Do they work? I don't think I have ever clicked on a pop up ad in my life, and seeing one has never made me want to use the company that caused it. Quite the opposite actually, I just instantly think they're trying to hack me or something and flee as fast as I can and never trust the name from then on.
Sidebar ads and others that just sit on the screen somewhere are better, I'll actually read those and sometimes look into them, but usually not click them. In truth generally I'll go through google and look up what's being advertised to make sure it's legit. What I'd think works best are kind of subliminal ads, things that aren't big and flashy and fit in with the content of the page like the sidebar under "suggested" friends and hobbies on Facebook. Mostly just because you click on them on accident.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Failed Websites of the Week
Talking about testing websites and such in class today I started thinking back over website issues I have encountered just in the last month or so. Some sites clearly didn't have someone test them, and not just for an attractive appearance.
Really I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not that so many of these terribly built or glitched websites belonged to companies and government agencies. Fort Carson's website for example is designed terribly, it's nearly impossible to navigate, it glitches, it changes styles on random pages, and it seems to not have been updated in a while. Same goes for sites dealing with various government offices.
A professional site with a significant number of problem glitches is sadly Bank of America. Several of the buttons are broken, and that kills confidence when it's an industry handling your money, and creates frustration immediately when you can't do what you want when you want to.
Really I'm not sure if I'm surprised or not that so many of these terribly built or glitched websites belonged to companies and government agencies. Fort Carson's website for example is designed terribly, it's nearly impossible to navigate, it glitches, it changes styles on random pages, and it seems to not have been updated in a while. Same goes for sites dealing with various government offices.
A professional site with a significant number of problem glitches is sadly Bank of America. Several of the buttons are broken, and that kills confidence when it's an industry handling your money, and creates frustration immediately when you can't do what you want when you want to.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Crowdsourcing from the crowd
Even the week before this one we discussed crowdsourcing and how it was changing things, everything from logos to wedding photographs taking a hit in one way or the other. In many cases this is a sad thing... people that built their lives around a profession suddenly getting pushed out of it by some high schooler that got a really nice camera for Christmas. On the other hand, if people are able to produce something for free and post it for a dollar and customers are happy with that over things selling for over $100... then maybe the product wasn't worth over $100 in the first place.
Good stock photos are important to have if someone is doing a project with them or does photo manipulation work. The quality has to be good, the size has to be good, and the image has to be what you want. Before this would require going to a professional photographer and looking through their portfolio and hoping you find something you want, and then paying through the nose for it. Frankly, in the age of digital photography I don't think there's a reason to do that. After the initial purchase price of the camera and computer and software someone needs, they aren't putting any more money into making their portfolio. From there they're just trying to afford food and bills. Now though, even stock photos are like art. Someone will pay hundreds or thousands for an amazing painting or print, and some peoples' work gets left in their closet for years because it's not wanted. Stock photos can be amazing and worth big money, or they can be mediocre, and if someone was selling mediocre work before where now other people can pay a dollar and get better, maybe the person trying to charge a huge amount should end up going bankrupt, or find a new angle.
Good stock photos are important to have if someone is doing a project with them or does photo manipulation work. The quality has to be good, the size has to be good, and the image has to be what you want. Before this would require going to a professional photographer and looking through their portfolio and hoping you find something you want, and then paying through the nose for it. Frankly, in the age of digital photography I don't think there's a reason to do that. After the initial purchase price of the camera and computer and software someone needs, they aren't putting any more money into making their portfolio. From there they're just trying to afford food and bills. Now though, even stock photos are like art. Someone will pay hundreds or thousands for an amazing painting or print, and some peoples' work gets left in their closet for years because it's not wanted. Stock photos can be amazing and worth big money, or they can be mediocre, and if someone was selling mediocre work before where now other people can pay a dollar and get better, maybe the person trying to charge a huge amount should end up going bankrupt, or find a new angle.
A tad late, but on the matter of Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle was of course the clown created out of somebody's twisted imagination that went on to commit the first digital "rape."
Most of the people in our class looked at this as a bunch of people overreacting to something fairly minor, and considering the general mindset of anyone that hasn't been addicted to a chat room or MUD of some sort (especially a Roleplay chatroom as this one seemed to be) that's perfectly understandable. For those that have though it becomes more than just a matter of some annoying text and a bit of public embarrassment until everything was cleared up. Just as people get personally attached to characters in books, it is even more likely and logical that they get very attached to characters of their own creation. As such, when these characters are hurt or assaulted it's not only embarrassing, it is to some degree emotionally painful.
Most of the people in our class looked at this as a bunch of people overreacting to something fairly minor, and considering the general mindset of anyone that hasn't been addicted to a chat room or MUD of some sort (especially a Roleplay chatroom as this one seemed to be) that's perfectly understandable. For those that have though it becomes more than just a matter of some annoying text and a bit of public embarrassment until everything was cleared up. Just as people get personally attached to characters in books, it is even more likely and logical that they get very attached to characters of their own creation. As such, when these characters are hurt or assaulted it's not only embarrassing, it is to some degree emotionally painful.
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