Web Content Is Like Quidditch: Bludgers and Obstacles

Last week, Mozilla employees from around the globe gathered work face-to-face, learn more about other projects happening outside our teams and have some fun. Throughout the week, we attended sessions to learn more about different subjects. I presented on how Mozilla’s Web Content is Like Quidditch. I thought a few recap posts here on the blog would enlighten and inspire others.

To begin, let’s review the rules of Quidditch – the game of choice for Wizards in the Harry Potter books and movies. There are 7 players on each team. One Keeper, 3 chasers, 2 beaters and a seeker. There are three balls used in the game. A bludger, a ball that is bewitched to knock players off their brooms, a quaffle, a ball that is bewitched to fall to the ground slowly and easily carried with one hand, and the golden snitch, which is “wicked fast, and nearly impossible to see.”

There are three hoops on each side of the field, and the Chasers try and put the Quaffle in one of those three hoops on the opposing side, scoring 10 points each time. Beaters hit the bludgers with bats, either towards opposing side players, or away from their own players to protect them. The seeker ends the game and scores 150 points by catching the Golden Snitch.

In this post, I’d like to talk about those nasty buggers – bludgers. In Quidditch, bludgers are simply obstacles – meant to distract players from reaching their desired goal.

For users, bludgers, or obstacles, are real issues when they are trying to read and enjoy Web content. Some obstacles include simple things like – is the content written in my language? Other obstacles might be confusing navigation, dead links, or – and Mozilla does this quite a bit – short-term campaigns. Content should be available when the user wants to read it – not when we tell them to. Plus, why create SPLENDID content that we don’t archive for SEO goodness?

Can you think of other obstacles that may stand in the way of users finding good content? Users, can you tell us some of your obstacles?

More on content and Quidditch next post!