In thinking about what I want this blog to be, I’ve been considering the work of the many, many bloggers out there who discuss websites in general, and content strategy, design, and user experience in particular.
While there are certainly exceptions, one common theme I’ve noticed is that bloggers seem to enjoy taking others to task for deficiencies on their sites.
In other words, people really like writing about sites that suck. Web Pages that Suck is the most obvious and enduring example.
Are these blogs fun to read? Sure. The examples from the 90s are especially cringe-worthy, and really, not all that harmful. We all sucked back then.
But are they helpful?
Well. Sure. There are things we can learn by looking at bad websites, very specific mistakes on these sites that we can note and put into our long, long list of “bad practices.”
These are good things to know. “Don’t do this” is a good lesson to learn.
But the abundance of these sites and articles has begun to exhaust me. They take on the same “you suck, I don’t” tone as the awful comment sections on news sites, where the participants seem to accept that, in order to write something on the web, they must take on an insulting, snarky tone.
I’m just not that cynical. Or maybe I am. But I don’t want to be.
Moreover, I realize that behind every website (sucky or not) are people. Most of those people have good intentions and want their sites to work well.
Perhaps I’m more sensitive than most to this free-for-all insult party that the web has become. After all, I work on government websites. I frequently field comments from angry users who insult, name call, and call for the jobs of the people who do their best to create useful sites for the taxpayers who use—and fund—them.
Are our sites perfect? Certainly not. Far from it. Budgets, priorities, political pressures, workloads, and schedules often prevent us from doing things exactly how we would in an ideal world.
I can only assume that these roadblocks to perfection are prevalent in many, many other organizations—especially those whose websites “suck.”
Don’t get me wrong. Sometimes organizations (and the people behind their sites) deserve to be called out for their harmful decisions, their self-serving approach to their sites, or their outright disregard for users.
But there are plenty of bloggers doing that already. The people—yes, people, not just organizations— behind those sites don’t need one more blogger telling them they suck. Which is why I’ve chosen to focus on delight.
Awhile back, I attended a day-long session with Jared Spool, and one thing that stuck with me was his mention of site features that delight users.
I’m not talking about visitors jumping for joy when they use our sites. I’m talking about those elements that make it easy for users. Those little chunks of content that are exactly what users need, when they need them. Those design decisions and those bits of “scent” (thanks again, Jared Spool) that take users exactly where they need to go, so they can complete their task and move on.
It’s those things that keep users coming back because they have a vague recollection of it being easy the last time, rather than a glaringly bad memory of what an awful experience it was.
Those elements of delight are, to me, more rare and instructive than the myriad websites that suck.
It’s easy to suck. It’s tough to delight. Instead of focusing on how not to suck, I prefer to focus on how to delight.
Great post and I agree with your points here. I think we all should focus on the positive and point to good examples.
The challenge is that it has been my experience that good examples are really hard to find. Likewise examples that are deemed good by the masses are even more difficult to find. Finding bad examples is like shooting fish in a barrel… it is the low hanging fruit of critique.
What unnerves me more than this is when bad examples are mentioned but no real rational is given as to why they are bad examples.
That said, and to eat my own dog food, I wanted to thank you for writing a great post here. Yes, please, more of this.
Cheers,
- Nick
@Nick: Thanks for the kind words and support of the idea. You’re right that good examples will be tough to find, but I think it’s absolutely worth doing and hopefully it will inspire us all to create many more good examples. At the very least, I’ll do my best to deliver some food for thought. Thanks for stopping over–hope you’ll come back!
Great post! I really appreciate your approach. Although great examples may be hard and take some talent to find, we need to learn our lessons from the bad stuff or it’s just, well, bad stuff. Making fun of it is fun for a while, but you’ve done a beautiful job of articulating a constrcutive approach that’s both thought provoking about the past and inspiring for going forward.
Thank you! Thank you! And as Nick said, “Yes, please, more of this!”
Cheers,
cj
@CJ: No, thank you! I’m so happy to see all of this enthusiasm for my little concept. It remains to be seen how successful I’ll be at delivering consistently delightful examples for discussion, but I will do my best. Hope you’ll stick around!
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This post was mentioned on Twitter by alcasey: A Delight-Filled Content Strategy http://bit.ly/6bcB1a...
Thank you! This is a desperately needed idea. I can’t even count the times I’ve been asked “who’s doing [x] well?” and scrambling to find a good positive case study or two, often outside of the appropriate category.
Looking forward to seeing what you’re able to come up with.
Thx much!
- Chris
Oh oh oh! Yes please – examples of “delightful” content to learn from.
Regards,
Jeri
@Chris @Jeri: I’ll do my best! Thanks so much for the supportive comments. I must admit, I was a bit hesitant to share this post until I was a bit more comfortable in my blogging skin, but the positive response has been so encouraging. Thanks!
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