First user's test

First user's test 14/10/2009

I had my first, sort of, user's test today. Showed my initial design to Tess, and the first thing she asked was what the picture of a rubber ducky on the home page was about.

Which got me to thinking. If it were somebody else who gave that comment, perhaps I would go defensive if not ballistic. Yes, that's how close this project is to me. It's a personal website, after all. ;-)

But Tess teaches Visual Communication and Applied Media Aesthetics, so I seriously pondered what her reaction meant. (Which I should actually do every time a user -- including those who aren't adept with this technology -- becomes puzzled by something in this site.)

What could Tess's reaction mean? And that's when I realized that the homepage didn't really provide a function. It only served as some sort of a cover, like that in a book or a magazine, for the website. That was me still working in print media mode.

So I took it down and decided to have the website open with this blog. But without that homepage, I realized the layout theme didn't quite fit. And so now here is the new look.

Coorough and Shuman are right again. The second thing to consider in designing one's site is to consider how users will access it, and how they will use it.

I hope to have got it right this time. Let's see how the next user reacts to it.