Fingal is a great looking site, but the usuability really hasn’t been thought about and it isn’t built that well. I don’t understand how this site made it onto FWA?
If you in an area of a Flash site, you shouldn’t be able to click on the navigation to show that area again. The navigation should clearly show hats the area your in, and the button on the navigation should be disabled. On Fingal if you click on ‘About us’ and let the transition in, you can the click on ‘About Us’ again. The section will transition out, and then back in again. Why would you want this to happen???
If a site has been developed well you shouldn’t have to disable the menu in between transitions. Its a cheap solution to just disable all navigation when a movie is transitioning. I much prefer to see that the transitions are managed well so that at any point in any transition if the user selects another area the movie is able to cope with the users selection.
Finally the news sections shows the text ‘deafaultValue’? Try clicking on ‘News’ and letting the section transition in. Now click on any other area and the text display in the news feed shows ‘defaultValue’. Not very professional at all.
It’s disappointing to me to find such a low attention to usability, when so much detail has gone into the design and illustration. It also disappointing to see that this is listed on FWA ,when in my opinion it is a pretty poor site. A site that works crap, but looks good, is crap.
I don’t see reason why the site is more worse in terms of usability then other FWA-sites? The points you mention are quickwins that any good developer can fix within a few easy steps.
IMO it is worse because these simple points that all sites should address haven’t been addressed.
The fact that they might be easy fixes makes it even worse that a site can get an award when the attention to detail in development is so poor.
I wouldn’t expect the company to roll the site out without noticing these points and fixing them, let alone get an award from what I consider to be the best organization that gives out awards for excellant Flash websites.
Well said. It is the small things (although the lack of state-tracking is not a small thing) that reveal what is going on in development.
Just like having a “home” button or being able to click the header image in a blog so I can get to more than just the previous post
No but in all seriousness, I don’t think it’s necessarily a general lack of usability here, but more-so a lack of attention to detail, as timbot also mentions, that can frustrate the user a little bit. The defaultValue thing is not really a usability flaw, just something missed that with testing would be caught, but we have no clues as to the budget they may have had for the site, particularly if it is an internal project?
I wasn’t aware FWA take into account the budget available.
and my blog aint on FWA, cos it aint a cool site
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So your main point is that you think they don’t deserve a FWA award? My personal opinion is that (internet)awards not really matter anyway and the only people who value these awards is usually just a tiny small part of the overall internet community. Nowadays there are so many awards, site-of-the-day and whatelse that you have to try hard not to win one. I really don’t think the site is so highly unusable that it harms the overal experience, at least not any worse then other sites on FWA and as said before…those are really quick fixes imo
I am afraid I have to agree with you Tnk, Old boy.
I do like the general look and feel of the site but after taking a look at what you are going-on-about and found a few things that I would have attended to before going live with such a high profile site.
examples:
Contact:-> the flapping post-it, although a nice touch distracts me. The picture of the fan on the other post-it has a picture of a switch on it, surely it would not be difficult connect the two?
Work:-> how the heck can I select another Sub-section with out using the Main Nav?
Work2:-> Why do I have to keep reverting to the ‘previous’ screen to view the clients list? Would it not have been simple enough to have a post-it appear with the list on, after all they have used a similar idea on Contact. Keep things simple and consistent
I also spotted the “defaultValue” textfield bug
They did a nce job on the Rolls-Royce site, but I prefer the one I built before
As Owen mentions, they are quick fixes, sure…but shouldn’t they have been fixed before it went live?
well no i don’t think it should get an award, but I’m also gonna have to disagree with you and say the usability is shit and therefore the site is also shit (i was just trying to be nice and a bit professional in my original post).
1. Can’t tell what bit your in, it doesn’t say anywhere.
2. The site doesn’t seem to know what bit its in and transition out and back in when it shouldn’t.
3. When it is transitions everything becomes disabled so you can’t change you mind u have to wait.
4. Go into ‘Work’, and select one of the 3 options. You now have no way of selecting either of the other 2 opitons.
5. Select an option and select and job and there is no way to select another job, you have to go back through a very tedious process.
Totally agree with you mate.
Also in the work section, the bit with the crayons, once you’ve selected a sub-section you can’t switch between sub-sections. You have to go to another page and back again, WTF!
It’s hard to judge from the outside why the designers/developers would do certain things, this site is certainly full of UI crap and bugs galore. What I do know is that internal projects are ALWAYS a complete bitch and nearly always done in the shortest amount of time possible, usually with any comination of MD, CD and FD shoulder surfing.
Sorry I missed the LFPUG, i think I ended up leaving the office at 2:00 the next morning
Maybe it’s a UK thing but i never heard of Fingal before? So it may depend on what you define as ‘high-profile’ site
Can’t tell you if it’s any good or not, it won’t let me in, tells me I need Flash 8 even though I have 9.
