[Sigia-l] is bad design a choice?

[Alexander Rudloff]

I tend to judge a lot of the "big boy" sites by how well my mom is
able to navigate them.

This is a lady who stormed out of the room when I first tried to show
her how to use a mouse. E-bay, despite its many perceived misgivings,
scores wonderfully on the mom factor.

I can't say that for very many sites, even the ones you often see
praised (gMail comes to mind..)

Maybe the content is just that compelling, or maybe she finds it to be
'ghetto simple'. In either scenario, I could understand why eBay might
be hesitant to change.. My mom is their target demographic. "If it
ain't broke.."

Two Cents,

Alex



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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