Am I the only one who gets annoyed by sites like this otherwise nice one?
There are so many sites these days where the moment you enter, you're trapped in a Flash maze. The sites takes over the window, decides the size of the window, decides the size of the text for you, you can't copy text or pictures, you can't open pages in new windows, everything is in menus... Plus they are often slow and have unjustified animation. They are designed to impress rather than be used.
Around the millennium I studied usability, mainly Jakob Nielsen's book on it (Web Usability). It says you need to make things work as much as possible like people are used to, and you need to give the user maximum self-determinism (for example, fit the size of the text to his eyes).
Update: Terrell blogs this.
17 comments:
No, you're not the only one.
There are a number of websites that I visit regularly, and not a single one of them has this kind of interface. I've bookmarked a handful of sites with Flash interfaces, but I find that I just don't return to them.
I don't think this is even a matter of preference. There is research that shows people don't visit them. How many of those sites, for example, rank high on Alexa?
One question to ponder: Is the younger generation more tolerant of unusable and distractive web sites? I doubt it, but how else can you explain the popularity of MySpace?
I'd like to second the recommendation for Jacob Nielsen. His research and documentation are solid.
Sorry, misspelled Jakob.
"Is the younger generation more tolerant of unusable and distractive web sites? I doubt it, but how else can you explain the popularity of MySpace?"
That's just what I'm thinking.
I do hear that university age people tend to zip about like bees in a bottle, and have ten different tasks and communications going simultaneously. Whether they accomplish anything is another matter.
"I'd like to second the recommendation for Jacob Nielsen. His research and documentation are solid."
Yes, I was tremendously helped by his book.
Yes, Jakob. It is Danish spelling, he is a fellow Dane.
I must be younger generation. Overall I found this site navigable.
I don't like the pop-ups which pop up over where you are trying to navigate. I don't like the pop ups which popped up when I was elsewhere.
I also don't like sites which open new tabs or even worse windows for my browser. And this one had the cheek to open the new window on a different monitor to where I was looking!!!
It has the minor peeve of having the menus be on the left then on the right. I have to move a long way from one to the next, and then the navigation tools were not near the thumbnail list.
I almost took mulitmedia several years ago at a local Uni. Wish I had now...
"One question to ponder: Is the younger generation more tolerant of unusable and distractive web sites? I doubt it, but how else can you explain the popularity of MySpace?"
Myspace is far from unusable, at least by default. It's very common for people to customize theirs with seizure-inducing colors and layouts that cause one's browser to crash, but this is entirely a choice. It's one of those sites that is quite literally what you make of it. (Which is no doubt one of the draws.)
That said, it's one of the most unstable, unreliable and glitchy pieces of software I've ever used. I'd say the only reason it's still popular is because it was the first of its kind and familiarity will often win out over technological superiority.
I was beginning to think I had a MySpace blog, but it was Windows Live spaces.
http://montgomery-pictures.spaces.live.com/
Which I guess is a different thing. It had lots of neat doodads, but I found it sometimes took too long to load, and I got fed-up and moved on.
Hi, as an artist and photographer you shound not be copying pictures. Many artists use flas h for just that reason. Thanks, Jim.
For a review on a blog it is nice, and quite legal, to copy a picture or two, so my readers can see what I'm talking about.
I understand the desire to protect one work against theft, but one should also consider how much one might be ruining the same work against legit users. Not to mention that people sending samples to their friends can be powerful promotion, and free promotion.
Blade: MySpace is an application?
Dang, I thought I was doing a good job at picking a site host! Well, I guess I need to take all these comments into consideration. This being my first webpage, I felt it necessary to promote while still protecting, which is easier said than done when doing landscapes as opposed to nudes. When I am more established and hire pro models, I can possibly relax on the protective measures, but right now, I use unprofessional models who trust me and I dont want them to see their faces and bodies used in a context other than what I intended. These are small town girls who I want to do right by, (however I just moved to Vegas).
Is there a recommendation for a web host thats meets a more user friendly definition? I get unlimited galleries and pages on this one. I am open to any suggestions that can help and I hope the work was at least enjoyable if not the site. Thanks yall,
Terrell ~
Terrell Neasley Artistic Photography.
"Blade: MySpace is an application?"
I wasn't really thinking of it as an application. I used the word software simply because I didn't know what else to call it without sounding too repetitive.
I'd like to think it brilliance born of mild stupidity. ;)
I can see why someone would want to use flash for its security benefits. Only a screen snapshot can be made at the viewed resolution.
Flash frees the design of the interface to be what the creator/implementor want it to be. It is the layout of the flash interface which adds confusion and clutter, not the fact that it is flash.
As for Terrell's site, it is accessible, and the merits of the content outweigh any shortcomings in the pages navigation.
"Whether they accomplish anything is another matter."
A perfect case of matter over mind...
"the merits of the content outweigh any shortcomings in the pages navigation."
Ah, but the catch is that people who wander into your site have to be motivated enough to find that out. By the time I hit the *second* progress bar I gave up.
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