[Sigia-l] SEO versus Experience design versus usability

[Ziya Oz]

Marianne:

> The NYT article is interesting to me in that it seems to lack an
> understanding of the fundamentals of search technology. Page titles need not
> be boring. They just need to do their job and describe the content found in
> the article. Hyperbole is not banned by search engines. It just needs to be
> a reflection of something found on the page.

Well, that's the (narrow) issue, isn't it? Technology, specifically search
technology and, in many cases, the methodology of a particular company's
search algorithms is dictating how one should compose a headline, write copy
or structure information. (Whether you or I think this is 'not a bad thing'
is irrelevant.) My point was that, in the long run, mortgaging a field of
endeavor to a transitory state of technology is problematic.

A decade ago, I distinctly remember getting paid a lot of money to optimize
color palettes of 8-bit video animations because most people didn't have 16
or 24 bit video cards and efficient optimization across multiple assets with
just a few dozen usable colors was a tough issue. Today, you can't even buy
a decent PC with a 8-bit video card. The "tough" problem is no longer much
of an issue. Similarly, one of the most lucrative jobs in the current video
post/FX industry is "colorist." Some of it is subjective, FX-oriented color
adjustments but a lot of it is color space management among myriad
analog/digital video standards as the content moves from one post-production
process to another. Soon a lot of this will be obsolete and colorists, in
that sense, will not be so highly compensated.

So, yes, the state of technology creates *transitory* commercial
opportunities, which is why I used the phrase "immediate return". As others
have also pointed out, search technology has been changing and, with it, how
we have to "optimize" for it.

Is SEO then inimical to good IA? Not necessarily. Are they the same thing?
No, but some SEO practitioners nearly think so. I'm not aware of any
technology that efficiently detects clever language in the context of
standard search operations. So, yes, to the extent that we have to modulate
the playfulness of writing to accommodate the current state of technology it
merits a caution. After all, there's more to user experience than just
"findability."

----
Ziya

Usability >  Simplify the Solution
Design >  Simplify the Problem