Time for another little single question quiz.
Question: which picture should you click?
Which picture should you click if you’re a citizen and which one if you’re a business owner on the website of the beautiful Flemish city of Oudenaarde?
Hint: it’s not the middle one. That one’s for ‘Visitors’. Obviously.
Answer
If you’re a citizen of Oudenaarde, you should click the picture on the left (‘Inwoner’). If you’re a business owner, you should click the picture on the right (‘Ondernemen’).
The explanation:
- The picture on the left shows the town’s administrative center, where citizens can get answers to all their administrative questions.
- The picture on the right is a picture of the town’s main shopping street, the beating heart of the local economy.
So you think a picture is worth a thousand words? Think again.
Avoid ‘quiz pages’
Apart from the questionable pictures it’s not a good idea to present people with web pages like that. It makes people second-guess themselves:
- I live in Oudenaarde but I’m visiting the website. Does that automatically make me a visitor?
- Where should I click if I don’t live in Oudenaarde yet but I am moving there? I’m not a citizen yet but I’m not really a visitor either.
- What if I live in Oudenaarde but am looking for a walking trail?
In case you still don’t get it: web pages with choices like that are evil. Absolutely not done. So don’t do it.
Bart Gysens says
Hey Els,
Right!
In the early 2000’s splash pages were in discussion, leading to adoption of not using splash pages by most webbuilders.
A trend is marchin’ in : splash pages are back!
Why?
BTW: bummer in design; fault right bottom in FF
Els Aerts says
@Bart Gysens: You summed it up nicely. “Why?” 😉