[CLUE-Talk] Books on software usability

[jbrockmeier at earthlink.net]

On Sun, 21 Apr 2002, Sean LeBlanc wrote:

*snip* 

> Nice image. :) I've never met anyone that really like Flash,
> either...occassionally, I've been pointed to one of those "funny" sites that
> have some animation done in Flash, but it's not directly selling something.

Yeah - it's fine if you want to do something that's optional,
but since it's a commercial product and they have to keep selling
more and more - they try to convince site designers that it's good
for everything. Now they're trying convince developers to use Flash
for the entire site - which is a terrifying concept.  
 
> > On usability... when I worked for LinuxMall.com we went through several
> > site designs and redesigns. The original site was the product of an 
> > engineer and it did its job just fine, though it was a little homely.
> 
> Odd - I've never worked on a project where a developer built the look and
> feel. I guess I didn't get into Web development into 1999, so maybe a sea
> change had occurred by then? 

Well... LinuxMall.com didn't really start out as a big project. It
was an offshoot of Mark's other company and started as a page with a
few products, then a few more, then some news items, then...  

So, it was basically a mom & pop style operation. This is, IMHO,
still one of the best reasons for ecommerce - when a company is small
and wants to reach a larger audience for specialty products. Selling
a product you can get at Wal Mart is a losing prospect, but if you
sell Acme Widgets that are only sold in a few places selling on the
Web makes good sense.  
 
> That's why I'm seeking out someone more rooted in overall usability
> issues, not some Johnny-come-lately who wanted to cash in on the whole web
> thing like Seth comes off as. 

I just ran across this article, it's not about Web usability, but
it might be interesting to you nonetheless:

http://www106.pair.com/rhp/free-software-ui.html
 
> Amen. We currently have too much Javascript for my taste - read: ANY
> Javascript.

Yup... 
 
> > My final piece of advice is this: Site overhauls are for Webmasters
> > with too much time on their hands and companies with too much money.
> 
> What *is* a Webmaster? I'm not being facetious. I've seen the term used to
> describe anything from a graphic artist to a J2EE developer.

Well, in the good old days it was the geek who picked up Apache/HTML
and any other technology necessary to build a site. 

Now, I'm really not sure. In my mind there is a distinction between
a Webmaster (someone who manages the site) and Web designer 
(someone who just deals with the pages themselves).  
 
> > If you're not in one or both of those categories, concentrate on 
> > directly addressing any/all user complaints instead of chasing the
> > grail of usability. Since usability is such an objective and 
> > nebulous thing, you can waste a lot of time and money on trying
> > to achieve something that isn't well-defined in the first place 
> > instead of focusing on more productive and concrete goals. 
> 
> I guess we are trying to hit the mark where users say something along the
> lines of the old saw: "I don't know art, but I know what I like" -
> hopefully, they say something like I don't know web design, but I know I
> like this. :)

That's a good place to be. :) Good luck with it! 

Take care,

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
ymessenger: jbrockmeier / AIM: ZonkerJoe
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something
completely foolproof was to underestimate the ingenuity of complete
fools." -- Douglas Adams