Thinking about setting your site in outer space? Has your boss asked you to make the corporate intranet look like Myst? This week we're going to look a couple site metaphors and interfaces that just don't work, either because they're so trite as to make the site indistinguishable from any other, or because they do more to confuse users than to point them in the proper direction.Lost in Space
What makes outer space such a popular metaphor for Web sites? I think it's probably the overused term "cyberspace" that puts the idea into people's heads. In any case, sites set in space are now extremely commonplace (see Mobil, Xerox, and MCA/Universal for examples). Oddly enough, though, when I wanted to find examples of the space metaphor to include in my column, I couldn't remember which sites had used it! I had to search around in my list of bookmarks and visited links to find a few. The moral: If you really want your site to stand out and be memorable, choose a metaphor that's closely related to the subject of the site. If you're NASA, a space setting might make sense. If you're an ISP, you don't need to remind visitors on every page that you're located on planet Earth.Download Time in the Virtual City
3D interfaces are perhaps my least favorite of all, no matter what metaphor they're based on--although the fact that most are based on the *same* metaphor probably has something to do with my dislike. Anyone out there remember eWorld, Apple's ill-fated online service? Its metaphor was a virtual city, complete with town hall, newsstand, library, and other buildings, and a little mail truck that drove onto the scene whenever you had e-mail. It was kind of cute. When eWorld died as an online service and moved to the Web, the metaphor remained, but the 3D interface was wisely left behind.What surprises me is that on sites where it's harder to make the metaphor work--because they are *not* comprehensive information services, but rather software, hardware, or consumer product or service companies--the sites' designers not only build their virtual cities, but they also do it in 3D! Prime example: SunExpress, the sales and service division of Sun Microsystems. The image takes forever to download on a (28.8) modem, and what you see when it finally does download is reminiscent of a "Where's Waldo" game. There's an entire city block, complete with storefronts, cars (that look more realistic than the rest of the scene, incidentally), and a couple people. But what are you supposed to click on? It took me a minute to figure out that there were only three choices, attached to random buildings: North America, Japan, and Europe. All that download time for only *three* choices, none of which had *anything* to do with the scene? If you click on North America, the scene changes to what looks like a department store, again with only a three or four clickable areas. Needless to say, I won't be going back. I'd rather wait on hold.
One site I saw recently also used the virtual city metaphor--the newsstand, town center, arcade, and pub were all there--but took it to a new level in abstraction. The Creative Zone is dedicated to "all multimedia enthusiasts, professionals, gamers, musicians, and designers," but I suspect only Johnny Mnemonic could live there comfortably.