Re: ok - I wont

G'Day Joyce,

I certainly can provide some examples, but first, let me address another
point you have raised.

At 09:50 24/08/99 -0400, Joyce Fetterman wrote:
>I'm
>trying to figure how this would be useful for the site designer or the site
>visitor.

Your argument of "site designer" vs "site visitor" is misleading - you seem
to imply that site designers have an opposite agenda to the site visitors.
This _should_not_ be the case.  Think about it this way - the site visitor
is the ultimate customer.  Didn't someone once say the customer is always
right?

A third party is also involved in these transactions, and that is the
client or company that wants the site built in the first place.  They are
also the site designer's customer.  They will provide the site designer
their own set of constraints.

So which customer is right?

The objective of a site designer is to build the site within the
constraints supplied by the client/company but which also effectively meets
the demands of the viewers.  Obviously some degree of compromise will be
necessary, but since the client/company is often mis-informed about
internet technologies, the site designer should actually be promoting the
agenda of the site visitor.

Unfortunately, when you look at hobby sites, the designer _IS_ the
client/owner.  The lesson here is a designer needs to be able to understand
the needs of both customers and find the appropriate balance, not project
their bias on others because they think they know better.  

>Would you please give me an example of how this is a "useful technique"?  

Unfortunately most of my examples are behind a firewalls or IP blocking, so
you won't be able to see them.  

However, here are some answers:

How can eliminating a back button be useful?
* when conducting an online exam and you don't want the student to be able
to go "back" and try again!
* when frames, redirects, or Flash animations have been used and hitting
'back' doesn't work, and only confuses the user (note: a clear way out
should be provided)
* when you don't want the extra toolbars, menus, etc within a pop-up window
because they take up too much space, making the window too big.

How can pop-up windows be useful?
* in the creation of floating control panels for controlling interactive
Java applets or Javascript animations
* as personalised toolbars within an intranet environment
* when information within the windows is meant to supplement the
information in the current page without replacing it. (eg, to provide
dictionary definitions of complex terms like a glossary, or to provide a
calculator for answering/checking mathematical problems on the original page.

The quickest way to get me to leave a site is give me a pop-up
advertisement.  But that doesn't make me a fanatical anti-pop-up radical
either - all technology has it's place when used appropriately.


Chris Higgs <c.higgs(at)landfood.unimelb.edu.au>
Institute of Land and Food Resources
University of Melbourne
http://www.landfood.unimelb.edu.au

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