The original plan behind HTML pages was that they should provide a rapid access mechanism to shared documents – research papers etc. Moreover, through hyperlinks, these documents could provide a mechanism for referencing other works: so, the plan was to create cross-referenced documents - period.
However, these days, web-pages have mostly metamorphosed into programs, where a document acts as a real front-end to some application or another. Two points – web-pages weren’t meant to be used like this and 2. “WHERE THE &^#*% IS THE NEXT BUTTON!”
From the first point, we now have the potential for things like scrollable-applications and death by Disney at each and every turn. We also have the potential for users to jump into our ‘application’ at some surprising level. By this, I mean that a user can, if they know the URL for some sub-page in our ‘application’, add it to their Favourites and, then, later, jump straight back to that page! Hmmm, that causes developers a few headaches – as they’re used to being a little more in control of what ‘mode’ the user’s in. It’s a little like ‘book-marking’ the page orientation dialog for a particular printer – if the printer you’re using at the moment isn’t the one you’ve previously book-marked – then, well … it’s not much use jumping to it is it?
On the web of course, this is usually dealt with by displaying a very well known web-page – it sometimes looks a little different but it’s almost always called ‘404 Error’ (or The Page Has Expired). This is the developer’s way of telling you that you shouldn’t be poking into their web-site at this page!
From the second point above, how often have you, the reader, played ‘hunt the Next button’ – putting that another way, how often have you been presented by a web-site and had to ‘discover’ what devious navigation method this one employs? Perhaps the ‘buttons’ (if they even look like buttons) are to the left, or perhaps along the top – perhaps they float in when you move the mouse pointer over some apparently extraneous graphic – perhaps the buttons are the graphics themselves – those smiling people perhaps?
One of the reasons that Windows is so popular is that it more or less forced a standard user-interface on us all. And, why not, it made applications a little easier to learn. You knew where you were to a large degree – you expected to find ‘Print’ on the ‘File menu’ and ‘Copy’ on the ‘Edit’ menu – and, you knew where those menus were meant to be and that to perform an action on them, you had to select, and then release, the mouse button over the item you wanted. Well, not anymore – now, it’s a free for all – maybe it’s the action of ‘mousing over’, the depression of the mouse button, the release of it – whatever!
Now, I’m not against artistic-licence or creating a certain unique sense-of-identity, but what does the average user want? I mean, my mum and dad have enough trouble dealing with Notepad – let alone the Interweb. But, if they went to pay their gas bill, say, on a site that ‘meant nothing to them’, well, they’d give up. Good news for Post Office – as they’ll carry on using stamps - but probably bad news for the gas board.
Moral: Most of the time, boring (read predictable) - is the best!