Thursday, October 2, 2008
It' s all about me :-)
I have a couple of web sites that are favourites of mine. I like them, not because of content, but because they care about me. They do this by making my use of their site easy and intuitive, and facilitating my stay so it can be as short as possible. To me, that is the highest compliment. A site that makes me visit often, but not stay for long.
Google's GMail, is a classic example. The thing I love about this site, and there are many things I DON'T like about this site, is that the cursor is already waiting in the appropriate field ready to accept my username. How many sites do you log into that insist on you clicking on the username field prior to entering that information? It seems like a logical conclusion to me that if there is a username field on a page, then that is the first field that will have to be completed. Why not place the cursor there for the user? It is the little things like this that makes a site a pleasure to use, or not.
Take Elance as another example. I use it all the time, sometimes for hours in a day, but I hate it. It is a classic example of how NOT to build a web site. Sure, the information I want is there, but the site does not care about ME.
Every time I click "Hide Proposal" on a bid, I know that the next time I refresh this page, I will have to do it again. It does not remember my settings. When I want to send a file to all bidders, it does not allow me to upload it once. No, it makes me upload it to each and every bidder. If the file is large, and I have a large number of bidders, in can take me literally hours to send this one file to everybody.
If success is measured by the number of visits and the length of stay, then Elance is a winner. However, a site that allows me to get in, get what I want and get out quickly, will always win in my view. Elance fails miserably in this regard.
Google's GMail, is a classic example. The thing I love about this site, and there are many things I DON'T like about this site, is that the cursor is already waiting in the appropriate field ready to accept my username. How many sites do you log into that insist on you clicking on the username field prior to entering that information? It seems like a logical conclusion to me that if there is a username field on a page, then that is the first field that will have to be completed. Why not place the cursor there for the user? It is the little things like this that makes a site a pleasure to use, or not.
Take Elance as another example. I use it all the time, sometimes for hours in a day, but I hate it. It is a classic example of how NOT to build a web site. Sure, the information I want is there, but the site does not care about ME.
Every time I click "Hide Proposal" on a bid, I know that the next time I refresh this page, I will have to do it again. It does not remember my settings. When I want to send a file to all bidders, it does not allow me to upload it once. No, it makes me upload it to each and every bidder. If the file is large, and I have a large number of bidders, in can take me literally hours to send this one file to everybody.
If success is measured by the number of visits and the length of stay, then Elance is a winner. However, a site that allows me to get in, get what I want and get out quickly, will always win in my view. Elance fails miserably in this regard.
Labels: Business, Development, Technology
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