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Reacting to all of the gratuitously ugly web pages on the
world wide web, Patrick Lynch and Sarah Horton, along with
the Yale University Press, have published the Web Style
Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites.
They've also put together a web site devoted to promoting
the book. There's just one thing though, the web site is
just plain ugly.
Pages with brown, blue, and black lettering on white and gray backgrounds. Page
titles that use a smaller point size than body text. Advertising plugs to
sell the book everywhere you look (sometimes more than once on the same page).
The introduction helpfully points out "Most of the design advice and technical
information contained here on optimizing graphics in Web pages is tailored to
recent versions (2.0 or later) of both Netscape Navigator and Microsoft's
Internet Explorer."
Hello? Anyone home? 2.0 versions of Navigator and IE are NOT recent versions.
You'd think that people who wrote an ENTIRE BOOK about web design would know
this.
The introduction continues "There is little here of benefit to users of
text-based Web browsers, as the primary focus of this manual is on graphic page
design."
Well golly gee guys, thanks. Do you REALLY THINK that people are out there
combing the web looking for style tips to make their pages look better for users
using LYNX? Did you REALLY NEED to point this out, or are you just so used to
being long-winded Yale blowhards that when you start typing you just can't help
but point out the painfully obvious?
The site continues with such mind-numbing gems as "Graphic user interfaces were
designed to give people direct control over their personal computers," "research
on the needs and demographics of your target audience is crucial," and "The goal
is to provide for the needs of all of your potential users, adapting Web
technology to their expectations, and never requiring the reader to simply
conform to an interface that puts unnecessary obstacles in their paths." Well
DUUUUUUUUUUUUUH!
About feedback, they have this to say: "Testing your designs and getting
feedback from users is the best way to see whether your design ideas are giving
users what they want from your site."
Here's some feedback for you Patrick Lynch and Sarah: Your site sucks ass!
Check it out yourself
mustard@pigdog.org
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