"If so what can be done about it? I'm really interested in some ideas."
With all the professionals on this list, surely there must be some people who are willing to devote time to setting up a *real* awards program? Hell, I know I'd be willing to help, I know I'm no CSS guru (yet), but I sure could help in other ways. PS. What you are saying makes pure sense to me, and there really is no appreciation for real art work and hard work.... Taco Fleur Blog http://www.tacofleur.com/index/blog/ Methodology http://www.tacofleur.com/index/methodology/ Tell me and I will forget Show me and I will remember Teach me and I will learn > -----Original Message----- > From: Mark Stanton [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, 10 February 2004 6:14 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: [WSG] Tenth AIMIA Awards announced > > > > Wow - the Grammies of web design..... One day these awards > might pay attention to what is actually going on in the web > medium & not treat sites as high bandwidth, "interactive" TV ads. > > There are a couple of good ones in there, a couple of your > usual flash eye-candy sites and a whole bunch of rubbish. > > This one looks good - http://www.ecorecycle.vic.gov.au/ - > Government site, nice "table & spacer image" based layout > doing a good impression of a css layout (all the rage these > days you hear!) and an "Accessibility Rating" link in the > footer. Click the link.... > > "This site is not optimised for your browser. To view this > site successfully you need Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 > and above or Netscape 4.0 and above. > > You can upgrade your browser from the following locations: > > * Internet Explorer > * Netscape > > You may proceed to the site but you may experience difficulty > viewing pages. Proceed to the home page." - > http://www.ecorecycle.vic.gov.au/www/unsupported_browser.asp > > Award winning indeed..... Sorry for the negativity. > > ------------------------------------ > > Ok that was my initial reaction on seeing the awards site - I > didn't send the email at 4pm because I thought there was too > much emotion there & not enough thought. I've chilled a bit > now & here's my take. > > These web design awards are a pretty sorry reflection on the > state of the industry - pretty much every award I've seen > places all the emphasis on eye-candy and none on the > underlying quality of a web page in terms of how well does it > "plays" in the Internet space. I'm not suggesting that sites > should win these awards solely because they are standards > compliant, but that should be a factor at least - > particularly basic accessibility. > > Funnily enough I've just had a guy wander into the office - I > saw the name of his company when I was browsing the AIMIA > site and asked him about the awards & gave him my take on it > all. It turns out he was a judge in some of the categories > (oops). His impression is that they have to make a decision > based on the limited number of sites that are put in front of > them. Also many of the judges are not qualified or > experienced in web standards, they are just your regular IE > users with broadband connections. > > Another point to make is that AIMIA does stand for Australian > Interactive Media Industry Association and not Web Standards Group. > > But still, its kinda sad that despite the progress made in > developing standards compliant sites - it's a long long way > from being main stream. So is it a problem that these awards > and other "best of breed" website showcases like the MM "Site > of the day" ignore standards compliance and accessibility as > valid parts of a good web development? > > If so what can be done about it? I'm really interested in some ideas. > > > > "Boundary-busting, stylistically baroque experiments built > with DHTML and Flash will continue to win awards as long as > judges continue to view them in the latest browsers on > wide-screen G4s and Pentiums with T1 connections. And, it > goes without saying, they will win these awards only if they > are prize-worthy in their graphic design and programming. > We're not talking about bad design, here. We're talking about > design at the highest levels - but design of a certain type only. > > ....... > > I worry about the medium, because not enough designers are > working in that vast middle ground between eye candy and > hardcore usability where most of the Web must be built. And > there are fewer and fewer incentives for Web designers to > toil in these fields, since this type of work pleases Web > users but wins absolutely no recognition from the industry, > aside from a paycheck. ("My God, it loaded so quickly and > worked so well, even in IE3 on my Dad's old Dell machine." > You know how awards show judges are always saying things like > that? Neither do I.)" > > - Mr Zeldman > http://web.archive.org/web/20030414182353/www.adobe.com/web/fe atures/zeldman 20000821/page2.html Adobe seem to have dumped this little gem from their site :( Cheers Mark ------------------ Mark Stanton Technical Director Gruden Pty Ltd Tel: 9956 6388 Mob: 0410 458 201 Fax: 9956 8433 http://www.gruden.com <http://www.gruden.com/> ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ ***************************************************** ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ *****************************************************
