[Sigia-l] is bad design a choice?

[Dave Heller]

them there are fightin' words. ;)

jared, if you are lookin' to pick a fight, I may have to oblige, but
only over a lot of root beer at 3a in the lobby of a nice hotel ....

seriously, though. I don't think anyone here is saying that design
trumps content (or for that matter visa versa).

I can talk of my experience of eBay.
1) I can't find what i want
2) 2 i hate how it is presented, so really I don't trust what I'm
getting. i really don't.
3) I feel that eBay does nothing to help its customers make themselves
seem anything more than "off the back of the truck" providers. I feel
they do them a dis-service.

As for MySpace, I feel this is about engagement. Community building is
like home building. I stay here a lot and so I want to feel
comfortable.

eBay doesn't have to change its design b/c it is a veritable monopoly.
I don't think that MySpace can do that.

so yes, content or process is king, but design differentiates (and
btw, I'm not just talking about visual aesthetics either). I'm also
speaking about behavioral interaction design, where it is obvious that
there is thought to the context and use of a tool and how it is used
in that context. I think eBay fails miserably on this route of design
as well.

-- dave


On 10/17/05, Jared M. Spool <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
> By what metric are you judging MySpace (and eBay, for that matter,) to be
> *bad design*? Because it is ugly? Because *you* have trouble finding your
> way around it?
>
> It always intrigues me that people in the design community are ready to
> praise a design where the aesthetics and "navigation" are well thought out,
> but no effort has be put into the content. Yet, when a site comes along
> with excellent content (for its user community) and poor aesthetics and
> "navigation", the condemnations rise quickly.
>
> Here's a thought: maybe MySpace sold for so much money purely because of
> its content (and the access to 17 million content providers)? Maybe that's
> also why eBay and CraigsList (another "bad design" site) are so valuable
> today? Maybe the users of such designs are happy with poor aesthetics and
> "navigation" when the content exceeds their expectations?
>
> Maybe, just maybe, content trumps "design"?
>
> Just sayin'
>
> :)
>
> Jared
>
>
>
> Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
> 4 Lookout Lane, Unit 4d, Middleton, MA 01949
> 978 777-9123   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
> Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks
>
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--
David Heller
E: dheller (at) gmail (dot) com
W: www (dot) synapticburn (dot) com