I found this forum long time ago. Were-here is the best forum in web design field as I know. I often find the discussion of graphic design and technology, but few topics discuss user interface or business model. So I post a big topic.
Copy text from MSDN:
"When things are going well in life, you move through processes without thinking about them. At the point at which you master a skill and can do it without thinking, you are able to use your mind for more advanced kinds of activities. Learning to type, or to drive a car, takes time, but once you obtain the skill you are free to pursue the high-level goals of writing an essay or driving to the beach. In designing Web pages, or anything that people interact with, a prime goal must be the achievement of flow for the user: Enable them to transcend the mechanics of links and navigation, and focus completely on what they want to achieve.
......
The irony of flow in design is that when it is achieved, the design itself often goes unnoticed. Paper clips, suspension bridges, and the computer mouse are all great designs, but are noticed by most only when they fail. This traps the egos of many developers and designers, who might feel frustrated by the lack of recognition for their brilliance. Sometimes you'll see a software product or Web site that goes out of its way to make you aware of what the designer has done for you, or what they think about the world, but this is rarely of benefit to the user. True design includes personal restraint to avoid tainting user flow with designer or developer ego. In most cases, if the user noticed something, or had cause to forget their desire and think about the mechanics, you've blown it already. It's a poor tool that places itself before its purpose. "
After reading this article, I am always thinking what is a good web design. Sometimes maybe we add too much decoration to our web page to make user lost their way. One user gives me his review: "…And as a B2B site, the face of your website is too beautiful for business peoples to disperse their attentions."
To appraise a web design， I think the most important point is whether the web page enable user achieve their prime goal or not. That's different between company's website and business website which have powerful function and rich content like ebay, amazon, yahoo. Most company website is just a marketing tool, their main goal is to give user a deep impression and show their identification mark so to make user remember the company. This kind of websites don’t care whether user buying something on their website or not. They want their customers to select their products with their brand when customers are shopping. Like Sony, Ford, Toyota and too many other brands. I think personal website is mostly the same. The difference is that personal website want user to remember the person. If we are a design company, we often get this kind of project to design a company website. So many designers discuss how to get this special effect, because special effect can give user special impression. The special impression can help company website to reach their goal. If somebody always does this kind of project, he will get used to make it as a model. So he will forget the prima goal of the project. Sometimes a designer knows his goal that is to finish the project, but he doesn’t know what’s the goal of the project.
But business websites are different. Because they have different goal, so they need different design. Design must serve the goal. As is known to all, Yahoo is the best example. Almost all the pages vacate the best place to banner, because banner’s revenue is Yahoo’s important goal. The other example, all the pages of Amazon have a same layout. We can find search box everywhere, and can go wherever we want by the navigation bar. With Amazon’s powerful function, we always can find our favorites.
For business website, two questions are most important. Firstly, how to make users easily reach their goals? Secondly, how to make money while help users to reach their goals? Design needs to be enhanced to a higher level, not only design nice graphics but also design a flow. A nice service flow can help users easily reach their goals and also help us get our profit. In the real world, so many service flows are working, and these nice flows make our live more wonderful. Internet builds a virtual world, which gives us a chance to design a service flow that will bring the substantive revenue. I mean when somebody designs a flow that makes users easily reach their goals, he also need consider how to make users pay money for this flow. In a business website, so many different flows serve so many different users. Which one can attract more users to pay? How to design a flow that most of users would like to pay? It is more difficult and more important. So I want to talk with the friends of Were-Here.
For example: Google’s flow is simple and effective, user can easily search and find what they want at search result page. On this page, Google puts some related banners and get their benefits. I think it's a smart design. The other example: Yahoo has a lot of flows. Some flows look easy like Yahoo Shopping, some flows are used to get the benefit for Yahoo, such as Yahoo Store, but it seems not good. Now Yahoo is promoting its Real Estate, maybe Yahoo thinks that it will bring more benefits. So let’s talk about the flow of business website.
