CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - This video came into my Google Reader shared items this morning from Will Knott. This is the best example I’ve seen of breaking a BIG topic like (global poverty), down to an individual. It’s all about the individual.
It is an incredibly powerful way of bringing things down to the level of an individual.
People respond to problems they can fathom.
Statistics put you in analytical mode. Instead use emotional mode.
This is a great example of why you write user stories about individuals for your website.
Compare this:
Run reports on up to 1000 pieces of equipment.
View hours logged hours and usage counts for up to 6 months.
Predict annual replacement rates of equipment.
Attach up to 5 messages to each piece of equipment.
Scratch that! Now move from analytical thinking to emotional when you read the next piece. Time to meet your first hero, here’s one of my many user stories I’ve written:
Meet Jeff, a regional stores officer.
Jeff uses D4H to run reports on equipment usage. He is permissioned to see every climbing rope use, vehicle mileage and safety gear expiry dates. Using D4H, Jeff can predict the replacement dates based on the hours logged by every team. He assigns a value to every item in a team’s inventory and estimates a purchase cost across the entire organisation. Safety is a priority, team’s can leave notes for Jeff and themselves on each equipment record, commenting on required maintenance tasks or damage sustained.
Can you visualise it? What did Jeff look like? Where was he sitting? How was he dressed? Now you have a vivid image in your head you have used emotion and you are far more likely to act on this information than before.
Remember that when you are writing copy for your own app.
CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - So I love the CD Baby copywriting. It makes the user experience just great.
So I’ve been having a toy with this myself tonight for the D4H “Forgotten Password” page. I’m being extraordinarily careful about every word as I believe it makes massive contributions to the fuzzy warm feeling you get about some apps. I’m no wordsmith and I’ll try to source feedback through this blog where possible - please tear this stuff apart with suggestions.
Forgotten your password?
Don’t worry! It happens to even the best of heroes. You’ve better things to be thinking about like how many breaths to compressions in CPR or the systolic blood pressure of a small child. You remember those and we’ll look after your password. Deal?
If you’d like to reset your password, enter the email address we have on record for you. We’ll send a link to that address for you to reset your password with instantly…
The email goes something like this:
From: The Matron <noreply @bytesurgery.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 23:15
Subject: [D4H] Did you forget your password?
Forgotten your password?
Somebody asked for a new password for your account on ‘Decisions For Heroes’. If this wasn’t you, please just ignore this message.
If you do wish to reset your password, click on the following link:
CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - Want the personal email address of a company founder? Chances are they set up their project management tool themselves, and if they use BaseCamp all you’ve got to do is guess their subdomain…
I tried 37signals.grouphub.com (a basecamp url - which turns out it doesn’t look like 37 Signals use for themselves - s37 wasn’t enabled either).
Then follow these steps…
Why it reveals this information to you on screen is bizarre. I’m sure they’ll remove that.
BaseCamp is excellent - and excellent inspiration. I really love how their stuff works and always check how 37s did something before I implement. That’s how I found this glitch out - copying their forgotten password user-experience flow ;-)
(I realise guessing their subdomain is probably only as hard as guessing their email address straight out. Yet it gives you confirmation - especially if you’re trying to reach someone first time.)
CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - I’ve been collecting snippets from around the web in my Google Notebook. Here’s todays snippet - I forgot to save the authors link or name.
“Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats. Does everyone immediately tell you your idea is great? Run away from it. If the idea is that obvious, the market will be filled with competitors, and you’ll find yourself scrambling.”
Ideas are very risky assets. [...] Your real worth is something that no-one on earth has the technology to steal yet. It is hardware. It is moulded by all your years of experiences. It is information, yes. But it is encoded in the inner wirings of the enormous, continuously changing machine that is your brain. The real worth lies in the hardware that generates great ideas.
Thanks to Ana Nelson for helping me out with some subversion stuff this morning. The question was… “how do you look after different config settings for different boxes when using SVN”
I did my first podcast this week. I interviewed cerebral palsy adventurer Julie McElroy who’s been in a BBC documentary. I’m happy with it, but glad of any interview tips to improve.
Decisions for Heroes has got a 3 letter domain d4h.org which I’m delighted about. We’ve now got 22 teams signed up and some interesting collaboration work in emergency telecoms response.
Out.
-Robin
(Image Credit: Smoke hangs in the air and crowds disperse after the 4th of July Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular. By Author.)
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16/07/08 danger Good work on the the 3 letter domain - i was under the impression that all 3 let[...] »
CHICAGO, UNITED STATES - Last week Irish bloggers pushed Put Place, this Tuesday Push is 1Time. There are lots of reviews telling you what 1time does already…
1time is an Irish web-based time and expense tracking application that allows you to easily keep track of real time project costs.
…and so a bit like Iarflaith, I’m going to take a different take…
I like the name/domain 1time. It’s very unique and eye catching.
While in Singapore I found a great job offered by Jeebers (Derek Organ, 1time developer) and it made me decide Ireland had some exciting work going on.
This is a great solution for everyone. i.e. it does what it says rather than hacking together some time tracking with BaseCamp.
Ability to export to Excel where a lot of people are comfortable.
Site front page is great. Big screenshots, happy customer quotes, says what it does.
Pricing is very competitive. Easy to understand & transparent.
I’ve no data on sign-up rates, but the sign-up process is text-book.
Hat-tip to Vinny Glennon who was involved in a lot of the development.
(Image Credit: USS Cassin in Boston last weekend. Radar and heavy gun to find & fire. By author.)
1 Comments
17/07/08 John Hacking together applications to get a complete application is no fun. If you ar[...] »
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