Simple metric to evaluate a UI

Thanks for the link,

I was actually being generous in that screenshot, people using email probably don't care about the weather forecast either, so that leaves very little :)

I love the GoodExperience blog btw, been a subscriber for a fair few months at this stage.

Never mind online apps. Try this with your utility bills.

MasterCard recently redesigned the layout of their monthly statements. The old statement was printed on 8.5x11" paper; the new one is 8.5x14". But gray out everything not immediately relevant to the cardholder (e.g. amount owing and transaction detail) and the result is quite embarrassing...

I use a similar strategy in workshops and it certainly helps business stakeholders understand how the user "controls" their design.

I simply ask for a few volunteers to come forward and draw the home page of the website they visit most frequently.

They can't see what each other is drawing but of course their drawings are inevitably the same - a rectangle with a few other rectangles ["There's something here and here"], then the one section of the home page that they use.

Everyone else in the workshop knows they would draw the same outline - I don't have to use ANY of my "experience" or "expertise" to convince them and then we can move quickly onto planning where in fact in a website you CAN cross-sell. [A topic that Ginny Redish also takes up in her new book, Letting Go of the Words - Writing Web Content that Works]

Well, doesn't the article say "lets gray out everything that someone [..] cares about."?
You got it the other way round!