Are you a Less Content. More Strategy fan?
Are you going to the UXPA conference in Washington, D.C. July 9-12?
If so, stop by the poster session and briefly relive your favorite LCMS memories. (And get an update on that "thanks for adding more content" post from a few weeks ago!)
... Hell yeah! I love it:
Welcome to the effects of Experience Rot. As you add features, you’re adding complexity to the design, and decreasing the quality of the experience.
http://www.uie.com/articles/experience_rot/
What a hell of a spin to put on the concept. Yes, he technically refers to features, but content bloat leads to Experience Rot just as feature bloat does. (I mean, all of those features come with content, don't they? But even if we're just talking about brochureware, the concept applies.)
Here, we more gently talk about how it might be a good idea to think carefully about adding content that isn't absolutely critical. We talk a bit about signal-to-noise ratio. We talk about ROI. And that's all well and good, but leave it to Jared to get in your face with the consequences of an inability to deal with feature (and yes, content) bloat.
Thankfully, he also provides a handy weapon to guard against this horrible state. No. You can say "No."
"No. You shouldn't add a preference selection for every control you're not willing to conduct actual user research on."
"No. It's not better to build a product for grandmothers, twenty-somethings, small business owners, and freelancers. Pick one."
"No. You shouldn't make an instructional video to explain to site visitors how the navigation works."
The Kansas State team did it.
Clare Cotungo and the Electronic Ink team did it. (via Angela Colter)
And so. can. you!
I am SO looking forward to finding out more about this one!
Less content isn't always good. (See? I'm reasonable.) The key, of course, is getting rid of ALL of the crap that doesn't serve you or your customers, but not a pixel more. Strategically determine what is useful, and make that easy to get to.
It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Yet enough people are getting it wrong that xkcd is calling them on it.
Original at http://xkcd.com/1174/.
The people using your mobile site need all of the same things the people using your full site need. (Or, perhaps more accurately, the people using your full site don't need or want all of that extra crap that you're throwing in their face.) People checking out a restaurant want hours, directions, menu, and reviews, probably in that order, regardless of whether they're on a phone or tablet or sitting at their desk looking at dual 25" monitors.
Looking for more? Luke Wroblewski's book, Mobile First, from A Book Apart, is a great starting point.
