What can I say?

John - thanks for the link and the site. I went, I read, I came away feeling
depressed. On page http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000611.html, Niesen
writes, "A blank piece of paper in the typewriter creates writer's block."
Gads. I see a blank piece of paper as an empty field in which I can cavort,
play, create!

I can admire his stance on many things, since he comes from a historic
standpoint on web development. But I am also reminded of those who gloat
over the failure of an entry-level discovery (such as Niesen's crowing over
some WAP developments) only to become obscure in the annals of history as
the details of the 'failures' are overcome and we move onward. When you base
information on history, that's often wise. But in the history of any
development (I like his analogy of basing the web on the Model T Ford - a
funny twist, since that's where the web was about ten years ago), there is
always a few steps back after an introduction of a new product, service or
idea before it shoots forward again. To be fearful of trying new things is
possibly a social norm, but we ( I hope) pride ourselves on the invention
and trial of new ways of life and living. Outside of couch potatoes and a
portion of society that may be helpless in their situations, I doubt that
*that* many people are so simplistic, naive, illiterate, hopelessly helpless
or dependent on the notion of having to rely on others in order to live. If
they are, I doubt they have the means to access a computer, let alone have
the desire to critique the current malaise of any Internet inconsistencies.
Niesen promotes simplicity, which is one side of a multi-faceted coin. Chaos
may upset many of us, but - as a friend of mine was fond of saying, "out of
the mud grows the lotus."

Where there are rules, there is always philosophy, I suppose. To be confined
by technology is one thing. To be confined by another's opinions is another.
Not withstanding marketing, of course! ;-}

gratitude,
Linda


----- Original Message -----
From: John Allred <allred(at)its.state.ms.us>
To: Linda Goin <info(at)goinhome.com>
Cc: <hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org>; <owner-hwg-techniques(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2000 5:51 AM
Subject: Re: scrolling rules?


> Linda,
>
> About the closest you will come to "rules" are those presented by Jakob
> Niesen, one of the most famous usability experts around. At his site,
> http://www.useit.com/, there is a link for his July 23 Alertbox column,
> http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20000723.html. Here, he presents one of his
> "Laws" - 1. Jakob's Law of the Internet User Experience, which states, "It
> has long been true that websites do more business the more standardized
> their design is. Think Yahoo and Amazon. Think 'shopping cart' and the
> silly little icon. Think blue text links. "
>
> He also has archives of all his old columns going back to 1995. If you
want
> rules, you're likely to find them here.
>
> In a nutshell, the web is one huge application. Users run the range from
> novice to expert. Most prefer the familiar. They like things to work
> predictably. They like buttons or functions that work one way on 19 sites
> to work the same way on the 20th. They may have no opinion one way or the
> other about vertical vs. horizontal scrolling, but present them with a
page
> that scrolls horizontally and then ask their opinion. They will be
> overwhelmingly negative toward it, not because it's bad, but because it's
> different from the familiar.
>
> The question designers need to keep continually asking themselves is what
> is the purpose of the site they're designing? To impress? Or to perform
(in
> the sense of successfully persuading someone in some way)? If you have a
> site whose sole purpose is to display the creativity of an artist,
anything
> goes. In this context, different is good. But if you have a site that
> represents a business or organization that needs to compete for the
> attention of thousands, or even millions, of potential visitors, you'd be
> wise to restrain your creativity to more established "conventions."
>
> I encourage all HWG web designers to sign up for Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox
> weekly newsletter, if you haven't already. It's one of the few that I
> really look forward to dropping into my inbox.
>
> Regards,
> John Allred
>
>
>
>
>
>
>                     Linda Goin
>                     <info(at)goinhome.com        To:
hwg-techniques(at)mail.hwg.org
>                     >                         cc:
>                     Sent by:                  Subject:     scrolling
rules?
>                     owner-hwg-techniqu
>                     es(at)hwg.org
>
>
>                     08/02/2000 10:21
>                     AM
>
>
>
>
>
> Marsha wrote: "These pages likely will not be accessible to the blind
> because the screen
> reader will not be able to access the parts of the screen hidden to the
> browser.  Therefore I would not be amenable to including such pages in my
> sites."
>
> Other than this very valid point, I don't see any "rules" out there that
> say
> we can't scroll from left to right. Personal opinion and Marsha's point
> aside, can anyone point me to a "rule"? Just curious...
>
> TIA
> Linda Goin
> www.goinhome.com
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

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