[thelist] What shall we do with the W3C DOM?

[Peter-Paul Koch]

Hello all,

In a recent article about the W3C DOM I surprised myself by writing some
paragraphs that, on second reading, seem to promise a whole new way of
designing and developing websites. I desperately need some second (and third
and fourth) opinions on this idea.

Basically, since the W3C DOM allows us to completely rewrite the page
according to the wishes of the user, we should design web pages in a new
way. We no longer need to take serious decisions about how the site will
work, how the navigation, the forms and the other elements interact with the
users. Instead, we can offer the user a way to create his/her own web page,
with exactly those elements and that interaction he/she wants, likes or
needs. Thus one web page can look completely different for two users.

At its most extreme, usability specialists no longer need to decide how the
web page will work and how the user would like to interact with it. Instead,
they should decide how the "control panel" of the page should work, how the
users can create their own page with a minimum of fuss.

So when the W3C DOM comes into serious use we web developers should take one
step back from the visible and clickable interface of the website and
concentrate on the application layer that *creates* this visible and
clickable interface.

Is this a brilliant idea or complete nonsense? Has anyone written anything
about the usability aspects of the W3C DOM? Does anyone know good practical
examples that experiment with completely fluid pages the users can modify to
suit their needs?

Hoping for a lot of feedback,

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ppk, freelance web developer
Interaction, copywriting, JavaScript, integration
http://www.xs4all.nl/~ppk/
Column "Keep it Simple": http://www.digital-web.com/columns/keepitsimple/
New: CSS Bugs in Internet Explorer 5 on Mac
http://developer.apple.com/internet/css/ie5cssbugs.html
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