Freshkid,

Decisions such as interface aren't taken by Dorian alone. What's your problem? (Exactly)

Well, my major problem is that you're not facilitating a fast interface with the content. The blog stream is fine, the FMA with text description overlaid is neat, the navigation is concise and descriptive...but as a whole it is confusing. You must have noticed?

The reasons for this seemt to stem largely from your playful arrangement of content. You know as well as I do that your homepage is lacking any coherent structure, and it relies on large SHOUT OUT navigation items that are designed to capture attention. Offering more choices gives more paths into the site and more dynamism - cool. Limiting choices focusses the mind and targets messages - cool too. Hmm. There's always going to a compromise to be struck, but I don't think you've got the right balance.

I think that formal sites like www.guuui.com address the kind of interaction issues you're playing with in a more academic fashion...and I'd rather see you go all out for playfulness or follow their lead and let us access the wonderful content.

Here's an idea...why not write a story about the homepage, linking key words in your story to areas of the site linked in the navigation? Your 'site updates' section could fulfil the entire range of homepage functions if expanded appropriately (and spell-checked...sorry ;-D).

Anyway, I'm not feeling as ranty today...and your site is still nice...just feels like you're over reaching and shooting yourself in the foot.

FK

Aspects of guuui is certainly a model that I aspire to, but we could never go all out for the academic look. For one, it is way too dry, and also we'd be indistinguishable from so many sites that take that approach. There are plenty of its kind, it's not rocket science and it could certainly be achieved by myself or Dorian without breaking a sweat. The playful approach is not something I would ever consider, so let's count that out. The site is a container for playful and entertaining content, so having a playful container is really not where our unbridled gui ingenuity should be directed and smacks of a 'cleverness' that I personally loathe.

What we are trying to achieve is a balance between the usable and functional style that is a requirement for any complex website, WITH the entertaining and attention grabbing approach that is necessary in magazine publications.

It is difficult for us to really grasp how others see the site, so I am genuinely interested in your thoughts, and not just trying to defend our decisions. We have to design the site ourselves as well as producing the content for the site, so we are denied the luxury that other sites may benefit from; 37 Signals and the like pontificating from a high horse in order that we sell more microwaves, like God put them in charge of web usability.

Maybe the homepage is too complex, but we are unable to see that. If you could be even more explicit concerning what doesn’t work for you, then we would much appreciate the external viewpoint.

Dear Freshkid,

In future, please don't shoot the messenger. Given your comment on spell checking you might want to go one further and note that the post I made - which I assume is the reason you are saying I need to go back to school - is written in particular way:

"Those who come to the site regularly will probably have already noticed that we've made some tweeks to the design and functionality of the site."

"WE'VE" being what I would draw your attention to. As the one who uploaded the changes to the site after everyone had gone home it was down to me to make the post.

Please don't live up to your moniker...

I'll leave the design comments to Paul, as he's much better placed to answer your criticisms.

_d._