Usability Views Article Details  home | timeline | recent | popular | e-reports | userati | books | about  Of Web Sites and Pinball Machines (09 Nov 2004) If you ask a typical web developer to describe how a web site works you're likely to learn about site maps, flow charts, and search engines. If you ask me, you're likely to learn a lot about pinball. A pinball machine is a great metaphor for describing how a web site works: not the mechanical side of working that involves ASP, PHP and databases, but the reality of how a web site attracts and retains customers. By thinking of the Internet as a huge arcade, and your customers as kids with a pocket full of quarters, its possible to take a fresh look at your web site and how it can be more effective. Article URL: http://www.evolt.org/article/Of_Web_Sites_and_Pinball_Machines/25/60400/index.html Read 94 more articles from evolt sorted by date, popularity, or title. Next Article: Toward a Metadata Generation Framework     This site is a labour of love built by Chris McEvoy