[thelist] Old Browsers old Software, cut bait and move on.

Simon Coggins ppxsjc1 at unix.ccc.nottingham.ac.uk
Wed Jul 11 09:20:07 CDT 2001


Brian,

> Yes we are talking about eye candy.  There are vendors/clients out there who
> want the stuff.  Is it my job to tell them they are stupid?  Keep your
> money?  Go somewhere else if you want this stuff? 

To some extent it is your job to educate your clients. Ask them if they
would rather have their DHTML menu or 20% bigger sales - I think we all
know what the answer would be.

> I feel like I am in an
> argument about whether the invention of color television was worthwhile or
> not.  Does color actually add anything to the pictures on the screen?  Get
> with it.  Technology moves forward.

Colour TV does add something to the pictures on the screen, but *decades* 
later you can still watch a colour TV programme on a black and white TV.
Soccer players here in the UK still wear contrasting kits colours, in
part so black and white TV owners can tell the teams apart.

> It's a proven fact that eye candyand a flashy ad campaign will sell a candy
> bar to a teenager a lot faster than a page of text will.  The site is not
> functional from a sales point of view without the eye candy.  How can you
> possibly argue that?  It's common sense. 

There is a distinction between advertising a product and selling
it. No one is saying that flashy ad campaigns won't persuade a kid that he
wants to buy candy bar X, but what if he walks into the shop and has to
think for a second about *how* to buy it? He'll pick up brand Y from in
front of the counter and you will have lost a sale. The first rule of
e-commerce is to make it easy - non-standard, whizz-bang interfaces break
that rule and force visitors to think, something they are rarely prepared
to do.

> Please don't get upset at my remarks.  They are not meant to alienate
> anyone, but to arose good discussion on the subject.

Ditto. ;)


Simon






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