Recently, a client who supported Web standards worked to design her newsletters to use cascading style sheets (CSS) for layouts instead of tables. Designers cheered. Readers jeered. One problem with this approach: email clients. Outlook may dominate, but how many of us have second or third email accounts with Web-based email clients like Yahoo!, Hotmail, … Read more
Have you received a request from a newsletter or a blogger asking for your vote in a favorite, best, or some other contest? How about a request to “Forward This” newsletter in the subject line or at the top of the newsletter before you get to the goods? Does it bother you? Or am I … Read more
While earning my degree in education, I learned about the Fog Index, Flesch-Kincade, and other ways to measure comprehensibility. This helped us understand how to measure content to determine its reading level. Along the same lines, Denny Hatch introduces colleague Bob Scott. Scott uses Robert Gunning’s Fog formula to make writing clearer and more comprehensible. … Read more
I was unsubscribing to emails and notifications from an email account I no longer use. One of the web sites used “Cancel” to mean unsubscribe. This could confuse the visitor because it could be mistaken for cancel the whole process and leave things as it is. “Unsubscribe” or “Remove” do the job. Another newsletter that … Read more
Last night, I was shopping on the jcp.com site because I saw a few items on sale in the store’s ad that came with the Sunday paper. According to the ad, the sale applied to the online store. JCPenney marked ALL blankets at 40-50% off. In looking for the blankets, I noticed they were not … Read more
Since letter writing is becoming a rarity thanks to email, computers, and instant messaging, cursive writing also suffers from lack of use. The Dallas Morning News reports that cursive writing practice has lost its importance. Students still learn cursive in third grade and are required to follow the rules for writing each letter correctly, but … Read more
In the last few companies I worked with before becoming a full-time content maven, we knew and heard about colleagues who work over 12-hour days on a regular basis. I’ve put in a couple of long hours over my career, but never on a daily basis. Based on my experience, I don’t understand why companies … Read more
“Forgot password?” should be instant. The site should simply request the user to enter the email address and immediately let the user know if the email address is in the system or not. Otherwise, you could lose out on ordering opportunities. We tried to order dinner online and Paul (SO) forgot his password. He entered … Read more
The wallpaper border in the bathroom has been peeling, so I finally got motivated to remove the wallpaper. I talked to a friend and did research online to see what method would work best. Turns out it’s a combination. The wallpaper is from 1996 — so the method may not work with older wallpaper. We … Read more
The name “prunes” comes with a stigma leading people to think of them as a yucky (apologies to those who like them — just reporting the facts) food item to help relieve (ahem) backup. Furthermore, the poor prune got a reputation of being associated as a product for older people — turning off the younger … Read more