[spam] Re: The Value of "IA" or Whatnot, was Re: [Sigia-l] The New Nielsen?

[cwodtke at eleganthack.com]

Sorry, but I felt bullet points might help make the point I was attempting
to make in prose clearer. That list is the point I was attempting to make,
whether it was read that way or not. I can map it at the end of the email,
to try to not annoy the entire list.

The big point that I really want to make is it isn't that simple; that we
have to understand that the web holds sufficiently varying experiences
that it is our difficult job to understand what the unique users to each
site are trying to accomplish and help them accomplish that thing.
Everyone from Jakob to members of this list (including me) want a simple
answer we can use to work from. It is not a luxury we get-- we chose a
complex medium. So we don't get to say "it's all about seeking" and dot
along merrily to that single solution. We have to understand
user+business+medium and work from there. We have to do the hard work of
thinking. It also means we don't do the "ooh, design magic, ooh."

Please do read Don's article-- aesthetics genuinely and measurably improve
performance. it's all about the ROI of design.

http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/Emotion-and-design.html


> Christina *obscurely* sed:
>> Arguments like
>>
>> 1. Know the medium
>> 2. Know the user base
>> 3. Design for the user base

A good interface will encourage a user to
move beyond the front page-- we all do this often with Amazon, wandering
into "look inside" and "user comments" and "the page you made." Amazon is
the prototypical good website, increasing our enjoyment and allowing us to
explore in-depth.

>> 4. Know the business goals
>> 5. Design for the business goals

When Carbon IQ was working on the Shockwave.com / Atomfilms venture you bet
your sweet knickers the web was a channel for entertainment and exploration.
Financially and economically viable. Hollywood is churning out the movie
sites. also justifiable... Blair witch and AI both helped promote the buzz.

>> 6. Don't make wild generalizations

I thought the whole email was about this, but I suppose I did not make
this point clearly enough.

>> 7. Make designs that are usable and pleasurable
>
> In this thread, the only points of those you made are 1 and 7.
> http://www.info-arch.org/lists/sigia-l/0207/0273.html
>
> Making this list of 7 items a glib response, and not really furthering
> the discussion.

So as you can see, i was talking about these matters, but i suppose I
didn't hammer them home. next time: powerpoint!