Sean Alan & others,
A lot of people do get confused with almost any website, but it's not as
bad as Alan's message indicates. For example, my last company (a
entertainment website with multi-million visitors/month) had a search on the
front page powered by Atomz. Each month I would get a report mailed to me
of the top search items. It amazed me how youth oriented these terms were,
even though we had a network of sites that were really aimed at an older
demographic. I'd have to say, that the avg web user skews young/or web
savvy, and that underestimating their understanding of basic UI would be a
mistake. Our publishing engine had several UI paradigms that were tracked
through the publishing engine, so we knew exactly what things people clicked
on. Not surprising, the Feature was the most clicked on item on the front
page. But how many clicks the feature got vs. other items varied widely
relative to how interesting that item was to visitors at large.
As an aside: The reason that VHS won out over Beta was that (a. Beta
machines were much more expensive than VHS (while VHS was still better than
broadcast TV quality) AND b.VHS offered 2 hours standard time, where beta
offered 1). This is not a case of "the dumb masses adopting inferior
technology cause the big bad media brainwashed them with advertising."
I also think that teenagers and frequenters of top40 radio stations have
heard of the BSB's because that is the type of act that they are. I have
actually heard of both the BSB's and the TS's, but heard of the TS's because
I listen(d) to alternative music stations that played them, which lead me to
buy one of their albums.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Renet [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 12:41 AM
To: Fusebox
Subject: Re: Flash, Harpoon, Balthaser
Alan, you could print "your mom just died call your dad" anywhere on a web
site that looks like yahoo and no one would ever see it.
In my life I have been a chemist and a VP of marketing/promotion for 4 major
record labels and I can tell you, you can spend any amount of money on any
test and make it come out the way you want. The fact is that consumers are
sheep and you dictate to them what they can and cannot do as much as what
they like or dislike. Its why VHS is in your home, while BETA is used in
the studio, its also why you know who the Backstreet Boys are, but probably
have never heard of the Trashcan Sinatras.
----- Original Message -----
From: "McCollough, Alan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Fusebox" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 26, 2001 9:52 AM
Subject: RE: Flash, Harpoon, Balthaser
> Ahh, but is it actually usable by the audience? I had the good fortune to
> attend a conference recently where the speakers were folks from the
National
> Institute of Health, and they have spent a wad of $$$$ on usability
testing.
> The real kind of studies, where they videotape joe shmoes and watch their
> ape-like attempts to navigate various websites.
>
> The results of the study? Pretty wild. Basically, it boils down to this:
>
> Users don't know to click on ANYTHING unless it is colored blue and
> underlined.
> Users understand plain text
> Users understand standard browser Submit buttons
> Users don't understand fancy-schmancy pretty-boy buttons
> Users do not understand frames
> Users like it plain, plain plain!
>
> The most "usable" site styles are those in the Yahoo style, with plain
text
> links that cascade down to more refined text links.
>
> If you wanna see the details, go to www.usability.gov , and see some of
your
> tax dollars (That's U.S. tax dollars, so you Europeans get to sponge this
> info for free!) at work.
>
> I found a lot of encouragement in this study. And why? As a CF devleoper
who
> works with Studio, I've found that form follows function in a big way. The
> natural result of "command line" coding versus "GUI" coding is that stuff
> ends up a bit stark. Quite serendipitious, actually. Those "boring" pages
> displaying stuff in a straight table , using basic HTML, turn out to be
> right up the usability alley. All that flash stuff, well, heh, poof!
>
> Alan McCollough
> Web Programmer
> Allaire Certified ColdFusion Developer
> Alaska Native Medical Center
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Toby Tremayne [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> > Sent: Sunday, February 25, 2001 2:29 PM
> > To: Fusebox
> > Subject: RE: Flash, Harpoon, Balthaser
> >
> > doesn't that suck? You pull of something really clever - and it's only
> > really sexy to a fellow geek. But if you have any kind of artistic bent
> > and
> > write great flash - everyone thinks you're great....
> >
> > ....grumble grumble... <grin>
> {redacted}
>
>
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