Kinect Gestural UI - First Impressions

Inconsistent gestures, invisible commands, overlooked warnings, awkward
dialog conformations. But fun to play.
	
Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for December 27:
  > http://www.useit.com/alertbox/kinect-gesture-ux.html

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Usability Week 2011 conference

  * New York City: February 7-11
  * Hong Kong: February 28-March 4
  * Melbourne: March 7-11
  * London: April 3-8
  * Washington, DC: April 25-29

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

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YEAR-END BUDGET?

Do you have a few hundred bucks left in this year's budget?
Why not buy an NNG research reports with user research and
design guidelines for a good start on 2011 projects?

Most of these reports are only a few hundred dollars, so you can use
any left-over number by adding up topics you want to learn more about:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports

Last week had unusually high sales of the collection of
614 Intranet Usability Guidelines:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/guidelines

Many companies must be planning intranet improvements for 2011. This
builds on the 118% increase in registrations for the Intranet Usability
seminar at our recent Las Vegas conference, compared with last year's
registration number. You get another chance in New York and London:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events/tutorials/intranet.html

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CELEBRITY ENDORSEMENTS WORK POORLY ONLINE

  > http://nytimes.com/2010/12/20/business/media/20drill.html

Internet campaigns *without* a celebrity endorser got 86% more views than
celebrity-driven campaigns, averaged across 450 major campaigns.
Obvious conclusion: save the endorsement fees.
(Spend a tiny fraction of it on user research instead, and you'll double
the conversion rate from whatever views you do get :-)

It's interesting to consider *why* celebrities don't work online, when
they do work so well in old media.

The article linked above quotes Matt Cutler for saying (my paraphrase)
that online campaigns work by engaging users and that this is more likely
to happen in the absence of a major celebrity.

I'm reminded of the Cluetrain Manifesto and its distinction between
traditional one-way *messaging* (where a company talks down to its
customers) and the Web's two-way dialog between company and customer.

A related explanation comes from Scott McCloud's book "Understanding
Comics": comics connect broadly with readers because the abstracted
characters look more universal than the specific individuals shown in
photorealistic art. Similarly, users engage more online when they are not
shown a specific person that they already know. The blanker canvas of a
campaign without celebrities prompt more interaction, which is the name of
the game on the Web. (Similarly, we know from eyetracking that users look
more at "real people" than at glamour stock photos.)

An online campaign will work poorly if it's all nicely wrapped-up as a
one-way blast of messaging where the user can do nothing but sitting in
stunned silence and admire the work of the agency and their hired
celebrity.

More on these issues in the "Brand as Experience" seminar:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events/tutorials/brand_experience.html 


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WASHINGTON DC CONFERENCE - PROGRAM NOW POSTED

April 25-29, 2011:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/events/washington_dc/agenda.html

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HOLIDAY GIFTS TO SUBSCRIBERS

(This is a repeat message just in case you didn't see this before
Christmas: these are just as good as New Year's gifts :-)

I have two holiday gifts for you this year to thank you for being a loyal
subscriber to the Alertbox email newsletter and for your support over the
years.

The reason to offer two different reports is that they cover rather
specialized topics, so each one will probably only appeal to half the
subscribers.

Gift 1: User experience guidelines for social media postings:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/streams

Gift 2: Intranet Design Annual 2007:
  > http://www.nngroup.com/reports/intranet/2007

(Yes, these intranets are a few years old, but since they are
*award-winning* designs, most companies can still benefit from learning
from these case studies.)

Best wishes for 2011!
As mentioned above, it looks to be an expansive year for our field.

Jakob