[thelist] Re: is web design dead?

John Snippe design at cybernautica.com
Wed Jul 26 15:55:45 CDT 2000


On 7/26/00,  regarding " Re: [thelist] Re: is web design dead? ",  Katie
Kearns offered the following:

>At 09:09 AM 7/26/00 -0400, you wrote:
>>
>>Seems to me that useability testing assumes, at a minimun, that there is
>>some basic ability to use.
>
>It all depends on who your audience is.  Whoever you want to read your book
>or see your site or use your software.  In Tolstoy's sake, I don't think
>his audience was people who read Dr. Seuss (and nothing more).  Writers
>write to inspire people, or bring about social change, or win Big Giant Art
>Awards, etc.. And writing down to a 2nd grade level would not be taking
>those audiences into account.

I am not sure if we disagree here.  Probably not.  Allow me to make the
picture a bit clearer:  at the very least, the person being asked about the
book should have a clue as to what print is, and which end is up, ect.  If
you have to teach the basics to that level, that isn't a test of useability
anymore... it is literacy class.

 Underlined text is in that category.  It is absolutely basic to
navigation... much like the book analogy I have been using.  If you don't
'get' underlines, you simply cannot be classified as even a rudimentary
user... and consequently your reactions are a non-item as far as assessing
useability is concerned.




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