« February 2009 | Main | May 2009 »
March 31, 2009
Getting Out of the Way
Even though more and more effort is put into customer centric webdesign, and some companies seem to become less egocentric (Skittles.com even went to the other extreme), the majority of corporations still put themselves first on their sites. Especially when they 'need' your information.
The forms get thrown in your face; literally, when it's a pop-up.
I actually don't mind giving out information, but I do like to know if I'm nearing the end. And more importantly I want to see if the end result is worth going further: show me the light at the end of the tunnel!
I nice example of how it could be done is the Skitch screencapture application (see image below), that literally moves out of the way (but 'hangs around') when you start moving the file.
I can imagine the pop-up window for a form increasing and decreasing depending on where you are in the process flow.
It's actually using techniques developed in film that can and should be applied here. The landmark article by Dan Willis 'Everything you know about webdesign is wrong' proves this point very clearly. An excerpt; "When we see a character from high over head, we sense their insignificance; when one scene dissolves into the next, we assume a passage of time; when shots of a character in motion are intercut with the object toward which she approaches, we feel the impending dread and danger."
Can you imagine the experience on a website when these techniques are used?! Could a designer make you dread pushing a button because of flashes of images of what's behind when you move your mouse closer?
Of course, it could go in a different direction. For example, the one Brendan Dawes suggested: "[..] great idea for an itv3 show: "i'm a celebrity - resize my browser window"
Posted by Almar at 08:05 PM | Comments (0)