Re: Breadcrumbs

In response to the breadcrumb thread:

Guys you really crack me up. I know I will be in for some flames here but what
the heck, I am not meaning to be rude at all but it just strikes me as funny so
I thought I should write. 

The majority of the preceding - re: coding of breadcrumbs - is exactly what I
would expect from teccies talking about coding. Have any of you ever seen
anyone actually using web sites, whether using adaptive technology or not? If
you had
you would probably realise that your semantic coding arguements would be lost
on the majority of people. Hell, many people don't 'get' breadcrumbs if they
can see them or not - even when they are of the most familiar form possible and
with the most obvious cues: 

YOU ARE HERE: Home > level 1 > Level 2.

Now whilst ordered or unordered lists might be 'semantically' correct, does it
really matter? You should present things in the most understandable and
recognisable form for the most people. It's good usability and good
accessibility. I am absolutely positive that the vast majority of people
encountering a list that represented a breadcrumb (whether they see it, hear it
or whatever) would be totally flumoxed. That is, unless it was CSS rendered to
look like the standard form (like the example above). Aserting this case (and
those of us who do do user testing could justify it), by being 'semantically'
correct you would actually decrease accessibility by making the breadcrumb
understandable only to those who are teccie coding pedants - thereby excluding
the vast majority of the real audience.

Come on lets get practical 'real world' here. Sorry if I sound negative towards
your explorations but I would rather you channel your considerable talents
towards stuff that could make a real difference.

Cheers

Jon 



-- 
Dr Jon Dodd
Director - Behaviour
Bunnyfoot Universality

T: +44 (0)845 644 0650
F: +44 (0)845 644 0651

jon@bunnyfoot.com
www.bunnyfoot.com

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Received on Tuesday, 3 August 2004 18:09:33 UTC