While preparing for some home remodeling, I've been examining kitchen
appliances. Evaluating the various designs has been educational. It
showed what happens when convenience for the end-user gets sacrificed
for style. This mirrors problems inherent in the design of many Web
sites.
Let's illustrate with an extremely simple appliance: a built-in gas
stovetop. There's relatively little operative difference among the
dozens of styles locally available. All have between 4 and 6 burners,
whose flames heat pot bottoms. The pots rest on brackets. Knobs control
the size of the flames. Materials are enamel and stainless steel.
But in an effort to prompt a buyer to select a particular product
among many, functionally identical, others, designers try to make each
stylistically unique. The results can be...interesting.
At least with stovetops, some standards are mandated by law: they
cannot be composed of flammable materials. And I didn't come across
any with the control knobs located on top, which might look "pretty" in
a showroom but at home would necessitate extending your arm over the
pots to adjust the flames. On the other hand, in many models the knobs
were arrayed in a column to the right of the burners, which is inconvenient-to-dangerous
for lefties. (So I guess those designers aren't concerned with "a
mere" 15% of the population, although it seems to me that this
decision would translate into a lot of lost sales.) There were also
some unusual burner configurations. Sometimes five burners were squeezed
into the space normally allotted for four. Wow, for the same price
you can cook more food simultaneously. Except that all the pots have
to be proportionally smaller in order to fit. A similar problem exists
with configurations that include arranging the knobs in a visually
attractive arc rather than the ordinary straight line: you're sacrificing
pot "real estate" for a stylistic frill.
Similarly, many Web sites use stylistic flourishes that undermine
their usefulness for the end-user. Keep your target audience in mind
for all design decisions. Are many potential visitors on dial-up? Design
pages that will load quickly. Will people be revisiting your site periodically?
Avoid use of frames, which would prevent them from bookmarking (adding
to their Favorites list) particular pages. Navigation should be intuitive
and consistent site-wide; and if it incorporates techniques
like drop-down menus, make sure to add a text-only alternative
that can be used universally.
Ask about your designer's ability to implement Web standards as suggested
by the W3C. These
standards are to Web sites what safety laws are to consumer goods.
Building a stovetop from beautiful oak wood is a bad idea even if it
matches the kitchen cabinets to perfection; using it could burn down
the kitchen. Nothing as dire can occur from visiting a non-standards
compliant site. However, many "cool" features (for example,
Java applets) can cause some browsers to crash, or even necessitate
rebooting the computer. Flash sites can be difficult to bookmark, slow
to load, and time-consuming to navigate.
Try also to address issues of accessibility. Although vision-impaired
visitors, or those using very old computers or outdated browsers, may
not comprise a large proportion of your audience -- why exclude them?
(In the US, accessibility is being mandated by law. Other countries
will be following suit, and monetary penalties may apply to ignoring
relevant legislation.) Find a designer who makes accessibility a priority.
Footnote: After ordering my stovetop, I received a free phone. Appealing
colors, easy to dial -- and lightweight, which makes it easy to move.
This lightness, however, also guarantees that when you place the phone
on a desk and lift the receiver to your ear, its very short cord dangles
the body of the phone like a yoyo. Not a good design, no matter how
appealing the colors.
Usability, please!
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