I love fireworks. I can’t remember a time when I haven’t been the one who makes sure either myself, or anyone I’m with, is planted firmly underneath a show of fireworks every July 4th. I’ve been so moved by some fireworks displays that I get all choked up.

July 4th is one of my favorite holidays because of fireworks. I may like it better than Christmas. So when my friend, Matt Bailey from SiteLogic, mentioned his family has an annual July 4th gathering and they go nuts with fireworks, I was listening. And then he said the magic words…”Do you wanna come on out for that?” Guess what I said.

Sooo, we’ve made plans to drive the motor home and my car out to Ohio. We’re bringing 4 kids, but not our beloved golden retriever, Dakota, because he has no tolerance for fireworks or thunder. This weekend we head on out. I’ll be sharing the driving of my car with the two 17 year old girls, who will get some experience with long distance driving. It’s a 7 hour drive but with 4 kids, there will be stops. Eric will be driving the motor home and the boys will keep him company.

When we arrive in Ohio, we’re staying for several days at a campground near the Bailey’s. Then, on the 4th and 5th, we live at Matt’s. Then it gets real, because unless we hook up to his house, we won’t have some of the luxuries you get when you drive an RV up and plug it into everything from electric to cable TV. Although the motor home is self sustaining, with a generator, etc., the moment there’s no way to plug in the TV for the boys’ video games will be a shock.

There was a funny piece in Newsweek about traveling nowadays with kids that talked about what a vehicle looks like when everyone has cell phones, ipods, radios, CD players, and DVD players. I know from past experience that every electrical socket in the motor home had cell phone chargers dangling from it. Now every kid has a cell phone and there are three ipods, so I’m picturing a jungle of wires.

Matt says I can blog from his house. If that’s the case, I may show up next week. I’m not sure how much I’ll be on top of the news but I may drop by.

Thanks to those who have recently found this blog and have linked to it or mentioned it in your blog. I’ve noticed, and am pleased to meet you. A few old friends have linked or recently emailed encouragement as well.

It means a lot to hear from you.

Every day another light bulb goes off in someone’s head when they wake up and realize that what they’ve been doing isn’t enough to count.

Once, when I watched SiteLogic’s Matt Bailey present to a search engine marketing conference audience what their optimized web pages sounded like to people who relied on Assistive technology to use the Web, I could feel the entire room change. He’d made his point. Poor SEO techniques could make web site pages completely unusable for people.

His presentation was about how to fix that problem.

I’m not sure where my friends’ passion for accessibility or usability comes from. I don’t know what hooked me either.

Joe Dolson is wrapped up in accessible design practices and when he writes in his blog or in the Usability/Accessibility forum at Cre8asiteforums, it’s clear he deeply cares about the end user experience. I don’t know why it matters to him, but we need people like him to keep teaching and reminding us what matters most.

My friend Elizabeth Able has intimate knowledge of the needs of disabled web users, and not just because her mother runs a school for the blind. Liz’s personal experiences and born intuitive insight make her a perfect advocate as a self employed web designer.

Today’s UPA Journal presents an article called, What is our role as Usability Professionals, by Silvia Zimmermann. She writes,

As Usability people we usually tend to focus on making things easier to use. To allow for good usability and an excellent user experience we integrate user centered design methods and standardized usability processes into our daily work. We are used to doing this; we advocate for it day after day; we even try to persuade our clients and the people around us to do the same because we have a strong belief in it. And without question, making things easier to use is an honorable thing to do, because it generally enhances the overall user experience.

It bothers me when I hear stories from software development companies who don’t have a usability specialist on hand or do user testing. There are other companies that budget in usability and accessibility but it’s all smoke and mirrors. They don’t actually implement the changes. Rather, it looks good to document that they tested a few things and called it a day.

I’m noticing more articles and blog posts from people who are becoming interested in how usable web design is the logical next step in marketing. It’s a bit of putting the cart before the horse, however.

When you build something to be accessed via the Internet, plan on optimizing for search engines and people at the same time.

Search engines don’t need your consideration as much as your family, friends and customers do.

You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. One way to know for sure you live on the Internet is to launch a site and then take it down. The moment you announce that you’re moving on is when you suddenly learn that what you had going was appreciated and even loved.

That’s the Internet Way. We think we communicate better online, but I disagree. I think we bitch easier and with greater freedom. I think we create drama for the sake of getting attention. We use the Web to show support only if the situation is a major disaster or matter of the heart. But on an every day, routine life basis, far few have the nerve to drop by to say they read or participate in your “thing” and are glad it exists.

Such is the case of Threadwatch and Aaron Wall. It’s hard to read the Threadwatch goodbye thread because support is coming in now, at the end, and even some well known figures in the industry have dropped in with their shows of support and thanks. You can’t argue with statistics and the data says TW was losing its fire power. Despite that, it had a following.

In October of 2004, Nick Wilson, at the time unknown to us, came to Cre8asiteforums for help with a new website he was launching. He posted in the Website Hospital, www.threadwatch.org - Site Review Please.

The thread is a great memory and tribute to TW’s birth; a beautifully descriptive example of what it feels like to start a new web site. Nick’s courage, energy, ambition and devotion proved to be unstoppable. TW did so well that later, Aaron Wall bought it and for awhile, it was an island with its own SEO/M tribe, its own language, and its own personal code.

Less than 3 years later, Cre8asiteforums members are discussing the closing of Threadwatch. It’s like watching a comrade in arms. Some wish to offer salute, some will continue to find fault, and some will be utterly quiet, not knowing quite what to say.

