> From: Steven J. Owens[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>
> The one thing I always wanted to do but could never get a clear
> consensus on from upper management was to push all of the concrete
> parts of the web site to the main page. Not necessarily to take over
> the main page, but to have at least a substantial section that lists
> everything concrete you can *do* at the site, like:
>
> apply for a credit card
> apply for a mortgage
> apply for a checking account
> etc.
>
> <snip>
> Most of the time the "design" of the site - the layout of each
> page and the architecture of all of the pages - simply can't
> anticipate what the user's desires are(*).
>
> (* This results in large part because of a combination of three things.
> 1) lack of design skill on management's part,
> 2) lack of concrete, measurable, usable user data and demographics, and
> 3) lack of willingness to spend anything on getting the above.)
>
>
I agree with you that many large sites suffer -- I'd like to add a point or two.
<smile>
Classic usability focuses on TASKS -- which is what you are doing with your list
above. This is one of the hardest parts when building a site -- IDing the tasks and
then convincing management that a task-oriented focus will provide value to the
end-user. And yes, every audience doesn't have the same task list -- that's where
audience ID and priority needs to take place.
My pet peeve is national sites, like United Airlines or NW Airlines, that don't have
their bloody 1.800 reservations number on the top page -- or Outpost.Com, whose 1.800
number is in a bloody GIF that has no ALT tags! Grrrrr. People DO sometimes want to
talk to a person at the corporation!
> Think in terms of a FAQ. The reason FAQs work so well is because
> they are quite simple and task-oriented, and because they
> traditionally evolve over time; the structure of the FAQ is based on
> recurring user questions. This is the brute force approach to
> usability engineering. It works, but you don't have that sort of
> time, nor the infrastructure to support it(*). Instead, it's simpler
> to list the things that the user can really do, with links to a
> "shortcut" page for each thing.
>
I've found you can often get to some of these questions by bypassing the standard
corporate chain and going straight to the person who takes phone calls -- often this
is an admin. asst. in corporate PR.
> (* You should be talking to your bank's consumer help desk about
> setting up infrastructure to respond to email requests; make sure
> you also set up procedures for the web team to learn from the
> requests and improve the site. The ultimate would be real-time
> chat response for lost & confused users, where the chat service
> would have knowledgable "tellers" who know and understand all the
> material and are responsible for helping formulate site refinements
> to cut down on future questions. It'll never happen, but it's nice
> to dream...).
>
THIS is cool! Wow -- great idea -- how is this different from 1.800 phone lines?
Kathy
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