Usability vs. Technology
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Posted By Brian Ledebur on 12/15 at 03:21 PM |
A recent A List Apart article, Power to the People, further underscores the importance to tackling a Web site design from the perspective of the user.
Many times, we have requests from clients wanting to add certain "features to their Web site". Usually it involves this great, cool new thing they saw on some competitor's site, and want us to do something similar (or one-better them). While technology is fun, and may hold a user's attention (for about 10-20 seconds, in fact, according to most research), the true value in your Web site lies in how usable it is, and how useful it is to your users.
Fight the temptation to load your site up with the latest and greatest in Flash and multimedia. Avoid relying on third-party plugins as much as possible. Approach solutions to your Web site challenges from a user's perspective: ask yourself what's most important to them. Anything superfluous beyond providing an answer to this merely clouds your message and puts distance between you and your customer base.
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Comments
Too often we have clients that have a hard time seeing the benefits of what we've developed for them. Clients who say SEO is an important aspect of their site design need to remember that when they ask for a full Flash based site 2 minutes later.
Posted by: Keith Ort | December 15, 2005 04:16 PM
Brian, I really liked this article - especially the suggestions for knowing your visitors and how to determine what they want. And, while I am sitting here nodding in agreement, I wonder how many understand that the problem is more of a lack of understanding rather than a client actually wanting the latest and greatest.
Using Keith's example of someone saying that SEO is important to them and also asking for flash: While this raises red flags to us, the terms "SEO" and "flash" most likely mean something else. Such as: 1) "I need SEO so people can search for my site - of course I want that." And 2) "I really have no idea what Flash is but so-and-so has it - of course I want that."
When the words are thrown around carelessly, it ends up like discussing "suped-up car engines" and "oversized exhaust pipes" to me - something yet still nothing. The only attempt at a solution falls on everyone -> the client, sales person, project manager, producer -> everyone. And, since it’s pretty near impossible to determine one all-encompassing solution, all we can really do is educate clients on our recommendations, sit back, and hope it’s understood that their Web site was/is not something thrown together but something strategically designed (not to mention something to be proud of).
Posted by: Rochelle Knight | December 19, 2005 10:23 PM