[thelist] Dropdowns - good or bad?

Wed Nov 22 03:27:25 CST 2000

Memo from Martin P Burns of PricewaterhouseCoopers

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Please respond to thelist at lists.evolt.org
To:   thelist at lists.evolt.org
cc:   Martin P Burns/UK/MCS/PwC

Subject:  RE: [thelist] Dropdowns - good or bad?

martin.p.burns at uk.pwcglobal.com noted:

>> Why force users
>> to learn *your* way of doing things when they already know the
>> 'underlined=
>> link => click on it' paradigm? This is pretty close to the core
>> of HCI: don't
>> force
>> users to learn stuff specially for you (they won't).

>It's nothing they haven't seen elsewhere.
But is it something which they have to *think* about? Do they *really*
know it (rather than having seen it) - the word I'm reaching here for is
'grok'. If users don't grok an interface paradigm, they won't use it
as effectively, and the communication/commercial aims won't be
realised to the same extent. That's the name of the game, surely?

>> That said, I have seen secondary/tertiary navigation with dropdowns
>> implemented fairly successfully - http://news.bbc.co.uk/ has links to
>> related stories using dropdowns. However, have a look at their
>> low-bandwidth version - they just use normal links.

>And truly horrible the latter looks too!
But highly usable. Pretty -v- usable contests nearly always end up in a
victory for 'usable' (although the BBC's high bandwidth version is a good
compromise). Why do you think that Yahoo gets the traffic it does? It's
butt-ugly, but highly usable. Google is even more task centred, and is
punching way above its (lack of incumbancy) weight.

>in these
>days of ADSL/cable and fast modems are we a dying breed?
Yes. Until we all have Tb capacity links, we will need to code for speed.

And bear in mind that fast modems aren't really that fast, cable modems
suffer contention ratio issues, and episodes like:
http://www.theage.com.au/frontpage/20001120/A64936-2000Nov20.html
continue to happen.

>Most B2B scenarios
>will soon involve high bandwidth

Source of figures?
Likely estimation of how many will fail through poor usability?

Take a look at http://www.work24.co.uk/ - try and register. That will tell
you why it's failing. They're getting loads and loads of hits to the front
page, but almost no registrations (ie conversions to customers).

>- look at all the Flash sites - so that
>diehards like Nielsen and others will be seen as the prophets of doom...

Quite the opposite actually. I see sites maturing into greater usability, or
failing. Immature businesses moving online tend to go for whizzy, as they're
interfaces demoed from laptops by self-indulgent designers, rather than
over a modem from an overworked network & server and assessed on
the basis of adding value to the business.

I really do see Flash moving towards the area it does best - complicated
animated interactivity - and away from replacing HTML in the areas which
HTML does extremely well.

>Sorry to be a heretic, but I think his site is the most unappealing one I've
>ever seen!

He doesn't claim to be a visual designer. But take a look at his traffic
figures... Positive ROI? I think so.

>> and accessibility (relying on
>> client-side scripts alone to use the site is very inaccessible to
>> many disabled
>> users).

>I think that's where defining the Client's user demographic is important:
>should we spend more time (and money) on a Client site to make it
>universally accessible for no gain to *them*?

If the client is providing a public service in the UK (also other countries,
but the UK is the area I know best) then they're legally bound to be
accessible.

I would also point out that there are 10m people in the UK with registered
disabilities. A reasonable market if I'm not mistaken. Plus of course many
sites are designed with text which is (a) too small to start with (the 21 year
old
designer with good eyesight and a large monitor syndrome) and (b) unchangeable
through either the browser's own controls, or CSS functionality on the site (the
"I've confused web and print" syndrome). B2B in particular has a larger
proportion
of older users with worse sight. And as more massmarket consumer brands go,
the demographic they're addressing will naturally include more older people.

>> Question: are they good because the client asked for them?
>> (you seem to be implying this...)

> No: because they work for the sites in question.
Do they work because
1) you think they do?
2) the client thinks they're nice?
3) you've done Usability Testing as part of your development programme?
4) You've assessed the ROI of your design work?

Cheers
Martin

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