Should we change the graphics to JPEGs? Also, do you think the
popups are user-friendly?
On my own website, after what I like to think was careful thought and
experiment, and feedback from the first users:
- JPG for all color photos
- GIF for all drawings, symbols, schematics; for anything in
black-and-white; for very small thumbnails where exact shading
doesn't matter; for anything where, contrariwise, exact color is very
important (since JPGs dither differently on different computers); and
of course for clickmaps.
Popups are perceived as irritating by users only if (a) they pop up
on their own; (b) they are extraneous to the subject matter of the
site.: in sum, if they're spam.
I try to keep the number of large photos on any single page of
mine down to no more than 5: when I need to illustrate some side
point, I sometimes use a link that, when selected by the user, opens
a photo popup; and the link itself warns you that that's what it's
going to do.
--
Bill Thayer
LacusCurtius at the University of Kansas
http://www.ukans.edu/history/index/europe/ancient_rome/E/home.html
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