[Sigia-l] drop down menus

[Lyle_Kantrovich at cargill.com]

phil at orcinus.com said: 

> The audience learns the language of a particular media over time.  In
> cinema, artistic genius expanded the common language and as a result 
the
> art.  Would the use of usability studies in the instance of drop down 
menus
> hinder the development of the internet by stifling creativity?  Must 
we
> limit the audience to their current understanding and expectation of 
the
> media?

Standards, by definition limit creativity.  *Pure* creativity 
(creativity for the sake of creativity) should be encouraged in some 
realms like art and hobby, but encouraged *less* in other realms like 
business and government.  Calculated creativity should always be 
encouraged -- e.g. "improving" the mousetrap.  Risk has to be 
considered whenever thinking about going in a new, "creative" direction 
-- I wouldn't want 911 emergency phone operators to be "creative" in 
how they answer or process phone calls.  There are many types of risk: 
physical, emotional, financial, brand equity/reputation, ethical/moral, 
social, personal, and time (vs. deadline) are just a few.  Being 
"creative" can have an affect on any/all of these risk factors.

The use of usability studies *shouldn't* "stifle" creativity, instead 
it should guide creativity.  If none of my site's users are "power 
users", and if no other sites use a particular design element, then it 
might be quite risky for my site's design to push the envelope and be 
overly creative.  When design occurs for a purpose, then creativity has 
to be wielded with conscience and responsibility.  We must frame our 
designs based on the audience's current understandings, expectations, 
and limitations, including their ability to learn new things.

Web interaction will evolve over time.  The web UI toolkit is extremely 
poor compared to traditional GUIs -- I think eventually we will find 
ways to either enhance the toolkit or we'll replace it with newer (or 
older) tools.  


Quick endorsement: Henrik Olsen's GUUUI site is well worth a look: 
http://www.guuui.com 

UIE's article on fly-outs, rollovers and drop-downs:
http://world.std.com/%7Euieweb/Articles/whatTheyWantArticle.htm

Regards,

Lyle Kantrovich

Croc O' Lyle: personal commentary on usability, Information 
Architecture, and web design
http://crocolyle.blogspot.com