Apologies to Mads Soegaard, who emailed me over two weeks ago to tell me that Interaction-Design.org has another “free as in beer” chapter available in their online UX encyclopedia.
If you haven’t checked out I-D.org, stop what you’re doing immediately and go there. I don’t care if you’re driving a commuter bus, operating heavy machinery, or sitting for an exam. Just go there now.
Here’s the kicker: not only do they have contributions from well-known UX’ers such as John Carroll, Holtzblatt & Beyer, etc…they’ve managed to nab a contribution by my favorite innovation writer, Clayton Christensen. Yes. Really.
Here’s the link to that chapter. I can’t wait to dig into it myself: Disruptive Innovation
- Slow-loading, zoomy Flash animation? Check.
- Music that kicks on when page loads? Check.
- Throbbing animated .gifs? Check.
- Eyestrain-inducing oversaturated color palette? Check.
- Borderline offensive use of models in suggestive food-eating poses? Check check and check.
- Bonus points: The site designer link leads to an Apache setup page. Oops.
The site’s got one thing going for it. But I’m guessing they didn’t actually research the advantages of radial menus for speed of onscreen target acquisition….it’s more about the pizza visual metaphor. The pizza pie menu is actually more efficient than a drop-down menu. Read up on the advantages and drawbacks of radial menus here.
But the zooming pizza slices are, let’s just say, optically unpleasant.
Could this be another “so bad it’s great” site, like Ling’s Cars? Maybe. I have half a mind to reach out to the site’s proprietors just to find out. I’m just so slammed with the new and growing company I don’t have any time to go on this type of adventure these days.
Check it: www.pizza-pop.ch
