A good friend of mine is getting married in a couple weeks, and I was discussing what gift I would be getting from her registry. This opened up a can of worms. The world of gift registries is out of control.

We knew people who sent out graduation invites with “registered at <fill in appropriate store>.” People with new apartments are registering for housewarming gifts.

And the kicker? A wedding that someone was invited to and recieved a deposit slip in the invite. What?! Unreal.

You’re probably wondering at this point how this has anything to do with interactive…. Northworst, uh I mean, Northwest Airlines has started a program for more than just couples getting married:

“Wedding, graduation, retirement, anniversary, family vacation – whatever the occasion,
TRAVEL is the perfect gift to give or receive.”

Gift-givers can go to nwa.com and give money to the happy couple/person to a travel fund. They can’t, however, donate World Perks miles. That seems like a no-brainer, but that’s just me.

To help alleviate this, I have been pondering methods to help engage the everyday business employee in all the things that we find wonderful, amazing or problematic in our “world”. As designers, developers, IAs and PMs, we all see things we think are beneficial to our industry, and to our business. But how do we go about sharing those concepts with the masses, all with varying degrees of knowledge?

I have been running a tool ala del.icio.us, where a user can “tag” stories of interest or relevance from a handy Firefox toolbar icon. These “tagged” entries are compiled into RSS for internal consumption by anyone who wants to subscribe. It started out with some fanfare, but has slowed, with just a couple of people now adding entries here and there. I’m considering an all-out internal marketing blitz to promote this simple tool, but am looking for additional engagement ideas.

Anyone out here have interesting engagement “strategery”?

We all rely on shortcuts to simplify our lives and that’s why some unscrupulous marketers try to make their junk mail look like legitimate bills. They know a certain percentage of us will simply pay them without thinking. So I was a little upset to see the Minneapolis Institute of Arts (MIA) resorting to this tactic when I received a bill from them today. “Statement Enclosed” the envelope says.

My first thought is either my wife signed us up again (we were last members a few years ago) or they’re resorting to slimy marketing tricks.

I open the envelope and enclosed is a “Membership Acceptance” statement. Great – they accepted my membership. Except I didn’t apply. But I better hurry and send my payment because it’s due June 14, 2007. Yeah, right.

I don’t think I’ll be sending them anything anytime soon.

About a month ago (yes, it’s taken me this long to post about this) I received the MySpace Newsletter in my Inbox. Seriously.

I’m pretty sure I said I was scared to log in to MySpace for fear that they would automatically renew my membership. I’m still scared.

But notice that you have to log in to stop receiving the MySpace newsletter:

I’m also annoyed by the use of bright blue links on the MySpace blue background. Can this really be intentional? My guess- yes. It seems to me that the use of blue links on this blue background is in fact a usability nightmare that is done on purpose. Perhaps the idea is that if users can’t actually see the links, then they won’t click on them.

In the end, you have to be very persistent (or ignorant) to cancel a MySpace account. Come on, Rupert. Throw me a bone here.

About a year and a half ago, I heard about this site called MySpace – a couple college friends invited me to join. The first couple weeks it was fun, like any other new project. Then I grew bored. Then I found out Rupert Murdoch recently purchased MySpace. I promptly tried to cancel my account, but I had no idea how to (they don’t make it easy).

I maybe visited MySpace once every 6 months (so…3 times?) and I finally had it. I tried to cancel my account. This time I think I succeeded. I think:

STEP 1. Try to locate the “Cancel” link:

It’s hidden way up above all the important information.

STEPS 2-5. Repeatedly click “Cancel My Account” to no avail – how many times do I have to do this? It seriously takes 4 click throughs to get to what seems like the end.

STEP 6. Then they send you an email. At this point, my account is still active.

STEPS 7-9. Again, I have to keep clicking “Cancel My Account” (same screens as before).
10. Then I get a screen that says it will take up to 48 hours to cancel my MySpace account. Huh?

Note that it still doesn’t say that my account is cancelled.
Come on! If the goal of their website is to have as many members as possible, they certainly do a good job of deterring users from cancelling their accounts.

What I don’t understand is all the news about parents telling their kids to cancel their MySpace accounts. Do these parents have any idea what their children will have to go through in order to cancel that account? No wonder they keep finding their kids on MySpace. It’s next to impossible to get away.

I still don’t know if I successfully cancelled my account. I’m afraid to try logging in for fear that I might *undo* my cancellation.

Stupid phone.