JOHN SUMSER,
S P O N S O R S Find out more
Hall Of Fame8 Corners of ECommerceTypes
of Links
Red Herring
The advertising industry is on the verge of being shattered into a thousand fragments due to the knowledge explosion and the proliferation of new technologies. There are no more grand theories that hold sway over the entire industry. Michael Strangelove
Advertising is
Reality
The System
It's better to
All material on this
|
... |
Click OK to receive our occasional Newsletter
The Web Standards Project is a well-intentioned attempt to pressure the two major browser makers to harmonize standards across the board, without either having to await W3C standards, almost invariably long, often in vain.
According to Glenn Davis, of Web-design firm Project Cool, the cost of developing a cutting-edge site which is viewable by both major browsers can add as much as a 25% premium to the cost of the site.
In addition to increasing the cost of Web sites, the lack of common standards is breeding a sense of frustration among developers who face the progressively difficult task of performing workaround upon workaround.
"Most of my design ideas are really simple, but executing them consistently across Internet Explorer 3 & 4, as well as Navigator 3 & 4 is anything but," says Jeffrey Zeldman, a New York Web publisher/designer. "I have to engage in laborious workarounds, simply to end up with a very basic design that works."
The Web Standards Project is also concerned with future browsers that will run on non-PC devices, such as palmtops and Web phones. "Lack of standards support is going to hurt that development," said Davis.
Other members of the Web Standards Project include Martin Diekhoff of the Getty Information Institute, Ann Navarro of Webgeek Communications, Roger Black of Interactive Bureau and John Shiple of Squishy Designs.
The WSP site features calls-to-action, a "Mission Statement", and a somewhat sparse calendar.
We applaud the Group's efforts. Whether those efforts will be rewarded with a consitent, coherent, joint policy on standards from both Microsoft and Netscape will be viewed with interest from these quarters.
Web professionals will probably want to know about Web Design and
Development '98 - thankfully shortened to Web '98 - a five-day
conference sponsored by Miller
Freeman.
The five days are broken down across two axes:
In addition the conference clusters around six subject tracks:
There's an impressive list of workshop leaders and speakers, including the
eminently sensible Jakob Nielsen
(probably worth the price of admission alone).
The conference takes place in Boston September 22-26 at the Hynes
Convention Center.
There's a full description of all the conference elements and a
registration form at the conference's site.
Hope to see you there!
--John
Blower
In a newsgroup to which we subscribe, comp.infosystems.www.authoring.site-design,
we came across these principles of good site design, thoughtfully compiled
by Tobias C. Brown, with assistance from
Alan J. Flavell, Sue Jordon, and Susan Lesch.
"1. Write for multiple Web browsers to provide easy access to the widest
possible audience.
The World Wide Web is a multi-platform, non-browser specific medium. It should
not matter whether people browse your web pages using Netscape Navigator 4.02,
AOL Browser 3.0, Lynx 2.7, or NetPhonic's Web-On-Call.
Each browser ought to render your informational web pages without problems.
If a Web page is designed properly, blind individuals using text-to-voice
or Braille web browsers can easily access and review your work.
2. Condense textual content to fit the time and attention constraints of
today's busy Web users. Take a look at Thoughts
on Web Style,
3. Use small (byte-wise) graphics so graphics load more quickly in graphics-capable
browsers.
It is not advisable to use GIFs for everything. It's of the first importance
to make the right choice between JPEG and a palette-based format. Avoid blindly
choosing GIF and then trying to rescue yourself from the resulting problems.
JPEG image compression Frequently
Asked Questions
4. When using graphics, provide textual alternatives for image disabled
or text-only web browsers and indexing agents.
5. Run Web pages through a validator to test their compliance with HTML
standards.
Modify pages until they validate, because compliant pages have a better chance
of being rendered by various Web browsers, as the writer intends.
However, if you intend something that is impractical with HTML, it will be
no less impractical for being syntactically valid.
Work with the strengths of HTML rather than trying to batter it into a WYSIWYG
page design system.
What You See Is
Not What Others Get on the Web
6. Run pages through Lynx
View or
Lynx-me or, best of all, view them using a browser like Lynx, to see
how the "text-only" world sees your documents. Make documents Lynx-friendly.
7. Spell check your documents.
8. Establish a routine to help you locate and fix broken internal and external
Web site links.
8. If your web site URL or eMail address will change occasionally, consider
using a service that provides eMail forwarding and URL redirection.
9. Submit your Web site address to an appropriate newsgroup
for a critical peer review.
10. Promote your Web site by adding your URL to search engines and directories.
To ensure that people can easily find your Web site, it may be necessary to
modify your pages to take best advantage of current search
technologies."
Thank you Tobias et al.
HTML is in a constant state of flux, with new browser-specific tags being devised with each reiteration of the two major browsers.
In general, it's a hassle keeping up with them all.
No more. The latest version of Ron Woodall's excellent HTML Compendium has just been posted (dated February 1, 1998).
This resource lists pretty much every tag ever devised and provides indicators of which versions of which browsers support it.
The site itself is well-designed, offering the user a variety of mirrors depending on their geographical location, and, more importantly, a choice of framed or non-framed versions.
Bookmark this site and return regularly for updates!
The current football fest known as "France '98 - Coupe du Monde" has
succeeded in closing down most of the rest of the world for the duration.
Cabs are unavailable in London when England plays, and all Tunisian
bureaucrats are given the day off when the national team is on. Indeed, the
productivity of our East Coast office has taken a dive, due to its being
100% European.
The game of football - or "soccer" as it is known in the US - is a fluid,
graceful blend of consumate teamwork combined with flashes of individual
brilliance (except for Brazil...). It's played over two halves of 45
minutes each, with no natural beaks.
Which presents problems for TV. For a sporting event to attract sponsorship
in the US, there needs to be the potential to advertise.
No such luck with global football. The solution has involved
far-sightedness and imagination on the part of ABC, ESPN,
sponsors and ad agencies.
In the top right-hand corner of the screen during play is a box with the
time, the score - and the logo of the sponsor of that segment of the match.
Anyone with more than a passing interest in the Coupe will know the
sponsors (British Airways, Mastercard, Nike, Budweiser, US Army (!) )
almost by heart (we may have missed one...).
Even the ads at half time are brand oriented. Products take a back seat in
this situation.
What's the point? "Top of mind" is what we former ad types call it. And in
this case, it works subtly and pervasively.
Strangely enough, the Web is great for branding, less so for product sales,
at least at the consumer level.
Do yourself a favor and take in a few matches (if you haven't done so
already). Check out the strange but effective insidiousness of the branding
campaign to which you are subjected.
Now apply those lessons to your website...
BTW - we favor Brazil, Holland and Nigeria....
Take a look at the Archives. We've indexed all the past issues with topic pointers.
All material on this site is © 1995, 1996 by IBN (The Internet Business Network), Mill Valley, CA 94941 |