Show Numbers as Numerals When Writing for Online

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for April 16 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/writing-numbers.html
		
Summary:
It's better to use "23" than "twenty-three" to catch users' eyes when they
scan Web pages for facts, according to eyetracking data.
		
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Usability Week 2007 conference

  > Washington, DC, April 22-27
  > London, May 6-11
  > San Francisco, June 18-23

In-depth training:
  > 3-day Intensive Camp: Usability in Practice
  > 3-day Immersion: Tog on Interaction Design

10 specialized full-day tutorials:
  > Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability
  > Application Usability (2 days)
  > Intranet Usability (2 days)
  > B2B Sites
  > Websites That Sell
  > Presenting Company Information on Corporate Websites
  > E-Mail Newsletter Usability
  > Writing for the Web

  > http://www.nngroup.com/events

Save $200 on D.C. registration: DEADLINE this Friday, April 20

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IS THE END NEAR FOR TEXT-BOX ADS?

After upgrading to Vista, I had to replace my trusty ad-blocker with
something that's integrated with Vista and IE 7.

I chose SuperAdBlocker, which has been excellent so far. In addition to
hiding Pop-Ups, Overlays, Flash, blinking banners, and other annoyances,
it also has a feature to block the text boxes that were made popular by
search engines.

So far, I am allowing the text boxes to show on the four main search
engines (GYMA), because I often find them useful. But having blocking
functionality one checkbox away means that they better *stay* useful or
they'll be toast. And of course I removed these boxes from non-search
sites.

I'm an advanced user, and years will pass before the majority of users
adapt these new features. But the history from pop-up blockers is clear:
if people get sufficiently annoyed, many of them *will* take steps to
defend themselves.

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REGISTRATION COSTS BUSINESS

The new video site Bud.tv is experiencing disappointing traffic, according
to reporting by Advertising Age and The Hollywood Reporter (summarized by
PaidContent.org).

The two main issues are:

(*) An arduous registration screen that users must complete before they
get to watch the videos. Only 4-5% of people who arrive at the homepage
convert and register.

(*) The videos are not compelling enough to get the few registered users
to return frequently.

Video usability is an issue I will cover in later newsletters, once we
have done more research. But I have warned against premature registration
demands for years.

In studies of B2B sites, we find that most prospects are turned away when
sites require them to register before they can see, for example, white
papers about the products. Conversion rates are particularly low for sites
that have extreme demands for personal info, such as phone numbers, at a
stage when the prospects are still very tenuous in their "relationship"
with the company (i.e., *no* relationship, because they are just doing
initial research).

We've found the same issue in B2C e-commerce. Now we can add online video
to the list. Early registration requests *are* bad for business. (Bud is
being harassed by publicity-seeking politicians, even though I don't get
why it's worse to see beer propaganda on a dedicated website than while
watching major sporting events on TV. But if you have a less controversial
product, then defer any registration screens until the point where users
have come to trust you.)

B2B research findings:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/b2b

B2C registration usability:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/ecommerce/checkout.html
	
Bud.tv's troubles:
  > http://adage.com/article.php?article_id=116074
  > http://tinyurl.com/2beym6 (Hollywood Reporter)
  > http://tinyurl.com/yt69gn (PaidContent.org)

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FRENCH BOOK

My recent book, "Prioritizing Web Usability" is now out in French:
    Site Web: priorité à la simplicité
  > http://www.amazon.fr/dp/2744021520

Links to all the current translations (French, German, Italian, Japanese,
Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish) plus, of course,
English:
  > http://www.useit.com/prioritizing