Take a rock and roll band site for example?rock and roll appeals to people who don?t mind being frustrated by ?mystery meat navigation,? [Flanders? term for confusing website navigation], flash animation and all those other silly things that would never work on Amazon.com.

Yes, the search box will still search. A very frustrating site is the Beatles site (www.beatles.com)?the links move and you have to track them down to click on them. They move so quickly that you are never sure which one you are going to click on, but that?s part of the game. Sites like those do not have accountability.

NIELSEN: I?m not sure I agree. Just because they are not accountable, in the direct sense of having the metric easily retrievable, doesn?t mean that they should be given a license to just throw away the company?s money. They still have the business goal of getting people to see the film or attend the rock concert. It may be harder to measure compared with an e-commerce site, but that doesn?t mean that there isn?t a connection.

Look at the example of the Beatles site. Committed fans will suffer through having to chase the links around the screen, but the people in the gray zone are more inclined to go away.

On a rock band site, if the user cannot figure out where the band is playing or when they are coming to town, then they are going to lose a lot of ticket sales.

FLANDERS: Right, but the reason people use these strange techniques is for that very same reason?you can?t prove how well that site is doing.

NIELSEN: I would agree they are doing that from a management perspective, but I?m arguing that it is mismanaged.

FLANDERS: But certain sites are expected to be hip. There are very few big bands out there that have sites like Amazon.com.

NIELSEN: I would agree that in some things, such as visual appearance, those websites can achieve a more edgy look, but again there is a difference between the look and the feel. The feel should still be that you can use it, otherwise they really are going to lose money.

The goal for a rock site should be that the music is the content. Website producers should have enough faith in their own content, in their own stars, to really feature that instead of putting up barriers between the people and the music.


CIO: Should websites be aesthetically pleasing?
FLANDERS: To create a website that is both commercially effective, usable and aesthetically pleasing is one of the most difficult things to do. I think that is an extraordinarily difficult thing, and if it weren?t difficult you wouldn?t be talking to us.