SILBERBAUER SAYS:

FatDUX, Loose the Frames!  

Klaus Silberbauer / Wednesday, June 28, 2006

In my last post I wanted to link to Eric Reiss' Web Dogma '06 on http://www.fatdux.com. But the site uses frames making deep linking impossible. Dudes?

Thoughts On User Centred Design and E-gov  

Klaus Silberbauer / Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Yesterday we pitched on a redesign proces on a large e-gov site (I can't tell you excactly which site, of course) as one of three contestants. We came in second (the first of the loosers, as they say).

Win some, loose some - that's ok, I can live with that. What annoys me in this case is that this not-to-be client told us we lost because we focused on issues with the website's structure, navigation and usability problems in our quest to come up with a process that would make more citizens use the site.

The user's flow through the site is so obviously screwed up by bad communication, bad usability and a non-functional navigation - all issues that desperately need fixing, and we felt we needed to address that. Some relatively easy, but subtle, fixes could be applied that would improve the UX a great deal, making the site more usable to the citizens who are paying for its maintenance through taxes.

But the politician that controls the site (new in office) needed something else: Visible features that can be shown on the front page for the press and other politicians to see. Quickly. So the bureau with the easy-to-implement, flashy ideas won. "Let's add some more features", they said.

I'm not blaming the project manager that had to make that choice. I'm blaming the politician that asks for that kind of solution while down-prioritizing the process that would make the site usable for the citizens.

Of course that kind of real IA-work will have to be done sooner or later, we were told. But right now it's time for some really visible features.

But I fear that when it's time for the important changes, the ones that make a difference for the citizens, some other politician has taken office and then SHE needs some really visible quick fixes, and so on...

It's no wonder that so many e-gov solutions suck so bad. Politics and personal preferences mess up the process even before it begins. Let's all recite Reiss' Dogma No. 1 in a mantra-like way:

1. Anything that exists only to satisfy the internal politics of the site owner must be eliminated.

Eric Reiss' Dogma '06  

Klaus Silberbauer / Tuesday, June 27, 2006

This is an interesting interview with Eric Reiss on his 10 dogmas on web design.
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/dogmas_are_mean

I'm Quoted in Berlingske Tidende  

Klaus Silberbauer / Monday, June 26, 2006

I'm cited in Berlingske Tidende - one of Denmark's largest newspapers. I commented on the miserable user experience Danish citizens meet when trying to obtain a "Digital Signatur" - a personal certificate nessecary for access to the Danish e-gov solutions.

"[...]Men det hjælper ikke, at der er flere ting at bruge signaturen til, hvis folk som udgangspunkt ikke en gang kan finde ud af at hente og anvende signaturen, mener brugervenlighedsekspert, Klaus Silberbauer fra internetkonsulenthuset Creuna Danmark.- Der er tilsyneladende ikke tænkt på, at alle danskere skal kunne finde ud af at installere en digital signatur, før succesen er hjemme. Som det er nu skal en borger, der ønsker en digital signatur, igennem en veritabel jungle af fagudtryk og meget dårlig brugervenlighed, siger han.

Han mener, at det er det offentlige Danmark, der fejler ved ikke at støtte nok op omkring indsatsen med at sælge digital signatur til danskerne: - Langt de fleste kommunale og statslige websider henviser blot til TDC's website og håber så på, at borgeren vender tilbage med en digital signatur. Men det sker ikke altid. Ofte vil borgeren få en dårlig oplevelse og måske helt opgive at hente en digital signatur, og det kan øge distancen mellem det offentlige og borgeren. Det er ærgerligt. TV-spots er ikke nok - indsatsen skal arbejdes helt ned i de enkelte websites design, lyder rådet fra Klaus Silberbauer. [...]"

http://www.berlingske.dk/business/artikel:aid=758434/

DR vs. TV2  

Lars Silberbauer / Sunday, June 25, 2006

In these World Cup Times we've also got some quick soccer results from the clash between the media-titans in Denmark: DR and TV2.
We played on the National Arena "Parken" and TV2 was lucky to get away with af 3-2 win.



Three of the players:
From the left: Lars Silberbauer (Left wing), Casper Bech (Defense) and Kenneth Plummer- (Right wing and General Director).

Great Coffee - Bad Design  

Klaus Silberbauer / Monday, June 12, 2006

Just got home from an exquisite holiday in Italy. The food, the wine, the beaches of Liguria, the coffee... yummy.

And speaking of coffee: On our way home we visited our good friends in Switzerland. After the delicious lamb chops (brilliant!) Marianne and Søren served a very nice cup of espresso and to my surprise it was made on a Nestlé invention: The Nespresso machine. Small coffee capsules (sold on the net) go into a machine manufactured on license by Siemens, Jura, Köenig or some other espresso machine manufacturer and out comes pretty good espresso indeed. The capsules are of course of proprietary design and the concept is a bit too... conceptish - but the coffee is good and that's what counts. So I'm considering buying such a Nespresso thingy.

As soon as I got home I started my Firefox browser and went to www.nespresso.com to check out the availability for Denmark. This is what met me:




Yes - an almost empty page. It was supposed to be a large Flash animation, but for some odd reason the Flash object didn't work. It may be my browser, it may be the page, I don't know - and I don't care. Why on earth does Nestlé risk loosing the customer on the frontpage just to make the page flashy? My guess: Some jerkoff executive at Nestlé said: Make it flashy, make it noisy - and the designers went ahead, blew their brains out and did this site. It's not great- have a look for yourself. I think I'll do a more thorough review of it later on, but right now I need sleep - I'm still seeing fast approaching Audis for my eyes after 12 hours on the Autobahn.