dechezette

05 February 09

Microsoft Confirms More Confusion Ahead with Windows 7

This past Tuesday Microsoft confirmed that it has no intention of making the purchase of the highly anticipated Windows 7 any less confusing that purchasing Vista.

The product SKU’s are as follows:
• Windows 7 Starter
• Windows 7 Home Basic
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Windows 7 Professional
• Windows 7 Enterprise
• Windows 7 Ultimate

The only thing you can intuit from this list is that the Enterprise edition is clearly for enterprises. But, what’s the difference between Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium? And what’s the difference between Professional and Ultimate?

While retailers will mostly be carrying Home Premium and Professional, online retailers carry more. And a lot of us are purchasing software online where the abundance of product selection and bundles can be quite daunting.

Why does Microsoft seem determined to require consumers to spend hours of research to understand feature sets? This move firmly keeps Microsoft’s brand in the “we don’t get it” camp.

The Internet is afire with negativity at this announcement, which is an unfortunate backlash to all the much needed positive buzz Microsoft had around the beta release of Windows 7 these past few months.

Engadget has a breakout of the feature sets.

04 February 09

Breadcrumbs 2.0

Edmunds.com has incorporated an interesting UI innovation with their breadcrumbing where the breadcrumbs also act as a sort of search filter.

This approach works particularly well in situations where you’re browsing product catalogs. In the case of Edmunds.com you can easily toggle between years, models, and makes. I could also see it having interesting implications on search results pages.

Beware applying this to breadcrumbs across the board. My team at Sequel tried this technique with a large corporate site and it didn’t quite translate. It ended up feeling superfluous.

03 February 09

Browse Great Interaction Design at Konigi

Someone at the office recently pointed me to a great resource for interaction design. Konigi collects great examples of interaction techniques, interactive design, and how-to’s from around the web. You won’t find burning points of view or an active dialog here, but you will get a simply organized, easy to browse, powerful visual reference that should prove extremely useful for design research and internal conversation starters.

Check out konigi.com

02 February 09

Matsumoto’s No. 5

One of my regular podcasts today turned me on to the beautiful art of Taiyō Matsumoto. His surrealist style is apparently pretty unconventional for manga. You can definitely see the Moebius influence. The loose line work also has a bit of a reportage feel to it.

I’m not a big reader of manga, but Matsumoto’s No. 5 is something that I will definitely be picking up.

31 January 09

A Look at Customer Loyalty Programs

Buy ten sandwiches, get the eleventh free. Earn one point for every mile. Spend $100 and get a $5 rewards certificate. Ten percent off the first Tuesday of every month. Three percent cash back.

Loyalty programs have a variety of structures. When they work, they work great. When they don’t, they can damage your affinity for a brand. In certain highly-competitive markets business and brands are going above and beyond to forge a loyal relationship with their customers.

According to Consumer Reports “about 85 percent of of U.S. households participate in at least one rewards program.” My wife and I have participated in several over the years with varying results. Here’s a look at a few of them — the good and the bad.