Patrick Lauke wrote:
James Crooke
We have conducted usability testing on 100's of sites and my argument
is that when you hover over a button and nothing happens, users
sometimes think "oh the button is dead"
A counter argument to that:
So they'll get confused on every site that uses a button. You then change
it just on one site, which only reinforces their confusion "oh, on this site
it turns into a hand, so that means I can click it, but on these other
sites it's dead".
It's about consistency in browser behaviour/UI feedback (which, I'd argue,
is different from making design choices for the visual presentation of
information per se).
This is an interesting philosophy.
I personally believe that Microsoft and the awful IT education in this
country (UK) have created a terrible culture of people who are so
steeped in the logic of Microsoft's very worst user interfaces, that
they perceive and value objects akin to these systems ahead of innately
intuitive interaction processes.
A massive amount of common culture must be used on any document for it
to be legible, and in the domain of websites there is also a lot of
convention to follow. However an integral part of my job is producing
'outside-of-the-box' solutions that don't depend on a user's knowledge
of computer systems convention, and instead rely on innate human
psychology. This sounds pretentious but good designers do this (or at
least they try) all the time. Another aspect includes 'branding' sites.
There are those weirdos who want their site to look exactly like a
Windows desktop, but most people want a look and feel and way of doing
things that is unique to them and their site, which can then be
incorporated into their corporate identity.
By the way, I'm not a corporate identity or particularly commercial
designer, most of my projects are for government and non-profit
organisations.
Regards,
Barney
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