1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

Design your web resource 165
usually concise text – is king. Navigation is ‘a necessary evil’ and
graphics should be kept to a minimum. A favourite Nielsen
aphorism is ‘Remove graphic; increase traffic. It’s that simple.’ He
has even argued for the ‘end of web design’, claiming that sites must
‘tone down their individual appearance and distinct design’. Can’t
be much clearer than that. So he gets put in the blue corner.
In the red corner, you might find someone like David Siegel. 1
Just the title of his best-known book, Creating Killer Web Sites
(1997), gives you an inkling that he doesn’t live on the same block
as Jakob Nielsen.
Then you read the preface, which promises ‘a thrilling jeepdrive
through the Style Sheet landscape, with pitfalls, pinnacles
and perilous browser implications around every corner’, and you
question whether in fact he lives on the same planet as Nielsen.
Are these two people really talking about the same thing? Well,
in essence, they are, but from very different perspectives.
However, there is also some common ground.
You might guess that the following quote comes from Siegel:
‘the scientific method can only take you so far. There is still a need
for inspiration and creativity in design.’ In fact, it comes from
Nielsen.
Again, you might guess who said: ‘It is the designer’s
responsibility to present content appropriately’ It was actually
David Siegel, between jeep rides.
I’m being selective with my quotes, not to propose a revisionist
perspective on Nielsen and Siegel but instead to make a
much simpler point. It’s not helpful to sanctify or demonize
either of them. It’s too easy to portray the usability experts as
1 There have been reports that Siegel has had a ‘change of heart’ over his design
beliefs. Lighthouse on the web (www.shorewalker.com/pages/siegel_turns–
1.htm) even went so far as to announce that he had ‘joined the Nielsen camp’,
disillusioned by problems with browser technology. If so, he has not taken any of
his original sites down, and his book Creating Killer Web Sites still sells in large
numbers and continues to provoke debate. Reviews among Amazon readers in
mid-2000 either hailed Siegel’s book as ‘historically important’ and ‘still cutting
edge after all these years’ or ‘disappointing’ and ‘outdated’. The point is that
Siegel’s original concepts, whether he wishes them to be or not, are still
influential and represent a ‘Siegel’ school of thinking as expounded in this
chapter.