From the Wise-Women List: Reply #1

I did some more polling of members of the Wise-Women web design list,
to get their opinions on the matter and to see what perspectives they
could offer which we might not have strongly represented.  (For example,
I am -not- an artistic person and don't consider myself a graphic
artist, so I can't represent those viewpoints myself.)

Here's the first of two that I've received so far:

--Kynn

>Date: Tue, 24 Oct 2000 07:30:06 -0700
>From: hilde schneider-mott <hilde@whidbey.com>
>X-Accept-Language: en
>To: kynn@idyllmtn.com
>Subject: Re: [WW] Opinions Needed: Using CSS instead of Textual Graphics
>
>
>Kynn...
>
>I don't think it's as simple as asking web designers to give up 
>their textual graphics. Much of why I do things the way I do them on 
>any given site is client driven. Clients want rollovers and fancy 
>fonts, and very specific effects sometimes that simply cannot be 
>achieved any way other than graphically. While I generally try to 
>keep this to a minimum, use alt tags where I cannot use actual text, 
>and explain accessibility issues to a client, often they want
>what they want what they want and they will settle for nothing less.
>
>My personal preference is to use text for navigational elements 
>whenever possible. Not only does it broaden the viewing audience, 
>but it lightens the load time of the page(s) and honestly makes my 
>job easier.
>
>Asking web designers to forego graphical text is to ask them to 
>abandon a viable method of design that may precisely present the 
>message they are seeking to convey. The placement, color, shading, 
>font and size of words can make a very strong impact on a viewer 
>(advertising people know this and use it to their 
>advantage....translating to the web is a smart advertising move). 
>What's the difference between providing descriptive alt text for a 
>photographic image,
>and a textual one when navigation isn't involved? (This isn't 
>necessarily a rhetorical question...if there's a difference, I'd 
>like to know!).
>
>Making a strong recommendation discouraging graphical text in 
>navigational elements is, I think, appropriate. And in the case 
>where it's just not going to work design wise, adding a 
>recommendation that secondary textual navigation be included on 
>every page where graphical text navigation is used is very 
>reasonable.
>
>Ok...so that's my opinion on the matter....and if I've totally 
>missed the point here, I apologize. Chalk it up to being awake all 
>night with new and very frightened puppy.
>
>kind regards...
>
>hilde

-- 
--
Kynn Bartlett <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
http://www.kynn.com/

Received on Tuesday, 24 October 2000 20:42:45 UTC