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This Month's Featured
MasterMind: Vincent Flanders on Web Pages That Suck
 Vincent
Flanders is the creator of the award-winning web site,
WebPagesThatSuck.com, and co-author of the books Web
Pages That Suck: Learn Good Design by Looking at Bad
Design and its recent sequel, Son of Web
Pages That Suck. Flanders, his web site and
books have been featured in publications, on television,
radio and the Internet, including Newsweek,
Web World, Ziff-Davis TV,
and PBS. He is an authority on web design and usability,
and provides consulting services for a variety of businesses.
MCNews asked Flanders to enlighten us about the pitfalls
of web design and how consultants can avoid being featured
in his next book.
* * * * *
MCNews: What is it about web site design that created
the need for your books?
Flanders: The short answer is the American education
system. Unfortunately, American schools don't teach
art or aesthetics, so most people don't have a clue
about good design.
The longer answer is that too many designers, writers,
marketing people, and others involved in getting companies
on the web thought the web was the same type of medium
as print or TV. It isn't, and people have had to learn
that this medium has serious limitations--low bandwidth,
incompatibility between browsers, different platforms,
etc.--and they've tried to put a square peg in a round
hole.
Another problem has to do with web design tools. Back
in the "old days" we had to hand-code web
sites. Now you've got WYSIWYG
(What You See Is What You Get) tools, which let you
create really bad web sites very quickly with no knowledge
of HTML.
Finally, the dirty little secret about the web is that
it isn't really as important as people thought it was
going to be in the way they thought it was going to
be important. We all thought we could throw up content
or sell gizmos and somehow the money would come rolling
in.
A lot of people are into the web because it's fun and
cool, but most people in the real world could care less.
The irony is that the money is in the important applications
that we don't see--corporate purchasing, for example.
MCNews: What two or three hints should give you
a clue that your web site sucks?
Flanders: Any time you see the word "paradigm"
or other such MC-type words run, don't walk, away from
the site. MC stands for Marketing Crap, by the way.
In my new book, Son of Web Pages That Suck,
I have the ultimate example of MC--some consultant talks
about how he's "…a frontiersman. He thrills
to spend his time, his energy, and his intellect in
the regions that form the margins of settled or developed
territories…" Get out the shovels.
Another big clue is splash pages. There is no need
for a site to have a splash, or introductory, page unless
you have to offer your visitors a choice between multiple
languages like they do in Canada or Switzerland. Splash
pages are a huge banner that tells the world that you
like to waste people's time, and they will figure that
means you're going to waste their money too.
If you look at a site's home page and can't figure
out what the site is about, then you've got a site that
sucks like a Kirby vacuum. There are too many home pages,
that even after you have read every word on it, you're
not sure what it's about. One in particular talks about
"content ecosystem" without defining it. What
does that mean?
MCNews: What makes informational/service (as opposed
to sales) sites succeed or fail?
Flanders: The main goal of an information/service
site is, logically enough, to provide information. The
most common mistake consultants make is to talk about
how wonderful/smart/brilliant they are. You can
tell people that your are "a voracious speed reader
of 4,600 words per minute," but so what? People
come to your site for one reason: to solve a problem.
They don't care if you're wonderful and they probably
don't care about much of anything other than "Can
you solve my problem now?" You've got to convince
your visitors that you can solve their problems, so
the information you provide should be about that, not
about you.
MCNews: What is "Mystery Meat Navigation"
and how can you overcome it?
Flanders: If you have to mouse over a graphic
to discover whether or not it's a link and where the
link will take you, then you have what I call Mystery
Meat Navigation. It's a popular technique and is totally
acceptable to use on music, band, movie, or game sites,
for example, but totally inappropriate to use elsewhere--like
General Tire.
The best way to overcome it is to not use it. Unfortunately,
clueless bosses and marketing weasels (I'm one so I
can say it) love shiny things and we love this type
of junk.
MCNews: How can non-technical people evaluate and
select web designers so they don't end up with a web
page that sucks?
Flanders: Ah, the $64 question. I hear a lot
of horror stories about companies spending tons of money
on web design and being unhappy with the results. The
truth is, I try to avoid answering the question because
it would look like I'm suggesting certain designers,
and that would take away my objectivity. I can only
criticize a site if I didn't design it or recommend
the designer who did. Otherwise, people might think
I'm just extorting money to fix their sites.
MCNews: When you review a site, what is the most
common problem you find?
Flanders: The most common problem is bad
navigation. It's becoming impossible to find anything
on a site without a search engine! On consulting sites,
the biggest problem is the MC mentioned earlier.
MCNews: Any great web sites come to mind?
Flanders: The great web sites have nothing to
do with commerce or information. National
Geographic has a great site. There are lots of band
sites that are great, but you can't use any of their
techniques. My favorites are actually humor sites--
SatireWire,
and The Onion.
MCNews: What do you see for the future of web design?
Flanders: I think accessibility is going to
be very important. For one thing, sites will need to
provide access to the visually impaired.
I'm sure we'll see some horrible new design technique
come along because that's how it's been in the past.
