Expert: Bill DeShawn - 8/30/2006

Question
Hello! I have a question and I figured I’d go straight to the experts in the field. I work for a marketing company in Brewster, NY and was given an assignment by my boss to find out whether the practice of calling the learner/reader by name in a self-study web course is helpful or not. (Such as “Welcome to page 1, SARA”) Is this an outdated “trend”, as my boss thinks, or is there an upside that he isn’t aware of? We are maintaining the website for a very large, well know company and are in the process of creating these courses for them. My boss prefers that I contact someone with a good deal of expertise in this area. If you could please respond and offer any input, or research links, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,  

Answer
IMHO, it is an outdated trend.  Don't fight firewall software trying to put cookies on people's computer.  It is cool if you can do it without cookies, though.  

I like it when Yahoo mail says, "Welcome, .....    or when Quill.com says Welcome, Bill.  At least then I know they've logged in the right account.

But also, take this advice.  "Do what the boss says".  It may be your assignment, but he wants it done his way.


Keep in touch
Bill Deshawn
http://my.sterling.net/~bdeshawn