The Unfathomable Attributes of Mystery Meat Navigation
Published: 04/12/2009 by Alan Vandenbroek
Mystery Meat Navigation refers to a condition where navigating through web pages becomes difficult and links become inaccessible or difficult to locate. This term was coined by Vincent Flanders to bring to notice the unfathomable attributes of this condition which is often experienced by web users as well as analysts and web designers. Some of its common features consist of unrevealing icons or texts that appear only when the cursor moves above it. While at other times, determining hyper links might become a strenuous job, in cases where the links are actually difficult to locate or find.
Website designing is a highly specialized task that requires proper placement of icons, words, pictures, links and other features that make browsing easier. However, the concept of Mystery Meat Navigation has been found to be a reality for many websites. For example, many sites overuse Flash, making it difficult to locate links. The website of Museo de Arte Moderno utilizes this technique and the web pages contain numerous squares. The moment the mouse cursor moves over it, it starts blinking and the user realizes that it is actually a link that would take them to another page, thus making the entire process extremely cumbersome. Using Flash judiciously can create beautiful web pages, but the use of small sized texts or the lack of contrast does not serve the purpose at all.
Another website that gives an apt example of Mystery Meat Navigation is Fry Steel. The excessive usage of graphics makes it almost impossible to find out the products on offer or to place orders for anything. Though some companies deliberately use the MMN technique for using it in all the pages, some start off with it and do not display any of it in the later pages. Many corporate web pages are also at fault using this technique. Chipotle, for example, has a logo sitting on the start up page when one enters the site. Once the introduction finishes, users can navigate to the next page without understanding where to browse next or how to move back to the previous page.
The presence of MMN is also visible in various music, movie and art sites. Since their main aim is to attract audience and not sell their products, they can experiment with MMN. But, it should not be used to such an extent that it removes the utility factor and makes it difficult for users to locate the desired information.
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