Familiarity breeds comtempt

professorpool

I have issues on one of my sites where people go in and out of the communities, forums etc and miss key items of content..

I'm sure we all get this a bit and are in fact to one degree or another guilty of it to!

I have pondered the feasability of creating a top menu bar using CSS, PHP and MySQL and then randomising the order of the menu items, each time the page refreshes.

This is technically easy (even for me!) so no dramas there, however, before I embark, I was just wondering if anyone else had either heard about this done this, seen this or otherwise had any thoughts on the matter - as a method of keeping people alert!

I think randomising, to a degree, the content or at least the location of the content might help with usability of the site - just want to check what others think first! 🙂

Drakla

That is an absolutely terrible idea. Usability is increased because of familiarity of positioning of items on a page. Look up "Jacob Nielsen" on the google, as he's the master of web usability.

Do you ever go to somebody elses computer and are just sitting there like a pleb because they have their windows / icons / taskbar (yes, at the top is best) in different places to you? Then if every time you clicked a mouse you had to locate everything again.... wah! You'll have your users wanting to punch you real fast.

inerte

I agree with Drakla.

If you've structured your information where each presentation has a "value", a weigth, but your users don't click, that is, your top-areas are aggregators of several sub-areas, and the itens that share the same weight are presented the same way, in other words, just a menu, and you think your user is "missing" content, I say that they are not interested.

Think in terms of architeture. Look at a menu. Every item is a descriptor of a place where your user can go. If you mislead your user showing different points of your structure as if they shared the same weight, or importance, like doors to new places, I know I wouldn't want to live in a house where a door sometimes can go to my bedroom, sometimes to the bathroom, sometimes to the kitchen.

What you can do is show random pieces of parts that are in the bottom of your structure, as long as it's cleared labeled (random links to articles).

professorpool

I take your points, however, consider..

If you have an unlicenced version of winzip, every time you open it it randomly changes the order of the two options "register" or "evaluate" or whatever it says.

This forces the user to read what he is clicking.

I didnt mean to do much more than that.

For example, the top menu might say:

I would probably only move around the two items Shop & Forums..

I have heard, somewhere else, Liverpool FC do this btw..

laserlight

The difference is that this is intended to be irritating so that users of an evaluation copy of winzip will be reminded that they are not using a registered version.

This means that the evaluation copy of winzip is irritating. If you do it for your website, it means that your website is irritating. Do you really want to be irritating to your users?

halojoy

I have my own method
regarding menu.

Home Main1 Main2 Downloads ....... AboutMe Contact Sitemap

same goes for any left menu or bottom menu:
Those links that are mainly used, should come FIRST
because this is what users look for MOST OFTEN
this I call 'user friendly approach'

And if I 'try to force my users' to do what I WANT
I am NOt userfriendly - and is left with not too many friends 😃

I have 2 examples of my own:

http://213.100.118.115/phpextra/home.php
and
http://213.100.118.115/wiki/index.php

NOT TOO many meny items, in index.php
Essential menu items First

What is 'most wanted' by my users?
How can I know, if i am user friendly?

apache web server log tracks every page visited (you can select log level, to give more or less info)
so tells me, what is good for my guests!

/halojoy
🙂

rikmoncur

I once changed the wallpaper on a computer in a public library and people complained that they no longer knew how to use it!!

So I'd recommend keeping your navigation consistent but perhaps have a box with 'featured link of the day' or something?

bradgrafelman

If it's important content enough that you want to ensure everyone becomes aware of it's existance and possibly even investigates it, perhaps you should grab their attention subtly.

My suggestion would be to set a cookie. Once they visit the link with the 'important' or 'updated' content, set the cookie to be '1'. Make the expiration date oh say... 100 years from now? Now, post some content, and give it a unique ID and increment it when adding new content. For now, make it a '1'. On your navbar, check if the cookie's value is equal to the current ID (I suppose the word 'ID' is a misnomer of sorts, as we're simply incrementing numbers, but you get the idea). If it is either not set at all, or the cookie's value is less than the current content's/news' ID, give the link an extra little something. Make it bolded and underlined. Add a moderately sized "NEW" text near it. You don't want to distract the user, though, mere attract their eyes to the link and its status.

