The fact that we don't have total control of the most fundamental part of our websites gave me a new perspective. While reading this chapter, I understood that because of this reason we have to make a homepage accessible to all. Web designers attitudes on the real audience "getting it" is one of the prime reasons why people don't get it.
Sometimes, a designer just has to go back to basics in order to truly see sucess in their websites. Krug said it himself: "I need to be able to answer these questions at a glace, correctly and unambiguosly, with very little effort." (99) We get entranced with our ability to create the best website that we forgot that it has to mean something. The homepage not only boils the whole website down to simplicity, it will work against the designer if he/she fails to do their job. It's like a dog biting its master for placing his hand in its food bowl. You would think that a person with common sense would play with a dog while it's eating. But you will be surprised how many people do it often. Your website loves you, but it has to do what it is design to do, to portray the information that you give it. And if you give it unclear thoughts and details, it will bit you (by that I mean the users will reject it).
The California Queen herself said in her blog that "if something is unclear to the user, it might be possible that the user will misinterpret something and/or get frustrated."
Why on earth should they stay on your website if they are confused on the homepage?
I think back to the advice that I remember from writing class that I have taken: "kill your darlings". Harsh, right? But we should break out of our little bubble if we want to make sure that our readers get it.
This reminds me much of Facebook's new homepage. We don't see it often anymore because normally we're logged in and, when we do log in, we just go straight to the log-in box. People new to the site may find a quick tagline or blurb, but not much else.
This is good because Facebook understands that it's users don't need to be crowded on the homepage. It keeps the user in mind. But, after inside Facebook and on your own homepage, I find the new facebook hardly navigable and too cluttered.
I think they should do some usability testing and really re-think their new layout.
oh facebook. Now there's an example of trying to please everybody and not succeeding. The designers have decided that what we want is more applications and less organization and display. Thus, they have inadvertantly (spelling ?) made facebook harder to use. Even worse, the public didn't seem to have a say in the changes. We were forced to either use them or quit. I wonder if the facebook designers have conducted usability testing since the big change. From talking to people, the general consensus is that most hate the new format.
Facebook is a website that bites. But what can you do? It's almost necessary now.
Facebook in recent years, has received an extreme influx of users. And with that influx, everyone has different opinions about the sites. Facebook has changed it face three times (I think). That is a good example of the website straying away from the master. The designer didn't know his audience, hence the homepage reflected that.
I think facebook is may be trying to please too many people at one time. I think then, Dani is right. Facebook is adding too many applications instead of listening to what it's users want.
However, on that same note. If a website like Facebook spends too much time trying to please all of its users it will be too difficult to keep updated. Since Facebook's user base is such a vast variety of users ("computer people" and "non-computer people") not to mention (probably) millions of people having accounts, it has a large area of margin for change and reconstruction. This makes it increasingly difficult to keep up with what the public wants.
Just a thought?