RE: UKNM: simple, clean, fast

[Vincent O'Keeffe]

> raising my head above the parapet, i nominate

>

> www.byliner.com

>

> as an example of the kind of simple, clean, fast web design

> that should

> maximise user retention and repeat traffic on almost any site

>


Sure, it's a lovely, super-fast design but the first thing that struck me

was the lack of contextual support. You get presented with a huge list of

writers and, unless you pore over the by-lines of articles that you read,

you have no idea who these people are or who they work for without clicking

through. it would be smart to add a field on the writers page that

references the publications, at least. Also, a quick hunt for Jakon Nielsen,

John C. Dvorak, Jerry Pournelle and Mark Frauenfelder, proved fruitless.

Still, you're right, nice design and it does have potential.


I think that the kind of design you're talking about is an important element

of building customer loyalty but, for me, the key differentiator are those

sites that create an outstanding user experience that supports user goals

every step of the way so that they're almost scarily thoughtful - ref Amazon

and Peter Merholz's work on Epinions.com.


While we're on the subject, before you go reducing the corporate home page

to pure HTML and coloured table backgrounds, have a look at your information

architecture and the task chains on your site. Jared Spool has found that

users perceive speed based on the overall speed of their information

retrieval / goal attainment. A study he did comparing Amazon (36 second

homepage download) versus About.com (8 seconds) showed that users believed

Amazon was quicker because they were able to complete their overall

objectives faster. So do up some user scenarios, re-examine your navigation

and labeling, and think about adding some contextual support text before

breaking out the Debabelizer. Note to designers: This does not entitle you

to go nuts with Kai and then blame the information architect :-)


Regards,

Vincent O' Keeffe

Mersault*Thinking - http://www.octagon.ie/mersault/index.htm



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