More web woes
Nearing crunchtime to the big presentation, and I'm still plagued by major design changes to the prototype.
Makes me want to barf, but I can't, because, really, I've painted myself in the corner on this one. I was so keen on sticking to standards-based design that I totally ignored how it would render on "less-worthy" clients. Bah! Let them upgrade! I say.
Thing is, majority -- no, in fact, all of them -- of the audience for the site I'm developing don't know an upgrade (much more how to go about doing one) if it lands in their collective noses. So strike one for usability. Also, the information architecture is still way too convoluted. Okay, so I've made it easier to navigate, but it's still not as intuitive as I thought. Again, it was arrogance on my part: it was easy enough for me to wade through content because I know what to look for, but what about first-time visitors? And, the structure is more than three levels deep, and that, for me, is a bad sign.
Still, I have made the design decent enough so I can easily make changes to the look without dabbling with the content. It's just not tight enough -- there are still gaps in the semantics. But I'll get to that.
Now, for the old-browser problem: worse comes to worse, I'd have to implement a bandpass filter on that one. Hope it doesn't get to that. An alternative stylesheet i s a no-go, because those old geezers just don't do stylesheets that well. But I've narrowed down my major fault to this: I was so damn stuck on how to make the site look good that in an effort to separate it from the content, I've let the content stagnate.
Solution: baby steps and lots of hand-holding for visitors. Maybe make a print-publication-type analogy at first, then move on to the nuttier (more substantive stuff later). Would-be users of the site are still not comfortable with the medium, so I'd have to simulate the look of the medium they're cozy in. Later on, I'll introduce features that highlight the difference between the media so they can transparently "move on". For this to work, though, I'll need the design principles I started with: "separate content and presentation", "stick to standards", "focus on usability". In short: "make simple things easier, and difficult tasks possible."
Hey, maybe I'm on the right track, after all.
Makes me want to barf, but I can't, because, really, I've painted myself in the corner on this one. I was so keen on sticking to standards-based design that I totally ignored how it would render on "less-worthy" clients. Bah! Let them upgrade! I say.
Thing is, majority -- no, in fact, all of them -- of the audience for the site I'm developing don't know an upgrade (much more how to go about doing one) if it lands in their collective noses. So strike one for usability. Also, the information architecture is still way too convoluted. Okay, so I've made it easier to navigate, but it's still not as intuitive as I thought. Again, it was arrogance on my part: it was easy enough for me to wade through content because I know what to look for, but what about first-time visitors? And, the structure is more than three levels deep, and that, for me, is a bad sign.
Still, I have made the design decent enough so I can easily make changes to the look without dabbling with the content. It's just not tight enough -- there are still gaps in the semantics. But I'll get to that.
Now, for the old-browser problem: worse comes to worse, I'd have to implement a bandpass filter on that one. Hope it doesn't get to that. An alternative stylesheet i s a no-go, because those old geezers just don't do stylesheets that well. But I've narrowed down my major fault to this: I was so damn stuck on how to make the site look good that in an effort to separate it from the content, I've let the content stagnate.
Solution: baby steps and lots of hand-holding for visitors. Maybe make a print-publication-type analogy at first, then move on to the nuttier (more substantive stuff later). Would-be users of the site are still not comfortable with the medium, so I'd have to simulate the look of the medium they're cozy in. Later on, I'll introduce features that highlight the difference between the media so they can transparently "move on". For this to work, though, I'll need the design principles I started with: "separate content and presentation", "stick to standards", "focus on usability". In short: "make simple things easier, and difficult tasks possible."
Hey, maybe I'm on the right track, after all.
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