Dear David,
You are absolutely right. This isn't new. Nevertheless, it remains
valid and useful.
The fact that there are so many bad web sites testifies to the
continuing relevance
of McGovern's work. What I find perplexing is that even though we are a decade
and a half into the era of graphic interfaces on the World Wide Web, so few web
sites make use of these simple lessons.
McGovern doesn't presenting his ideas as ground-breaking science, but
usable ideas
-- including a significant amount of applied research, along with
sophisticated clinical
research when his group advises on web design for specific clients.
He's not necessarily
writing for those of us in design research. Rather, he is addressing
web managers and
service buyers, and he's also sharing what he knows with others who
are interesting.
He writes a new letter every week, and he's been doing so since 1996.
I passed this
week's article on because I found it especially entertaining. While
the newsletter
has 10,000 subscribers, that's a mere 10,000 of the hundreds of
thousands who are
designing or managing web sites. It's clear that Gerry McGovern is an
influential
voice, but inertia and bad web design practices still rule the
greater part of the web.
The same can be said for other excellent web design thinkers --
including the strong
research team at the Nielsen-Norman Group.
You haven't missed something here. It's an old story told in a new field.
When it comes to readers like us, you can say that McGovern is preaching to the
choir. The sermon remains useful -- especially for those who create
or manage sites
that aren't yet usable. (A condition that includes far too many
design firms, and
more art and design schools than one wishes to admit, including some design
schools that have an unworkable, cluttered web site within an otherwise usable
university site.)
What the world of web design needs is a useful little book that sets out basic
research-based principles in a clear, elegant way much as your book does on
Writing about Medicines for People. Usability Guidelines for Consumer Medicine
Information.
There are some good books out there -- including McGovern's own. What I'd love
to see is something summarizing what the field has learned and stating it in a
readily-applied form as you have done for medicine information. (If someone has
done this, I'll welcome the citation!)
Yours,
Ken
p.s. Those who do not know David's book on medicine information should do:
Sless, David, and Rob Wiseman. 1997. Writing about Medicines for People.
Usability Guidelines for Consumer Medicine Information. Second Edition.
Canberra: Communication Research Institute of Australia.
This book is a systematic tutorial on writing and designing consumer medicine
information. It is also a good textbook that can be used for other areas of
information design.
David Sless wrote:
>Ken and all,
>
>I find that most of what Gerry McGovern says is not terribly new.
>Perhaps I have been around too long!
>
>But the lack of any relationship between design awards and the
>effectiveness of the design in use seems to have been commented on
>by many.
>
>In my own field of communication and information design, there is a
>long history of things winning awards and not working. I seem to
>remember seeing comments on this in architecture and product design
>too.
>
>I realise that the area of web design is relatively new, but the
>issues are not.
>
>Am I missing something?
>
>David
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