6 Usability Experts Interviewed
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Jared Spool
Spool doesn't speculate on what makes the perfect Web site, or how many graphics can dance on the face of a Browser, instead restricting his comments to things in the real world. "I can only reference what I have or my company has observed." So why has the Web design community given him so much attention? Perhaps it's the way he delivers his message or perhaps it's just that we need someone who snaps us back to reality. In either case, Web designers look to Spool for the answers. And yes, Spool has the answer, and it is 42. Unlike the proverbial answer 42 in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Spool also has the question, which is "What percentage of the time are visitors successful at achieving their goals on the best-designed Web sites?" From Spool's observations, the answer is 42 percent. In Spool's simple understated approach, "All sites are failures." Which sites scored the best of all the failures? According to Spool, they are Amazon.com, eBay, Dell, and CNN.com. The worst of the worst are Disney.com, About, and any site that sells computer accessories. Spool's commandments
The most interesting fact that Spool was able to share regarded page-load speed and why we shouldn't be overly concerned with it. From one of his studies, "A group of users all ranked a series of Web sites the same (slowest to fastest)." Yet when Spool's team reviewed the videotape evidence, "there was no correlation between the actual load speeds and how the group ranked the sites." What the team discovered was "a direct correlation between perceived speed and the ability of the user to achieve their goal." Sacred texts |
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