[Sigia-l] "Standard" interfaces? (was: DHTML Menus and Usability)

[David Heller]

Actually steve, the discussion is more than that and the main point I
was trying to make was bringing in the business reality component to
design.

I think in a box outside reality we would all want to create the most
intuitive, useful, learnable, findable, usable systems we can, designed
against real data achieved through field research, persona development
and usability research data.

Now for reality. Customers don't buy perfection. They buy perceptions of
perfection. I could go out of my way and develop the BEST UI in the
world that Nielsen, Norman, Spool, et. al. all give the academy award
to, but if customers think it isn't than it isn't.

My other point was that web sites and web applications that are
broadcast as opposed to sold shrink wrapped applications face this
dilemna differently.

The former case is that I deal directly with my end-user. The latter
case is that there is an intermediary who is my customer. This
distancing from the end-user makes it harder to give the end-user what
they want. It also makes field research harder to push into the design
process b/c my team members get push back from sales and sales is what
drives the business.

-- dave

David Heller
Sr. User Interface Designer
Documentum: The Leader in Enterprise Content Management
925.600.5636
 
david.heller at documentum.com
http://www.documentum.com/
AIM: bolinhanyc  //  Yahoo: dave_ux  //  MSN: hippiefunk at hotmail.com
 
--"If it isn't useful, it will never be usable."