From Eric Burke, Stuff That Happens. Thanks, Daring Fireball.
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You know, I used be to among the "don't clutter your home page" crowd ... be like Apple/Google.
ReplyDeleteThen I started looking at some of the various popular European web sites. Then I started looking at busy-big sites like TMZ. And there has been some research recently that, you know what, people actually do know how to scroll. And then there was my discovery of newzjunky.com.
You know, maybe our problem isn't that our home pages are too busy. Maybe our problem is what we're putting on our home pages.
It's not about clutter; it's about function. A busy page with lots of good content could meet this test if it likewise was easy to use, fast to load and intuitive to use.
ReplyDeleteI think.
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ReplyDeleteYou also have to consider the use cases of the site.
ReplyDeleteOn Google.com people go to search. They're actively looking for something.
With Apple products, you're taking some action, whether that's navigating through songs, turning the device on, etc.
News web sites need to have UIs that work for active information seekers (like search), as well as passive information seekers - people that are going to our sites to get information they haven't thought of yet.
If you look at Google Analytics, or Calendar or News - use cases more akin to the news site case - the UI becomes considerably more complex (though still very well executed).
Complexity != Bad
Needless obfuscation (even if accidental) == Bad
-c