Getting RSS Wrong Again
Alan Levine at CogDogBlog points out that VersionTracker now has RSS feeds, and that the orange-on-white XML icon, instead of pointing to the actual RSS file, directs the user to a separate web page explaining what syndication. Alan thinks this will make me happy.
Boy, he couldn’t be more wrong. This appraoch is even worse than the status quo.
For the record, the less-than-perfect status quo is an interface for syndication and aggregation (the orange-on-white XML icon) that:
- doesn’t communicate anything about its function to the average, non-technical Internet user
- links to a file (the XML-formatted RSS feed) that is meaningless for most users
- to use requires a procedure (right-click, copy link, paste link into an aggregator) that is neither automated nor intuitive
Why is improving this interface important? Good interfaces help good technologies grow. While I recognize that a good interface won’t save a bad technology, and that many good technologies have overcome horrendous interfaces, that really doesn’t excuse saddling a good technology like syndication/aggregation with a bad interface.
Crazily, in defense of the leaving the orange XML icon alone, Dave Winer said
How many people click on things they aren’t interested in? I don’t. Too busy. I might, if I knew nothing about XML, click once, after seeing them pop up in lots of familiar places, seeing something I don’t get, click on the Back button and remember not to go there again.
The unfortunate fact is Dave is right about that — those that are curious will click, and if they’re confused they will go away and not come back again. In my book, going away and not coming back is a problem.
Contrary to Alan’s graphic (”Oh dear! Just what does these things mean? Do I dare click them? I am scared!”), the concern isn’t that people will be “frightened” to click on the XML icon. As a producer of content, I want an interface for syndication that encourages and educates my readers to get involved with syndication and aggregation and to use it effectively — not an interface that encourages the uninitiated to never go there again!
The current interface is exclusive, it’s for the people “in the know.” It assumes that you already know what the icon and the acronym mean and what to do with marked-up text behind it. It communicates nothing to people unfamiliar with syndication and aggregation (never mind being familiary with XML). If your typical consumer learned to use it, they learned in spite of the interface, not because of it. They learned because someone else had to teach them to overcome the counter-intuitiveness of the interface.
Now you’re asking “So why are you against VersionTracker using the icon to link to explanatory text?” Simple: because it breaks the interface for those in the know. Someone who right-clicks on VersionTracker’s orange XML icon and pastes that URL into their aggregator won’t get subscribed to the feed. My goal is to encourage a new syndication feed subscription interface that is more communicative and more effective for readers who haven’t been educated on the purpose of the orange-on-white XML icon . . . while not breaking the legacy functionality for those already in the know.
Boy, you are tough to please. I am grateful I do not have to buy you a present.
Okay, the VersionTracker behavior RSS link would run counter to the expected behavior for those “in the know.” So it is not so great, I eat humble pie. But it is different.
I fail to see why it is worth getting worked up over the mechanism of how people get the feeds then getting them interested *in* the feeds. How are you drawing people to the glorious world of synidcation at the front door?
I hope you like plaid.
Alan–
Your comment is enough; no gift necessary. ;)
I’m far from worked up — although I think my writing style leads people to frequently believe I’m more worked up than I really am.
However, I am advocating that “the mechanism of how people get the feeds” and the mechansim of “how people get interested *in* the feeds” can (and should) be one and the same.
I fully admit that right now I’m not doing my best via this “front door” (this website) to implement the ideas I’m talking about . . . though it is in the works behind the scenes, along with a complete site re-design.
First, I’ve got to learn enough about XSL to implement Mezzoblue’s technique. And that’s the downside — the “solution” is even less accessible to the average user than the problem. In the long run, though, that’s something the weblog vendors can take care of. One of the greatest values of good software is getting the geek-oriented interfaces out of the way!
Greg: “I’m far from worked up — although I think my writing style leads people to frequently believe I’m more worked up than I really am.”
Having “known” Greg for several years, I can vouch for that. Be glad he doesn’t use the Monologue Foundry nearly as much as he used to. ;)