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18 August 2009

Do we have one site too many?

In the past month if you’ve interacted with via twitter, email, facebook etc you’ve probably been asked by me “How many sites do you visit a week”.

I only ask is that I've got this theory or ill feeling that we at Microsoft are making far too many websites than we need to, but at this point it’s just a theory (i have no evidence or data to substantiate this theory either)

I’ve created some artist mockups of where I’d love to one day position Microsoft and the way in which we interact with the community  and potential customers. It’s an ongoing project, one that I’m doing to provoke some new thinking inside the company, but first I at times need to pitch what I think the initial problem is. Have a look and tell me if you agree or disagree?

Slide 1 – What do all these sites have in common?

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Slide 2 – They can be quite frustrating to discover and use?

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Slide 3 – They require unnecessary persistence.

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Slide 4 – They echo the same data at times ..at a rate that makes your head spin.

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Slide 5 – They require you to think in multiple personalities.

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Slide 6 – They all try and be different, but the end user is usually the same.

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That’s the theory anyway. What do you think?

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# Liam McLennan said:

I think you are onto something.

Recently I was looking for the asp.net mvc forum. I searched everywhere on the msdn forums, only to find that www.asp.net has its own forums.

18 August 09 at 1:33 AM
# vikasgoyal77 said:

You have identified the right problem in right way.

Keep going. so many domains .. so many forums ,,, .

vikas

18 August 09 at 1:35 AM
# Joe said:

Yes, no argument here.  I think this is already happening with Ch9/on10 etc.. to be honest.

A single site with tailored content for the user is much better than multiple sites with different assumed personalities.

18 August 09 at 10:13 AM
# Chad Campbell said:

I kind of agree. I think there are too many sites that are trying to be too many things. Because of this, they are overly generalized.  I think the direction that Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc... are going will align them to be starting points into peoples lives. I think other sites are going to be able to provide value by digging into a specific portion of an individual's life.

I might be wrong. But this is the thought I used while creating http://www.divotdog.com (it's a beta, it's early, and yes, there are bugs). Basically, this site allows individuals to dig into one specific portion of a person's life: golf.

18 August 09 at 2:24 PM
# Rick Barraza said:

Scott, completely agree. I think what happens in a large company (with Darwinian conflict in cross sections of focus domains) like MSFT here is exactly what happens with traditional dev's coding UI: The interface is how THEY think about it, not how the TARGET AUDIENCE thinks about it. Especially true is your statement "They all try and be different, but the end user is usually the same." This is both a predictable and unfortunate problem when students, professionals or companies start organically growing from low brand to high brand awareness but haven't factored in scale or unity. Apple does NOT have this problem (because they solved it years ago) and Adobe is at least design first sensitive enough to try and juggle it well. But its at the core of good User Experience, and this is still an area where (you, me, we all) are desperately trying to beef up MSFT, but its a painful fight at times. This is clear proof. Communication is about the audience, not the speaker.

Keep up the good fight, its exactly what MSFT needs to do to get to the next step.

18 August 09 at 2:38 PM
# Nick Harewood said:

Agreed here too.  As an occasional user of some of these sites, I perhaps don't use them as much as i might.  A search for something Silverlight or Blend related (problem, error, resource...) may bring up 3 or 4 of these different sites, and i find myself clicking through tabs to find the answer.

I can see that they seem to have slightly different targets (though not particularly obvious what each may be), but all seem relevant to me.

User centred design is where it's at.  

18 August 09 at 3:57 PM
# Brian Henderson said:

Technical professionals have MSDN & TechNet.  Is there a main portal for creative professionals?  (art, movie, photo, webdesign, etc)

20 August 09 at 4:45 PM

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About scbarnes

Scott Barnes currently is a Rich Platform Product Manager (WPF & Silverlight). He has been working with Adobe/Macromedia technology for the past 10 years with a main focus specifically on Internet Applications (aka. RIA, Rich Client Technology etc).

Scott first started out as a graphic designer in the late 90’s and over the years developed a passion for programmatic art (Designer + Developer mind). He recently has branched out further into 3D modelling and animation making full use of both his designer + developer mindset.

"..The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man..." - George Bernard Shaw
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