▲ 2 points
back
4 comments
I'm not sure you can separate it into those distinct categories. It's a balancing act; the point will go to the startup with some aesthetics along with intuitive simplicity.
There are certain weights you place on each factor depending on the target of your site and what it is offering.
One could argue that visual interfaces require a greater mental burden than a simple text interface and so they are less likely to be as successful.
It seems to me that startups with visual content (e.g., videos, images) have an advantage, but those with visual interfaces (e.g., visualizing search results) are actually worse off than ones with plain text interfaces. Is that so?
There isn't a lot of good theory behind visualizations, so I have been working on creating my own. My thinking, as pertains to this, is that visualizations fall into two categories:
1) Visualizations where the goal is to help the user understand things that are too complicated to grok from raw data. Examples include histograms, line graphs, pie charts, etc.
2) Visualizations where the goal is to help the user actually create more complex thoughts than would otherwise be possible. Examples include mind maps, concept maps, flow charts, etc.
The goal of a visual interface, as opposed to a visualization, is to reduce the cognitive load required to use the software.
I think a lot of reason why we see such garbage is because many people are choosing a visualization from the wrong category to solve their given problem.