Usability Or Stereotypes?
25. Mar, 2008 
12 Comments - Leave your comment
Have you seen the dashboard of the new WordPress 2.5 yet? I’ve seen it today for the first time, and for a few seconds I felt like Alice in Wonderland: despite the cool look, almost nothing was in the known place anymore. I suppose it is OK, but when you’ve seen the same page for thousands times over the past year, you have to fight a little to get rid of the old patterns (and develop new ones).
Lately I’ve become interested in developing themes for WordPress blogs, and many times I ask myself which way is better: to get creative and take people out of their blog navigation patterns, or to go with the flow and create those kinds of layouts which are “in fashion”? Due to the fact that we design the themes for the readers, and we wish them all to download and use at least one of our themes within one year from now, we decided to follow the trend and create themes which respect the readers’ wishes and expectations.
What do you think? Is this usability, to find all things in place, more or less where you’d expect them to be, or is it only the fact that we are overexposed to certain things, thus developing stereotypes in our behaviours and expectations?
If you cannot figure out what I am talking about, please check out the following website: www.leoburnett.ro. It belongs to the Romanian subsidiary of the international advertising agency Leo Burnett. It is one of the most creative websites I’ve seen lately, but I’d like to find out your opinion, as users who don’t understand the language (actually the main menu items are in English, so you won’t have a problem finding your way).
How interesting should a website be, so we take time to learn how to navigate it? Is a website an artwork in itself, or should it mainly serve the purpose of offering information to the readers?
Personally, I like it when I find everything easily on a page, but I cannot refrain from thinking that we have imitation deep in our blood, with the consequence of a perpetual search for models to follow.
Would you still read a blog with a crazy creative theme? Would you give your blog a crazy creative look?
Related Articles
Author Info
I think it depends very much on what it is you are trying to say. If you are trying to promote your creativity then you need to be different. If on the other hand you are trying to promote your content and ideas, then creative may well just get in the way.
There is something to be said for a design that no one notices.
I agree with Andrew: It depends on intent and target market. Some markets are more forgiving than others, some like the standards, some like creativity, some are in-a-hurry-and-this-takes-too-long-to-load-bye!
With Burnett’s site, the creativity IS the primary content. With a news oriented blog, the same flashiness would get in the way of content delivery. A major deviation from layout standards causes a disconnect with readers. Sometimes that disconnect serves the website’s purpose (like on Burnett’s site) but more often, it just confuses and distracts. Major changes in navigation/layout styles (no matter how cool) must serve a purpose other than just being neato-cool.
Why not combine aspects of both familiar navigation, and new design aspects? Or design both kinds of themes… some that are heavy on the practical side, some that are wildly creative and will bring attention to your work, even if they don’t get used? It’s not an either or choice, is it?
Heh, sorry about that Simonne. Looks like you got a baptism by fire with WP 2.5. It’s definitely different, that’s for sure.
I prefer to take the route of making the finding of information as easy as possible. I don’t consider myself artistic at all, so I try not to strive for something that screams creativity. I’d rather keep things simple, but that’s me.
I’m in hate with 2.5.
Firstly because it makes a lot of posts I’d written about wordpress fairly incorrect because the dark blue and light blue menus are gone.
Secondly because having the dark blue and light blue menus made it easier to tell bloggers how to do things – and I do a lot of that as I have over 30 bloggers hosted with me now. I don’t know how I will tell them to do anything now without a heck of a lot more words.
Thirdly because I am not sure all my bloggers will deal well with the change which means more work for me.
Fourthly because I have been using WP since October and I’m over the update thing already because when there is an update we update most of these blogs for people. Why not stick with something that works.
Fifthly (is that a word?) because they have taken some of the stuff I use most out of convenient places in the write screen and moved it elsewhere.
I could go on. The basic deal is, most people hate change. Especially change in a major way. I am seriously considering sticking with 2.3 for my own blog and getting off the update roundabout. I can see why people do that now.
Clearly there are some serious issues with it or else it would be released by now. I think they may have got some feedback already which gives them a clue how much angry mail they’re going to get.
Cheers,
Snos
Snoskred,
Yeah, we have RC1 here and it’s kind of a pain. Image uploading didn’t work since this is technically a sub-domain. I had to modify my HTACCESS to get it to work.
Also, the Manage screen is a lot more complicated than it needs to be. I’m still getting used to it. It saves time in some areas, and wastes it in others.
So far though, very minimal plugin difficulties. And we’re technically using a theme that is only for WP 2.3, but still works wonderfully in 2.5.
I’d agree with Andrew, but I’d take it a step further: it’s not just about what you want to say, but also about what you want your site visitors to do. If you want them to marvel at your creativity, then be different. Web design is an art, just like painting or photography, and you can surprise people or shock them, puzzle them or delight them with your site. I wish more people would do this.
But if you want them to read, or interact, or comment back or above all buy something, then you have to make it easy. Don’t let anything get in the way of their goal, and especially, don’t have them sitting back admiring your site design when they should be getting out their credit card to buy stuff from you.
Ha, ha! Thank you, girls and guys, for your comments. Like Snoskred, I’m in hate with 2.5, because it ate my post last night just before having the chance to save it. Then, of course I wrote it in Notepad, but the second time the monster worked properly
I agree that advertising agencies need to be creative, and they should be proud of being creative, but still, this shouldn’t influence the usability. Actually I wanted to write this post on a completely different topic, but when I saw the new dashboard, I almost forgot what I wanted to say in the first place. Then I remembered the Leo Burnett site: actually this is an improved version. Last year, visitors had to actually hunt the menu items with the mouse, to catch them and click very fast, because they were moving continuously.
I didn’t mention the new 2.5 style. I think it is great. I find it much easier to use and I prefer the feel a great deal.
Yes, it looks much better now. However, it takes a while until you find all those buttons you used to know since so long.
I looked at the site you suggested ONLY because I was curious based on what you said. If I had gotten there on my own, I would not have seen it at all, because I use Flashblock, and all-Flash sites don’t interest me 99% of the time. Had I been feeling generous, I might have bypassed the Flashblock (which only takes a click, after all), but then I would have immediately clicked away because the slow-drawing line was annoying.
Had I gotten up to use the loo or something and missed the annoying little intro, I would have clicked away instantly because of the pencil cursor (1997, anyone?) and the cryptic navigation.
Basically, I use the internet to find information. If you put something in my way, I will not use your site unless I REALLY need that information and don’t think I can find it anywhere else.
The new wordpress 2.5 interface is pretty, but I’m not sold on it yet. But there must be something right about it, since I’m admin’ing a blog with 30 authors, and I haven’t had any complaints from them yet. It may well be the simple and straightforward tasks of putting up a post are now easier for them.
I’m irritated that the buttons for editing a comment are now no where near the basic approve/spam/delete links.
But I’m beside-myself-happy that the WYSIWYG editors no longer wipe out a post’s formatting. Hurrah 2.5!
Thank you Michael, you surely made a point here. I also want to quickly find when I’m interested in, and if a site doesn’t offer me the information in an intuitive and clear way, I go away. Every now and then I have clients who ask me to design their websites, and with almost no exception, they want something to “move” inside the site or some music to play, or an intro page. This is driving me crazy.
Johnna, I also started using WP 2.5 on my newest blogs (because it is already the default install from my hosting company), but I haven’t upgraded the old ones. I’m still waiting for others to face and chase the bugs, I suppose