Re: Map Generator....

From: gherbert@crl3.crl.com (George Herbert)

Date: Sat, 22 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Terry Austin <taustin@hyperbooks.com> wrote:
>"Tim Franklin" <tim@leaphome.pelican.org> wrote:
>> Terry Austin <taustin@hyperbooks.com> wrote:
>> >The only assumption you should make is that
>> >people are looking at your web page for content.
>> >Presentation is largely irrelevant to most people.
>>
>> Presentation is irrelevant to people viewing the site looking for
>>information.
>> Presentation is *everything* the marketroids who present both the money
>>and the spec for most corporate web sites.
>> This explains very simply why a goodly number of corporate web sites suck.
>>
>Yep. And as long as web designers don't have
>the balls to just tell the marketroids "If we do that,
>it will suck" and explain - and show - why, that
>will continue to be the case.
>I wouldn't hold my breath, were I you.

Actually, my day job (contract?) is at top-5 web design house.
On big contracts, we spend tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands
of dollars doing market research on test user groups to see how they
like various UI features and make things more user friendly.
While people generally don't like graphical doodads a whole
lot there are a lot of UI functions and layout and presentation
design issues which *do* significantly enhance the average web
customers experience and make them happier with the site and more
likely to order there.  The old style HTML enthusiasts belief
that presentation isn't important has failed in the face of
actual serious research done by people for whom the results of
the research mean a lot (of money, time to market, etc),
we and our clients have a lot of interest in getting the
research conclusions accurate.

The gaming community might be atypical compared to the study groups
used for normal commercial sites, but I doubt it's completely atypical
in comparison.

Of course, my home consulting company's website regularly gets email
responses saying "your site sucks, let me redesign it for you!",
but I actually did that on purpose.  I'm not trying to sell things
via the website at this time, just provide some limited types of
information for which presentation isn't really important.
I know better about the design issues, and when it's appropriate
for it to be properly nice looking and attractive in the marketing
sense it will be.

Companies trying to sell things really should spend appropriate
amounts on proper marketing research, user group surveys and
a few focus groups to analyze user responses to your UI and
presentation, and proper site designers to impliment the results
of the above.  The amount invested in those should be scaled
appropriately to the volume of business desired and expected,
of course.  But if done right it does pay the investment back
appropriately.  Depreciating marketing is a common geek trait,
but doesn't survive contact with the actual business world.

-george william herbert
gherbert@crl.com

References

Re: Map Generator....
Ilya <ilya@spam.free.gamecommandos.com>
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
"Terry Austin" <taustin@hyperbooks.com>
Thu, 20 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
tim@leaphome.pelican.org (Tim Franklin)
Fri, 21 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
"Terry Austin" <taustin@hyperbooks.com>
Fri, 21 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Map Generator....
Ilya <ilya@spam.free.gamecommandos.com>
Tue, 18 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
"Terry Austin" <taustin@hyperbooks.com>
Thu, 20 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
tim@leaphome.pelican.org (Tim Franklin)
Fri, 21 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Map Generator....
"Terry Austin" <taustin@hyperbooks.com>
Fri, 21 Jan 2000 00:00:00 +0000