SIGIA-L Mail Archives: RE: SIGIA-L: Need for expertise
RE: SIGIA-L: Need for expertise
From: Anne Harris (aharris_at_bitgroup.com)
Date: Fri Mar 23 2001 - 13:06:34 EST
Sounds like they've been exposed to Jakob Nielsen. I would refer them to
discussions of the application of his work on www.aslistapart.com, as well
as other places. Just do a search with google to find relevant discussions
and articles.
Nielsen's work is interesting and useful, but his conclusions should not be
applied to web sites without careful examination and discussion. Usability
test results are very site- and user-specific, and therefore should not be
directly translated into sweeping rules to be applied to every site.
In other words, it's a mistake to univerally apply usability test results
out of their research context.
As Andrew Dillon from Indiana University stated in a presentation at the La
Jolla IA conference last year, it's possible to apply every one of Nielsen's
rules to a site and end up with something that is completely unusable.
-Anne
---------------------
Anne R. Harris
Senior Information Architect
BiT Group
617.946.0550 x244
aharris_at_bitgroup.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathleen Wallace [mailto:klwallace71_at_hotmail.com]
> Sent: Friday, March 23, 2001 11:48 AM
> To: sigia-l_at_asis.org
> Subject: SIGIA-L: Need for expertise
>
>
> I need to take advantage of some of the expertise that exists
> on this list.
> My department (IS/Web development)is under attack by the
> communications
> department (print publications is really their focus). They
> want "control"
> of the web site (www.agd.org). In the past, they have
> provided us with
> content and we have decided its location in the scheme of the
> site. Now they
> are discussing the architecture and design of the site
> because a couple of
> communication staff members have attended "seminars" and are suddenly
> experts in the field. Here are some of the contentions they
> learned that
> they now want us to incorporate into the site. I am
> interested in hearing
> reactions to them:
>
> 1. "3 goals of a site have to be identified to determine the
> direction and
> voice for the site" Has anyone heard of this before? Isn't
> this a little
> limiting? Our site has visitors that are consumers and
> dentist. There is
> no way to accommodate them both focusing on 3 needs (and
> before anyone asks,
> no, we have not done any user profiling).
>
> 2. "There should only be a maximum of seven links on each
> page, more than
> that and we lose the user. It's just too many choices."
> THere are plenty
> of successful sites out there that do not comply with this.
> Is this a hard and fast rule or a guideline? If it is a rule
> you adhere to
> 100% of the time, why?
>
> 3. "Users won't click on items they believe are
> advertisements. Banner ads
> only work if they appear on the right side of the page." THis
> is the first
> time I have heard this (specifically about the "right side").
> Any comments?
>
> 4. "Users are trained to respond to "blue" or underlined
> items on a site to
> get somewhere else." Is this still true? Isn't the average
> user a little
> bit more sophisticated than this by now? If this were true,
> why are so many
> sites using javascript rollovers?
>
> 5. "There is no need for a button and a text click through
> (to the same
> page) on the same page."
>
> I am an aspiring IA, and as the webmaster, I try to
> incorporate the things
> that I learn on this list into the site. I do not, however, have the
> background to address some of these points. But I guess that
> just the fact
> that I am questioning them is promising.
>
> Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.
>
> Kathleen
> _________________________________________________________________
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