[thelist] What makes a good web site?

Joel D Canfield joel at spinhead.com
Wed Oct 18 12:12:52 CDT 2006


> Gee, I kinda thought the 'manual tabbed browsing' that I have 
> been doing for years 
> was fairly common behavior and had been for quite some time.  

short version: opening multiple browser windows/tabs is not common in my
experience.

purely anecdotal, but in the company I just left, I had to create a
brief training program to teach people how to use more than one browser
window. in a company where the primary app, in use fulltime, lived in
the browser, most folks thought it wasn't possible to browse the web
while working in that app. [slightly embarrassing personal note: I've
just started using FF's tabs in the past month.]

> I'm thinking that the increased availability of cheap 
> broadband will (long term) 
> make 'site download time' the rather archaic measure of web 
> site 'goodness' that IMO it ought to be.

long term, yeah. but right here outside the state capital, in the land
of technology, there are places where the only internet access is
dialup. within five miles of me, 15 from downtown Sacramento, a friend
doesn't have DSL or cable at home because *it's not available.*

> I guess that while I think good designs are effective, I 
> don't always agree that 
> increased efficiency increases the effectiveness of user interaction.

bingo that, Cap'n. again, requires a certain amount of understanding
your target audience.

joel



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