Jay Small

I am a digital-focused executive living near Nashville, Tennessee. And I’m a guitarist who has played in a few variety bands.
When they’re too much to tweet, sometimes I post thoughts and ideas here.

Category: Design and UX

  • Digital ads are still not with the program

    At Christmastime, a family member gave me a gift card for Sweetwater, an online retailer of musical instruments, pro audio gear and accessories. I browsed the Sweetwater website (while logged in to my long-established account — that’s important), and used the gift card to buy some nice locking tuners as upgrades for a couple of my guitars.…

  • What’s wrong with online customer service: An example

    It should not be difficult, slow or aggravating to use the website of a leading virtual fax service (eFax) to cancel a $16.95/month account. But it is all three. For starters, you can’t just fill out a form and cancel. Ugh! Anytime you enter a customer service web interface and find that canceling or downgrading…

  • Why I still say ‘interactive’ instead of ‘digital’ et al

    Sorry, nits. Meet your picker. It bugs me (yes, puny play on words intended) to hear leaders of legacy media businesses refer to their “digital” strategies or products, meaning all their online/internet/web/social/mobile stuff. How did “interactive,” as the adjective of choice for such stuff, lose favor? It is both more accurate and more aspirational. I…

  • Tim’s Qs, my As on online journalism

    Ever-industrious Tim Harrower, working on a new edition of one of his textbooks, recently asked me some questions about journalism, online and the intersection of the two. My replies follow. I know he asked others in online media, so I hope maybe some of those folks will share what they said, too — start of a…