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lprovenThis weekend just gone, I tried to find info about where to go and when from the several official and unofficial Tour de France sites, such as the abomination that is http://www.tourdefrancelondon.com/
Very pretty, almost completely useless, Flash-driven monstrosities. Horrid.
Given that the world now has so many professional web designers, how come most commercial websites are so absolutely crap?
It seems to me, given that I am a bystander - I've not designed a site in about 10y and it's nearly that long since I've updated my own properly... that there are a few simple rules.
To design a website:
Step 1. No Flash.
Step 2. No graphics.
Step 3. Nothing browser-dependent.
Now, design your site so that it conveys the info people want efficiently, even if they're on a low-bandwidth link with no ability to display any graphics or animations, even if they are blind and have no mouse or other pointing device, or are on a mobile phone.
Got it working? Good. /Now/ you may judiciously decorate it with graphics and animations, so long as they don't in any way hinder its use.
AJAX sites like Gmail and Google Maps are a little different - they're very focussed and expect a high-powered device on a fast link. That's OK. But they aren't really websites, they're apps delivered through a browser.
Very pretty, almost completely useless, Flash-driven monstrosities. Horrid.
Given that the world now has so many professional web designers, how come most commercial websites are so absolutely crap?
It seems to me, given that I am a bystander - I've not designed a site in about 10y and it's nearly that long since I've updated my own properly... that there are a few simple rules.
To design a website:
Step 1. No Flash.
Step 2. No graphics.
Step 3. Nothing browser-dependent.
Now, design your site so that it conveys the info people want efficiently, even if they're on a low-bandwidth link with no ability to display any graphics or animations, even if they are blind and have no mouse or other pointing device, or are on a mobile phone.
Got it working? Good. /Now/ you may judiciously decorate it with graphics and animations, so long as they don't in any way hinder its use.
AJAX sites like Gmail and Google Maps are a little different - they're very focussed and expect a high-powered device on a fast link. That's OK. But they aren't really websites, they're apps delivered through a browser.
