- From: David Woolley <david@djwhome.demon.co.uk>
- Date: Sun, 2 Oct 2005 14:06:45 +0100 (BST)
- To: w3c-wai-ig@w3.org
> therefore to the average web designer I don't exist, and I can assure > you beyond a shadow of a doubt that when I search the web for something > the site I can read is the one that gets my money (Note that my message to you was off list last time; this isn't.) If I'm searching for information, I'll use Lynx. If I'm trying to buy a product, requiring properly designed web sites is usually just too constraining (note that e-commerce sites rarely contain much real information); almost no e-commerce site is well designed if you are not using an out of the box IE6 on a recent machine, 1024x768 and with no disabilities and no additional security. In that case, I'm much more likely to be impressed by links back to the manufacturer's web site (unfortunately many products are so heavily badge engineered and the sellers so lacking in knowledge, that they may not know themselves), and, if I find the manufacturer, that there is a downloadable copy of the user manual (so that I can tell what it really does, not try and decipher the sales pitch) and that this sort of information is also provided for non-current products (i.e. the manufacturer cares about existing users and recycling). The sites that work best with Lynx tend to be those for which the author has something to say and typically hasn't employed a web designer. The sites that work best with all browsers tend to be those written by open source software people and software related academics. They are generally written by people who really understand CSS and HTML and who are not hidden behind a marketing department that insists on being the sole arbiter of the organisation's external image (and therefore typically require features in the design that are not compatible with good HTML). With commercial sites, though, there is a basic principle of advertising that the copywriter (web designer) doesn't actually know anything about the product and is simply trying to please the target market. What they hope is that people will buy based on the appearence of the advertisement, not based on the actual value of the product. This works both ways, whilst the aim is that most of the target audience judge by the advert and not the product, it also means that a good product can come from someone with a very poor web page; the people responsible for the web page are not those responsible for the product. If you realise that web pages more reflect the intended audience than the product, you can see why it is very difficult to create a universal web page. Often there is only one sensible product and often one buys without reference to the web site and only discovers the broken web site when one wants support or they change to using the web as a communication channel.
Received on Sunday, 2 October 2005 13:17:52 UTC