Comments on: Usability, Niches and Successful Social Networks http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/ The usability blog of John S. Rhodes Sun, 20 Jul 2008 02:02:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 by: Keith Knutsson http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/#comment-45251 Sun, 07 Jan 2007 03:47:47 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/#comment-45251 On my Keith Knutsson webpage I believe in the same goals. Minimal advertising, if you advertise too much you have a site with advertisements not meant for a consumer. I keith knutsson believe you guys are doing a great job. Keith Knutsson On my Keith Knutsson webpage I believe in the same goals. Minimal advertising, if you advertise too much you have a site with advertisements not meant for a consumer. I keith knutsson believe you guys are doing a great job.

Keith Knutsson

]]> by: Jason Coleman http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/#comment-42018 Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:59:37 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/#comment-42018 Just wanted to clarify that I may be diluted and deluded. Depends on the weather. Just wanted to clarify that I may be diluted and deluded. Depends on the weather.

]]> by: Jason Coleman http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/#comment-42013 Wed, 20 Dec 2006 18:45:02 +0000 http://www.webword.com/wp/2006/12/19/usability-should-always-be-prioritized-over-revenues-when-a-user-chooses-to-spend-20-minutes-of-their-life-on-your-website-they-could-be-spending-that-time-anywhere-else-but-they-chose-your-site-dont/#comment-42013 Awesome article. It hits home for us at WineLog. (1) We don't want to confuse or upset our users by the ads we place on the site. And at our size, it's not worth the extra $ to do so. For this reason, we strive to only show ads on the site that would be relavent to our users. I'm always thinking, "Does this ad benefit our users more than it does us?" I may be diluted, but for each ad on the site right now, the answer is yes. (2) We struggle with feature creep. Different people want different things out of their wine social network. We want to have all of these features... because they bring more users in and they are fun and cool to have. But our site is at risk of getting cluttered. Our task is to find out which features are most important to and most used by our users and make them prominent. The features which aren't as important or used as much need to fade into the background or disappear all together. I think an interesting exercise that hits on a lot of these points is this: How can we give our users choice without letting them know that that choice exists? Awesome article. It hits home for us at WineLog.

(1) We don’t want to confuse or upset our users by the ads we place on the site. And at our size, it’s not worth the extra $ to do so. For this reason, we strive to only show ads on the site that would be relavent to our users. I’m always thinking, “Does this ad benefit our users more than it does us?” I may be diluted, but for each ad on the site right now, the answer is yes.

(2) We struggle with feature creep. Different people want different things out of their wine social network. We want to have all of these features… because they bring more users in and they are fun and cool to have. But our site is at risk of getting cluttered. Our task is to find out which features are most important to and most used by our users and make them prominent. The features which aren’t as important or used as much need to fade into the background or disappear all together.

I think an interesting exercise that hits on a lot of these points is this: How can we give our users choice without letting them know that that choice exists?

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