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Is it lazy design or stupid management decisions?  

:: Friday, June 24, 2005 ::

Triggered by Jakob Nielsen's reference to "lazy, stupid and evil design" in Lazy, stupid and evil design, a thread at Cre8asiteforums on the topic zeros in on the use of PDF files, when used in place of HTML pages.

The consensus is that Jakob Nielsen is correct about his rant:

"Putting up PDF files is another example: "it's the lazy way out."

Someone in the thread pointed out that web developers are not to blame. Rather, it's the situation. When a company has one person handling all things related to building, marketing and maintaining the web site, there's bound to be shortcuts made.

On FLASH, Nielsen said, in his interview:

"One example is the Flash intro. "Almost everybody knows that doesn't work, but every so often, a new website comes along and makes that mistake. That's stupid."

I disagree, though overall, I dislike FLASH intros. Most web sites just don't need them to get their message across. The exception are entertainment sites such as Mr and Mrs. Smith.

I loved the FLASH, the music and especially anything that makes Brad move around and look at me in those sexy shades.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 6/24/2005 12:28:00 PM

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