Heated debate continues between designers
who agree with the Jakob Nielsen approach
to web design and those who don't.
You may ask 'So what and who is Jakob Nielsen
anyway?'
Why should it personally concern you? Well,
do you know if your web site designers are
concerned or even aware about good web design
practice? They should be!
Try looking at your web site through the
eyes of your average user.
- What message does your web site convey?
- Does your web site convey the message that
you expected?
- Do you know what message you want to convey?
Maybe your web site uses Flash and you are
satisfied that your flash site satisfies
the above analysis. However, have you also
considered the following?
- Users without a Flash enabled browser?
- Users who wish to bookmark individual pages?
- Users who have sight difficulties and wish
to enlarge the text?
Jakob Nielsen believes that '98% of Flash
web sites should be pulled'! A big problem
with Flash is that most Flash web sites don't
actually use the interactive capabilities
of the technology. Instead, most Flash web
sites force users to passively watch presentations
and at this point many users will just leave.
Assuming we still have your attention, Jakob
Nielsen is the worlds acknowledged authority
on web usability. There are those who argue
that web usability doesn't matter but we
struggled to navigate the web site of one
such vocal opponent! The message that was
conveyed to us by this site was that the
author has nice imaging skills and an interesting
opinion but poor web design ability. Sadly
this one negative aspect undermined the credibility
of the author and the web site as a whole.
We have the view that just like management
theory, there is no single perfect approach
to web design. It is important to be aware
of the principle theories and practices and
then apply an appropriate design to each
client web site. However, we believe that
the most important consideration of any web
site is the effectiveness of the message
that the site conveys.
