Monday, May 14, 2007

Informational Experience

Web 2.0 Distracts from 'Good Design' - BBC

Part of the problem with Web 2.0 is that there are many people out there who understand the fundamentals of user-generated content design but there are far more who don't understand how to present a web page that takes full advantage of the Web 2.0 idea. Customization is all well and good if it provides a good user experience but when the design is more focused on customization versus content delivery then the user will feel lost. However, I don't think the entire problem rests with web design per se but also with the accustomed way users search and use content. Web 2.0 and the coming Web 3.0 revolution will, I think, produce a series of new ways users interact with content. But this requires as much a change in user perception as it does web design. A lot of site will get this wrong and a lot of users will misunderstand the design. My fear is that if too many sites offer poor designs then users will become disinclined to adopt new search and content manipulation techniques. Web 2.0 and 3.0 have a lot of potential to radically change the way people think about information. But if web designers don't take user perceptions into account then the whole thing could fall flat. If done wrong, Web 2.0 will become just another lost opportunity and I do not want to see this happen.

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