[thelist] Site check - reprocessed.org

Allie Micka allie at pajunas.com
Wed Nov 21 15:09:53 CST 2001


> As far as the former is concerned, I'm aware of it and am thinking about
> implementing a cookie-based system which remembers which part of the
> front page you were looking at when you left. I'm not sure howw
> irritated people are by the resetting of the page.

Personally, I found it very irritating.  I have virtually NO short-term
memory, and found it frustrating when I clicked twice to get to a
section, found several items interesting, followed one of the links and
then was faced with the prospect of having to retrace my steps to get
back to the other interesting links.  I found it distracting from the
goal of reading your site's information.

> If you mean that there's no navigation visible in the main body of the
> site then since:
>  
> > I'm using ie 5.5 on a pc.
> 
> There's not much I can say other than, there's breadcrumb navigation at
> the bottom of the page, but if you were to use Netscape 6.1/6.2 or a
> recent (0.8.1+) build of Mozilla you'll have a significantly different
> experience...

I'm not trying to start some kind of holy war and I am sure this topic
has been addressed frequently on the list; but what is the point of
developing a site that very few people can enjoy?  I did a quick check
of some of the more high volume sites I run, and found that about 5% use
ie 6 and there were NO visits from Mozilla or Netscape 6.

Granted, browser statistics are heavily dependent on the site's purpose
and audience.  If the site were all about what Netscape 6 can do it's
great.  If the site is a message to yourself that you can use css 2 to
present information then you can guarantee that the intended audience
will have the correct browser.

But this site appears to be intended for friends and prospective employers.  
In that case it may make sense to find a way of degrading appropriately
so that more people can see what you're capable of.  As it is, only a
few will understand your capabilities and the rest will just wonder why you
don't know how to create usable navigation.  If you want to show off
something really cool and cutting edge, perhaps you can have it be
another choice or a separate portion so you have a chance to disclaim
it.

I don't want this to come off as feisty or rude.  There's just way too
much bad air in the internet for that.  What I said about the
responsiveness and coolness before still stands.  I also think that your
breadcrumbs on the bottom of the page are helpful to this process, and
maybe a lot of trouble can be averted by simply moving them to the top.

Thanks a lot,
Allie Micka 
pajunas interactive, inc.
http://pajunas.com







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