CIO Interview with Nielsen and Flanders
“If you think about cars, all cars have the accelerator to the right of the brake pedal. This doesn’t mean that all cars are identical, but the basic elements you need to operate the device follow some conventions.”
I found this quote especially interesting as I made the same analogy in my post Does your site’s engine look like this?
It is also interesting to note the points that they somewhat disagree on. I would side more with Nielsen when discussing websites related to bands, and abusing your fans — just because you have a loyal fan base that would do anything to see your site.
A specific band site that I found extremely annoying (and I can say this because they are my friends) is the Relient K site. I tried looking up information from there once, and needless to say I was annoyed within 2 seconds that on every page I had to wait for the annoying flash navigation to load all of the options. Get real! This is just pure stupidity on the designer’s part. I like them, but not that much that I will wait through all of that to see their latest news or tour schedule.
The full interview can be found here: CIO Interview
2 Comments Add your comment
Nathan Smith May 16th, 2006
Wow, that Relient K site is pretty annoying. I think it's so important that after the initial "shock and awe" of a Flash site animating into place, that it stay somewhat solidified. For sites like that, they should either go all out and do pure Flash, or HTML CSS, but a hybrid with that much Flash is just unnecessary.
Nate Klaiber May 16th, 2006
I agree, flash is a tool - and as such can be used very well for certain tasks. However, in a situation like that - ESPECIALLY for the navigation aspect. Even here in our office, I have to wait a few seconds for everything to pop in. Flash for navigation is just plain stupid. I dont even feel that flash has the 'shock and awe' factor anymore. Its all the same - navigation fading in, coming in from a different direction, etc. I have yet to see something that really stands out as a 'Wow, now THAT was cool!'
Now, this goes hand in hand with the interview and Nielsen states that you shouldn't abuse your visitors, just because they are loyal and would do anything to see your stuff.
As a side note, I grew up with Matt Thiessen and have known Matt Hoopes and formerly Brian Pittman and Stephen Cushman - so all that is being said here would be said directly to them in person as well. hehe.