Re: Mailto misnamed not misdesigned (Was: Hyperlinks depend on GET (was: Re: REST and the Web))

[this is about the fabric in which the URIs appear, not URIs, Cc: shifted to www-archive.]

At 11:16 AM 2002-04-06 , Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
>> Compare with the navigation concepts for the now-Standard [TaDa!]
>> digital talking book format for what I mean by strong table of
>> contents support in the session structure.  The following
>> reference is the epicenter,  Truncate the URL a segment at a time
>> for more context. 
>> 
>>  Document Navigation Features List
>>  http://www.loc.gov/nls/z3986/background/navigation.htm
>
>A bit ironic that a document on document navigation would be so 
>lacking in site navigation that you have to advise readers to 
>manually truncate the URL for context...  :)
>

It seems ironic, and it is ironic.  Irony is based on conflicting interpretations.  In this case it is funny-peculiar; but not funny-HaHa.  There's a serious lesson lurking there.  So pardon me if I stray back on the serious side.  This is actually a great introduction to the challenges of creating a universally optimum experience from the Web.

From working with blind web users, I see the prunability of the URL that I mentioned as a strength of the site; that the site is strong in hierarchical concepts -- and that the naming follows these.  The hierarchy suggested in the naming works.  Lots of flat, navLinks are a burden when you are webbing in speech.  And the screen reader's plethora of webLinks is the screen viewer's hog heaven.  It makes the site work better for more of the latter than relying on the code in the URL. 

The main thing lacking is path-segment-wise 'smart pruning' in the URL input line of the browser. 

But in speech, mnemonics you can operate on verb-object and not object-verb are a godsend.

Design an interaction optimally for a voice dialog with VoiceXML and the same business in contemporary Web media for the desktop with mouse, screen, and keyboard.  Where are the hotlinks in the voice version?  How many are they?

The content of the web has to have the relational strength in its logical graph structure, supported with endemic methods, so that either mode of engagement works well.

I need to repost Kelly Ford's grumble about David Booth's "must have" breadcrumb trail navbars in public somewhere.

It's a great example of where there is no universal user-friendly design point in terms of show/hide/minimize vs. span of concurrency.  The universality is in a virtual infoset, not a document infoset.  The documents are already too bound to decisions that have to be late-bound for access to optimum experience by all.

Al

See also:

 HCI Fundamentals and PWD Failure Modes
 http://trace.wisc.edu/docs/ud4grid/#_Toc495220368

>-- 
>== Dan ==
>Dan's Web Tips: http://webtips.dantobias.com/
>Dan's Domain Site: http://domains.dantobias.com/
> 

Received on Saturday, 6 April 2002 13:36:35 UTC