[thelist] scrolling news tickers

[David Wagner]

On Thu, 18 Jan 2001, A. Erickson wrote:

> I have had clients in the past who have redesigned their website and I have,
> during the process, performed a gentle tickerectomy. I hate news tickers.

> [big snip]

> Any thoughts supporting a pro-ticker mindset would be appreciated.

I can't say I'm pro-ticker, but I like to play devil's advocate.

I can see two reasons that a ticker might be worth using. Both should
still only be applied at a client's request.

1. Truly random information: If it's not important to present all the
information -- if you can really stand for people to miss, say, 90% of
what you put in there -- _and_ you're not likely to irritate anyone (use
nice colors and small fonts!) -- then sure, why not? It's an eye-catching
way to get someone to pay slightly more attention to the page. Maybe your
audience is easily amused and wants to see a selection from a fortune
file. (I recommend the Zippy the Pinhead collection.)

2. Stock quotes (and similar tiny bits): People who like constantly
updating stock quotes seem to really like tickers. I think it's a pretty
sick fetish, but it's historically accurate, so who am I to judge? Anyway,
there may be cases where the audience would appreciate, or might even
expect, a ticker for quotes (or, in some cases, press releases).

As a side note: +1 on the Jakob Nielsen moratorium. It's not that he
doesn't have good things to say, it's just that I can only be beaten over
the head with the same basic principles so many times. :)

-- 

David Wagner
dave at worlddomination.net