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Friday, November 12, 2010

"Don't Click Here"

An article on why web-pages fail with a lot of examples; "Biggest Mistakes in Web Design 1995-2015" by Vincent Flanders. Here are some Q&A on it, as my assignment:
  1. How does this reading relate to the concept of user-focused design that we have discussed in class?
     
    This article is all about user-focused design. We basically said that things need to be easy to understand and easy to use for the user. This article says exactly the same. The second point of Flanders, "[people should] figure out what the site is about within four seconds", is very alike Norman's point that everyday objects' how-to-use should be understood in a few seconds. Almost all the other points of Flanders' article is about easy use: Links with explanation, user's needs before yours, not keeping the user from going where he wants to go, well-built navigation, etc...
      
  2. What points do you feel are most important?
     
    I feel like point 6 is the most important one. NO WEB-PAGE SHOULD EVER BE LIKE THAT!  I also believe that aiming the web-page towards the user and meeting his needs rather than the designer's or the company's need is highly important, since the user is the one who is going to use the web-site, eh? Point #4 is also crucial, since I can recall many times I was frustrated that I could not get to the end of something (like shopping) because the site would keep throwing things at me... Furthermore, a web-page needs to be light-weighted! Especially, when there are a lot of graphics the text loads first and while waiting for the graphics to load the "naked text" looks very awkward and uninviting. Also, people (like me) might just get bored and close the window/tab.
      
  3. Create your own list of important design factors for a web-page.
      
    Although being full of himself, Flanders' article is great. I believe it covers every point on the subject, I have nothing else to say but accepting his list as my "factors for a web-page".

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