We’ve all seen it.
The dreaded “Skip Intro”.
The picture of the boss on the homepage obscuring any useful content or functionality.
I was just discussing this with a friend and came up with a new name for an old problem “Bonus-centred design”
Here’s how it works:
- Take direct orders from the boss. Do not ask questions
- Do not clarify purpose
- Remember the boss knows what good design is – it must
be interactivehave things you can click to make other things move around - Do not under any circumstances talk to potential users of the site
- You only need one person to test with. The boss
- Do tell the boss how many hits the site will get. Forget about task completion
- Do your best to get a video of the boss on the homepage welcoming people to this amazing online experience
- Reinforce the design with company branding at every opportunity. The more suited to busines cards and company stationery the better
- Make it all about the company and not about the people who use your products and services
- Do not worry about accessibility. It takes time and costs money. And anyway the software supplier assures their product will have an accessibility patch very soon
I’m sure there are more…
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Nic,
minus the video of the boss on the home page, the points you listed are familiar.
But how does one get around it? how does one convince the ‘boss’ that the users are the ‘real’ stakeholders’ and not the boss?.
That flash does not make the site interesting, only serves as temporary distraction
That user testing is of value
That accessibility is an issue
That if you have 20 images on your page and you get 21 hits, that pretty much means you have 1 viewer?
Answers on a post card please
very true nic – reminds me of the value of the act now apologise later approach to web design