when is some too much? WAS RE: [thelist] Link Types

[Mike Migurski]

>what about religous and/or ethnic/cultural differences? easterners see
>white as representing death (afaik) and westerners see black as
>representing death. should there be two different websites based on where
>the using is coming from (if it can be determined) as to not offend or
>anyone or cause confusion? what about people that don't speak my
>language? how many different languages should i support?

I think that's taking it a little far - these kinds of cultural issues are
best left to the brand/design/marketing people, not mixed up in a
discussion of technical accessibility. In your example of black/white,
I don't think either association is strong enough to warrant a makeover.

Besides, how would you determine the cultural background or primary
language of your users? How would you reconcile the need to present a
consistent brand identity with the desire to not offend certain users? Are
FedEx trucks still white in China?

Big, multinational companies that really have to worry about issues like
this pay gobs of money to high-level design firms, consultants, and
linguists to forecast potential culture clashes. I'd be willing to bet
that they do /not/ leave it up to their webdesigners to determine the best
background color based on pop-psychological assessments of cultural
context.


>i've never tried a text browser, but i'd be interested in seeing what it
>looks like and how it works. can you point to any articles that describe
>their setup and use? is it a *nix thing only?

No, there's a mac version of lynx:
http://browsers.evolt.org/index.cfm/dir/maclynx/

You can also just surf with javascript and images turned off for a
half-assed approximation of the effect.


-mike.

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