Troy T. Anderson’s Blog

Extremely cold and rainy, but definitely an awesome experience:

Went to Crystal City along the Potomac. A bit windy, but very nice out.

Went out to Potomac, MD. 40 miles, beautiful weather.

David Pogue’s post yesterday makes 2 very interesting points:

1) Printer ink costs over $4000/gallon.  Compared to gas, that’s pretty expensive.

2) I hate email chain letters, but even the NYT’s star technology writer found one that was interesting enough to reference.

Tonight American Idol had its last performance show of the season.  This season they have been offering the performances for sale on iTunes - a brilliant business partnership between Fox and Apple.  But I’m questioning their seemingly artificial creation of demand.

Tonight’s songs are available on iTunes through tomorrow at midnight (technically Thursday morning).  Perhaps my economics is a bit rusty, but does shortening the length of availability really generate enough demand (and enough sales) to overshadow the opportunity cost of NOT limiting the time-frame?  Unless Apple is charging Fox some outrageous fixed fee, it’s not like Fox risks making too many “units” (in case sales doesn’t go so well).  Why limit the length of time they can make money?

On top of that, why Wednesday at midnight?  Thursday morning newspapers throughout the country will have American Idol Season 7 results.  For potential consumers that don’t care enough about the show to watch it live, they’ll be reading about it on the subway on Thursday morning.  Want to buy David Archuleta’s winning performance?  Too late - iTunes took it offline 8 hours ago…

After parking in the mud last weekend, my car is in desperate need of a wash.  I know nothing about the car wash services in the area, so I turned to Google for help.  Mr. Wash of Arlington just gained a new customer.  How?

A simple, easy-to-use website.  So many folks running small businesses (or even large ones) fail to realize the power of the Internet.  Why would a car wash invest in a website?  Well, by doing so, they didn’t even have to compete - as far as I know, they’re the only car wash in the area.  They were the only website I could find with basic information: hours, location, and services offered.

So, if you’re a small business looking for cheap visibility, get a website.  A domain and hosting is about $100/year.  And there are countless resources to help you build it - some very expensive, and some free.  All-in-all, it’s about content.  Get some basic content up and allow GoogleBot to do the rest.

Since tomorrow I’m heading to Purcellville for the Bike MS Ride, I decided it was time to update my Garmin GPS unit’s maps.  I recently noticed that the 2009 maps were available for download, so I logged into their site and looked up the map updates.  I was quite surprised when I saw the update costs $70.

So, I’m trying to decide what would make me a happier customer in the end.  When I bought the device, I thought for sure I would be required to pay a subscription.  When I found out that wasn’t true, I was pleasantly surprised - thus, Garmin’s overall customer satisfaction level increased.  However, today I was again surprised, but this time with negative overtones.  $70 for a map update?  (As an aside, I-99 through State College, PA doesn’t exist on my current maps.  Neither does National Harbor, MD - the home of the new Gaylord National Resort.)

Here’s my question:  Is my negative amount of satisfaction today less than my positive amount of satisfaction when I found out there was no subscription fee (still creating an overall positive customer experience)?  Or would I be happier paying $6/month (which I originally expected) to guarantee that my maps could be updated for free whenever a new version came out?

In the latter case, Garmin would have made the same amount (12 months * $6 = $70), and I wouldn’t feel like I just spent an unplanned $70 just to guarantee I make it to Purcellville in the morning.

I suppose I could have just bought a paper map.

I am a satisfied Sirius Satellite Radio customer - have been for nearly 3 years.  But one thing continues to bug me.

Every night I stream Sirius Pops 86 from my computer.  Streaming Internet radio is part of my paid subscription.  I have to sign in with a username and password.  But I ALSO have to type the letters that are displayed in the “security image.”  A lot of forms require this, but isn’t this anti-spam technology mainly useful in unauthenticated webpages?  I am a paying customer with an account.  If they’re mainly worried about brute force, then lock me out after 3 unsuccessful logins.  It would be much less annoying than having to decipher an image when I’m in bed and my contact lenses are already out.

Or perhaps they’re just keeping me from writing a script that logs me back in whenever the session times out?  Well, there are ways around that too…

Round 1 of the NBA playoffs sparred some controversy between the Cleveland Cavs and the Washington Wizards.  It ended with a lot of upset Cleveland fans after Papa Johns sponsored t-shirts calling Cleveland’s Lebron James a crybaby.  - took this gesture as a personal hit against them by “big box” pizza giant, Papa Johns.

This is a difficult issue.  Papa Johns DC sponsored the shirts - that is, the DC franchisee.  DC Papa Johns really has nothing to do with Cleveland Papa Johns - other than the brand and the deliciousness of their pizza.  So, is it fair that the Cleveland franchisees take a hit because of a marketing decision made by their DC counterpart?

This begs the question: where is the line for corporations sponsoring local sports?  The Wizards play at the Verizon Center.  Obviously, Verizon significantly supports the Wizards by sponsoring their entire arena.  Does that make Verizon anti-Cleveland?  Hopefully not.  Did Geico alienate its Cleveland customers by giving everyone free shirts to support the Verizon Center “white out?”   Again, hopefully not.

But Papa Johns giving out shirts calling Lebron a crybaby - that crosses the line enough for Cleveland fans to consider boycotting the franchise all together.  While this marketing stunt most likely won some business for Papa Johns DC, it certainly lost some for Papa Johns Cleveland.  Then again, DC is bigger than Cleveland - so on a macro-corporate level, perhaps Papa Johns still comes out on top.

A colleague and friend of mine, Charles Hagman, gave an overview on “usability” today in a staff meeting. In addition to it being a thorough overview of the key concepts of usability, it also sparked some great conversation amongst the group.

One particular point he made was especially interesting. I’ve learned in the past that the best feedback I can get when designing a Web application is from watching a user actually user it. This is pretty intuitive - watch a user use your application and see where your design thoughts don’t match the user’s logic.

Charles introduced this concept with: “Never listen to the user.” What? This sounds pretty harsh and general, but the point is, don’t trust:

• the user to adequately and thoroughly tell you what their design problems are
• yourself to interpret them

Instead of getting Web logic and intuition after going through several interpretations, why not WATCH the user. Is the user using things as they were intended? Could some help text assist the user? Or is there a design flaw that you didn’t previously consider?

Don’t trust the user to explain in full detail the answer to these questions. Make sure you understand the entire picture before adjusting code/functionality to improve usability. Instead, watch them perform their tasks. Then decide where you need to readjust your assumptions.

Thanks to Charles for providing some great insight on the topic.