Mike Morley is a Web Developer working for a software company in London, married to Rachel and lucky enough to be Welsh (and to be married to Rachel!). He spend whatever holiday time he has, on holiday.
Tell us about yourself? What do you do fulltime? What kind of projects you have been doing? When?
I am a Web Developer, I previously worked for a Design Agency called Red Snapper on both front and backend code. I now work for Ipreo as Frontend Web Software Developer, looking after HTML/CSS/JavaScript for a Java application used by investment banks in the City of London. Recent projects include a drag and drop report module and the re-factoring of application front end code in line with web standards and improving cross browser compatibility.
Is this your first time visiting Cambodia? Share with us what is most inspiring during your trip?
I am yet to go, but looking forward to going very much.
You are often accused of being over critical of websites. What makes a good website?
The first, and if nothing else, the only thing a website should do is allow you to achieve your aims when arriving on a website. I believe e-Visa goes beyond with good design. Normal users should be able to move through the process without having to think too much in order to acccomplish their task. From my profession I often think about design and process, but this is often when things go wrong and a user is left confused on what to do. Good design is more subtle, often you do not realise something is well made purely because the amount of effort reqired to complete a task is minimal and you can move through a process as if on auto-pilot. I believe that it is the ease of use achieved on e-Visa that makes it a good example of design. Information and the interfaces are provided through a clear and uncluttered visual design allowing no unneccesary distractions for the users. Information is laid out in a logical easy to navigate manner with the appropriate visual hierarchies, iconography and white-space so important information is easily found and supporting information is visible by not intrusive. Along with the strong visual cues guiding you through the process the feedback on user actions was excellent, you knew exactly when you had completed a section and where I needed to go next. Finally there was attention to detail, options to duplicate flight data for all passengers in a single click, simplified image upload and verification and well thought through visual guidance made for a positive user experience. I get the impression that your client has been flexible in allowing process change in their visa applications and you have managed to implement this process efficiently online.
In what ways has the e-Visa website been appealing to you?
It has successfully achieved exactly what I wanted with much less effort, which the internet often has the power to do. That is to simplify a particular task by allowing easy access to information, an interface to information provision and a method of delivery. All of which took a few minutes rather than several hours that other paper based processes may take.
The eVisa website is catering to travelers from more than 150 countries. We believe we are not doing enough on the localization. Do you have suggestions?
The only thing I can say is that I found the application process excellent and I never noticed that website was used across multiple languages on first look – so either you do not have a problem with localisation or your simplification of processes have been so successful the need for localisation is reduced. I believe simplicity is the greatest success of the e-Visa site, just keep it simple and doing the job it is meant for.
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2 thoughts on “Good Design is More Subtle”