Wednesday, October 22, 2003

A couple of techie things

Whenever I post anything about ‘techie things’ I sense a large group of readers of this blog turn off and decided to go and make a coffee. Stick with it for a few more sentences.

Because of the problems of ‘hackers’ (idiots who spend their life trying to cause Internet grief) it is now common for people to install a firewall on their PCs. If you have broadband installed at home you will know that it recommended that you use this protection software. There is a downside - it can cause problems when viewing legitimate web sites.

A question all marketers should have asked and had answered is ‘does the use of a firewall cause problems for somebody viewing our web site’. I use one of the most popular firewalls (Zone Alarm) and I encounter a significant number of corporate web sites with problems. Better check it out.

Too often I find that when I have a problem and contact the company’s help desk I am asked the question ‘are you using Zone Alarm’ the tone of the voice suggests ‘well what do you expect, idiot, if you use a firewall’. This type of software is here to stay and is likely to become more intrusive and needs to be taken into account in how web sites are developed.

The most revealing way of seeing how your web site is used is to make an on-screen recording. This is like a video that shows the movement of the mouse, the clicking on links, the different pages accessed etc. A relatively simple and cheap piece of software that will enable you to do this is Camtasia.

If you are serious about improving the usability of your web site this is a must-have.

OK, neither of these points are specific to the 50+ but both are extremely relevant.

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