On Oct 1, 2008, at 6:51 PM, Jared Spool wrote:
Again, I'm in a minority with this opinion. I've only come to it from watching a couple of thousand people work with sites. There are millions who I haven't watched, so, I'm probably missing a big piece of the data. :)
I share your opinion on this as well. One way to think about it to make it more real:
When you're at a corner -- at street level -- trying to get somewhere, you only care about the signs at that specific corner to get you to where you need to go next. Sure... you may be good with maps and all, but generally speaking, large detailed maps are only as good as the specific markings they provide you for specific directions on where you to go. While the larger map gives you a broad context and can be helpful for people with good spatial skills, most of the time all you really care about about are small portions of the map and if the street signs on the corner you are currently at are in plain sight and marked well and match the map.
Another example? Hop on an airplane and go to some random airport you've never been to, then get yourself to the baggage claim. If you're being honest while you observe yourself doing this little exercise, you'll notice that all you really care about are the signs that point you to the baggage claim. Everything else is may be moderately interesting, including the airport maps that give you a large lay of the land... but mostly, it's all noise, especially if you're trying to make international connecting flights and are pressed for time.
Further, understanding this is how many who trained in web site design can the make the leaps needed to do interface design for more traditional desktop or RIA type of applications. I need to rewrite it one of these days, but I had written about the Myth of Navigation a few years back that tries to explain this concept, albeit poorly.
There's no such thing as "navigation" in software or on the web. It was originally a metaphor, and has long outlived its usefulness. As a metaphor, it was created in an attempt to communicate loading different pages from one or more servers. But don't confuse the original metaphor as being some inherent truth about what is happening at the software level. All there is are things you click on that do things you need, which may include changing the screen context to show a new set of items to browse or choosing a pencil tool to draw a line.
-- Andrei Herasimchuk Principal, Involution Studios innovating the digital world e. [EMAIL PROTECTED] c. +1 408 306 6422 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
