Tufuga Media

This is the third installment of a several part series about how to get things done using a Mac and iPhone.  In this article I will share how I use iCal and Address book to organize my calendar and contacts.

In my two previous articles, I talked about the general workflow of “getting things done”, then I followed that up with a review of Cultured Code Things and how I use it to manage my tasks and projects.  Now I want to move on to iCal and Address book. Read more »

Web designers have to ensure that their users can access the information they need to.  Over time, this has led to a dumbing down of interfaces.  The safe approach is often seen as the best approach.  During interface designs, I have been guilty of saying things like, “It’s not likely anyone would be able to find that link.” or “This interface might be too complicated for users.”  While it may be true that simplicity is important in web design, innovation should not be sacrificed along the way. Read more »

I am addicted to multitasking.  I cant seem to avoid doing it.  To me, it just makes more sense to do more than one thing at a time, if possible.  However, I have heard time and time again that multitasking is counter-intuitive, doesn’t increase productivity, etc.  I’m considering breaking a hard habit.  Here’s what I’m thinking. Read more »

Sorry for the lack of updates last week, I was rather busy!

I’m certain nearly everyone has been asked at one time or another, “How did you learn to do that?”. It seems that people are programmed to expect an answer containing some form of formal education, such as a class, workshop, university, or on the job training. However, I find that 95% of the things I do that people are interested in are things that I learned to do on my own – there is value in learning things on your own. I’d like to share you some thoughts on being “self taught”.  I am self taught via the web, so my tips are for those looking to teach themselves through online resources. Read more »

Its always seemed to be a bit of an oddity to me the way that people comment on blogs, photos, product reviews, and any other site which allows user comments.  In the past, I haven’t been one to comment, and have had to force myself to do so in order to understand it better.  Now that I’m trying to build my blog, I’m trying to encourage more people to comment!  So now the big question: why DO people comment on things?  A journal article I read recently suggested the following reasons based on their research. Read more »

Today in class it dawned on me that some of the greatest, most credible information is relatively unavailable.  Scholars write in journals which are more than likely read only by other scholars who are researching to write about a similar topic.  Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems that most people dont pick up journals to read for  fun.  Obviously, these journals are written to a specific audience for specific reasons, but I wonder if they’ve ever considered whether that audience is correct.  I wonder if they have considered who would benefit most from the message they have to share. Read more »

Developing online customer loyalty is much more difficult than customer loyalty in traditional stores.  The internet allows your customer base to be worldwide, but also puts you head to head with a larger number of competing businesses.  I’ve noticed there are many different approaches and theories as to why customers develop loyalty to particular online businesses.  Here is yet another one.  Its important to remember that these theories are not just simple observations, but are developed academic studies.  Here is the reference to the article I’m writing about today: Srinivasan et al. Customer loyalty in e-commerce: an exploration of its antecedents and consequences. Journal of Retailing (2002) vol. 78 (1) pp. 41-50. Studies have shown that without a base of loyal customers, any company will struggle financially. Read more »

This is an excerpt taken from a journal on web loyalty –  Otim and Grover. An empirical study on Web-based services and customer loyalty. European Journal of Information Systems (2006) vol. 15 (6) pp. 527.  The journal studied pre-purchase, purchase process, and post purchase factors which impacted customer loyalty.  In short, they found that pre-purchase factors, such has web design, had little impact on customer loyalty when compared to post purchase factors, such as delivery time.  Here are a few of their findings. Read more »

Although I am relatively new to the world of web design, I am painfully aware of the issues of browser compatibility.  I was working on the envisionlaie.com website, everything looked great.  Then I got a call saying something was messed up.  Turns out, internet explorer was not recognizing a background image because of the way I coded the CSS.  I use a Mac, so I had all sorts of trouble trying to fix the problem as I didn’t have a Windows machine to test on.  But no more!  Adobe BrowserLab allows you to test webpages in different web browsers on different operating systems.  I played around with it, and it seems pretty good! Read more »

Usually, people would credit a great web design, nice photos, or other more obvious pieces of a website with generating customer trust.  While each of these factors may contribute to the generation of trust, they are probably not the most significant factors. Listed are some new insights I gained today regarding the gaining the trust of online customers. Read more »