Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Blog 9 Austin Frink
"Providing for ease of learning" is largely making sure that a website or application is consistent, uniform, and has meaning. This is the connection between chapter 7 and the 4th theme of good design. Check this out people http://www.caduceus.org/. This is Maynard James Keenan's wine company, Caduceus's, website. The consistency and uniformity of meaning is provided by the artistic video intro and the simple but effective book layout. Click the tabs of the book to go to different sections like "Mission" and "Wines." This is simply a badass website.
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An interesting choice for ease of learning. I agree that the uniformity of meaning is done well here, however I disagree that this is a"badass" website in the sense that it is a good, functional website.
ReplyDeleteIt takes a very long time before the website loads its actual animation, forcing the user to sit and wait with nothing to do in the meantime. The fonts are hard to read, the tabs are way too small, and the icons on the left are almost impossible to see.
Sadly, these are some of the most common problems with websites made in Flash. The kinds of design that are enabled by Flash are seldom the kinds of design that work well for websites. The main problem is that although most websites are mainly trying to deliver information (just like the Caduceus website), Flash designers focus too much on effects and artistic visuals instead of ensuring that the site has basic usability and readability.
Sites like this tend to turn away more traffic than they bring in, which actually brings up issues with "ease of learning." How might one measure how easy it is to learn the interface of this site if there are no repeat visitors?