I'd like to think that web design is going to get better,
but as long as we have multiple browsers and designers
who are interested in looks and not functionality, then
we're doomed to more of the same.
MCNews: What's on your reading list now?
Flanders: Actually, I'm so functional it's insane.
I just bought a book on Making Music Videos with Adobe
Premiere. Digital is really the future.
MCNews: Thanks. We needed that!
Visit Vincent Flanders at www.WebPagesThatSuck.com
to find out more about his books and services, or write
to him at vincent9@gte.net.
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Meet
the MasterMinds: Common Sense Web Design with Steve
Krug
 Steve
Krug, the author of Don't Make Me Think:A Common
Sense Approach to Web Usability, is a highly
respected usability consultant, and he has worked
with companies like Apple, Netscape, AOL, BarnesandNoble.com,
Excite@Home, and Circle.com. Krug's book is packed
with practical techniques for developing a highly
usable web site. Before you create or redesign your
web site, make sure your designer has read Krug's
book. You can learn about Krug's work at Advanced
Common Sense, the online home of his consultancy.
MCNews asked Krug about designing web
sites that communicate effectively and are easy to
use. Read
the interview.
Meet the MasterMinds:
Philippa Gamse Tunes-Up Your Web Site
Philippa Gamse is a professional speaker and an ebusiness
strategy consultant. She has written articles and been
interviewed extensively on the use of technology in
marketing, including on CNET News.com and
for magazines such as Entrepreneur, Sales
and Marketing Management and Small Business
Computing. Gamse has also appeared on the radio
shows Eye on the Internet and Small
Business Advocate.
Gamse believes that it's "always a good time to
take stock of what's working for your web site..."
Read her "Top Seven Ways to Tune-up Your
Website." Read
the Article.
You can learn more about Philippa Gamse and her services
at www.CyberSpeaker.com.
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Web Resources: Web Site Design
and Usability; eBook Resource Sites
Here's a short list of resources on web
design and eBooks. If you have resources to add, send
me an email.
Web Site Design and Usability
www.webstyleguide.com
- Provides online guidance for web site design, based
on the book Web Style Guide by authors
Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton.
www.useit.com
- Web site usability expert, Jakob Nielsen, delivers
tips, techniques and strategies for creating easy to
use web sites.
usableweb.com
- This site lists over a thousand links to sites
focused on web usability.
http://psychology.wichita.edu/optimalweb/
- Web site design tips from the Software Usability Research
Lab at Wichita State University.
EBook Resource Sites
www.planetpdf.com
- Extensive resource guide to using the Adobe PDF format
for publishing ebooks.
www.ebooksnbytes.com
- Resource site and marketplace for ebook publishers.
www.ebookcompilers.com
- Marketplace and resource site for understanding the
range of ebook publishing options.
http://createpdf.adobe.com
- Create Adobe PDF files on a monthly subscription basis,
rather than buying the software.
Publisher's note: MCNews is not sponsored
by any of the organizations mentioned above.
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This Month in History
September 1 was Emma Nutt Day.
Ms. Nutt, the first woman telephone operator, began
her professional career in Boston on September 1, 1878.
She worked as a telephone operator for thirty-three
years. Think she got tired of saying, "Operator,
may I help you?"
* * * * *
International Coastal Cleanup day is Saturday, September
21. Nearly a million volunteers from around the
globe will participate in the seventeenth annual cleanup
of coastlines, rivers and lakes. Ocean
Conservancy sponsors the cleanup.
* * * * *
United Nations International Day of Peace is September
21. In 1981, the U.N. General Assembly declared
that the opening day of its regular session in September
"shall be officially dedicated and observed as
the International Day of Peace and shall be devoted
to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace
both within and among all nations and peoples."
In 2001, the Assembly decided that, beginning in 2002,
the International Day of Peace would be observed on
September 21st each year, with this date to be brought
to the attention of all people for the celebration and
observance of peace. It declared that the Day would
henceforth be observed as a day of global ceasefire
and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people
to honor a cessation of hostilities throughout the Day.
* * * * *
September 25, 1690, the first American newspaper
was published. Benjamin Harris published the first
(and only) edition of Publick
Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick in
Boston. Authorities found the newspaper offensive and
ordered its immediate suppression. It took fourteen
years for another American newspaper to appear.
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Coming Attractions
In October, MCNews will have two special guests as
we focus on delivering client results: Robert Schaffer,
author of the landmark book, High Impact Consulting,
will join us to discuss why conventional consulting
approaches often undermine engagement success, and what
we can do about it. We'll also catch up with Mick Cope,
veteran consultant and author of the book, The
Seven Cs of Consulting. Cope will describe the
tools you must have to guarantee the successful delivery
of any consulting project. Don't miss these in-depth
interviews.
That's all for this month, see you in October.
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The End Page
"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning
of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
- Winston Churchill
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* * * * *
Management Consulting News ISSN 1539-2481, Washington,
DC, USA
Copyright © 2002 Management Consulting News
All rights reserved
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