I still feel there is too much emphasis placed on getting lots of information on the homepage of your website. Web designers still stick too closely to the old fashioned rule that you only have something like 3 seconds to capture the users attention. Okay so I say to the client during a web design that we need to simplify the home page…they say but all of these messages are of equal importance …we need them all visible from the get go. Even if you still like to apply the 3 second rule…you will only get across one message in this time anyway…so why bombard.
Turn that down
Progressive disclosure is basically the concept of helping to maintain the focus of a users attention by reducing clutter and confusion. This in turn will improve usability by presenting the minimum amount of data.
It’s like a pyramid
Look at it like a pyramid. We reveal a simple message to begin with which leads into deeper and deeper information. The idea is to create a sequence of actions which become gradually more complex and finally drive the user towards an action. It is similar to spoon feeding a baby…you begin by giving it miniscule portions and as it becomes used to the taste (and actually figures it quite likes the taste!) it starts to consume more and more. This is the end goal of progressive disclosure; to get the user to read more content and become consumed to the extent whereby they take an action.
In the beginning
Progressive disclosure is a concept which has been around since the 1980’s where jack carol of IBM found that hiding advanced functionality led to an increased success of its use further down the line.
The carrot technique
Currently we already use progressive disclosure in the form of read more links, J-query tabs and search boxes. These are all techniques which encourage the user to dig deeper and learn more rather than forcing it upon them. Should we really always be pushing to fit more content on the page and closing up white space in order to get more above the fold? Or is it more important to create a nice balance and feel whereby we create an environment which encourages interaction. Essentially PD uses the ‘carrot technique’ rather than the ‘stick’ and this is surely the only route to take!
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August 20th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
[...] Your message is more important than your website A key point I heard made recently by Paul Boag was that the key thing isn’t your website but more specifically the content it is delivering and the message that is giving. So it doesn’t matter if your message is delivered via, you tube, blip TV, twitter or a face book group. Obviously your website is still important but increasingly your message will be delivered through another website which can then refer to your website for the more detailed information. (I guess this works in a similar way to progressive disclosure!) [...]