Someone asked me recently how many items were ‘too many’ to have in a navigation bar on a website. Of course, there is no definitive answer to this (and please don’t ever believe it if someone tells you 7+/-2: the research behind that is completely irrelevant). I don’t think I’ve seen reliable research on this, and if I did I think I’d be suspicious of it anyway as the complexity of the issue isn’t about number, but about complexity of concept.
So I spent some time thinking about what the underlying principles would be if you had to think this through for a decision (I always like thinking from basic principles out, not just relying on simple answers).
One of the main principles is Hicks Law . This describes the time it takes for a reader to make a decision when provided with a number of choices. It basically says that the more choices, the more time (obviously) but it is a logarithmic relationship, not a lin...
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Ramsay/cluetrain mashupFrom: feeds.feedburner.com
Post Date: 2008-06-17 04:44:08
I don’t know if this is such a good idea, but I’ve been watching Gordon Ramsay’s kitchen nightmares , re-reading the Cluetrain Manifesto and helping a client write a set of guidelines for social media .
And I just realised what each has in common…
Voice
Ramsay, when you remove the f*** word, talks always about authenticity and simple, true food.
A big chunk of the cluetrain, and the part that I connected with when I first read it, is about communicating with...
more Web directions UX: Getting content rightFrom: feeds.feedburner.com
Post Date: 2008-05-19 03:46:51
Here’s my presentation from Web Directions User Experience , titled ‘Getting content right’.
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The description for it was:
“We all know that great content is a core part of the website user experience. So why is it so hard to find content that isn’t dull, lifeless and uninteresting - blah, blah, blah?
Web content can be vibrant, interesting and fun. It can draw you in, fill your head and make you learn without having to th...
more IA & collaborative design - workshopFrom: feeds.feedburner.com
Post Date: 2008-05-06 04:18:17
Yet another workshop announcement…
On 7&8 August, I will be teaching a 2-day master class on information architecture and collaborative design, run via Ark Group. The thing that is slightly different about this workshop compared to my IA workshop is that, duh, it includes a lot of collaborative design.
I’m adding more material on user research, design games, usability testing and designing in teams - I don’t usually get to teach these in a one-day workshop. And 2 days allo...
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