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List:       analog-help
Subject:    Re: [analog-help] flop pages
From:       Duke Hillard <dxh0844 () louisiana ! edu>
Date:       2003-10-15 16:34:32
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Peter Hickman wrote:

> However the real flops will be the pages that are never visited ...
>

That might be true in some cases, but not in all cases.
Let's imagine the movie theater for a moment.  If the
new Stephen King movie isn't released to the theater
to show to the public, is the movie a flop?  Returning
to the Web, if you don't visit my page about desserts,
is it because you don't enjoy dessert after dinner (and
don't want to read my desserts page), or is it possible
that you never saw the link to desserts that was buried
in a bunch of information about my cycling adventures?
I can't assume that a page with few visits is a flop.  The
best thing to do with pages with few visits is a usability
study.  This need not be complicated.  All you need is
a few people who are familiar with your field, then ask
them if they would want to know about the information
that is on your seldom visited page(s).  If they say "no",
then you don't need that page.  If they say "yes", place
them in front of a computer with your main page open,
then ask them to find the information that appears on
the seldom visited page(s).  If they can't navigate to the
information, then you have a navigation problem.  This
is, of course, an oversimplification of usability testing,
but you probably see my point that pages might not be
visited due to navagability/usability issues and that one
can't assume a never visited page is a flop.

In the spirit of open and friendly discussion,

-- Duke


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