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Facing Your Web Monsters
By Micha | October 30, 2007
Hallowe’en is here – is there a monster lurking in your web site?
Hang on, you don’t believe in monsters? Then let me offer this very practical definition that I once heard and you can think again…
“A ‘monster’ is an aggregation of disparate parts.”
Simple enough and bang on, I think.
Now about your web site. Is it a portal or a torture chamber? Is it a useful tool or a Time-Consuming-Beast? Does is make your customers happy or send them shrieking into streets? You want to find out? Who ya gonna call?
Usability Testers would be a good start. A well formed usability test can sniff out those demonic disparities and diabolical dead end links. It can cast a bright light into the shadows of broken work flows - although, to be honest, you may not like what you see in there.
But don’t be afraid, there are more Forces of Good at your disposal – Information Architects can clean out the muddy data structures (where Time-Wasters love to breed) and an experienced User Interface Designer can turn those stifled work flows into breaths of fresh air.
But before you dial for help with your graphical user interface design problems, don’t assume a Graphic Artist is the same as a User Interface Designer. Graphic Artists have an important role to play but their toolsets typically aren’t intended to cut through the usability blockages that form in the dusty cavities of the World Wide Cob-Web.
And if you want to ensure a long and happy life for your web portal, a Templated User Interface System can protect your users from the sharp claws of the Exposed-Code-Beast. Your typical user is probably not a systems analyst, so don’t make them think like one – a template system can keep the Code-Beast in the back end where it belongs and let the front end be populated exclusively by Good Usability Spirits.
So if your web site has become a Little-On-Line-Shop-Of-Horrors remember there is help out there. But if you care about whether you get a Trick or a Treat be careful about whose door you knock on.
Happy Hallowe’en!
Topics: user interface design, usability, graphical user interfaces, customer relations, user relations, user experience, information architecture, Smarty, web monsters |
October 30th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Michael you are absolutely right.
Nothing against graphic designers… but they can be your worst nightmare. A graphic designer knows how to make things look pretty, and they frequently make them look muddled, where as a UI designer makes them easy to use.
A perfect example of a site that was done with more concentration on the graphics than the usability is www.sportsnet.ca. I visit it frequently and I still find it difficult to navigate. Compare this with the lovely www.google.com and the other google sites, or www.apple.com and you can see what simplicity (and perhaps lack of graphics) can accomplish when thought is put into navigation.
The only google site I have seen that is muddled is my personal google homepage which I have screwed up myself.
I would be really interested to know what you think about search capabilities as a navigation structure.