I've been chippin' up rocks on the info highway for quite a few years now, and was a software developer for many years before that. I've also taken some time off over the years to be a user, an experience I heartily recommend to any developer or designer. Yep, I've used these miserable computers as a typesetter, writer, musician, and a few other fields, which forced me to to confront the reality that they aren't very easy to use. This is expressed best in Alan Cooper's great book, The Inmates are Running the Asylum, which would classify many web developers as "apologists", meaning they are so used to computers being difficult they just assume that goes without saying.
Yet we're standing at the edge of a whole new relationship between Mankind and Technology, one that will carry McLuhan's observation that the computer is an extension of the brain to its ultimate conclusion. There's no putting the genie back in the bottle, nor is there any guarantee that life will be less traumatic or stressful as we have access to more and more data (note that I'm not necessarily referring to it as information).
Sometimes it seems like everything I've done in my life up to this point, which has been a combination of technical and creative endeavors, has been leading up to the skills required of a good webmaster. I'm a generalist; there are any number of people who are much better systems administrators, programmers, managers, technical writers, toolmakers, information architects, and the other disciplines that administering a web site requires. But having done all these to one degree or another has given me some insights into the conflicting goals of engineers, businesspeople, and usability experts. Design must ulitmately drive a web site; for if it is not easy to use, it will not be used. Balancing this with the requirements of running a sound business and the exiting possibilities for new technologies is like walking a tightwire. But it can be a very satisfying walk!
Glatz's Laws
- Users rarely change default settings.
- Users rarely upgrade software or install plugins.
- Consumers won't switch their operating system or software for technical reasons.
- Retaining satisfied users is much better than buying new ones.
- You have three seconds to give them a compelling reason to stay.
- Things should work on all browsers.
- Cookies are not inherently evil.
- Writing documentation before you start coding pays back in great dividends.
- Satire is dead - how can you compete with the truth these days for strangeness?
- Cascading style sheets are very important, use them simply and wisely.
- Nobody wants to hear music, see animated graphics, open a child window, or endure a splash screen unless they tell you otherwise.
- Use garish colors and popups and you'll look like a porn site, and get about as much respect.
- Never give a programmer a screwdriver.
