June 29, 2004

Zeldman - One Step Beyond Sense?

I have a lot of time for Jeffery Zeldman. He wrote a good book, he has helped me understand web standards, and helped me code a site without a table (this one, and I don’t code). But sometimes he really goes one step beyond sense.

A recent Daily Report article focussed its content on drop-down menus, and vented its spleen on them, I quote:
“When I see a drop-down menu, I know that a committee sat around a table, unwilling to think through the organization of the site?s material into a user-focused structure ? or unwilling to accept the recommendation of an information architect who spent days making sense of the site?s offerings.

A drop-down menu tells me there were too many decision makers, none of whom understood that the user?s needs were more important than their ego-driven desire to win front-page placement for their little piece of the content puzzle.”

Sorry, Jeffery, but you may just be wrong here! We have recently carried out extensive usability and prototype studies for a particular site redesign and found that ‘big’ horizontal drop-down menus are right in this case for these users. They allow the user to see all the content of the site in one go, they allow a direct drill on a deep page in the site - one step not six, and they have a small layout footprint.

Not always, no, but I do think that you should never say never, whatever your own personal preference. The user always comes first, with the research tempered by good design practice.

But, unfortunately the rant goes on, and concludes:
“I look forward to the day when most people who hire folks like us to design, structure, and program their web presences treat us more like the thinkers we are, and less like hired hands installing birdbaths.”

Me too. In fact, I look forward to the day when the self-opionated gurus of this design craft might admit that there is more than just One True Way, and that others, informed both by customers and try-and-see might sometimes know better than they do. When that happens none of us will be installing birdbaths anymore.