MacPhail forcefully criticized websites for being flashy, cluttered, unintuitive and devoid of content. He eclectically titled his presentation "Why you should never draw a pig in clay or put the ticket taker in a tutu", and then went on to explain these concepts.
According to MacPhail, poor websites are usually designed by graphic designers, MBAs and software engineers who all undervalue actual writing in favour of other priorities.
- Graphic designers are perhaps the worst, producing sites full of flash and fury that contain no content. Like the cinema ticket taker who dresses in a tutu, they mistake the packaging for the show! A good example of this style of web design is www.120seconds.com, a site which is full of moving images but bereft of any text longer than a couple of sentences.
- MBA's meanwhile tend to design websites for the benefit of their investors rather than their customers, and the results look like company org charts. The Bayer website at www.bayer.com has links to stock market information and company strategy documents... but nothing on how to use aspirin.
- Finally, software engineers seem to believe in an inverted beauty myth. Eschewing order and simplicity in favour of clutter and complexity, they design sites that overwhelm the user with choices. A good example is slashdot.org.
While good sites do exist (MacPhail mentioned www.ofoto.com as an example) too many sites seem determined to bombard users with distractions and irrelevant sideshows. In doing so they thwart the users’ attempts to accomplish their tasks, which is the very reason users visited the sites in the first place. For clues on designing better sites, MacPhail turned to history.
He started in ancient Sumer where the people found they could not draw a realistic picture of a pig into clay tablets. Instead they developed simplified pictograms which eventually evolved into a system of writing. In doing this they adapted their content (pictures) to suit the medium (clay), just as we have to adapt our content to the medium of the web. Printed books evolved too after being introduced, gaining features such as title pages, chapters and tables of content to make them easier to use. The web is undergoing a similar evolution as we learn what works and what does not. Some features are becoming adopted as conventions; three dimensional squares are buttons to be clicked, the ‘Search’ function always helps you find content. As the web evolves, more conventions will develop and the web will become easier to use.
We can also make better sites by adopting the strengths of other media. We like books, because we always know how far we've come and how much more there is to go… so we can build this functionality into websites. Television and movies make a bold visual statement and are easy to understand... these things also can be imitated online. Newspapers have constant fresh content and engage us with stories about people... we can have this in our site too, and so on.
Most importantly though, we must understand our users so we can help them achieve their goals. Unlike web designers, we know users are not interested in how a site is built or in its code, graphics or any other jargon. They are on the web to perform a task and they may be rushed, distracted, confused and perhaps even computer illiterate. The job of the web designer is very simple... to design a site that gets out the way and lets them complete their task quickly and easily.
Although MacPhail was speaking about websites, the same lesson applies to any piece of technical writing. As a profession, technical writers know well the importance of showcasing your content while making the interface invisible... and not the other way round. Not surprisingly then, MacPhail’s presentation was warmly received.
Click here for Wayne's Powerpoint slides for a similar presentation to the Society of Internet Professionals.
