Comments | cmat: things that piss me off, part 476 [pb]

cmat

things that piss me off, part 476 [pb]

Aug 28, 2007 14:50

A rant on web design:

A lot of designers treat their sites as, essentially, artwork-their artwork, with emphasis on the possessive. They get to choose how it's supposed to look, how you're supposed to navigate through it, and what you're supposed to use it for. They're fully entitled to change colors and fonts and font sizes. And they get ( Read more... )

Comments 4

ext_54170 August 28 2007, 23:20:14 UTC

Hey there....

I've been trying to avoid that imaged text thing myself....but I have problems with the thought of my company logo not being "right" under all browsers. So far I'm not truely happy with either solution.

BTW - when are you going to friend me back? You and your Mom never did and I'd like to be able to chat at you occasionally. I don't know if Craig added you to his list or not.... but we're both using open id.

bbz August 29 2007, 02:48:31 UTC

well, I think you have to at least admit that it is a slippery slope. have you seen customize google?

from http://www.customizegoogle.com/ :
* Add links to competitors
* Remove ads
* Anonymize your Google userid
* Remove click tracking

and of course it adds a whole heap of functionality too. but if everyone used adblockers and cookie filters then, why, wouldn't google go out of business?

pmat August 30 2007, 13:38:37 UTC

Well, if the success of your business model depends on users not doing something that they can in fact do, you're in deep trouble.

I don't block Google ads because I often find them useful, not because I can't, or feel some moral obligation to look at them. That's why Google won't go out of business: they are smart about it.

pmat August 30 2007, 13:36:23 UTC

Yes, I am surprised how often even minimal testing of web pages destroys them. Your site should still work if you make the font bigger/turn off images/view it in monochrome. These are basic access issues: think nearsighted, blind and using a screen reader, color blind. And it's getting worse as more and more applications are delivered through the web. The attitude that "I wouldn't want people messing with my sites" ignores the reality that the end user has control over the content when it gets to his computer.

Of course, the developer can choose to ignore all of this. The cost will be that the site is unusable to some people; up to the developer whether to care about that percentage. But it's definitely bad design.