Again, this is simply a suggestion and the way I've done things in the past.

Drakla

From the gob of the man Nielsen himself - Law 8 of how to make crap webpages:

8. Violating Design Conventions
Consistency is one of the most powerful usability principles: when things always behave the same, users don't have to worry about what will happen. Instead, they know what will happen based on earlier experience. Every time you release an apple over Sir Isaac Newton, it will drop on his head. That's good.

The more users' expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it. And the more the system breaks users' expectations, the more they will feel insecure. Oops, maybe if I let go of this apple, it will turn into a tomato and jump a mile into the sky.

Jakob's Law of the Web User Experience states that "users spend most of their time on other websites."

This means that they form their expectations for your site based on what's commonly done on most other site. If you deviate, your site will be harder to use and users will leave.

Taken from Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design He'd also say you're being a 'Evil Designer' if you read this article from The Guardian.

Love the fact he slates flash intros. Flash should be used for stuff like Salad Fingers where it's best enjoyed.

professorpool

bradgrafelman wrote:
If it's important content enough that you want to ensure everyone becomes aware of it's existance and possibly even investigates it, perhaps you should grab their attention subtly.

My suggestion would be to set a cookie. Once they visit the link with the 'important' or 'updated' content, set the cookie to be '1'. Make the expiration date oh say... 100 years from now? Now, post some content, and give it a unique ID and increment it when adding new content. For now, make it a '1'. On your navbar, check if the cookie's value is equal to the current ID (I suppose the word 'ID' is a misnomer of sorts, as we're simply incrementing numbers, but you get the idea). If it is either not set at all, or the cookie's value is less than the current content's/news' ID, give the link an extra little something. Make it bolded and underlined. Add a moderately sized "NEW" text near it. You don't want to distract the user, though, mere attract their eyes to the link and its status.

Again, this is simply a suggestion and the way I've done things in the past.

I like that!

I like that a lot!

professorpool

laserlight wrote:
The difference is that this is intended to be irritating so that users of an evaluation copy of winzip will be reminded that they are not using a registered version.

This means that the evaluation copy of winzip is irritating. If you do it for your website, it means that your website is irritating. Do you really want to be irritating to your users?

To be fair, on eflection, you are right..

halojoy

halojoy wrote:
I have my own method
regarding menu.

Home Main1 Main2 Downloads ....... AboutMe Contact Sitemap

same goes for any left menu or bottom menu:
Those links that are mainly used, should come FIRST
because this is what users look for MOST OFTEN
this I call 'user friendly approach'

And if I 'try to force my users' to do what I WANT
I am NOt userfriendly - and is left with not too many friends 😃

I have 2 examples of my own:

http://213.100.118.115/phpextra/home.php
and
http://213.100.118.115/wiki/index.php

NOT TOO many meny items, in index.php
Essential menu items First

What is 'most wanted' by my users?
How can I know, if i am user friendly?

apache web server log tracks every page visited (you can select log level, to give more or less info)
so tells me, what is good for my guests!

/halojoy
🙂

I guess you slipped my post.
So here it is, in Da Capo

Just because I am userfriendly,
doesnt mean I do not add some stuff I think should be good for them,
but they do not know it, yet

running Website is a bit like running Evening Papers.
You might have a vision of you want to give your readers something IMPORTANT (and boring)
But, if you do not give them, at least a bit, of WHAT THEY WANT
you will soon be out of business ( by competition papers )

This means you need to know
who are your readers?
what do they like to read?

for evening papers this means using 'paparazzy stuff' about celebreties and criminals
and publish details from scandals and making up stories of whatever gossip goes around

We do not have to fall into doing this,
but we have to please our users, one way or another, or they will leave.

/halojoy
2005-07-15
sweden

professorpool

LOL, baby sitting users is like babysitting children!

It's a big responsibility too!

halojoy

professorpool wrote:
LOL, baby sitting users is like babysitting children!

It's a big responsibility too!

🙂

😕

....