RE: UKNM: Design, Design, Design

[Melanie BEECH]

Jakob is an

> information designer,

> not a marketeer, and his philosophy approaches design from this

> perspective. From our perspective, design exists to attract

> the attention

> of the customer - from his perspective, design exists to assist the

> transmittal of information.


I disagree.  From an e-commerce perspective, we also want for the customer

to find information about products and services quickly and easily.  IMHO,

successful web marketing relies on an intelligent mix of the two: yes, we

want our site and our brand to be distinct in appearance from other sites

but, if we are to sell our products and services, we have to facilitate

access to information that will favourably influence the buyer's purchasing

decision.  Ease of use and clarity of navigation are therefore essential if

we don't want our buyers to go elsewhere.


Clearly, design has other applications according to the overall objectives

of the site, its market and its products/services, and there are some sites

where a certain obscurity in the design is a plus for its target audience,

but the majority of e-commerce sites rely on clear information architecture

and painless user experience to sell products and encourage repeat business.



To argue from a marketing point

> of view that

> Jakob Nielsen is fundamentally broken is to argue that a book should

> consist of a front cover, a back cover, and a publicity campaign.

>


Not so: if Jakob were to apply his musings to novels, for example, we would

end up with plain covers and a linear text in between.  Such minor

considerations as style, plot elements like flashbacks, stream of

consciousness, dialogue etc and more daring literary constructs would be

banished as distracting from the main thread of the story, and so on.


In fact, Jakob's ideal novel would probably be a one page plot synopsis with

bullet points -- not my idea of winding down on the commute home, that's for

sure.


sorry - rant over! :-)


m



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