- From: Kynn Bartlett <kynn-edapta@idyllmtn.com>
- Date: Sat, 26 Aug 2000 10:56:39 -0700
- To: "jonathan chetwynd" <jc@signbrowser.org.uk>
- Cc: site-comments@w3.org, <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
At 01:27 AM 8/26/2000 , jonathan chetwynd wrote: >Surely it is important to recognise that at the minimum, when designing a >homepage every user should understand the aims of the site. > >I imagine about 1:1000 users shown the w3c homepage would express a positive >interest, or be able to answer a simple question on the aims of w3c. That >means 999 are not getting 'the message'. >Fortunately the WAI homepage fares a little better. Surprisingly, I actually agree with Jonathan on this part. (I disagree with some of the other aspects of his comments, which I've snipped.) I understand that the design philosophy of the W3C site is "they can find out information by clicking on the 'about' link" -- but I think that is a very flawed, dangerous philosophy that promotes unusable sites, one that would not be accepted in most non-academic web design. I agree 100% with the suggestion that any main page of a site, when visited by a user for the first time, should give enough information for that user to determine if he or she wants to use the site. This is a basic of usability and user-centered design, not to mention general web common sense. The W3C's site -fails- on that, and thus is less effective than it should be. --Kynn -- Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com> http://kynn.com/ Director of Accessibility, Edapta http://www.edapta.com/ Chief Technologist, Idyll Mountain Internet http://www.idyllmtn.com/ AWARE Center Director http://www.awarecenter.org/ Vote for Liz for N. Am. ICANN Nominee! http://www.khyri.com/icann/
Received on Saturday, 26 August 2000 14:18:01 UTC