Re: conflation of issues or convergence of interests?

At 16:31 +1000 UTC, on 2007-07-29, Lachlan Hunt wrote:

> Patrick H. Lauke wrote:
>> Lachlan Hunt wrote:

[...]

> There are known problems with
> the object fallback mechanism in all the major browsers, and it would be
> silly to ignore that evidence.  We should investigate what has caused
> these problems in the past and try to understand why, so that we don't
> repeat the same mistakes.

Which known problems are you referring to, and what in your opinion caused
them?

> We should also seriously consider the usability impact of introducing a
> radically new way of accessing content.  It might sound like a good idea
> for a UA to give the user full control to be able to switch between an
> object and its alternative, but that is a long way from having a usable
> product that users understand and are comfortable with.

Yeah, that'll require research, creativity, and just generally being willing
to experiment/search/think different. (Much like with everrything else men
has come up with thus far really ;))

> Anything that
> requires a major paradigm shift for users is unlikely to succeed.

Hm... computers haven't failed have they? Nor has the mouse. Or to keep it
closer to home, consider how the iPhone completely does away with the concept
of scroll bars. I've seen no indication whatsoever that that will make the
iPhone fail. Quite the contrary.


-- 
Sander Tekelenburg
The Web Repair Initiative: <http://webrepair.org/>

Received on Monday, 30 July 2007 00:40:08 UTC