Comments on: Building Web Warrior Tools: A war on clutter

By: Erika

Erika — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:58:26 +0000

You should check out some of Jakob Nielsen’s work on web usability and best practices.

By: Glen Stansberry

Glen Stansberry — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:44:17 +0000

Thanks for the great comments guys! It’s always nice to hear that people agree with your instincts in web design.

By: productevangelist

productevangelist — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 01:16:33 +0000

The simpler the better! The easier a site is to navigate the more efficient it is for the user. I personally detest navigating through sites with all the unnecessary flashing ads, big banners,etc. I commend you for deliberately setting out to create a website that is user friendly and most importantly, simple!

By: ramenrentresumes.com

ramenrentresumes.com — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 18:43:30 +0000

It’s important to keep things simple visually, and with content. Simple content that’s to the point works best!!

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:26:22 +0000

@gumnos — We determine our content based on user input … such as with the responses from the Getting to Know You post and from questions that are submitted to us on the Contact Page. We also analyze the data from category click throughs and Google searches. We track what visitors to our site are reading. (Plus we follow the news and trends to see if there are subjects we’ve never addressed but will be of interest.)

If we were to write content simply based off of what we haven’t addressed in a while it wouldn’t correlate to what users want to read — often it means that what we wrote about initially just wasn’t of any interest to our readers. My thoughts on this matter are that we want to serve our readers, not repeatedly produce irrelevant content out of habit.

Also, we won’t be creating subcategories of content. Either content is current or it is part of our archive. Data can’t be MORE archived. Either it is in the archive or it’s not.

We are in the process of creating more categories. We won’t be getting rid of any categories, but we will be adding to them. We think it’s weird that we don’t have a category for books or children, for instance. So, look for these new categories to be rolled out this summer.

By: gumnos

gumnos — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:12:16 +0000

@Erin@goodsnake

Perhaps if active categories were listed with an “Older content” link, this sub-page could contain categories that haven’t seen authored-love in a while. This might also be useful to you as content-creators — “Hmm…we haven’t done an article about Travel in a while. Maybe that would make a good topic for our next article”.

Using your “2006 taxes” as an example, yes, I have my 2006 taxes around still, but they’re in my “important stuff to keep around archivally” filebox rather than my “actively use month-to-month” filebox.

Yes, in a way, adverts are clutter to most folks, but if you need them to keep the site profitable, then they have a purpose and aren’t just there as clutter.

By: Erin Doland

Erin Doland — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:43:26 +0000

@goodsnake — Is your dig at Unclutterer or Web Warrior Tools? If it’s at us, be a little more clear so that our guest writer doesn’t think that you’re being inconsiderate to someone who has given freely of his time to produce content as a favor for us and our readers.

Also, if you’re referring to Unclutterer … you don’t get rid of organization categories if they still have content in them. That’s poor data management. The content exists, so it is filed accordingly. Just because you haven’t put anything in your 2006 tax files since 2006 doesn’t mean you get rid of that file. Your reasoning is illogical. Plus, if someone has a link to a category page, it would break the link if we got rid of the category. Broken links are more clutter than categories full of data.

Secondly, we pay for our server through ad revenue, so the advertisements aren’t going anywhere. You get content for FREE thanks to our advertisers. If you find them loathsome, then subscribe to our content through a RSS feed that has much fewer ads in it.

By: goodsnake

goodsnake — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 20:19:01 +0000

If your site truly wanted to be uncluttered, you would eliminate the categories that you no longer produce content for and eliminate the long list of ads that clutter my vision on your site.

By: Egirlrocks

Egirlrocks — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:21:10 +0000

I just visted your site and I’d like to say: “Bravo!” The colors are good and the layout is logical and pleasing to the eye (at least my eye). For the same reasons I admire how you’ve built your site, I also use an internet portal called GNET.COM (http://www.gnet.com). There are no obnoxious ads or pop ups, just a few simple advertiser links and lots of links to all the popular search engines. You do have to sign up but they don’t send you junk emails or sell their lists. You can also add a small list of your own faves. Check it out!

By: allen

allen — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 18:49:16 +0000

I really appreciated the part where the author was honest about the fact that they don’t have it perfect yet, that they’re still trying, that they’re still evolving the look.

By: Joseph Z

Joseph Z — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:28:02 +0000

As someone who works on 2 e-commerce sites, I found this article very interesting. Glen touched on a big issue in e-commerce, getting as many items “above the fold” as possible. I’ve heard it said that consumers don’t like to scroll, that they’ll only spend a certain amount of time on a page, etc. When you sell a lot of products, having less clutter (as long as you don’t define products as clutter) helps customers to see what you sell.

I admire Glen’s approach and hope that I can use it too in the future

By: Shanel Yang

Shanel Yang — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 17:08:37 +0000

Very useful information! I recently heard of a study that confirmed that supermarket shoppers are overwhelmed by too many choices. Using salad dressings (if my memory serves me), they conducted experiments that proved fewer choices in the display resulted in more purchases. The researchers concluded that modern consumers, when overwhelmed by too many choices and too much information, rather than making the wrong choice, or taking the time to learn which product is best for them, simply passed on the whole decision.