Peter Seebach has an interesting commentary on the dangers of categorizing users. We've all seen sites that have navigation based on user categories ("For Teachers", "For Parents", and so on). Seebach recounts his experiences when looking for a laptop:
What am I? Am I some guy who just wants a laptop (Home & Home Office), or am I an employee of a Medium & Large Business? Are the product lines and pricing the same? If I want to buy a laptop that's in the business list, but not in the home list, will the company try to sue me for committing fraud? Why, exactly, do they need to know this?
I thing using categories for navigation can be useful, under some circumstances. Of course, one great way to find out if your categories are right is to have some users perform a card sort. Organizational patterns should emerge quickly.
Posted by Karl
January 24, 2003 03:02 PM