[thelist] targeting effectively

[Erik Mattheis]

At 12:27 AM -0500 3/25/02, aardvark wrote:
>since this all started as a discussion of being able to navigate a
>site without
>JS, i view watching movies about an iMac (when the specs are available on
>the same page) as moderately different than sitting on the home page unable
>to move...

I read all the splintered threads for the first time all at once, so
was responding to it as a whole. My point is that if you think about
a cost/benefit ratio, the right decision is sometimes to do something
in a way which may ideally should be done otherwise. Maybe a better
example ... real, to boot:

A company is revamping their website and is introducing a product
configuration tool. A solid launch date has been set. The development
of the product configuration part has to start immediately to meet
the deadline. It also requires a whole bunch of screen space. The
design of the main site may change again before the product
configuration tool changes. So it comes down to: designing the rest
of the site around the tool and making the tool smaller that it
really should be, or requiring JS and doing a pop up window. Or maybe
just requiring visitors to use their back button and still making the
configuration tool smaller than it should be.

Requiring JS is a no-brainer there. Some people are going to be
irritated and others will have to get someone else to help them be
able to use the site. But the sun will rise the next day, and if the
other variables fall into place as well, the company's bottom line
will be greater because the site required JS.

>  > Many web projects with less generous budgets have equally valid
>>  reasons for requiring JavaScript.
>
>i don't see how less generous budgets equates to JS use...

Other than the above ... another real-life example, my first paying project:

I was the only developer they could afford, I was pretty good at JS
and only had a vague idea of what "backend" meant. They needed to
have a searchable calendar of events ... I made a JS form that would
display results by searching JS arrays - and made a tool for them to
update the arrays themselves. Requiring JavaScript was part of the
solution.

Other examples:

#1. Company's lone tech, "Snowberry" is a JS and HTML whizz but it
ends there. They'd like users to see a message on their home page
when a product is back in stock. Best solution: do it with JavaScript.

#2. Xmas eve. Company is offering a discount for orders placed before
Midnight Pacific time Dec 31. Server is screwed, is not serving PHP.
Chip and Rich spent all of the 23rd moving static versions of pages
from their development server to the live production server.
"Giovanni" from the legal dept goes ape that the discount message is
going to be listed until at least 8 am Jan 1 at the earliest.
Compromise: A JavaScript redirect if it's after Midnight Jan 1 - Chip
and Rich get to spend the holidays with their families.

#3. You get to see what the babe looks like naked if you punch the
monkey. JavaScript to the rescue.

>  > a 84 year
>  > old user from the Ozarks who views the web through a mercury filling
>  > in his molar
>
>i wanna meet this guy...  i wanna see what resolution he's running at... and
>his font sizes...

Last I heard he was still trying to punch the monkey.

>  > That sounds like it's your bag, but it's not everybody's.
>
>but it could be so easily it's painful to see people not even consider it an
>option...

I'm certainly not saying that people shouldn't bother expanding their
skills/knowledge so that they can make their creations work for a
larger number of visitors, but I am saying that sometimes it's
reasonable, even applaudable, to say "Welp, I'm very sorry, you need
JavaScript/browser x/plug-in Y/connection speed Z" to a portion of
your visitors.

>and imagine that poor lonely Ozarkian, probably searching for love on Yahoo
>personals... *i* wanna be the one to build it, so that poor
>mercury-ridden soul
>can get a chance at happiness...

You would be surprised at how much pleasure he's already getting from
just the _prospect_ of seeing a real live teen showing ALL!
--

__________________________________________
- Erik Mattheis

(612) 377 2272
http://goZz.com/

__________________________________________