[WEB4LIB] Re: browser differences

[Rich Kulawiec]

On Fri, Aug 02, 2002 at 11:58:13AM -0500, Joyce M. Latham wrote:
> I would ask what the institutional identity is here.  In our web design
> task, we talk about designing for an audience, and, the web design will
> identify what audience you hope to attract.  High end, flashy web pages
> -- nomatter how nifty -- are targeting a particular audience, and
> leaving out a large user group -- the people who don't have high end
> flashy computers with the latest browsers (like alot of public
> libraries.)

Well put.  I'll just add that the high end, flashy web pages also leave
out another group: power users.

This happens for a number of reasons; here's some of them:

1. Power users tend to be more security-aware.  They tend to run browsers
with cookies turned off or with cookie notification on or with cookies
restricted to originating domain.  They tend to turn off JavaScript.
They may turn off Java.  And so on.  So the more of these sorts of things
you make part of the core functionality of your site, the less useful
your site will be to them.

2. Power users tend to use Unix and Linux.  Features which rely on
plug-ins that are only available for proprietary operating systems
on single CPU platforms are not usable by them.

3. Power users tend to make their Internet experience more useful by
blocking annoying content and/or practices.  I'm using a caching web
proxy that blocks most banner ads; I spend most of my time using a browser
(Mozilla) that allows me to turn off animated GIFs, resize requests, etc. 
Other people have chosen to use delayed image loading or to access the
web through anonymizing proxies, and so on.

Some of this is just personal preference (I find animated GIFs nearly
as annoying as the <blink> tag) but some of it has a more serious
rationale (security, privacy, etc.).  I suppose this is why my design
cycle has been to hand-code, use Amaya for testing, and then check
cross-compatibility with Mozilla, w3m, Netscape 4, Netscape 6, Opera
and lynx.  And then to swear quietly (ok...loudly, you caught me)
and start over again. ;-)

More to the point, I would urge web designers to view their own sites
through (for example) Amaya using a dialup modem.  If that experience isn't
informative/useful/fun/communicative, then changes need to be made.

---Rsk