It seems just like yesterday when “design usability” was all the rage. I recall it was right around the time of the dot-com crash, with ecommerce sites folding like a bad poker hand, that “usability” became royalty. Companies that were eagerly rolling out the red carpet during those tough times were often the same ones that wouldn’t acknowledge usability during the good times.
With a proven reputation in retail circles, the principles of web usability ultimately pervaded the corporate world – where guru Jakob Nielsen became a household name. The web world was getting it. Design and usability were very important.
Then all hell broke loose (or a Groundswell, if you will) in 2005. It was called Web 2.0, a key contributor to the burgeoning bubble-like blogosphere. In this new world of the “social web” it was possible to get huge amounts of traffic to your site without financial investment, fancy design, or consideration of “usability.” With cheap or free hosting services and simple design templates, site owners – who were primarily individuals and small businesses – reaped strong ROI regardless of what they were selling or promoting. Even if the site just featured Google Adsense, the ROI was great – because little or no money was invested. So the corporate and retail world, which had only recently rolled out the red carpet, again turned its cheek on usability and welcomed the new prince on the block – content.
Content reigned king until 2008.
In 2009, usability – be it for blogs or websites – will be making a comeback. And, in my opinion, it’s not a moment too soon.
RECOMMENDED READING: Userfly: Get Usability Insights with One Line of Code [for free!] and Web Design Trends For 2009
2 comments for “Web usability: Dismissed in bubbles, embraced during trouble”