[Web4lib] Nielsen's Top 10 - 2005 version

[Erik Kraft]

Jennifer Heise wrote:

>Someone else, in this thread, said that 'aesthetics play a part.'
>To be honest, after years of working with users on sites whose layout was
>designed by people who were concerned about the look, I don't buy that
>aesthetics qua aesthetics should play a part. What the real users who are
>using the pages to do something want and need should play a part, yes-- but
>that's their aesthetics, if anyone's, not ours
>  
>

I don't think I, or anyone else in this thread, was arguing for 
"aesthetics qua aesthetics." To pit usability and aesthetics against 
each other is an utterly false dichotomy. There is no reason why a 
design cannot be both highly usable and highly attractive.

>I've been through 7 major website redesigns and worked with the end users
>afterwards, and I now have the theory that whenever a designer comes up a
>design principle or element that he/she thinks is extremely well-crafted and
>elegant, they should immediately strike it out, because it will almost
>always cause immense annoyance to the users when implemented.
>  
>
In my original post, I was arguing that it's important, for the sake of 
readability, to be able to control line widths and white space on a 
page. I don't accept that the hard thinking I do on these points and 
other aspects of design is causing anyone "immense annoyance." I'm not 
talking about adding obnoxious Flash  elements to a page for the sake of 
blinging it up; I'm talking about following principles of good design 
that have been around for ages. Of course I'm not going to argue that 
seeking user input is a bad thing, but I don't think that every design 
decision should come down to obsessive opinion polling and focus grouping.

Erik.