Saturday, December 19, 2009

product pages: so much suck, so easy to fix

I just came across this awesome article by Amy Hoy on web User Experienceshttp://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/product-pages-so-much-suck-so-easy-to-fixhttp://www.thinkvitamin.com/features/design/product-pages-so-much-suck-so-easy-to-fix. The much talked about User Expirence a lot of times either get overly abused or completely missed out.

What really bother me is that a lot of new sites today lean towards providing cutting edge functionality but misses the usability. What really attracts ppl to the site is not just because how bad ass your Ajax app is and absolutely not how good you can make a page look pretty. What really counts is how user friendly is your site, in another word “User Experience”. Your site doesn’t have to look top notch, as long as it has a good user experience flow, and looks elegant, ppl won’t bounce.

I love the opera example she made. The previous design was just a complete disaster. All the characters they came up with in the flash didn’t help them in any posstive way. When you landed there, all you see is that ugly flash which dis-encourages the user to continue on and click on the download link. That’s a broken user experience right there.
First Experiences Last a Lifetime
Your mother always told you first impressions count, and the same is true of web sites. You don’t get a lot of time to sell yourself to a potential customer who loads your page; most people are lazy, and more importantly, impatient. You have to go the extra mile, because they won’t (and that is the natural and proper order of things). All the research seems to indicate that you have mere seconds to convince a shopper that he or she just has to have what you’re selling (or offering for download), to hook ’em and leave ’em wanting more, but not too much more.
User Experience Basics
We’ll get to the practicum in just a moment but first, let’s talk — very briefly — about some super basic UX tenets:
  • Be nice to your users and customers (and potential customers).
  • Design as if your main goal is to inform and educate.
  • Be honest and forthcoming, while you’re at it.
  • Help your users and customers to do what they want, not what you want them to do.
  • Be consistent with your message and quality of service (and I’m including software design here, folks).
  • Scientific, measurable “usability” doesn’t necessarily make for a good experience.
  • Good design makes people feel good.




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