Babble v1 142

babble-digest Saturday, January 17 1998 Volume 01 : Number 142

In this issue:
Re: ask and you shall receive
Microsoft take over the world? Not at these download speeds.
Re: Interface design - kids vs adults; design vs information
Re: Interface design - kids vs adults; design vs information
Re: Interface design - kids vs adults; design vs information
Re: Quality of H5 (was: Rant On)
target question

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 11:35:44 +0800
From: Gary Sweeting <gary@neuronet.com.my>
Subject: Re: ask and you shall receive

>Now lets see, my wish list goes like this: Apple sells the incredible
>new G3 tower to us babblers at cost, Adobe uses list members to beta
>test new software and Bill Gates posts a question on how to use the <P>
>tag (no really have you seen his part of the MS site?
>http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/ it, um, really utilizes all those
>IE4 features huh?)

Here's an interesting thing. I visited the site, and jumped off to the road
ahead - http://www.roadahead.com/ . Now, the scrolling applet in the bottom
frame, does appear if you use a NS (or anything other than IE browser).
Looking at the code, it seems that they purposefully designed it so that
only MSIE could experience an Applet?!! Is this correct?

- -----------------------------------------------------
http://www.tanjungrhu.com.my - "Heaven on Earth"
- -----------------------------------------------------
Enterprise Solutions
WebMaster & Information Architect :)
- -----------------------------------------------------
..H5 Babble Design List Info: http://www.highfive.com/h5/babble.html
..To unsubscribe, send the following one line to majordomo@highfive.com:
.."unsubscribe (babble or babble-digest) (e-mail address)"

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 23:47:22 -0500 (EST)
From: Porter Glendinning <ag@cen.com>
Subject: Microsoft take over the world? Not at these download speeds.

Regarding http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/

Not only is this page just plain ugly, I had to wait several minutes to
find out that it's ugly. This page weighs in at over 162K; I built the
entire State of Maryland Web site (yes *site* not page) in less space --
images included!

I mean, come on! Photographs as GIFs, interlaced GIFs no less... that's
just plain insulting. Oh, wait! Maybe that's their solution to the
Explorer/JPEG display problem. Are these really the people we want
designing our software?

- - Porter

- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Porter Glendinning pglendinning@cen.com
WWW Developer http://www.serve.com/apg/

..H5 Babble Design List Info: http://www.highfive.com/h5/babble.html
..To unsubscribe, send the following one line to majordomo@highfive.com:
.."unsubscribe (babble or babble-digest) (e-mail address)"

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 1998 20:58:16 -0800
From: Luis Cota <softech@inreach.com>
Subject: Re: Interface design - kids vs adults; design vs information

Nick Senior wrote:
>
> >But I also found another interesting thing: Most young people are
> >looking primarily for *information* on the web. I never saw anyone
> >visiting a site just because it looks cool. I mean, design is not
> >as important for them as the information contained in the site.
> >If they can find what they want, they'll love the site. If not,
> >they'll leave. Maybe this is just a local aspect, since here we
> >have to pay for the time online and one prefers to actually get
> >something useful, not just to stare at pretty stuff.
>
> I'm an admitted "youngin"ish, 19 in perspective to all you OOOOLLLLLD over
> 25 people on this list or all you ANCIENT over 30 people....<gets ugly looks
> from around the room, "heh, just kidding... heh..> :) And I personally enjoy
> a damn good looking site over an ungly site with useful information, may its
> because I've been really getting into design and have been doing it for
> about 3 years now is why, or maybe its because I'm an art student or maybe
> its because I'm getting <GASP> older and more mature.... I dont know, what
> about any other "youngins" on the list?

well, being a youngin, i would have to agree. generally speaking, i
think young people would be a bit more patient waiting for cool graphics
to load then older people. at least, that is what i get from watching my
younger brothers browse the web as well as his friends. when i look for
information, if i go to a site that looks like crap, i generally lose
interest immediately, despite the fact that i want info. for me, design
is a large part of where i go on the net. i want at least acceptable
design, none of that 'welcome to bob's home page' crap. that gets very
damn annoying. anyway, in case you cared, im 17. im gearing for CS right
now with a possible minor in design...we'll see.

luis cota
..H5 Babble Design List Info: http://www.highfive.com/h5/babble.html
..To unsubscribe, send the following one line to majordomo@highfive.com:
.."unsubscribe (babble or babble-digest) (e-mail address)"

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 00:30:59 +0000
From: "Nick Senior" <nssoonfa@mica.edu>
Subject: Re: Interface design - kids vs adults; design vs information

>I am finding more and more visually beautiful sites (good news) that appeal
to me as
>an experienced designer but are annoying me no end when I try to navigate
through
>them. My time is precious and I don't fancy wasting it trying to figure out
how or
>where to go to get what I need. I won't even get into the long load times
of some
>otherwise wonderful sites.

