casual games are becoming an increasingly large slice of the industry’s pie. Near the end of last year, online super-merchant Amazon.com purchased the casual game developer and portal Reflexive, and the industry wondered what fruit it would bear. We now know: Amazon is announcing the launch of its own casual games portal, with 500 games ready to download.

For the first week, visitors will even be able to grab three games for free: Jewel Quest 2, Build a Lot, and The Scruffs. That, along with the ability to try every game before you buy, should be enough to entice fans of casual gaming to check out Amazon’s offerings. It also looks like this could be Amazon’s first step into the world of digital distribution for video games.

Click here to read the rest of this article