With all due respect to Ken Friedman
From: Ken Friedman <ken.friedman@bi.no> Subject: [Air-l] Two important books on Web design: Content Critical, Web Content Style Guide
Our universities, schools and departments are spending -- and wasting -- millions of dollars, pounds, kroner, lira, markka, etc., on Web sites that do not work. Far too many organizations mount Web sites loaded with special effects and fancy images, without attending to accessible information, ease of use, or good navigation. Many organizations mount Web sites that must be repeatedly redesigned. If we can develop and retain key knowledge on basic issues, the future investments we make will become a long-term gain.
This is not a comment on the value of the books recommended by Ken but I think the statement above is far too simplistic and similar to the usual Jakob Nielsen rant on usability which might have made sense in 1995 but doesn't make any more sense today than it would to recommend that all books be designed like text books, film like Red Cross training films or television like news programming on PBS/BBC. The content, goal and audience determines the structure and style. Web design is not about web design, it is about web-d 'media' design. We are talking about a medium of expression which will be expressed in many ways. Sometimes the best way to get across an idea is with the ambiguity and obfuscation common to art. A critique of the Bible and other holy documents could be that they might have been easier understood if they hadn't been written in parable form and just used bulleted action points not open to interpretation. Just another POV. Excuse me while I go look up the books Ken recommends which I might use in class but with a proviso. --Thom, Director of the MIME program in total media obfuscation \\\\//// tHoM gIllEsPiE /ww ww\ Indiana University, Telecommunications Dept 6 (*][*) ? 1229 E 7th St Radio & TV Bldg \ .7 / Bloomington, IN 47405-5501 USA ( --') thom@indiana.edu 812-855-3254 (v) WWWW THE MIME PROGRAM: www.mime.indiana.edu / WW \ www.indiana.edu/~slizzard/resume/page.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What is the use of a book, thought Alice, without pictures or conversation. -Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventure in Wonderland
At 19:09 Uhr -0500 30.9.2001, thom wrote:
doesn't make any more sense today than it would to recommend that all books be designed like text books, film like Red Cross training films or television like news programming on PBS/BBC. The content, goal and audience determines the structure and style.
Hi Thom, very well put! I completely agree and would like to add that the WWW calls for even more diversity in design than was necessary in these traditional media, as there is so much variation in the technical underpinnings of the Web (html versions, plugins, connections/loading times, browsers, operating systems...). Cheers from Zürich, --u -- ********** Dr. Ulf-Dietrich Reips Anschrift/Address: Universität Zürich ICQ: 16739325 Psychologisches Institut Fax: 0041-1-6344929 Attenhoferstr. 9 CH-8032 Zürich, Switzerland ----------------------------------------------------------------------- *Dimensions of Internet Science* now available! -> http://www.genpsy.unizh.ch/reips/dis/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------
I agree that the debate has little to do with content vs flash, usability vs looks. While it is great to have good books, the primary site of waste and problems for academic and .org design has little to do with theories of usability and design. Sites of waste and problems (among others): sites are designed by committee (and committee rarely agrees). sites overseen by administrators who do not use the web. spend too much money on outside vendor -- does not understand discipline or organization (and nobody knows how to update). spend too little money on student designers who leave the next semester with all passwords (and nobody knows how to update). IT controls and will not allow variations and does not understand differing needs. IT does not control and cannot support the thousands of variations and micro-startups within each department. No discipline specific images can be used on a web site because it may "favor" one department area over another. Site at the center of a faction dispute within department, college, program, organization. content limited by copyright and differing "visions" of what the site should do. On and on. I am sure others have many better examples. It would be nice to see a book that addresses the real issues of site design. Dean Rehberger Associate Director of Matrix Associate Professor Michigan State University 310 Auditorium East Lansing, MI 48824-1120 rehberger@mail.matrix.msu.edu matrix.msu.edu/rehberger wk: (517) 355-9300 fax: (517) 355-8363 hm: (517) 347-7372
I webmaster for a grade school. Our principal attended a workshop last week at which a lawyer suggested that any links (on our site) out to other sites MUST go to the HOME page only (no deeper). There was a suggestion that this was mandated by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and that linking directly to an article of interest, past the host home page, was an infringement. I'm not a legal scholar...though I do try to keep up. This one's new on me. Can those of you with experience in this area comment please. Thanks peace Edward Lee Lamoureux, Ph. D. Associate Professor, Speech Communication and Multimedia Editor, Journal of Communication and Religion Bradley University Peoria IL 61625 ell@bradley.edu http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~ell Fax: 309-677-3446
At 8:48 Uhr -0500 1.10.2001, Ed Lamoureux wrote:
I webmaster for a grade school. Our principal attended a workshop last week at which a lawyer suggested that any links (on our site) out to other sites MUST go to the HOME page only (no deeper).
This is either a joke or a sign of incompetence. Really funny. As if all Websites were even designed in the "one main page" way. Fortunately this guy will rarely be linked to ;-) Cheers, --u
participants (4)
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Dean Rehberger -
Ed Lamoureux -
thom -
Ulf Reips