I think it took incredible courage for Aaron to present his reasons for wanting to close up shop. I dread the day I decide to walk away from Cre8asiteforums. It’ll be a nightmare. Even though I know it will be passed on to friends who love it, the loss of a site founder always causes distress to people. We become attached and like them to be there. I felt that way when Nick passed TW on to Aaron.

TW has the last hope that it can be saved or morphed into something new. Whether or not that actually occurs is anyone’s guess. TW was an interesting ride. The one place SEO’s could go and pound down shots in a virtual pub and not give a rat’s behind who saw them there, or heard what they said. If one of their own was ever in trouble, the troops were rallied in mere seconds. Otherwise, it was where you went to be in the company of those whom could care less what you wore to the party.

Sometimes I needed exactly that.

Not really, but when Aaron Wall closes down Threadwatch and I saw this, I paused to wonder…

Sites that were traditionally mainstream started writing about stories they never would have touched, using titles they never would have in the past.

Okay. It’s not me. I’m too tame. An occasional romp in the hay with headlines containing “sexy women” does not make me a threat to anybody.

Aaron takes Threadwatch down on Friday. He lists his reasons for doing it. Just one:

I am pretty easy to work with and would have had no problem helping spread a lot of the better ones, but when your friends spam your sites with low level junk it is time to change your position or get new friends.

There’s a lot of that going on these days.

I’ve been thinking about expectations we have and the responsibility that comes with having them. What happens when our expectations aren’t met? Does this mean we didn’t have the appropriate one?

I’m feeling hurt by something someone has done and as I wrestle with this tiger of disappointment, I keep returning to the fact that it is my expectation that isn’t being met, not theirs. I don’t think the person who has saddened me has any idea I believed in an action that never came from them.

Was I right to believe that I would be treated in the way I had hoped? Did I, when given the chance, communicate that I wanted something to happen? In this case, I did not. Therefore, the let down is my fault.

We Make Assumptions

We assume the car will start when we get into it and turn the key in the ignition. We assume the check won’t bounce because we have money in the bank. We assume we will love, honor and cherish forever no matter how often the top is left off the toothpaste or dinner consists of “I don’t have time to make it honey.”

All day long, every day, we assume certain things about stuff. We expect our assumptions to be true because we played some kind of part in making it happen. We could make a choice. We had a car key. We put money in the bank. We don’t get upset over crusted over toothpaste. We know how to fend for ourselves.

Assumptions are something we had a choice to participate in. Expectations are not so playful.

We forget that what was perfect in the moment is subject to change at any time because we didn’t count on all the other factors that could possibly influence it to change. Perfection can be wiped out at the second an expectation is not met because we’re hit broadside by it.

Maybe we shouldn’t expect certain outcomes. As long as we do, we lose some of our power.

For example, I expected the “Digg effect” to be a cool, desired thing until it actually happened. Once my right to control my web site’s destiny was in the hands of others, I could only watch this new kind of Internet behavior and hold on for the ride.

Social Media, Internet Experiences and Expectations

A colleague asked me my opinions on social media. She had many questions on the ethics of sites like Digg. She finds bigotry and hatred so prevalent that she wonders why anyone would use social media as a marketing tool for clients or themselves. She wondered if I’d ever want to ban certain types of content. I replied,

“I don’t subscribe to censorship of hate speech because I believe that we’re expected to be responsible for ourselves. That means we each have the huge responsibility of making our own choices and decisions. It means nobody is going to rescue us if we made bad choices. Some decisions will land people in jail or they’ll find themselves despised. As far as I’m concerned, that’s what they created and they have to live with the consequences.”

Communicating our expectations takes courage. Communication can be a desire to know something outside of ourselves.

Instructions in an online form aren’t just there to guide visitors to continue shopping or show how to fill in their phone number fields properly. The words on the page can be a site owner’s way of wanting to know visitors’ expectations so they can meet them better. Do you want to shop more? Great, here’s the button to get you back to where you were and here’s some sale items that would go nicely with what you just put into your cart.

Do you see how this works? It’s so subtle and yet your visitors will understand that your patience and guidance with them means you care about their experience. Not only that, you’re not afraid to show you care and you’re not afraid to offer gentle nudges of encouragement to them.

When you provide acknowledgment that someone has pleased you, they may respond in positive ways that you’ll probably like.

You can do this in human to human contact and human to computer contact. The differences between the two aren’t that vast anymore because there’s a person with feelings behind every email, click, link and button.

Do You Want To Know When You Screwed Up?

When you expect something from someone and you don’t get it, do you tell them you’re upset?

I admire those who can just blast their dissatisfaction with people, businesses, products and services and feel completely at ease with that outflow. Conflict doesn’t bother them in the least. The really clever ones communicate what they want without forcing the other side to overreact or feel defensive.

Some websites offer no place for visitor feedback, nor do they openly welcome contact. If something is broken, site owners don’t want to know or if they do, they want your personal information and phone number in the online form before they’ll even acknowledge you. Therefore, if you have a complaint and want to protect yourself from being harassed for your opinion or complaint, you lie about who you are and where you live.

Sometimes I wonder if I expect too much from myself or others. In the case of the situation on my mind that’s kept me awake at night, I can’t help but wonder if my feelings ever mattered to begin with because they certainly don’t seem to matter now.

I told myself I should have known not to expect to have mattered or been of any importance.

Like websites that weren’t built for all of us to gracefully interact with, some people have a long way to go in understanding that we want to be acknowledged as if we matter.

And if we’re cherished or important, by all means, tell us that too.