It’s about the content stupid

Designer/writer Stephanie Rieger, talking about her frustrations while browsing the Camper web site:

All this wouldn’t be so bad if each shoe collection didn’t spawn yet another “Please wait” message, and yet another 20 second wait before i’ve even seen the shoes (…but that’s what the awesome copywriting is for…a collection called Flexibility, Together or Cushioning must surely be worth the wait!)

Eventually it becomes unbearable. Where is a good mobile site when you need one?

Like Jeffrey Zeldman noted in his oft quoted article several weeks ago, if we don’t design our content to be easily consumed, we’re toast – users will search for alternative consumption methods (e.g. Instapaper, PDFs, competitor’s web sites) almost immediately.