re: Hello?

At 12:02 23/01/02 -0800, Lauren Hanka wrote:
>After all, the Web, *is* a
>visually based medium, as is television.

No it isn't. If the web has a dominant medium, its text. Not text printed 
on the screen, but an abstract computerised representation of text.

I have three different browsers that I use regularly, and a couple more 
that I use irregularly. One is based on a monochrome PDA. Another is a 
voice browser - the web pages get read to me. I have a PC without a mouse 
that I use from time to time. I sometimes print web pages for later 
reading. Even looking at the visual ones they all present the information 
in a radically different way.

Web pages that have been developed as `visual' pages are almost impossible 
to use on anything non-standard. That's fine if it is a truly visual thing. 
Most web pages aren't - they are about a blob of abstract information that 
should be structured in such a way as to let the user agent render them in 
a useful way.

Andrew

--
http://aamcf.co.uk/

HWG: hwg-basics mailing list archives, maintained by Webmasters @ IWA