We have a debate going on with our Web UI team about the benefits of a minimalistic approach to content versus a full page of content so data can be reached with the least number of clicks. Have you struggled with this? If so, I would love your advice or opinion.
On one hand, we have all been taught that data should be available with the fewest number of clicks. If we ask users to dig too deeply in our web sites, we have failed and we will lose them. I honestly get this and I agree.
But (there is always a but, isn’t there?) I have also learned from numerous sources and publications about the benefits of having a single “call to action” on a page and leading users to their recommended content based on the path they choose. We have created a new flow for a specific section of our site that encourages visitors to self-select their organization – Marketing, IT or Knowledge Management. I know that self-selection is not optimal and ideally you would know your visitors and guide them to the right content, but we are going to try this self-selection idea and test our feedback.
After they self-select their organization, we present them with business problems common to that organization and then we provide practical, tested solutions to those problems. Thus, there are definitely three clicks to get to the answer – Choose your department (click #1), choose your Business Problem (click #2) and get some answers (click #3). The page designs are very simple, light on text with strong visuals that guide users to the Call to Action for each page. We reviewed the design with several teams and gathered positive feedback.
However, the designs were not well-received with the UI team. They felt that more data per page was necessary to give users multiple options and one-click access to a variety of content. To me, the page was cluttered and confusing but I cannot argue with the fact that the ‘busier’ design definitely has fewer clicks.
I need your advice. What do you think? Do you like the Google-like home page with a minimalistic design? Or do you prefer something like the Yahoo! Homepage with a plethora of content paths to take? What factors should we consider when making this decision? I know it depends on the particular message that you are trying to convey, but I would love to hear your opinions and experience.
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Hi Kristin, first of all: I like your blog and follow it. I hope you achieve your goal.
ReplyDeleteNow into the subject matter:
Something like “data should be available with the fewest number of clicks” is not a design goal but a means to achieve it. The goal would be: Minimize user effort, have the user get his/her task done as fast as possible, make the web site visit enjoyable and so forth. Obviously the goals need to be balanced and the tools to achieve these goals need to be balanced even more.
What you are discussing is (on the surface) a tradeoff between guiding a user and empowering him or her. The novice may be better off with the wizard style of interaction, but the experienced one will prefer not being guided but having all options at their disposal. Digging deeper the question becomes this: Do we want to live in a world where machine degrade us to helpless children or do we prefer to enjoy the power of commanding an army of intelligent machines. Sounds an obvious choice? I can rephrase it: Do we want to get freed from mundane fiddling with technology and concentrate on the essential things of life or should we all become nerds… You see this can become involved and I guess that’s the reason no easy agreement can be achieved.
BTW: My experience with “easy interfaces” is mixed, see Solutions Central.
Johannes
I agree with Johannes in that there is a big difference between novice and power users. Personally, I'm not comfortable with the idea of the interface "guiding" me through my common tasks because I always seem to want to do something different that what the designers thought I would/should do.
ReplyDeleteThere are many other issues you haven't clarified: is the system a "data warehouse" where there are many options for information retrieval like search, or different kinds of reports? In that case it's impossible to know what kind of information I'd want and the system should be as open as possible.
Or is the system designed for specific tasks like hiring new employees, so more of a "wizard" approach would be helpful.
I think a good GUI should allow users some flexibility: if you are never going to do more than a few basic tasks, then a simpler interface is better. But if you want to do many things then you should be able to expose more navagation and metadata options. The Administrator should be able to adjust the options a bit depending on their users.
Finally, even if you expose most options for most users, the GUI can be designed so the core features are easily accessible, but the more esoteric options are pushed off more to the side.
Great feedback and thanks! There are many factors to be considered and I love the distinction between novice and power users. Definitely something to think about!
ReplyDelete