Doing what works (and what doesn’t)

The folks at stuffthatworks.health have a problem.

The navigation structure for their site is a mess. It doesn’t work.

That’s because instead of relying on a tried and true approach to navigate each condition, they decided it would be much cooler to create a visual map.

To make matters worse, if you land on a page via search, there’s no reliable way to make it back to the homepage, to find out what this project is and who it’s for.

Or consider that they have custom-coded popups without an exit button.

It’s a great idea. Poorly executed.

Better, I think, to focus on what works when it comes to things that will make or break your site, and to innovate on the part where doing so actually makes a difference.