Tink, you mention that the site doesn’t know which section it is in, this is an interesting point and something that requires a good “framework” to avoid problems like this. This is what the HistoryManager and DeepLinks were designed for here, to be released as part of a larger whole soon:
http://richardleggett.co.uk/blog/index.php/2006/10/17/pub_history_management
You can use the workflow simply to maintain where you are in a site without requiring any complex logic built in to handle moving from one section/subsection/sub-subsection to another, but with RESTful deep links you can also maintain the state to good effect.
just a simple variable storing the index of the section you was in internally would do the job. simple.
also if they disable a button when it was click on it would avoid the problem. I mean why have a button enabled and clickable when you already in that area.
Hi. I’m a student at Dundee University studying innovative product design and thought that this blog was interesting.
I think that this point could be debated forever. My friend on the course is also put up a blog about the same field. But he explains that the “general public” would choose a system that looked good over one that didn’t even if the one that looked nice did not work well. check out is blog….sorry it is long… (http://exchangeofmind.blogspot.com/)
But i think there is a fundamental error in your title. Usabilty is designed. A designer has to think about how the user is to interact with the design. The correct title would be Usability is as important as Aesthetics.
Am I right? or am I wrong? Please tell me.
My posts are on (imdipd.blogspot.com) look out for DONLOBANIA (the ones with the most comments usually) tell me what you think, your comments are appreciated thanks!
Usability is as important as Aesthetics, is a much better title yes. By deisgn I actual meant the look of the site, but your right that’s not as clear.
To get around the broken flash detection go here: http://www.fingal.co.uk/site/swf/fingal.swf
IMO, this site is no worse than a lot of other flash portfolios in terms of usability. The points you mention are fairly minor bugs. Lets face it, FWA’s main criteria is not usability
In general i’d say that FWA features high quality sites which are original, creative, aesthetically pleasing and usable.
True, I never go to FWA to look for good usability…too many of the sites hijack your entire browser, and shed the browser tools anyways…sigh. I do like to look at the pretty colors and transitions though = )
I’m surprised this fingal site made it, the only things that stood out to me was the crayons, the page flips are horrible. But kudos to someone for using Flash.
ok, got in now from the direct link, not really ‘usability’ issues I’d say just a few sloppy loose ends.
buggers have obviously nicked my blogs ‘radioactive eye-burning green’ colour scheme though
I think some of the points mentioned here are fair – the defaultvalue thing should be fixed, you shold be able to see where you are from the main nav and you should be able to navigate to different sections within work without having to go back to the main work screen.
However your criticism of being able to click on the area you are in to refresh it is completely subjective. I’d always like the option of clicking on the same section I’m in to refresh the content – even if it’s to do something as frivolous as seeing that transition again.
Very professional comment Dan. I guess this is where i bite the bullet and apologize for ranting
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I really can’t agree with the refresh content concept though. Event though i disagree, if its been implemented for something as frivolous as transitions then it should be consistant i.e. if you go into work the crayons tween on from the right, click on work again they just flicker. If it was to see the transiton surely these would be removed off to the left of the screen and then come back on from the right.
When it comes Usability vs. “Graphic Makeovers” the latter wins everytime. I’ve been The first thing on my clients list is “Look and Feel” because its the one thing everyone has an opinion on. The problem usually starts with the client knowing they don’t like something – the site, the ad, the brochure, whatever. The obvious (and short sighted) solution is just a cosmetic refacing of the same problems (Everyone loves a pretty comp). Clients have plenty to say about what they don’t like about the current “design”; few can tell you what it should DO. Unfortunately, sexy designs fool the client every time. They are too intimate with their own product to objectively think (or care) about user goals. And, because they think visual design is the problem they go cross-eyed if any usability methodologies are suggested (BORING). When I explain that we should do some wire frames, define site goals, write out a few user goal and maybe sketch out some use cases they smile and say, “Just shows some comps and we’ll make changes”
As for the site in question, I imagine people got excited about the 3D transitions and the overall “Look and Feel” they just started adding features and pages to a design intended for a fraction of the content they ended up with. Par for the course.
If they do one thing to improve the site from a usability standpoint the solution is simple:
PUT THE CONTACT INFO ON EVERY PAGE.
Oh and ditch any transition over .25 seconds.
Cheers
I just want to point out that Design is not just a coat of paint over some piece of crap. I’m so fed up of seeing people mixing thinks up, I just couldn’t keep myself from commenting.
You have to be aware that statements like your post headline are utter nonsense: In regard to interactive media, “usability” is a part of “design”. I believe your headline should’ve read “Usability is as important as Styling”.
utter nonesense, or mis-worded?
Pardon my ignorance, but concerning usability…how do you get back to the main page of your blog once you are inside an article? Apart from using the back button, that is.
I think we covered this above Michael.
Richard Leggett Says:
October 27th, 2006 at 1:36 pm e
Just like having a “home” button or being able to click the header image in a blog so I can get to more than just the previous post
Tink Says:
October 27th, 2006 at 1:41 pm e
and my blog aint on FWA, cos it aint a cool site.
I agree it needs sorting out, but I just aint got the time, and I’m not trying to win any awards with my site. It just somewhere for me to post my thoughts and things I find interesting.