Then its not good WEB design. I think for good WEB design, you have to
consider all those things and you have to deal with them accordingly as well
as have good design, BEFORE your site can be considered a "well-designed
site'. the "wonderful" sites all incorporate those things WELL, and thats
why they are "wonderful".

Do I make ANY sense whatsover or am I just rambling incoherently? I guess
I'm older than I think :)
</droooling rant>

Nick Senior
GlassBee [de]signs
..H5 Babble Design List Info: http://www.highfive.com/h5/babble.html
..To unsubscribe, send the following one line to majordomo@highfive.com:
.."unsubscribe (babble or babble-digest) (e-mail address)"

------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 98 23:13:33 -0800
From: Rena Tom <rena@vertigodesign.com>
Subject: Re: Interface design - kids vs adults; design vs information

hey Nick,

i guess i'm bordering on OOOLLLLLLD (i keep my youthful appearance by not
using capital letters if i can help it ;) but i agree with you, for the
most part. i spend an extraordinary lot of time "surfing" for cool
design, even though the novelty has worn off for most. looking at sites
inspired me to start making them; looking at them now inspires me to
create (hopefully) visually fantastic and also useful sites -- isn't that
what 'design' means? it's not a sin to look at a ugly+useful site and
wish to revamp it... it's not a sin to look at a gorgeous+useless site
and learn how to glean the good from the bad...

rena
>
>
>I'm an admitted "youngin"ish, 19 in perspective to all you OOOOLLLLLD over
>25 people on this list or all you ANCIENT over 30 people....<gets ugly looks
>from around the room, "heh, just kidding... heh..> :) And I personally enjoy
>a damn good looking site over an ungly site with useful information, may its
>because I've been really getting into design and have been doing it for
>about 3 years now is why, or maybe its because I'm an art student or maybe
>its because I'm getting <GASP> older and more mature.... I dont know, what
>about any other "youngins" on the list?
>
>Nick Senior
..H5 Babble Design List Info: http://www.highfive.com/h5/babble.html
..To unsubscribe, send the following one line to majordomo@highfive.com:
.."unsubscribe (babble or babble-digest) (e-mail address)"

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 03:06:41 -0500
From: Brian Dame <brian@iweb.net>
Subject: Re: Quality of H5 (was: Rant On)

>Personally, I'm a little disheartened by what makes it to the H5 review.
>I've found all kinds of broken links, misplaced banner text, typos and on
>and on. I can understand not being able to prepare for *every* eventuality,
>but out-of-the-box settings? Mostly I don't bother to look at the reviewed
>sites because what I have seen, is, well, less than well done. Good
>graphics as a rule, but almost always poor execution.

As a former Verso employee I can attest to how hard it is to find sites that
deserve the award. Part of my job duty was to spend time searching for
worthy sites and I was lucky to find one a month. Most of the time we
compromised our standards. Movado is a perfect example. I don't know about
you guys, but it seems to me the reviewer spent more time picking apart the
site than praising it (and it deserved to be picked apart - horrible site).
I'm sure this is due to the recent personnel changes at the H5. It's funny
how reviewers think they will perceived as more knowledgeable if they
criticize rather than praise (read any movie review).

I agree that execution is sorely lacking in most H5 sites. I'm happy to see
that bandwidth issues are being taken much more seriously nowadays, but I
haven't seen many H5 sites that are good examples. I'll start reading the
reviews again when they stop praising all the pretty graphics and start
paying attention to the site as a whole. I'd much rather read about well
thought out, usable sites than the garbage they've been reviewing lately.

- --
Brian Dame
i n t e r w e b
http://www.iweb.net/~harold/

------------------------------

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 09:39:12 +0100
From: cvodb <vonb@xs4all.nl>
Subject: target question

Can someone tell me why/whether target="_blank" doesn't seem to work in IE4 ?

Caroline
cvodb@pair.com

http://vonb.pair.com/

http://www.gavinfriday.com/
..H5 Babble Design List Info: http://www.highfive.com/h5/babble.html
..To unsubscribe, send the following one line to majordomo@highfive.com:
.."unsubscribe (babble or babble-digest) (e-mail address)"

------------------------------

End of babble-digest V1 #142
****************************

Previous | ToC | Next