Bourgeois tricks

Man and Machine: Interaction

Being a robot , I often wondered about the interaction of man and robot, at least at the program level. Speaking about web technologies and the Internet, one should not forget that having made a website, you lose contact with a person. You do not communicate by phone, do not meet live. All information is provided by text, or at best, by pictures and video clips.

After reading a few articles on UX Booth, I was surprised how bourgeois still manage to make visitors of their sites (and not only) feel a certain human factor. My favorite was Tom Anderson from the MySpace team.

MySpace and Tom Anderson

Take the largest American social network MySpace . Try to create a new profile there - you will see that some Tom Anderson - one of the founders of MySpace - will immediately appear on your friends list (not to be confused with Mr. Andersen from The Matrix;). That is, instead of showing you a bunch of FAQs, manuals, and other blizzards, MySpace assigns you a “satellite” to which you can turn at any time. It's like in foreign educational institutions, for beginners they assign a student who, quite voluntarily, gives you a tour of the institution and helps you join the team.
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Yes, in the profile of Tom the same bunch of rules, frequently asked questions and answers that are more familiar to see in other networks. At the same time, you can write to Tom only after reading these rules, but this is not the point. We all know that Tom, this is just some kind of artificially created image, and that his activity is created by moderators of the MySpace resource, but think about a person who is far from the Internet technology. After all, he is quite pleased that at least someone has taken care of him, and that he is not alone, even if it is only at a subconscious level. Believe me, this kind of information submission makes new visitors permanent.

Flickr welcomes in different languages.

Not to mention web 2.0 resource Flickr - the most popular photo album (or photoblog) in the world. Yes, precisely because of Flickr, people stopped posting photos in their profiles on Facebook and MySpace. Usability on Flickr is much better than the two giants combined. Photos can be uploaded there from a heap of different places - applications on Windows, Linux, Mac, via E-mail, from a cell phone via WAP and much (believe me, a lot!) Is different. And you can edit photos right there, on the fly. Raisins in their huge, at the same time simple API (more: Flickr API ).

So, enough advertising - more to the point. Having entered your Flickr profile, you are always welcomed by some kind of incognito, and each time in a different language. When working in a profile, and in general throughout the resource, pop-up hints often appear in various areas of the page, which give very valuable advice (you can turn them off if you wish). The point is that Flickr is not forced to read tons of manuals in order to learn all the secrets (and there are three secrets). With the help of these very tips, you gradually recognize Flickr, closer and closer, and as soon as you think that you already know everything, you are being introduced to new sweets that do not cease to appear. Resource trends are very high, especially for 2009. No wonder Yahoo bought it.

Facebook - happy birthday!

There is not much to say. The good news is that when you sign in to your Facebook profile on your birthday, Facebook wishes you a happy birthday. Primitive? But it works! If I am not mistaken, then the Russian Mail.ru resource does the same, but with some postcard that is moronic, if my memory serves me ...

Pandora - two stones with one bird

Pandora is one of the largest radio stations on the Internet. After listening to the radio for a long time (about 2-3 hours), Pandora pauses and asks you a question - “Are you still listening? We are paying for every song we play, so we try not to play in an empty room. ” Thus, they let you know about yourself, the feeling that this is some kind of “living” being, and not a stupid receiver. And really save money! Two stones with one bird - veil! :)) On the other hand, the Last.fm radio plays for days ...

By the way, Pandora does not work for Russian IP addresses - something with licensing. You can leave your mailbox on their website - they promise to send a letter as soon as they solve all the problems.

Similar examples in the network heap. I liked very much Pepsi's decision - DJ Vision (unfortunately the site is not the same as it was before). A video appeared on the screen, with a real person (your future mentor), who spoke a few introductory words, and accompanied the wishes to the room. Entering the room, you get up to the DJ console and start playing. This same person, from time to time, appears on different areas of the screen and tells you what to do next - you no longer feel yourself thrown into the public by the DJ newcomer.

In the Russian-speaking Internet, I observed only a few resources that they are trying to use a similar technique. I hope that this will change in the near future;)

If you have more such examples on your mind, please comment.

PS Could not decide where to publish - UI or web development. Sorry if you took the wrong decision :)