Too clever for their own good?

A number of years ago when I first started designing and developing web sites I came across the book The Digital Designer. This book was written by two graphic artists who talk about multimedia design and technology, with the focus on design and the elements both technical and human, that go into a successful design. The last part of this book is devoted specifically to web site design. While the authors are in favor of attractive websites, they also advocate for web sites that are functional and easy to navigate.


I spend quite a bit of my time surfing the web either in an effort to accomplish a task, or to see what other people are doing. To me the most critical part of any web site is the navigation. If I can't figure out how to get from page to page, section to section, then I leave in frustration. Some times discerning the navigation of a site is easy, but the navigator is over designed and way to clever for its own good.

Some of the most "clever" and over designed websites are created to showcase the talents of web site designers. An example of one such site is Random Noodle. When you arrive at the site a new window with a splash screen pops up and you are prompted by a cursor of sorts  to click any where. Doing so displays the menu. The menu is concise and easy to read and navigate, but truly annoying. It displays with a swishing sound and as you move your cursor along the menu it makes a beeping sound. The other problem with this menu is that if you move your cursor off the sides the menu will disappear. In my opinion there should be a choice to close or dismiss menu and the menu should remain visible until a selection is made, not until your cursor drifts aways from it.

This menu serves as the navigation for most of the site, however when you select work you enter a portion of the site that uses additional navigation. When your cursor is over the images it changes to a closed box with arrows extending from each side . I assumed this meant I could scroll, but it took me a really long time to figure out that scrolling the images was accomplished by dragging them first to the left, and then to the right. As I moved mu cursor under the the images I noticed that the diagonal arrow pointing up towards the image changed color and a beeping sound was emitted. Clicking at this point launches the site designed by Random Noodle. While over the arrow the cursor was a closed box. As I moved the cursor down to the description it changed to a partially expanded box, finally expanding fully as the cursor moved away from the image and its description altogether. Its unclear to me what the half expanded cursor is supposed to signal to the visitor.

I'll admit that this design is different and clever, and since the site is not one visitors are likely to revist time and again the cleverness may not be to wearing, but simply giving the visitor the option to turn off the sound would be a great improvement. I would also add eith a legend or a help hotspot to the work section of the site that explains each cursor type.

Comment posted by Ben Langhinrichs06/25/2006 08:32:44 PM
Homepage: http://www.GeniiSoft.com/showcase.nsf/GeniiBlog

Oh man, I found than Random Noodle site wearing after about fifteen seconds. Sort of like the paperclip in MS Word, but without even a modicum of purpose.