SIGIA-L Mail Archives: RE: SIGIA-L: GAIN - Is Horse Whipping to
RE: SIGIA-L: GAIN - Is Horse Whipping too Good for Them?
From: Adam Polansky (adam.polansky_at_raremedium.com)
Date: Fri May 25 2001 - 15:29:56 EDT
Well said Chris!
I've seen Jakob Nielson criticize the Mont Blanc site because it didn't meet
his standard of getting to the information quickly. He trashed it saying
that no one would stick around long enough to get to the site.
Yes, It opens with a flash movie.
Yes it has an unconventional navigation function.
However, to your point, The audience who visits the Mont Blanc site is
likely to expect something unique because their brand is about exclusivity
and high style. The site fits the brand! No it doesn't work like a portal
where everything is in your face immediately with no distractions to prevent
you from finding your relevant information path and COMPLETING YOUR MISSION!
Instead, the site creates an atmosphere that is commensurate with who they
are and with the expectations associated with the brand.
Don't let your starvation for standards blind you to the fact that their are
times that call for something special or different. One rule might fit
"most" but never "all" and sometimes we get to work on something that isn't
for "most". Rules are great until they take precedence over what common
sense tells you. What are those times? What do you do about it? I wish I
could characterize it. That's when you rely on your instincts to do the
right thing. It sounds awfully Zen and mystical but it's exactly that part
of this discipline that I love.
Adam Polansky : : Senior Information Architect
Rare Medium : : Dallas
2207 Commerce Street
Dallas TX 75201
vox 214.742.7273 x255
cel 214.868.4157
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Fahey [mailto:Chris.Fahey_at_raremedium.com]
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 1:02 PM
To: 'VanTol, Robert'; sigia-l
Subject: RE: SIGIA-L: GAIN - Is Horse Whipping too Good for Them?
> I scooted off and had a look at the interesting links. When I
> looked at GAIN (http://gain.aiga.org - flash enabled)- the AIGA (American
> Institute for Graphic Artists) journal for Experience Design I was
completely amazed.
Ugh! "Usability Dogma" is clearly making many of us lose sight of the
value of experimentation.
I doubt that anyone who is a real live member of GAIN's core target
audience would agree with much of what you've said, or at least I don't
think any of them would be so apoplectic about it. The site is great
looking, fun, has interesting content, and if you're the kind of person who
likes trying out creative new interface designs, this interface is not at
all hard to figure out.
I think there are two distinct types of users: those who see interfaces as
an art form (and want to try interesting new interfaces) and those who
don't. We need to have people experimenting with interfaces and showing them
to the design community, and it's appropriate that people are doing this in
an online journal dedicated to innovation in user experience.
People on this list are too quick to condemn usability infractions without
for a second considering target audiences, particularly when it comes to
experimentation and innovation. There's a big difference between the
following three types of artsy-interface widgetry, and the difference is
primarily based on target audience.
1) GAIN (http://gain.aiga.org) - A site for experimental and/or cutting
edge designers and multimedia creative leaders whose milieu encourages
innovation. The site breaks interface conventions, sometimes in good looking
and fun ways, but not in such a way that the target audience won't figure it
out pretty quickly and maybe even have fun figuring it out. SUCCESS
ANALOGY: Art gallery with weird-shaped, dramatically lit lobby.
2) BOO (deceased) (http://www.boo.com) - A site for everyday (though young
& hip) people to buy clothes online. The site breaks critical interface
conventions and fatally frustrates their main business goal - selling
clothes. FAILURE
ANALOGY: Clothing store with landmines in the lobby.
3) SFMOMA's 010101: (http://010101.sfmoma.org/) - A site about innovative
and experimental digital artists. This site is more than just hard-to-use,
it borders on impossible-to-use even by people who know a lot about using
weird new interfaces. FAILURE
ANALOGY: Art Museum with landmines in the lobby.
Do you see the differences between these members of the SIG-IA Rogues
Gallery?
> Really, it's all just the worst sort of obscuratist usability that Graphic
> Designers love to revel in - why use boring dowdy user controls that
> everyone knows when you can replace them with cool exciting beautifully
> crafted new ones?
Believe it or not, there are tons and tons of people who love to try new,
cool, exciting, and beautifully crafted new interfaces. You may not be one
of them, and such is your right (actually, I doubt you are such a person,
but if you were you'd be in the majority), but you shouldn't criticise a
site intended for such people for displaying experimental work. This is
tantamount to criticising the Museum of Modern art for showing paintings
where you can't tell what they're supposed to be - if you don't like it,
don't go to the museum.
A laboratory is a place for failure. GAIN is a laboratory. The world is a
better place because of experimental interface designers and artists, and
their failures and successes profit us all. We wouldn't have a WWW without
them. But I wouldn't want them to redesign the control panel for a 747,
though. See the difference?
- Cf
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