A Real Crappy User Interface

I’m not much of a gambler, but from time to time it is fun to visit a casino, especially if you don’t put too much on the line.  Over the weekend I had an opportunity while on a trip to Missouri to visit one of the famous Riverboat Casino’s.  I’ve come to enjoy the game of Craps.  Of all the games in the Casino, if you play correctly, your odds of winning are only slightly lower than the house.
Craps however has a problem.  It suffers from a horrible interface design (at least from the user’s perspective).  For many years, I would walk past the craps table seeing it as the most complicated game in the Casino.  In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.  It is probably one of the easiest (next to slots).  The table layout and vast array of bet options set out on an extremely complicated playing field scare away many potential clients.
As I looked at the layout, I realized that what was wrong with the Craps table is exactly what is wrong with many web sites.  They are laid out to make sense to the house (or in the case of the interface, the designer or site owner) to the detriment of the player (or visitor).  Analytics can show you part of the story, but you can never really tell how much business poor interface drives off. 
In the case of the Casino, there is an upside.  By complicating the interface, they create all types of low payout bets that favor the house and quickly drain a players wallet.  In the case of your website, there is no upside.  So take a fresh look at your user interface and see if it favors the house, or the player.  Unless you own a casino, if it doesn’t favor the player, unlike the world of gambling…you lose.