[Sigia-l] mixing apples and oranges and tomatoes

[Anders Ramsay]

On 4/10/02 10:04 AM, Katherine Lumb at KLumb at novocorp.com wrote:

> Hi listers. I need some help.
> 
> I'm redesigning a corporate website, and I'm running into some conceptual
> roadblocks with my client.
> 
> Here's the problem: let's say, hypothetically, that my client publishes
> information about food on their website. They have the following categories in
> their global left hand nav: "Fruits", "Vegetables", "Meats" and "Beverages". I
> want to put "Tomatoes" as a second level item under "Vegetables." I recognize
> that some folks might come looking for tomatoes under "Fruits," so I suggest
> putting a prominent link on the Fruits landing page that says "If you're
> looking for information on Tomatoes, visit our Vegetables section."
> 
> My client insists on another arrangement. They want to put the exact same
> content about tomatoes under Fruits and Vegetables. And so they want Tomatoes
> to appear as a second level nav element under both Fruits and Vegetables. I've
> tried to convince them that this is the wrong way to go about it, but they
> won't budge.
> 

Sometimes it's better to lose a battle but win the war.  What is the overall
cost in terms of usability to have this redundant information display?  Are
we just talking about a few isolated cases (low cost), or are there hundreds
of items that would need to appear twice (high cost)?

In addition, consider showing them how actual users interact with your
design vs theirs, e.g. a simple user test if at all possible from a
budget/logistics perspective. Few things will have a stronger impact on the
client than seeing their target audience using their product.  You should
also be prepared for that the test subjects may not behave in the way you
expected.

hope this helps

-anders