Snowed Slashy/Slash Software
You know software or website that just do too much? Too many buttons to click on, too many features to learn, too many distractions?
Two sweet terms have entered my vocabulary that sum up whats wrong with these sites and how to classify them in a neat and tidy way.
The first is S.N.O.W.E.D which stands for Stakeholders Needs Overwhelm Web Experience Design. In a nutshell it comes into play when a nice and clean web experience becomes cluttered up by the “needs” of multiple departments. The laywers need this to go here, the marketing guys need this to go there, all of a sudden you have an americanairlines.com disaster on your hands.
Take a look at this video of Microsoft’s attempt at redesigning the iPod box art for a great example of what I’m talking about.
This term has been longing in my brain since 2002 when I was taken to some high numbered floor of a NYC office building to work with a Fortune 1000 company on an ecommerce project ( naming them wouldn’t be polite ). The CEO of the company wanted to change some navigation elements on JUST the homepage of the site. I argued that this would lead to navigation inconsistency, a big no no, and would just confuse visitors on how to navigate around the site. Since his request was a Hippo ( Highest Paid Persons Opinion ) I had no choice but to tarnish the web experience with inconsistent navigation.
The other terms that I’m starting to use a lot, albeit just in my internal conversations is “slashy/slash” software. Although I first heard this term used in the humor/programming “shock” site worsethanfailure.com it carries an efficient YAGNI tone to it thats easier to describe in your head.
YAGNI is of course “you aren’t going to need it” but I usually see that term used in the context of software design and development. “Slashy/Slash” is more of an overreaching term that can be used in the conceptual stage of the design of a product.
My own personal projects always seem to hit a brick wall of functionality paralysis when I think of all the awesome feature that exist outside of the core functionality and only supplement the main goal of the software. Sometimes I just get so overwhelmed thinking of everything that SHOULD go into the software and start missing the point.
I’m not trying to create a Message Forum / Comment System / Geo meeting tool. I’m trying to create something that makes it easy for people to talk with one another. Once you get rid of the slashy slash parts it all becomes clear.
Used together these terms can describe a lot of different websites I no longer visit or see myself visiting less once the snowed slashy/slash bits get brought into place. Myspace profiles became very slashy slashish once everybody’s profile consisted of things about them and all the animated and sparking bullshit they could google up. VBulleten and phpBB boards are very Snowed and Slashy Slash with their pages cluttered up by 1000 features I don’t need nor do I care about.
I utterly believe users appreciate simplicity and ease of use over features and by keeping these terms in mind I think I’ll prevent myself from both overthinking problems I’d like to solve with my applications as well as helping clients, customers, and employers of mine keep their focus on web experience and not including every bell and whistle they can think of.
Now all I need is hard logic evidence that slashy slash or snowed terms really do effect the bottom line, if anybody can think of a study or research paper please link to it in the comments. I’d love to expand on this topic and blog more about it.