As a longtime product designer, it’s sort of sad because i really hate that people put up with so many bad interfaces out there. But the truth is that the slickest interface -or- or the most usability does not a guaranteed success make. Many sites, many of the most popular sites on the internet are used heavily rather more in spite of their interface than because of it.
Maybe tags, APIs, and Ajax aren’t the silver bullets we’ve been led to believe they are. Fotolog, MySpace, Orkut, YouTube, and Digg have all proven that you can build compelling experiences and huge audiences without heavy reliance on so-called Web 2.0 technologies. Whatever Web 2.0 is, I don’t think its success hinges on Ajax, tags, or APIs.
–ponders Kottke on his blog today
“Yeah,” Jevon says “daniel burka waxes on that a lot too. And I agree.” Yep i think there’s nothing wrong with ajax, i like it a lot in the right context (yay for google maps!) but users use don’t use your service for the ajax, they use it to get something done, find information or connect with other people. And not surprisingly (unless the usability is so bad they can’t get it done), what drives attention of the masses is two factors, as old as time:
1) it’s the distribution silly. economies of scale scope and distribution matter – and (sometimes) first-mover advantage. Put a starbucks on every corner, net net, people will drink more starbucks. Put msn as the default start page of all windows default browsers, and surprise surprise millions will actually “use” that dog’s-regurgitated-breakfast of a media outlet.
2) Community. Users use for other users. It’s the strength and relevance of the community that matters. This is just another way of saying the network effect. Or why eBay creates billions in real value every year despite horrible user-atrocities like the “my ebay” page and many other terrible things they’ve done to poor old HTML over the years.
A valuable, well-designed product is a good start, but that is sadly only secondary to the factors above. It’s only useful if it gets in people’s hands (sometimes you have to go out and stick it in their hands) and in today’s “2.0” world, often “value” is entirely contingent on the quality and scale of the community you create around it.
Kotke breaks down a few more reasons specific to his analysis of Fotolog (huh?) overtaking Flickr*.
*Caveat, caveat, at least in the bizarro-world of alexa rankings.
Worst Usability Offenders (an off the top of my head list)
- Ebay
- Myspace (OMG)
- MSN.com
- Arguably, Craigslist
- Everything AOL has ever done
- what’s on your list?
Update: My friend Farhan of Microsoft sets me straight on msn, more in the comments…
MSN.COM really? Which portal do you like better, MSN.CA?
MSN.COM really? Which portal do you like better, MSN.CA?
Admittedly they’ve both gotten a little better in recent times, and the layout is somewhat cleaner than it once was.
I imagine there’s a ton of content deep in each of them behind the homepage, though I would really have no idea.
For about 7 years, (or about however long IE or hotmail or messenger has been redirecting me there without asking me first) I’ve pretty much (no always) just navigated away from any msn homepage as fast as I can.
historically, I’ve always thought of msn/msn.ca this great blue eyesore of cacaphonic, ad-laden, and highly superficial content hurled at me, which has never been very inviting to me.
I’ve used and liked various msn services like messenger and investor.msn.com but it’s the msn start page and the intrusiveness plus the ugliness of it has always irked me.
have you seen google ?
they have a lovely and highly user-friendly start page.
And it hasn’t seemed to hurt their profits any.
Admittedly they’ve both gotten a little better in recent times, and the layout is somewhat cleaner than it once was.
I imagine there’s a ton of content deep in each of them behind the homepage, though I would really have no idea.
For about 7 years, (or about however long IE or hotmail or messenger has been redirecting me there without asking me first) I’ve pretty much (no always) just navigated away from any msn homepage as fast as I can.
historically, I’ve always thought of msn/msn.ca this great blue eyesore of cacaphonic, ad-laden, and highly superficial content hurled at me, which has never been very inviting to me.
I’ve used and liked various msn services like messenger and investor.msn.com but it’s the msn start page and the intrusiveness plus the ugliness of it has always irked me.
have you seen google ?
they have a lovely and highly user-friendly start page.
And it hasn’t seemed to hurt their profits any.
Good description of your experience, but of course to each his own. I used to think like you as well (wouldn’t a cleaner homepage be better for all?). Then a few months ago my friend Neil who’s an emergency room doctor asked me “When my browser starts, it takes me to this search box. What am I supposed to be searching for? I don’t know what to search for. Why doesn’t my browser tell me something interesting instead?”.
Guess, what his homepage is now? Some people want a portal experience and others a search box. We’re different than the rest Tom.
BTW, my homepage is http://www.live.ca 🙂
Good description of your experience, but of course to each his own. I used to think like you as well (wouldn’t a cleaner homepage be better for all?). Then a few months ago my friend Neil who’s an emergency room doctor asked me “When my browser starts, it takes me to this search box. What am I supposed to be searching for? I don’t know what to search for. Why doesn’t my browser tell me something interesting instead?”.
Guess, what his homepage is now? Some people want a portal experience and others a search box. We’re different than the rest Tom.
BTW, my homepage is http://www.live.ca 🙂
I suppose you may be right in that respect.
It’s a different experience if you already know what’s out there on “them internets” than if you don’t.
some people (nearly everyone) even seem to think it’s a good idea to install the CD that comes from their ISP.
but I think my first point still stands.The MSN start page may even be useful to millions and (.ca / com are looking better now) but far many years, were really damn ugly to look at.
I suppose you may be right in that respect.
It’s a different experience if you already know what’s out there on “them internets” than if you don’t.
some people (nearly everyone) even seem to think it’s a good idea to install the CD that comes from their ISP.
but I think my first point still stands.The MSN start page may even be useful to millions and (.ca / com are looking better now) but far many years, were really damn ugly to look at.