The Content Chasm
Market Discontinuity and the User Experience of Wireless Internet

So Oracle launched their new wireless mobile portal last week, OracleMobile.com. This is the first of potentially many players in the highly controlled world of wireless internet portals. In the new high technology marketing world of "Ready, Fire, Aim", it is considered essential to be first to market and build mind share. However, it's not difficult to spot where the Chasm lies ahead in this new wireless market. With wireless internet services, the User Experience isn't defined merely by the Interaction Designer. In this case, as I said earlier, "It's the Content, stupid!"

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read the excellent reader feedback on this article...

Alan Cooper Letters
and other readers mail

Thanks to all those who wrote in with typos and grammatical errors. You should find that your efforts have been worth it. Several articles have been updated.

Phil Bradley takes Alan Cooper to task over his Dewey Decimal System example. read more...

more comments on the XML vs WML article. read more...

and some reader agreement with my senitiment about RTFM. Including a thoughtful piece from my ex-colleague Brian O'Byrne, a former Technical Support manager himself, read more...

Alan Cooper
Part1 : Defining Interaction Design

What was intended to be an Interview immediately became an audience with the master, as Cooper tears up the rule book for the technology industry and throws it out. He discusses why Interaction Design is about complete systems architecture and he hits on what's wrong with relational databases; what's wrong with file systems; why Interaction Design is a lot more than Interface Design; and why he really doesn't like Usability much either.

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It's the Content Stupid!
Why delivering User Centric Design for Wireless is so difficult

Last month, I wrote that it just didn't make sense that Web Content providers were having to provide pre-formatted WML rather than XML for Wireless content, rather than just providing data. A data driven approach which allowed the Wireless Carrier to format the data to their own taste made a lot more sense. However, the reality is that WML (or HDML) Content is out there and it will be used. This month I question whether it spells the death of User Centered Design, forcing the Content Aggregator to return to the bad old days of Function Oriented Design, or whether XML might be the saviour.

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Great Swing Reviews
Good news for Matt & Pavel

RTFM
Whose time is really being wasted?

Its always the customer's time that is being wasted. Its his blood pressure that is high and his frustration that is important. Not YOURS! Unfortunately, too few companies force the engineers who build the software to also answer the telephones, but the real baddies in all this are the managers. It is imperative that any new software, whether product or website service, be properly designed by an experienced Interaction Designer. Relieve your Technical Support People and put the cry of RTFM in the bin. Design out Technical Support through improved Interaction!

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