No one actually cares about your web site

Observing user testing of our new Channel4.com I was reminded of something that's easy to forget: noone actually cares about web sites. To most users, the web site is a means to an end. In the case of a media company such as us, the end is content. It is very tempting to spend a heck of a lot of time enthusing about the design and being frightfully clever but, in the end, the job is to draw as little attention as possible to the web site, keep it on brand and to get out of the way.

A nice prompt to think more about this is iPlayer versus iPlayerlist. The first is a lovely design to be sure; very expensive I expect and "on-brand". The second is ... a list. Until recently it was all on a single page. I wonder how much people actually care about iPlayer when really it's the programmes, stupid.