[thelist] New Site - mini

Keith cache at dowebs.com
Thu Dec 20 03:17:55 CST 2001


> The difference I see here, Jamie, is that your Competitors' -
> important aspect of business - websites provide me with info I want
> using just "a computer, an internet connection, and a browser..."

That's true if you're selling tomatoes but irrelevant on a major 
purchase.
> 
> *Note, "my" perspective is that of me as a user, not me as a picky
> developer.

The only "user" in this instance is a potential buyer of a Mini. Are 
you going to actually lose a buyer over the quicktime movie? Only if 
they are a developer subscribed to evolt and then only if they are 
intimidated by your craftsmanship. And hey, they probably wouldn't 
have bought one no matter what your site looked like....

As for a "user" perspective... I owned a minor in my youth. Traveled 
from Boston to San Francisco to attend the Human Be In with 3 
others, just to give you an idea how many decades ago that was. 
So I went on miniusa looking for an old friend and companion I 
hadn't seen in half a lifetime. At first I didn't like what I saw. I got older 
looking and it got younger looking! Damn I hate the way technology does 
that! 

But I spent an hour and a half there because old mini told me how he got 
younger. I really appreciated the history movie even though I had to install 
Quicktime and I resent having anything Apple within miles of me (I 
uninstalled that piece of crap after the show). I really can't imagine a better 
way to do the features/specs, so much info in such a compact space. 
That's the working definition of accessibility. Using the politically correct 
method you'd have needed a 36 inch page or 36 hyperlinked html pages 
just to do the Cooper exterior. Uhu, that's real usable? And once you'd 
have the user disoriented with page bounce then go on to 31 more pages 
for the interior view? Uhu. Thanks for not insulting us with barbaric 20th 
century layout Jamie.   There were a number of things I would have done 
differently, as a developer. But I wasn't there as a developer.

I was sold sometime while going through the design evolution. Something 
there (I think it was why they placed the tail lights outside the shut line) 
convinced me that my old pal hadn't really changed that much, he still had 
the same old soul, I could listen to Jimi Hendrix on his radio without him 
freakin out and running off the road on me. Most buying decisions are 
rarely a rational, conscious event. And the bigger the purchase the more 
that's true, ask any car salesman or real estate agent, people have to "love 
it" to make that kind of commitment. Well Jamie, your site does the only 
thing it's supposed to do, I'm looking for a new car and I'm going to buy a 
Mini Cooper!

And I can't imagine how you could have presented the 21st century model 
of a 20th century car on a 20th century website and done it justice. If you'd 
had it on a 20th century website I'd have walked early on just over the 
dishonesty of it all.  All that a 20th century site could have done is qualify 
me as a buyer. That's not good enough. That "something" has to click to 
turn a "user" into a buyer. If you can't turn that click it doesn't matter how 
accessible or usable your site is, it's a failure.  At that point "presentation" 
is everything. And at that point your site works! And anything less wouldn't 
have.  Thanks Jamie

keith




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