Company Name First in Microcontent? Sometimes!

Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for March 3 is now online at:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/microcontent-brand-names.html
			
Summary:
Typically, you should deemphasize your company's name in links, but a new
guideline recommends frontloading the name for search engine links under
certain conditions.
				
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Usability Week 2008 conference

  > New York, April 7-12
  > London, May 19-24
  > San Francisco, June 16-21
  > Melbourne, July 21-26

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

Specialized full-day tutorials:

  > Fundamental Guidelines for Web Usability
  > Application Usability (2 days)
  > Intranet Usability (2 days)
  > Websites That Sell
  > E-Mail Newsletter Usability
  > Writing for the Web
  > B2B

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

DEADLINE to save 10% on New York registration: THIS FRIDAY, March 7

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JOB OPPORTUNIES at Nielsen Norman Group

We have two openings:

  (*) ENTRY-LEVEL: new graduate, or <2 years' experience
  (*) EXPERIENCED: many years in a professional usability group

These are jobs for people who focus on user testing and enjoy doing
empirical studies.

  (*) Work from home - no commute - anywhere in the USA
  (*) Be part of the world's most prestigious usability team
  (*) Learn from the best (for entry-level candidates)

More info:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/about/jobs.html

We are also looking for good student interns - info at the same URL,
bottom of the page.

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CALL FOR PORTALS

We are looking for organizations to participate in an upcoming report on
intranet portals, both US and non-US companies and organizations across
the spectrum of big and small companies, non-profit, and government.

In recruiting for this study people often say, "I don't know if our
intranet has a portal," so we offer this definition to help you decide:

An intranet "portal" is defined not merely by the technology platform that
makes it run. A portal supports an organization and its employees by
aggregating and organizing all the information and applications that users
want and need to function effectively in their jobs into a single point of
entry.

This definition is the ideal, of course. To participate in the study,
organizations do not need to have already achieved a magnificent portal
that does everything the definition says. Often the best learning comes
from companies at different points along the continuum and we are
interested in speaking with participants who are at those different points
to hear about their experiences.

All participants get a complimentary copy of the final report.

If you are interested please contact Patty Caya: [email protected]

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SALARY INFO UPDATED

I have updated my article on usability salaries with data from a new
salary survey.

Quick summary: 
  (1) Very little change, when adjusted for inflation.
  (2) Trend for entry-level salaries to drop continues.
  (3) Experienced-level salaries *may* be up a tiny bit.

Full article:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/salaries.html

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E-GOVERNMENT

The Economist has an insightful 18-page report on e-government:

  > http://tinyurl.com/3y4uje

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iPHONE USABILITY STUDY

The Swedish usability firm inUse has conducted a competitive usability
test of the iPhone and 3 traditional phones that are operated by pressing
buttons and function keys. (Simple through medium-complexity phone
tasks were tested, ranging from "place a call" to "take a photo and send
to a person in the address book". No truly high-end mobile tasks were
tested, such as connecting to an enterprise-level sales force automation
backend to update a customer's order status.)

The iPhone had the highest usability in the study, in terms of users'
ability to complete the test tasks. Also, participants' subjective
preferences were in favor of the iPhone.

The biggest difference between the iPhone and the traditional mobile UI
devices came from the DIRECT MANIPULATION employed on the iPhone: you
press the thing you want. In contrast, other phones use INDIRECT
manipulation where you press various function keys to make things happen
on the screen.

The difference is similar to that between a graphical user interface (GUI)
with a mouse and a traditional character-driven UI where you push function
keys that are divorced from the objects on the screen that they operate
on.

Thus, I like to say that the iPhone is the "Macintosh" of mobile, because
it's the first mainstream direct manipulation UI with an interaction style
similar to a mouse-driven GUI. Other phones are the "DOS" of mobile user
experience, because they rely on keystrokes.

Of course, what we really need is the "Windows" of mobile: something cheap
with a boatload of 3rd party applications and the freedom to connect to
any carrier. (Note that Windows Mobile is not the "Windows of mobile",
because current phones with this OS use indirect manipulation.)

Report from usability study:
  > http://tinyurl.com/2lq9sh (warning: PDF file)