[Sigia-l] new Yahoo! search

[Steven L. MacCall, Ph.D.]

I like your theoretical reponse!!! ... however, when I saw the icon for
opening a link in a new window for the first time, I had to look up its
meaning by clicking on the "taking the tour" link (yea, I know, I could have
clicked on the link!, but I had several questions to look up in addition to
the meaning of that icon.)  ...

I guess my two steps for opening a link (right click and selecting from the
menu) is just the best way *for me* to transparently operate in the WWW
environment regardless of app  ...

I guess that brings up another theoretical issue: should we slavishly adhere
to the # of clicks metric ... if so, what's the role of transparency (NOT
opaqueness, as stated below) when quantitatively evaluating productive app
use????  (Karl, there's a disseratation topic for ya...). Are there metrics
(or measurement methodologies) out there already??

best,
slm

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Valdina (E-mail 2)" <signal at received.com>
To: <sigia-l at asis.org>
Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 2:18 PM
Subject: RE: [Sigia-l] new Yahoo! search


> Let me be clear(er):
> The "Killer App" here is not simply the ability to control whether or not
> results open in a new window;  rather it is more the opaque attitude taken
> to the task of opening a link from a list of results.
>
> The previous approach of considering this an option you can toggle on some
> preferences page at Google makes the function completely transparent to
the
> user, and turns it into a 5 step process once, rather than a single step
> every time the user wants to achieve such a display of results.
>
> Even the "power user", as I called them/us, who right or control clicks on
a
> link, experiences a two step process to achieve such a display of results.
>
> What I find "killer" about Yahoo! approach is this:
> bringing this option to the surface of the interface,
> in the form of an icon,
> embedding it into the anatomy and format of every result,
> making it completely opaque to the user all the time at very little cost
in
> terms of screen real estate taxonomic clutter.
>
> it's simple, but a certain degree of innovation both in terms of labeling
> and information architecture is worth applauding...
>
> ___________________________
> Jason Valdina
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven L. MacCall, Ph.D.
> Sent: Monday, April 07, 2003 2:52 PM
> To: fabrizio ulisse; sigia-l at asis.org
> Subject: Re: [Sigia-l] new Yahoo! search
>
>
> Bill Gates introduced it some time ago, too, with right mouseclick & "open
> in new window" ... how 'bout that: consistency across all web apps ...
(yea,
> I know it's somehow available to Mac users, too ... hold down mouse button
> and wait for menu to appear??)
>
> I guess the interesting "theoretical question" ('scare quotes,' to some of
> you), is whether the presence or absence of such an option is really a
> labeling/navigation issue or an information architectural issue.
>
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