[ Date Index ] [ Thread Index ] [ <= Previous by date / thread ] [ Next by date / thread => ]
On 01/08/10 08:17, tom wrote: > On 01/08/10 07:45, Jaan Janesmae wrote: >> Hey, >> >> The UX and UI side of website design/management is actually a very >> complicated science. There surely isn't enough materials and articles >> about it available to the public. Shame also, that not many places >> actually teach such things ... oh and experts in this field are very >> expensive ... >> >> J. >> > They're actually very cheap - they're called customers. > It normally takes someone with an IQ of 50 to work out what they want > from your web site: > Will I want to view a 10 minute flash about the company? No! > Will I want to spend 10 minutes searching the labyrinth of PR > information? No! > Thats 90% of most website binned. > Will I want to buy your product easily: Yes! > So councils and universities should have clear short routes to > services, timetables etc and not 20,000 clicks through how the metadata > was defined and presented. > Will I want to find support info easily? Yes! see above. > Once you consider (honestly) how a 'customer' would like to use your > web site and make it easy for them - and make it accessible: do this > first - its a great lesson!!!! > > You just have to imagine how a customer would like walk/click into your > 'shop' and make it easy for them. > Does a high street shop take you on a two hour trip through the PR > department, explain all the legal reasonings and health and safety hoops > they've jumped through to get their sandwich on that shelf? Or have a > simpering, slicked back 'peter mandelson' explaining company mission > statements? NO! A high street shop would loose every last customer > doing this. > Just let the customer get to the sandwich, checkout and complaints dept > easily and you've satisfied 99% of your customers, saved 95% of your web > development costs and reduced web bandwidth requirements by 85% - oh and > sold something!! > Its NOT rocket science - though getting it past your PR department might > require a couple of dozen rockets. > Tom te tom te tom > > ..... > >From my experience : Council PR + Top Layer Government Legislation + "Arts & Design" orientated Webmasters (technically webmistresses in TC's case) with no background in Informatics = one unusable website (eg http://torbay.gov.uk) The guys who look after the "technical" side of the website sit on adjoining desks and are constantly pulling their hair out, while their boss says "yes its ok for the designers to insert a piece of java script with a ticking countdown clock on the front of the website" (that helps nobody). But then if you worked in a council for any length of time you would understand that its not their to help the local people, but to ensure that government legislation is followed to the letter, because ticking boxes on a central government form = funding. Eg you would think a public library was about giving access to knowledge through the loaning of books... Nop its about getting a target number of people through the front door. It doesn't matter if they check out a book or not, as long as they visit, no. of visitors = £ funding. This is why libraries are now becoming video rental "shops" ... Tom. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq