On 16 Aug 98, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> It's not a commercial site , my target is mostly of an academic
>> nature.
> Aren't the academics the conservative folks who tend not to upgrade
> their browsers? And the ones who got their computers some time back?
Good point, and one we'd all be well-advised to bear in mind while making
decisions about what level of browser to design for. By definition all of us
on this list are "super-users", with a vested interest in owning the most
current browsers, plug-ins and hardware; but a majority of Web surfers
are more casual users, dipping into it only occasionally for specific
purposes. They may not know or care that their current browser is "out
of date", and nor should we as site designers exclude them from enjoying
the content we produce as a result.
I first came up against this principle when creating a site for my father's
company a couple of years ago (http://www.kirbyeades.com) As a patent
attorney, his clients are largely corporate researchers, academics and
lawyers, and I simply assumed that such a demographic group would be
exceptionally attuned to the latest Web and PC technology. So my first
draft of the site used numerous bells and whistles that would work only in
NS 2.0, at the time the newest browser available.
But my dad pointed out that there were many good reasons that his users
might not have that browser, and thus that I should design for the lowest
common denominator. For one thing, a number of his clients are in former
East Bloc countries, and simply don't have access to the latest hardware;
an old 486 is still a coveted toy for a researcher there. More significantly,
he pointed out that for many of his users the Web was still a novelty, a
medium they used only occasionally. They were content with whatever
browser was on their systems when they got started on the Web, and
would be annoyed if forced to go to the trouble of downloading and
installing a new one. Their computers were used for more important
things, and they didn't want to muck around with them unnecessarily.
He also noted that many other users were old hands on the Internet,
accustomed to the pre-Web milieu of Pine, Gopher and so on; thus --
rather ironically -- they would have a sort of "ideological" aversion to
tarty, gimmick-laden Web sites. "Just the facts, ma'am." (Actually, we
still see this tendency amongst some of the old guard on this list at times
<g>)
So anyway, I simplified the design, eliminated the gimmicks, and have
pretty much left the site alone these past couple of years. And my dad's
firm continues to receive complimentary feedback about what is really a
very basic and unremarkable site.
-----------
Brent Eades, Almonte, Ontario
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Town of Almonte site: http://www.almonte.com/
Business site: http://www.federalweb.com
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