Aug 28 2008
Cat Treats and Sticky Notes
I have two cats, Hogan and Haley. Haley loves food. She can’t get enough. She acts like I have been starving her for the past 10 years. She loves treats. So, I always give in, walk out to the kitchen, open up the treats and give her a few. Then I try to close the “resealable, stay fresh package.” For some reason it won’t reseal!
I spend a good five minutes and the darn thing won’t close! So, the package touts that it’s stay fresh and resealable, but it doesn’t state you need to be patient for the ten minutes it may take you to actually close the bag. <sigh>
Let’s move on.
On Tuesday I was in a meeting doing a brainstorming-type of exercise. During the exercise we wrote down one word on a sticky note and stuck the note up on the white board. Can you guess where I’m going? You guessed it! The *sticky* notes wouldn’t stick! Seriously!
So this all got me thinking. A *resealable* bag that won’t reseal and a *sticky* note that won’t stick. Hmmm … is there a usability issue here?
Stop what you’re doing right now (well, except reading!) and think about your website. Visualize it. Now, without thinking about it too much (over 10 seconds is too long), say out loud the number one most important thing you want your users to do on your site. If you had to pick one and only one goal for your user, what would it be?
Got that one thing? Good. Now, do you know if that *thing* works on your site? Does that one *thing* frustrate your users? Is your site a resealable bag that won’t reseal or a sticky note that doesn’t stick?
