Re: [CAPABILTIES] wording suggestion

On Thu, 13 Apr 2006 02:05:09 +0900, <dom@w3.org> wrote:

> The Mobile Web Best Practice Working Group has reviewed the comments you
> sent [1] on the Last Call Working Draft [2] of the Mobile Web Best
> Practices 1.0 published on 13 January 2006 Thank you for having taken the
> time to review the document and to send us comments!
>
> This message holds the disposition of the said comments on which the
> Working Group has agreed. This disposition has been implemented in the  
> new version of the document available at:
> http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-mobile-bp-20060412/
>
> Please review it carefully and let us know if you agree with it or not
> before 3 May 2006. In case of disagreement, you are requested to provide  
> a specific solution for or a path to a consensus with the Working Group.
...
>  1. http://www.w3.org/mid/op.s490dlpcwxe0ny@pc090.coreteam.oslo.opera.com
>  2. http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-mobile-bp-20060113/
> =====
>
> Your comment on [CAPABILITIES] Do not take...:
>
>
> Rather than the negative "Do not take a least common denominator
> approach", this could be better phrased as "... to maximise usability" or
>
> something similar. It needs to be clear that while this practise does
> authorise sending enhanced content to users who are clearly able to make
> use of it, it does not authorise breaking the "one web" principle and
> simply ignoring users (provided they have at least a "baseline-capable"
> device).
...
> Working Group Resolution:
> Under what it means, it says:
>
> "While encouraging content providers to be sensitive to the needs of the
> default delivery context, it is not intended that this results in a
> diminished experience on more capable devices. Specifically it is not the
> intention to encourage the development of sites that target the default
> delivery context when a better user experience could be attained on more
> capable devices."
>
> which makes it clear that baseline devices should not be forgotten.

I am unsatisfied with this resolution. While baseline devices are not  
forgotten, the practise is still essentially negative - "Do not do..."  
something which actually in many cases is perfectly reasonable.

I suggest that the text be changed to "Take advantage of known user  
capabilities to enhance user experience". Similarly, the "what it means"  
text should encourage, where appropriate, the development of sites which  
take advantage of user capabilities which are beyond those available in  
the default device context, while not discouraging people from making  
simple content which is already relatively mobile-friendly available to  
mobile devices just because it does not have specific mobile-oriented  
adaptation.

cheers

Chaals

-- 
Charles McCathieNevile                     chaals@opera.com
   hablo español  -  je parle français  -  jeg lærer norsk
      Peek into the kitchen: http://snapshot.opera.com/

Received on Monday, 1 May 2006 19:07:15 UTC