Everything Is Not Important SXSW

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Everything Is Important NOT

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My presentation Everything Is Not Important, as presented at SXSW, Saturday, March 9th, 2013 in Austin, TX

Transcript of Everything Is Not Important SXSW

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Everything Is ImportantNOT

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@stribs

Hi.I’m Robert Stribley.I’m an Information Architect atRazorfish, NYC.

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Everything Is ImportantNOT

What do you mean?

#important

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Murder your darlings

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No, seriously. Kill them.

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7 Principles for Banishing the Unimportant

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Scent of Information

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3 Clicks? A myth

Designing for scent is more successful than designing for navigation. – Jared Spool, UIE

If there is a scientific basis to the Three-Click Rule, we couldn't find it in our data.- User Interface Engineering, April 2003

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Progressive Disclosure

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Tease users.Then draw them to the

details.

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Information Clustering

Lustmord Table by Jenny Holzer, 1994

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When information is clustered appropriately on a screen, users can scan and quickly come to terms with the intent of the content.

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1. Group features and content by type

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1. Group features and content by type

2. Position them according to an intuitive hierarchy

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1. Group features and content by type

2. Position them according to an intuitive hierarchy

3. Drop or demote the less important content

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ExampleScreenshot

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Remove Paths Not Taken

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Reduce the field of view

Once users commit to a path, remove irrelevant navigation

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ExampleScreenshot

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The Tyranny of Consistency

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Consistency is an important but sometimes over-rated tool

It’s key in maintaining a coherent experience

But develop an eye to know when to break from it

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Design pages so they're scalable

Suppress modules or sections of the page until they're needed

Don’t labor to create content just to ensure every page is "consistently" populated

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ExampleScreenshot

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Your Homepage Ain’t Important Either

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People may come to your homepage

But more and more likely not

They’re more likely coming from Google or social media

Many sites report only 20% of visitors landing on their homepages

Some as few as 10 or 5%

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More Important?

• SEO*• Taxonomy• Meta data• Tagging

*search engine optimization

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ExampleScreenshot

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Know Your Audience

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Consider the amount of attention an audience needs on a particular screen*

*It may be zero

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Recapping:

•Scent of Information•Progressive Disclosure•Information Clustering•Remove Paths Not Taken•The Tyranny of Consistency•Your Homepage Ain’t Important*•Know Your Audience

*OK, it’s not *as* important as once thought

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Now.

Your site is perfect, right?

No.

Rinse and repeat.

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Thank you!

@stribs slideshare.net/stribs