Giraffe Forum

I’m a weather junkie and use intellicast.com all the time. They recently upgraded and now it takes me more clicks to do what I used to do (view a particular radar screen), and I can’t do at all some of the things I really liked doing before (click on the radar screen to move the viewing area). It looks great, but I’m having trouble getting used to the changes. Thanks for explaining what happened…

And the same applies to re-designs of websites. Both the Guardian newspaper in Britain and the Independent in Ireland recently re-designed their sites. The new designs are both very modern and are, in themselves, very good. But it does take time for the reader to refamiliarise with the lay out. I used to have a personalised page from the Independent as my home page. This is not a feature offered in the new site and I am not so happy.

Hello all,
For me, it all goes back to traditional marketing principles, thinking, and fixations.

In marketing of old, “new” was king. It was better, more advanced, and someone, or a whole lot of people, could take credit for the new look or product. Statis was death; progress was everything. Smart companies conducted research to see what customers were looking for, others bought those studies, others just guessed.

The Web is a different medium with new priorities and Usability (which is logical and not terribly sexy … until it proves itself) seems to get in the way of traditional marketing procedures and those calling the shots. As a result, a lot more guessing seems to be going on. Maybe because the “measurement people” aren’t getting their familiar numbers which makes them nervous. The decisions you speak seem to be “top down” ones, ironic for the survey company who might have thought to use their own service to test the waters. Ditto for those big newspapers. (I also think the traditional titans are scared witless of new trends such as user-generated media which they don’t feel they can control. The loss of a ‘personalized page’ sounds like an attempt to maintain their brand.) I wonder how long it will take for someone to stand up in a meeting and ask, “What’s more important? That our site/paper is read, that our customer feedback is positive, that we can prove that to our advertisers, or that our front page looks like modern art?

Usability is just so important and needs to be included in every website or web-based service decision. More clicks = less patience. That sounds pretty straightforward, doesnt’ it. Nice work on the calculations Gerry: Valuable stuff.

I will close with an adage, familiar to us all: Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do it.

Thanks to all of you for another provocative discussion.

Regarding the most recent writer, yes Karin, change is a constant. Websites will always be added to there will always be small delays in re-orienting.

However, you are applying your personal opinion to the many who may not have your determination or time to figure out what has changed. They may just figure, “Oh, they’ve removed this. Damn! Too bad. I’ll have to go somewhere else.” Should they be more determined and crane their neck a little more to see their blindspots? Sure. But will they? You, the website owner, will never know.

It also depends on how often the sites are accessed by that person. If it is accessed only periodically and no mention in classification has been mentioned anywhere else, then ’site flight’ may be the result.

Usability is about consideration and anticipating the effects of change on people with whom you cannot converse with or ask “where is that listed now.”

As a compromise, I would suggest in this hypothetical example that the website owner make mention of the changes on the home page and have a cut-away page showing a before and after clicking sequence with reasons why the changes were made. If they see no way out, then maybe a little teaching is in order. And then maybe solicit feedback on the decisions made. Websites need 2 parties to work (its creators and its readers) and they are increasingly becoming more cooperative efforts.

As an aside, take a few minutes to read the Princeton (USA)Study on Website Trust (2005). It states, and I don’t have it in front of me, that trust in websites has decreased since as recently as 2002. What was the key? Usability. The report also points out that with the ever increasing popularity of the ‘Net, increasing numbers of less sophisticated users/readers will be accessing it, making Usability a priority.