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The study of the utility of things has been around for quite awhile, and even human-computer interaction studies
had been plugging along for many years before the inception of the web - and the effective interactive designer
should pay attention to it all.
In Donald A. Norman's book The Design of Everyday Things, the author goes into great detail about the
nature of commonplace objects that a human being encounters every day. "Well designed objects are easy to interpret
and understand," Norman states. "They contain visible clues to their operation. Poorly designed objects can be
difficult and frustrating to use. They contain no clues - or sometimes false clues. They trap the user and thwart
the normal process of interpretation and understanding."
Norman was talking primarily about tangible objects like a teapot, phone, or a building, but the same principles
apply to interactive design. A site exists to accomplish a purpose with a human being. The site should
streamline those purposes. Here are a couple rules of thumb:
If you consider yourself a programmer, beware "feature creep." Don't build something into your site just because
you can (unless the site exists solely as a demonstration of your varied skills). If you've got a sweet DLL developed
that you can talk to with your site that will allow visitors to create dynamic screen savers on the fly, leave it out.
That is, unless your site is about dynamic web-based screen saver creation. Which it probably isn't.
If you consider yourself a graphic designer, beware "Sistine-Chapel-itis." This is a tendency for an interactive
designer to place style over substance, and the aesthetic beauty of a composition over it's utility. This is not to
say minimalist design automatically equals utility. Again, serve the purposes of the site, and use the medium wisely.
If the purpose of the site is to entertain, or even to confuse, there is a considerable amount of leeway regarding
what might be considered "usable."
Ulitmately, you must serve The Why of your site, regardless of who you are. Anything extra is
probably a bad idea.
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