The Rest of the Book

The talk of "religious discussions" actually really helped me understand that there really is no typical web user. One of the best examples I thought was regarding Flash. I'm not a huge fan of Flash outside of games, but I think the primary reason for that is because it is so rarely used well. One of the sites that were part of the 25 worst designed sites used Flash so poorly that the navigation moved so rapidly it was making my partner motion-sick when we looked at it.

It seems to me, that the most appropriate direction for good design is try and design a site that most people will be able to use with little or no difficulty. If you can get usability down, I feel you can design the aesthetics around that, rather than try to go the other way.

Usability tests seem like such an obvious part of the process, but for a MO small business or individual, I can see why it can get overlooked a lot. When budgets are limited I can see why that step can get skipped. Unfortunately, as the government realized with healthcare.gov, if you do a major rollout and it doesn't work as advertised, it can really damage your PR and reputation. Even though they're not a website or app, I've seen major video game releases botched terribly because they weren't ready on launch day due to some very basic testing that maybe wasn't done. When it comes to potential money lost, it seems like the relatively minor costs of doing usability tests throughout the process will help ensure your roll-out and launch will go smoothly.

Again, it seems obvious that you should make your website as usable as possible, but it seems like there are times certain items are omitted intentionally, and that's always puzzled me. One of my favorite examples of that is from bestbuy.com. Occasionally I'll be searching for an item, and they refuse to put the item's price on the item's page. Often it will say something like "sale price" and then they give explanation that they can't give you the price until you've added it to the shopping cart. This annoys me to no end because it's an extra step in my shopping process that I shouldn't have to take, yet they insist that I do. Most of the time I do the opposite and decide I don't want or need the item. It's like going into store and telling me I have to take the item to a cashier to get the price. I'm not going to take that pointless step unless I genuinely need the item (and more often than not, there's always an alternative). Don't waste my time or efforts, or I may ignore you next time I need someone.

Accessibility honestly isn't something I'd really taken into consideration, but it makes sense that every designer needs to take it into consideration. Unfortunately I’m not terrible familiar with the homepage readers that the blind use to help them read websites, I’m definitely interested in learning more about how they work to make sure I can introduce that functionality into future (and existing) sites that I may work on.

At last, we've reached the end of the book. I love the letters that the author wrote to give to bosses who aren't in the actual design process, but want to make sure they get their two-cents in. In an era where more and more of our personal information is being collected (without our knowledge in some situations), companies need to be data collection. Privacy is being discussed more than it ever has in a long time, it’s important for designers to keep in mind that some users (including your possible demographic) may be turned off by those collection methods and will go to someone else who isn't as intrusive.

As for “pizazz,” I've said it numerous times throughout my blog that I think you need to make a usable and functional site before you try adding bells and whistles, and don’t use those bells and whistles unless they have some useful function to your audience (of course, it all depends on your audience/user base, and your client). Oracle isn't looking for a flashy and shiny website, but Chuck E. Cheese isn't looking for something sterile, boring, and corporate. Build a good site with a solid user interface, and the good design will follow.