sugarenia.com

I’m a member of the Deviantart community for more than 4.5 years. During those, I saw about 3 or 4 different versions of the site. Some of them had some good features, others some great ones, and all of them were advertised to death from the Deviantart people, with sneak previews and surprises and whatnot.

However, now that I take a second look at this site, long lost in my monthly web routine, I realize something: most of Deviantart pages suffer from a severe case of unusability.

Take for example a “View Print Page“, where one can check out a photo print before buying it.

I see two fundamental errors:

1. Most of the people that actually buy Deviantart Prints are already members of the site. The Deviantart mechanics include several counters for submissions, such as a comment counter, a view counter etc. Since this is the “View Print” page, these counters are omitted. So far so good. Nevertheless, most of the deviants browsing the print pages will have the curiosity to check the actual deviation out. I know there is a link to it, but where? Oh, here it is:
   

   Down, down there. This may sound trivial to the ordinary, unsubscribed user, but I find it too annoying: I have to scroll down for about half a page, if for example the artist has many prints in her gallery. If I didn’t knew there would be this link somewhere, I wouldn’t have searched for it, but I would’ve assumed there is none.

   Why wasn’t the “View Deviation” link put on the top right of “More from this artist” table? Or somewhere near the image? I wonder.

2. Since I love the image, I decide to actually buy the print. I check the right side, where the print sizes are conveniently located. There are some “Add to Cart” links (actually, too many of them) but what should I choose to click on?
   

   Do I want a Canvas print, a Lustre print or a Matte print? What is a Glossy print and what’s its difference from Canvas print? Do I need to know all this stuff? Do I need to make a final decision about the kind of the print I want to buy right now? Will I be able to change my decision later? Which print size am I adding to cart, eventually?

I admit I’ve put my naive user cap on. But even with my super-web-user-that-will-take-over-the-world cap on, I still don’t see any sense in their Information Architecture approach.

It wouldn’t take a master of usability testing to understand that some of the decisions taken there just don’t work.

This won’t be the last post about Deviantart usability problems. The site is full of them and it’s always causing confusion to new and old users alike.

P.S. All Deviantart names used here are copyrighted to Deviantart Inc., of course.

usability, deviantart, accessibility

It’s a happy day today here in sugarenia.com.

Just before a year, I’ve started this tiny blog, aiming to take on things like web standards, accessibility and cyberculture.

Today, after a whole year, I feel a lot more experienced, even if this blog hasn’t (yet) managed to change the Internet world. Who cares about that, to be frank. This little thing makes me learn and that’s what counts.

No, I don’t blog to get paid, even though there are some ads around here. I see bloggers everywhere bragging about their monthly blog income and I think I live in another world: I didn’t make this place to get money. Alas, I did. And no, I don’t refer to that 100$ check I received from Google Ads this summer…

Let’s make a tiny rewind and count the blessings that this blog has offered me during this first year:

• Motivation and experience on web standards, accessibility and usability issues.
• Some great great people that helped me so much, even if they’re oblivious of it.
• A great new job which satisfies me and makes me learn. At last.
• A huge daily blogroll that I check as often as I can, always learning about new stuff.
• A columnist position in the greek edition of PC Magazine.
• Above all, this blog strengthened my notion to become a professional web designer. And I’m grateful for that.

Happy Birthday, my blog. Things were easier than I have expected, and for that I’m thankful.