K.I.S.S.

Diary of a Web Developer
by Edward Tanguay

Monday, November 6, 2000

Theoretically the task of a Web developer is simple. On the one side you have a particular user group who will be using your Web site. On the other side you have an unprecedented overload of information, services and products which might interest them. Your job is to create a Web interface which filters and packages this overload so that your target group can use it effectively.

Less is More

My artist friend here in Berlin taught me the design rule "less is more." But no matter how hard I try to employ this rule when making Web sites by making them slimmer, slicker and simpler, he unfailingly looks at the site and says, "Way too busy, Ed."

My problem is that the Internet is simply too fascinating. I want to offer the user everything. I notice this at parties. People ask me how to “make a Web site” and before five minutes are up I’ve reviewed all the HTML editors, described database-backending, and buried my conversation partner in a heap of 3-letter acronyms. After my well-meaning monologue, they still don’t know where to start. Lately, I’ve just been telling people “Get AOL” to which most of them smile and respond, “Oh! I just got a CD from AOL in the mail yesterday! Yes, I’ll try that, thanks!”

Learning from AOL

The best analogy of AOL I've heard is a dog pound because "it is easy to get in, hard to get out, and takes care of a dog’s basic needs.” So why do so many people join AOL? Look at the AOL CD sometime, there are three instructions: (1) insert, (2) click, (3) surf. This is what people want.

Learning from NBC

I was appalled to hear that people in the United States could not watch the Olympics live. In a country with unlimited technology allowing one to experience what is happening on the other side of the globe live at any time, NBC successfully monopolized and spoon fed the Olympic Games to the American people at times and in portions which NBC deemed appropriate. (!)

Learning from Radio Energy

The Berlin radio station Radio Energy has the motto “Hit Music Only.” You hear 25 songs played over and over, morning, afternoon and evening. It's the only station we play at work. No one complains.

The reason why millions of people use AOL, watch NBC's version of the Olympics and happily listen to the same 25 songs everyday is the irony of our times: in the midst of unprecedented variety and complexity, people want simplicity.

Fascist architecture

The first thing you should consider when you plan a Web page is “what is the first thing I want a visitor to do on this page”. If you want him to join your newsletter, then employ all the design techniques you know to get him to do just that. Make the newsletter sign-up area BIG, put a color photo in it, give it the only animation on the page, put the word “free” next to it and tell the user to sign up. Reduce his choices. Tell him what it is that he wants.

2-second warning

If your Web site visitor can’t decide what to do in the first two seconds, then your site is a 21st century failure. The “inability to use something immediately” will be our century's most severe irritation.

I decided to apply this 2-second rule to an online classroom project I am doing for a university professor. I stripped the entire site down to logo, menu, and text. The first time he saw it, his eyes lit up! He saw on the screen his logo, his menu, his text, and nothing else! He immediately understood the whole Web site and loves it!

Track your users with cookies

I was at Amazon the other day looking for PHP books. The next day I went back to Amazon and the first thing I saw on the front page was a special offer on a PHP book! How uncanny! How convenient!

Use your server-side scripting and cookie skills to enable your Web site to get to know each user individually so that you can "orchestrate his preferences" instead of crowding the screen with things he doesn't want.

Story-line design

Stories are powerful. Humans relate strongly to plots with a beginning, middle and end. But the problem with the Web is that hyperlinking turns everything into a middle causing users to lose their orientation. Users want to feel orientated within your Web site: where should they start, where should they go, and when do they know they have completed something?

I have incorporated this beginning-middle-end philosophy into my workshop site. At the top of each page users see “Step 1 of 14” or “Step 2 of 14”, etc. On the left there is a column of big number icons with the title of the step to the right of each so that the user knows at all times how far he’s come and how far he has to go to finish the workshop.

One Web site per target group

If you have a wide spectrum of services or products to offer, don’t make one big site and list “everything you got.” Instead, break your audience into target groups and create separate sites which market directly to each group. I've learned this with my foreign language Web site. For years, I've been cramming this site with information for language teachers and language learners and Web developers (!). The most common complaint about the site was "there is way too much stuff here" and "who is it for?". In June 2000, I broke off the Web developer section and created a separate Web developer site. This month I will break down the language site further, creating a separate site for language teachers and a separate site for language learners.

Give people what they want

I've never liked being a hard sell kind of guy: I would much rather give people a wide range of choices than giving them a quick and simple solution. But most people don’t want a wide range of choices, they want a quick and simple solution. So as the AOL 6.0 marketing engine revs up and the AOL CDs start shooting through your mail slot like machine gun fire, pick one of them up and study it. What does AOL know that you don’t about packaging complexity?

10/24 Using Tables for Web Site Layout
10/31 Learning to Like Linux
More of Edward's diaries