@simoneverest tweeted a response to last week's post which touched on a common problem - senior managers with a "flair" for innovation:
The introductory comment is revealing...
If people can't find something, it's not usually because of boring navigation, it's because of sub-optimal information architecture and inadequate or poorly-configured search engines.
Who on earth would worry about the navigation concept being too boring? It'd have to be someone who places a pretty low value on usability...
I would humbly suggest intranets are designed for end users, not bored designers... if you want people to use them, that is.
Quite apart from anything else, if you use the site on a Mac, aren't users going to end up with two of these things on the bottom of the screen?
"a former *cough* CIO *cough* landed us with an interactive Flash calamity, with faux OSX dock navigation… minging…"What... like this?: Outside The Box Navigation
The introductory comment is revealing...
"Just about every website uses the regular navigation concepts we’re all used to..."Yes, and there's a very good reason for this. By using widely-understood conventions, we lower the barrier to adoption and ensure the widest possible participation. You know... people USING it. That thing we track with all those graphs which your end-of-year bonus depends on.
"After awhile this can get pretty boring..."What?! Boring for whom? I don't browse websites thinking: "Wow, all this content is really useful, but... you know what, this navigation is SO boring..."
If people can't find something, it's not usually because of boring navigation, it's because of sub-optimal information architecture and inadequate or poorly-configured search engines.
Who on earth would worry about the navigation concept being too boring? It'd have to be someone who places a pretty low value on usability...
"...especially for designers who thrive on creativity."BINGO!
I would humbly suggest intranets are designed for end users, not bored designers... if you want people to use them, that is.
"While mimicking the OS X dock and stacks isn’t new, it’s certainly not common."This was written in 2009. It wasn't common then, and it's not common now. This is significant.
Quite apart from anything else, if you use the site on a Mac, aren't users going to end up with two of these things on the bottom of the screen?
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