First class: Yahoo
Two question:
1. Which part of the flow can be made easily?
2. Which flow can bring the maximal benefits?
Copy text from MSDN:
"When things are going well in life, you move through processes without thinking about them. At the point at which you master a skill and can do it without thinking, you are able to use your mind for more advanced kinds of activities. Learning to type, or to drive a car, takes time, but once you obtain the skill you are free to pursue the high-level goals of writing an essay or driving to the beach. In designing Web pages, or anything that people interact with, a prime goal must be the achievement of flow for the user: Enable them to transcend the mechanics of links and navigation, and focus completely on what they want to achieve.
......
The irony of flow in design is that when it is achieved, the design itself often goes unnoticed. Paper clips, suspension bridges, and the computer mouse are all great designs, but are noticed by most only when they fail. This traps the egos of many developers and designers, who might feel frustrated by the lack of recognition for their brilliance. Sometimes you'll see a software product or Web site that goes out of its way to make you aware of what the designer has done for you, or what they think about the world, but this is rarely of benefit to the user. True design includes personal restraint to avoid tainting user flow with designer or developer ego. In most cases, if the user noticed something, or had cause to forget their desire and think about the mechanics, you've blown it already. It's a poor tool that places itself before its purpose. "
After reading this article, I am always thinking what is a good web design. Sometimes maybe we add too much decoration to our web page to make user lost their way. One user gives me his review: "…And as a B2B site, the face of your website is too beautiful for business peoples to disperse their attentions."
To appraise a web design， I think the most important point is whether the web page enable user achieve their prime goal or not. That's different between company's website and business website which have powerful function and rich content like ebay, amazon, yahoo. Most company website is just a marketing tool, their main goal is to give user a deep impression and show their identification mark so to make user remember the company. This kind of websites don’t care whether user buying something on their website or not. They want their customers to select their products with their brand when customers are shopping. Like Sony, Ford, Toyota and too many other brands. I think personal website is mostly the same. The difference is that personal website want user to remember the person. If we are a design company, we often get this kind of project to design a company website. So many designers discuss how to get this special effect, because special effect can give user special impression. The special impression can help company website to reach their goal. If somebody always does this kind of project, he will get used to make it as a model. So he will forget the prima goal of the project. Sometimes a designer knows his goal that is to finish the project, but he doesn’t know what’s the goal of the project.
But business websites are different. Because they have different goal, so they need different design. Design must serve the goal. As is known to all, Yahoo is the best example. Almost all the pages vacate the best place to banner, because banner’s revenue is Yahoo’s important goal. The other example, all the pages of Amazon have a same layout. We can find search box everywhere, and can go wherever we want by the navigation bar. With Amazon’s powerful function, we always can find our favorites.
For business website, two questions are most important. Firstly, how to make users easily reach their goals? Secondly, how to make money while help users to reach their goals? Design needs to be enhanced to a higher level, not only design nice graphics but also design a flow. A nice service flow can help users easily reach their goals and also help us get our profit. In the real world, so many service flows are working, and these nice flows make our live more wonderful. Internet builds a virtual world, which gives us a chance to design a service flow that will bring the substantive revenue. I mean when somebody designs a flow that makes users easily reach their goals, he also need consider how to make users pay money for this flow. In a business website, so many different flows serve so many different users. Which one can attract more users to pay? How to design a flow that most of users would like to pay? It is more difficult and more important. So I want to talk with the friends of Were-Here.
For example: Google’s flow is simple and effective, user can easily search and find what they want at search result page. On this page, Google puts some related banners and get their benefits. I think it's a smart design. The other example: Yahoo has a lot of flows. Some flows look easy like Yahoo Shopping, some flows are used to get the benefit for Yahoo, such as Yahoo Store, but it seems not good. Now Yahoo is promoting its Real Estate, maybe Yahoo thinks that it will bring more benefits. So let’s talk about the flow of business website.
First class: Yahoo
Two question:
1. Which part of the flow can be made easily?
2. Which flow can bring the maximal benefits?
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