Website user interface – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

An old online saying is that ‘content is king’. In all respect this is true as sites with a lot of great valuable content come out on top. Look at sites such as Steve Pavlina.com, millions of hits a month and it looks, well, pretty ordinary. So is this proof that content is king or is it not so clear cut?

Well the truth I believe, is that it is pretty clear cut. Great content accessed easily is the real king. Sure without content you have nothing but if you can’t access it you’ve also got nothing. Back to Steve Pavlina, here is a site with a load of great content (I strongly recommend you go have a read) but what it also provides is a remarkably efficient way of distributing this information. Some people say the site is extremely simple and almost boring but these people are missing the point. The site is laid out in a way in that someone can come to the site, read up- to-date content and at the same time be able to read other interesting articles without even searching for them. The user interface is absolute genius. It’s straight forward, simple, exceptionally clear and allows you to read more with every sitting. All this and he doesn’t even have a logo!

I think this ease of use has been somewhat neglected with many web 2.0 and other modern day websites. The introduction of Flash and to a lesser extent Java and even Microsoft’s Silverlight have greatly aided the ability to create aesthetically pleasing websites. Don’t get me wrong, there are both advantages as well as disadvantages of using software such as flash however just because they look great doesn’t mean that they have a good clean and easy to navigate user interface. Beautiful isn’t always better.

I came across a few examples recently which I thought I would share. The first came around when I was searching for movie session times. The two main cinema companies where I am are Hoyts and Greater Union. A couple of years ago Hoyts had a fantastic search function which enabled you to find your movie and the session time in about 20 seconds. Now they have decided to get all flashy (literally) and not only created a website that takes several minutes to load due to all the bells and whistles, but also a site that leaves you analysing and strategically thinking about your next move. Any mistake in your browsing skills will no doubt lead you to an irrelevant page that took you 3 minutes to load. Woe be tired anyone with a slow connection, your better off going the old school paper way. Check out this eye-sore:

The ‘Watch’ section on the left is to ‘watch’ movie trailers… not where or when you can ‘watch’ a movie. So you will aimlessly fiddle around with this to no avail and wonder why everything is taking so long while it loads all the movie trailers. So you think about clicking the ‘all cinemas’ tab… and it does nothing. Now your confused. Then you look to the top and think, do I select ’session times’? Also what’s this ‘Buy’ section on the right? Bingo… these will get your your session times (finally) and interestingly enough, ‘Buy’ and ‘Session Times’ both give you the same information yet provide two completely different ways to find it! It’s like taking the back streets or the main road… both will get you to the same place but look different on the way there. What’s the point? Why waste this space and clutter the site up? Why not put ’session times’ as the heading instead of “buy’ and you won’t need that ’session times’ option anymore. Anyway, who goes and ‘buys’ a movie session?? What genius thought up this heading? It doesn’t make sense. Have you ever told a friend “I went to the cinemas the other day and bought the best movie!” I understand they aim to sell tickets (ie buy movie tickets online) but because it’s so unclear, off the bat your confused. Give customers want they want straight away, then give them the option to buy it. First comes first, people will only buy tickets once they find the session they want to buy the tickets for. Give them to right information first then ask for the buy, not the other way.

In contrast you have greater union. Load time is decent however most importantly, as soon as you hit the landing page you know what to do.

Can you see it. Bright blue standing out from the rest of the site? The site leads to exactly what I wanted without me even thinking about it. The first thing you see is ‘Select a Cinema’ and ‘Select a Movie’. They want you to ‘buy’ as well but the site naturally leads you to finding the movie first, its the first thing you see and your first chance to interact. The search section is prominent and stands out from the rest of the site and there are no movie trailers confusing the issue or an unclear heading. Directions are simple; ‘Buy movie tickets online’ as opposed to ‘Buy’.

My other examples came about when I was searching for an online TV guide. Australia has terrible Formula 1 coverage and I wanted to see if Qualifying or Practice was being shown live (of course it wasn’t but that’s not my point. One HD preferred showing paintball! Yes… Paintball!). Here is an analysis of two sites I came across. I’ll put them both right after each other and you decide which one would be easier to find (the non existent) Formula 1 TV times:

Tv Fix Snapshot

Australian TV Guide Snapshot

It’s not rocket science is it? It’s Yahoo vs Google. Its convoluted Vs simple and precise. If your after a TV guide, which one of these would you choose to deliver you your content? And guess which one uses flashy bells and whistles and takes an eternity to load? Some people just don’t get it do they?

I should state that my blog in itself isn’t as user friendly as I would like it to be. I wouldn’t rate it that good either but I’m working on it and it’s a continual work in progress. I believe a simple and precise user interface is a trademark of a great site and the reason behind even average looking sites such as Steve Pavlina’s being so successful. They easily lead you to great content. Don’t get caught up in purely aesthetically pleasing developments to your site as it may just compromise the usability. The key factor to remember is that if people can access good content easily then your onto a winner, having one without the other will only  lead to traffic killing friction.