[Sigia-l] Need published proof that scrolling text is not good

[Peter Van Dijck]

It is possible that the client has latched onto this as something they
like and they want to defend, or else they'll feel they "loose
control" of the project.

1. If you were to give in (against your better judgement), would the
site be unusable? If so, you might have to do this (ie. pick your
battles).
2. If you use the "expert opinion" card (as you want to), you might
make the situation worse by putting the client in a defensive
position.
3. Is there a way of scrolling that you can live with?
4. There are of course a lot of tricks. "Experts say it's bad". "It's
technically not feasible before launch". "Let's put it in release 2".
"Let's vote on it" (sets a BAD precendent) "Let's test it with users".
"Let's ask users what they think" And so on...

These situations indeed frustrating.

I had a similar situation recently: a client had a rather terrible
design idea, I was called in and proposed to start from scratch, and
everything seemed to go smooth. Then, out of the blue, a week before
the deadline, the client called in higher powers (something like: "I
presented my original idea to the CEO and he agrees with me.").

So I had no choice but to go with it (or else risk a battle of wills
that I would have lost) and try to limit the damage. The end result is
still an acceptable UI, although I would have designed it differently
myself.

What I learned from that was this: I hadn't read the situation well
enough when I came in. When I proposed to start from scratch and that
seemed to be ok, I underestimated the feeling of ownership that
clients can have about their own design ideas. Sometimes there's just
not much more you can do.

So there you go.

Good luck!
Peter

On Dec 3, 2007 5:28 PM, Jared M. Spool <jspool at uie.com> wrote:
>
> On Dec 2, 2007, at 11:08 PM, Janet Wallace wrote:
>
> > If I could give her some "official" opinions, perhaps she'd change
> > her mind.
>
> Without knowing much about the context of this question, I'm
> wondering if you can get a sense as to why your client wants
> scrolling text? Is it because she enjoys motion? Is it because she's
> hoping to make the text stand out? Is it because she feels its
> important to emulate a modern cable-network news channel?
>
> I'm also wondering if the scrolling text is the only imperfection in
> an otherwise perfect design. If that's the case, it probably warrants
> much attention. If it is just one of many perceived imperfections,
> you might want to prioritize and make sure it's the most important
> thing you need to be talking to your client about.
>
> And then you better make sure you're right. How do you know the
> imperfections are really issues for users? Have you watched them to
> see how they react to the design? Has the client?
>
> I'm going to bet that, once you and your client have watched real
> users do real tasks with the design, the scrolling text will become a
> footnote against the design discussions that really make a difference
> in the user's experience.
>
> Of course, that's an assumption based on practically no information,
> so you probably shouldn't put much weight behind it. Or anything else
> you read in this thread.
>
> Jared "Feeling snippy at 30,000 ft" Spool
>
> p.s. Never forget the First Rule of Consulting: "You can't stop
> people from sticking beans up their nose." This sounds like a primary
> case of beans and noses.
>
> p.p.s. The First Corollary to the First Rule of Consulting: "No
> amount of published proof will convince someone intent on sticking
> beans up their nose to do otherwise."
>
> Jared M. Spool
> User Interface Engineering
> 510 Turnpike St., Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
> e: jspool at uie.com p: +1 978 327 5561
> http://uie.com  Blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks
>
>
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