Re: Images & mouseovers

** Reply to message from Kynn Bartlett <kynn-hwg(at)idyllmtn.com> on Sat, 23 Sep
2000 14:23:27 -0700


> Yeah, basically Strict is the "theory" and Transitional is
> the "practice."

Thank you very much for this little gem, and the time-line. It sounds realistic.

About the comment following, I'd like to start a friendly debate, as this issue
intrigues, amuses and at times frustrates me ...

> In truth, one of the strengths of the Web is the ability to
> express the _same_ information (content) in a way that is most
> useful to the _user_.
[snip]
> Edapta (the company I work for) is developing; adaptive user
> interfaces that fit the user (not the designer).

OK.

Many users "down at the coal-face" aren't equipped to make intelligent choices.
Quite frankly, many never have been. That is frequently what makes the
difference between a successful product and a failure - not the quality of the
product, but how it has been presented to the user, packaged and marketed (just
ask microsoft).

It is the designers (rightly or wrongly) role to shape that presentation.
Adaptive user interfaces are fine, but leaving the designer out of the equation
is a big mistake.

The web is no longer simply about textual content - it IS highly visual. I work
in the graphics/photographics field - manipulating images. They (the images)
ARE the story, the content I need to display.

It may be that a lot of the content in my field is simply not suited to
"Adaptive user interfaces" ... but then I'm not entirely sure I understand what
(exactly) you mean by it :-)

Note: these comments are certainly not meant as a criticism other than to
hopefully bring on some debate or other more enlightened comments. It really is
an area that interests me.



> the global style sheet), but also change the structure of each
> and every page.

Do you feel like explaining "how"? I'm intrigued.

> I love XSLT.  I may have mentioned this before. :)

Yes ;-)

> Anyway, to answer your question:  Transitional XHTML 1.0 + CSS
> (safe styles) for the near future, at least until the end of
> 2002.

And thank you again, I appreciate this :-)
KathyW.

Red Hat Linux 6.1 (kernel 2.2.14)
Sun JDK1.2.2
PolarBarMailer16b (beta/alpha ... what the heck, I like it ;-)

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