I’m a huge fan of the XKCD web comic. I’ll waste spend a few hours every couple of months reading the entire archive from the beginning. Below I have linked to my all-time favorites. I’ll just keep revising this list sa necessary.
Go to xkcd.com, click “Random” a lot – trust me, you’ll be a happier person.
“Path Analysis” is a type of analytics report that monitors the page views leading up to and following the view of a specified page. For instance, a path analysis of the main “Products” page on a website might include the three pages leading to it and the 5 pages following it. The report indicates the most frequent paths.
Most of the time, I find this to be quite useless, especially when looking at more than 3 pages in a path. Why? The internet is a web of pages, not a pathway of pages. So path analysis is really just a list of the many different ways a visitor can arrive at a specified page. Only if you have a gazillion visitors to your site will this information eventually (if ever) become meaningful. Sure, there are some experiences in a website that are linear in nature – filling out a serial form, registration, checkout, etc. – but all of those experiences are carefully monitored by conversion funnels (or should be).
However, there are two VERY good situations in which path analysis is not only useful but necessary. Read the rest of this entry »
Yes, Kevin Costner the actor.
Yesterday, Mr. Costner appeared with his team from Ocean Therapy Solutions (OTS) before the U.S. Congress about their solution to the Gulf Coast oil spill. Apparently, long ago, when he was just a young half-human half-fish saving his friends from the maniacal Dennis Hopper (captain of the gigantic rowboat, Exxon Valdez) he developed bond with the ocean and a yearning desire to help keep it clean. 15 years and $20 million of his own money later, here’s his big chance.
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I first got into flash many years ago before actionscript was on the scene, when keyframe animation was the be-all and end-all of Flash. I did the usual “bouncing ball” type animations, and thought it was nifty and all, but I wanted to do real animation. Finally, I saved up enough patience to animate a character I had been drawing for a decade.
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I have just launched a new and improved SuddenMischief website. Among other things you may notice is a fully XHTML and CSS compliant site, cool new header graphics, and that familiar “blog” feel. I have, in fact, turned to WordPress to help me maintain my site. Is that a cop out for a web designer? Not when you create your own theme, I don’t think. Besides, it allows me to post to my site from anywhere with an internet connection, which is an important feature for your modern man-on-the-go.
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