Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen is concerned that the interactive tools and other dynamic toys that are part of Web 2.0 technology are causing many online businesses to abandon the basics of good site design.
That is, those web firms that were practicing good web design in the first place. The truth is, the low bar for entry onto the Internet has always encouraged bad, or non-existent, web design. Which Nielsen knows, since he's been complaining about it for as far back as I can remember.
But he's definitely right that the dynamic elements of Web 2.0 can be counterproductive if overused or misused. As Nielsen says in
this BBC News article, with few exceptions, interactive tools should be viewed as features of the site, since most people aren't interested in supplying your damn content for you! Well, he explains it a little differently:
"The idea of community, user-generated content and more dynamic web pages are not inherently bad, [but] they should be secondary to the primary things sites should get right."
Nielsen cites research showing that of users visiting interactive sites, only about 1 percent regularly contribute and another 9 percent just occasionally contribute. That means 90 percent are just goofing off. That's more (hopefully) than your workforce! The point is, Nielsen says:
"Most people just want to get in, get it and get out. For them the web is not a goal in itself. It is a tool."
So what does Nielsen think that web sites should get right? I'll answer by presenting
this link to Nielsen's Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design.
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