To see what I mean visit getsatisfaction.com. Initially, the website may strike you as a characterful, Mailchimp like, ‘fun’ experience; lots of attractive images, typefaces and even some games to play.

I originally visited the site to find out what getsatisfaction does. It was a frustrating and irritating experience; too many navigational cul–de–sacs and too much time spent figuring out which menu to use while squinting at the text. I suspect my experience isn’t unique.

Meaningful imagery requires thought; pretty but essentially random images are mere decoration

The designers of the getsatisfaction site appear to have followed Mailchimp’s lead in using quirky imagery by employing a circus metaphor, representing an attempt to create some sort of adventurous ‘experience’.

The metaphor is at least applied consistently, but it fails on the most basic level in that bears no relation to the product it’s describing, or the user’s context or experience of the product. I’m not sure what the excitement and risk of the circus has to do with gathering customer feedback.  Where Mailchimp  plays with a seasonal idea by using some charming vampire imagery and language around Halloween, getsatisfaction display images of lion tamers, circus tents and trapeze artists all of the time. Pretty, but why?

Hygiene is important. Don’t let pretty images get in the way of the basics

This apparently random imagery is, in and of itself, merely baffling. It causes a bigger problem when it confuses users and stops them performing basic tasks.

This about page (oddly labelled hello in the main navigation menu) consists of a series of circus posters that point to other areas of the site. One immediate problem is that the text on the posters is hard to read, another is that the labels don’t describe where they point to; a consequence of the metaphor having nothing to do with the product. (Incidentally, the designers appear to have acknowledged this problem — if you hover over a poster a clearer, more descriptive label appears. At an angle, of course.)

To make matters worse, getsatisfaction uses several different graphical navigational effects, each of which has to be ‘learned’. Mystery Meat Navigation abounds.

Just because you can add text shadows, grungy backgrounds and font face doesn’t mean you should

Another irritating feature of getsatisfaction is its enthusiasm for trendy visual effects. Where Mailchimp uses non–standard fonts sparingly (and mainly through images of Helvetica) and renders body copy in plain old (but entirely legible) Arial/Helevetica, getsatisfaction opts for Benton Sans, text shadow and a textured background. While Benton Sans may be a fine font that looks good on a Mac and in print, Windows renders it like it was written by someone with the DTs.

This wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if you could be sure you had an audience of Mac or Ubuntu wielding designers, or you were building a website for some sort of ‘creative’ concern such as a poet or band, but getsatisfaction is, by definition, aimed at anybody with a PC and serves a prosaic, workaday function. Why make navigation difficult and your text virtually illegible to most of your readers just so you don’t have to use Arial or Georgia?

Imagery, narrative and experience are difficult to get right

Some sites get character and narrative right and create a richer experience as a result. Mailchimp serves as an excellent example, as does Analog Co-op. getsatisfaction demonstrates that creating some form of coherent, positive experience is difficult and involves a range of creative, writerly skills; pretty graphics and clever programming are only a part of the story.

It also reveals a baffling contempt for the nuts and bolts of website design. While organisations begin to see value in creating customer relationships that go beyond mere ‘satisfaction’ this does not mean that getting your ‘hygiene’ factors right is somehow unimportant. If your website fails to do what it’s meant to do then no amount of polish will make for a great experience.