Who’s in charge?

I was having an interesting conversation with my girlfriend last night. She’s notoriously anti-technology and I was curious why she felt this way. She kept going back to “I don’t like it when things tell me what to do.”

It’s a powerful concept. When software, websites and user interfaces are difficult to use your users might be feeling like the computer is telling them what to do. When something is properly designed and genuinely useful, users feel like they are telling the computer what to do.

If your software has a steep learning curve and is cluttered with instructions or multiple steps, ask yourself how you can simplify. These are the times when users can get most frustrated. But, when user interfaces are intuitive and feel natural, it makes us feel powerful and in-control.

Who doesn’t like feeling powerful and in-control?

The Zappos.com email header rocks!

 

I love the design of the Zappos.com email newsletter. They know to keep things simple and to the point. They also know that those first few seconds after your email is opened is crucial to determining whether I’ll read further or just hit the delete key. Continue reading The Zappos.com email header rocks!

Today’s “Seize The Deal” really phoned it in

SeizeTheDeal.com is a website similar in nature to Groupon or Living Social. You know the type, an incredible bargain, one-day only that you can redeem if enough people buy the item. Today’s deal is a great example of why marketers need to go the extra mile to ensure that their offering actually meets the needs of their market.

The deal offered is “$25 for two Fandango movie tickets and a $50 Restaurants.com gift certificate”. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? Well it would be if there were actually any restaurants in Southwest Montana that were participating! A closer investigation reveals that the nearest restaurants accepting the vouchers are almost 300 miles away.

Now before you get on their case too much, it’s pretty obvious that SeizeTheDeal.com is participating in some sort of national promotion. They probably didn’t have a local promotion for today and this seemed almost as good. Beside, the text does state that it’s redeemable in any U.S. city… Well that’s great; but as site owners we must understand that our customers would actually be more upset purchasing this than if they hadn’t.

The lesson here? Do your customers a solid and research any offering completely. Then be as transparent as possible with it’s promotion.

We’ll thank you in the long run!

I’m going to start rating my most used WordPress plugins.

I’ve noticed that many plugins  in the WordPress plugin repository just don’t get rated. I suspect that it’s because once someone installs the plugin they tend to “set it and forget it”. I’m going to make a conscious effort to rate my most used plugins. You should too.

Finding grocery savings in Bozeman, Montana

I love to cook; that’s no secret. But the other half of being creative in the kitchen is shopping for good quality food and produce. This can always be a challenge. My two favorite Bozeman, Montana grocery stores are Heeb’s Grocery (for their produce and meat departments) and Town and Country Foods (for their proximity to my home).

I’m also a consummate bargain hunter. “Just hurry up and pick one” is my girlfriend’s fiance’s mantra as I thriftily compare prices between similar items. I’ve never been one to clip coupons and I rarely have time to pick up the new ads in Wednesday’s Bozeman Chronicle. So I thought I’d take a moment and start posting whenever I find a Bozeman grocery store that posts their deals online.

Heeb’s East Main Grocery

My ego likes to think that Heeb’s is the best grocery store website in Bozeman, because we developed their site. I do know for a fact that their certainly the friendliest. And they’re no slouch in the price and freshness departments either. Heeb’s posts their specials every Wednesday to their website and on their Facebook page as well. Mitch Bradley and company also keep a pretty decent social media presence participating in YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

In addition to posting their weekly sales flyer Heeb’s also posts their daily lunch specials from the deli and publishes web-only deals for their email newsletter subscribers.

Town & Country Foods

I like Town & Country because they’re employee owned and it reminds me of shopping there with my parents when I was younger. Unless you want to go to the newspaper, the best place to find weekly sales flyers is on their Facebook page or website. I hope they never change their hand-drawn images and “retro-cool” black and white styling. LOL!

Bozeman Community Food Co-Op

Growing up in Bozeman, we’d always make fun of people who shopped at the co-op and immediately brand them as “dirty hippies”. Well, the little store has grown up quite a bit, as have their prices. But their selection of whole and bulk foods is pretty impressive. An excellent selection of cheeses as well.

All Things Italian

Sometimes you’re just in the mood for something different. All Things Italian, located just off of Kagy Avenue near the MSU campus has different in spades. They’re a small market-style store that focuses on authentic Italian products – wine, beer, cured meats, imported cheese, olive oil, vinegar, pasta, sauces, condiments.

When you’re looking for the European items that you’re be hard pressed to find elsewhere (like sqid ink pasta or Slovenian sea salt) these are the folks in the know.

They’ve also got some pretty kicking cooking classes and take-home options from what I hear.

Joe’s Parkway

The last of the local grocery stores, Joe’s Parkway is located near the campus. Despite the fact that they could really be focused on savings their website has been “coming soon” for at least the last year. Sorry folks… No online specials for Joe’s Parkway!

Roseauers Bozeman

I rarely shop at Roseauers. I’m trying to fight the yuppie trend. Maybe I have a chip on my shoulder because I drive a Subaru and have a golden retriever already… Roseauers is usually pretty good for hard to find items, they have a great deli for pre-prepared foods.

Albertsons Bozeman

Is it just me or does Alberstons seem to be most folks “go to” store? I’m not generally a huge fan of the big corporate chain, but that’s just me. Their deli fried chicken is great though! The company publishes their weekly circular online, you just have to do a bit of digging to get to it.

Safeway Bozeman

Safeway has a sexy little Flash app that lets you view their weekly circular full size. I’m undecided about the new store in Bozeman, but I do know that their grand opening specials were great. Let’s hope they can keep it up!

Smiths Bozeman

The Smiths website feels old and outdated compared to their competitors, but that doesn’t keep them from posting their weekly sales ad online. Here’s the link!

Van’s IGA Bozeman

I was actually pretty surprised to learn that Van’s IGA in Bozeman also posts their weekly specials online.

Wrapping up…

Well dear readers, that about wraps it up. Just for dignity’s sake I’m not going to post Wal-Mart or Costco. However if I am forgetting any area grocers, add a comment in the area below to let me know. One of these days perhaps I’ll look into building a web-app that lets us compare our shopping lists to regional specials and helps us calculate the savings if we actually go to multiple stores. But that’s something for another post.