[Sigia-l] The future of WWW...

[Stew Dean]

At 04:38 03/06/2004, Listera wrote:

>Usability experts often claim that "different" user experiences are
>confusing. The Web proves that different designs aren't necessarily
>confusing ­ bad designs are confusing.

Even good design, first time round, can be less usable than not so good 
design after then tenth time.  Different solutions to common problems are 
fine if you want the audience to think a bit and think 'cool interface'. 
This is no good if you're designing a holiday booking form.

>Look and feel should not be mandated.

But  from experience a consistent look and feel is beneficial to the user.

As a senior information architect I often feel like the arch conservative, 
constantly trimming needless functionality simply because the ideas on 
their own may appear to be cool but they don't work in context.  Often less 
is more.

In the case of being able to define user interfaces using XML derivatives, 
well I don't really care about any of that as long as there is a degree of 
consistency and accessibility for as many of the appropriate users as 
possible. If  I don't notice it - then cool.

Stewart Dean