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Posted by dorayme on 09/22/06 22:03
In article
<Pine.LNX.4.64.0609221507460.5822@ppepc20.ph.gla.ac.uk>,
"Alan J. Flavell" <flavell@physics.gla.ac.uk> wrote:
> One of the original ideas of the web, I think it's fair to say[1], was
> that straightforward things would pretty much work intuitively: after
> 5-10 minutes familiarisation with a new browser, no further
> instructions would be needed (of course, users who wanted to do more
> complicated things would expect to have to learn how, but that would
> be a function of their browser, *not* normally of the page that
> they're reading[2]).
>
> So, IMHO, if authors think that their web page needs a whole swath of
> instructions on how to use it, then they're probably doing something
> wrong. I'd recommend taking a step back and trying to understand why
> it's not working intuitively, as it's meant to.
There are practical things that come up where one feels obliged
to say something about the mechanics now and then. I agree with
what you say as an ideal to be followed where possible. Said this
before (I think?), I have told people, among other things, to
right or control click to download PDF files for printing and/or
viewing on a couple of sites. On one site, it is a whole lot of
big files that the organization wish to make available to people
for printing and/or screen viewing. Files that are unlikely to be
widely enough wanted to justify the expense of delving into them
and making good HTML web pages on the material. In one case I
made a special HTML page for all these files to go in a list. I
felt obliged to say things, it is just a fact that a little
earthy help is now and then called for...
Think of the old silent movies, they mostly "spoke for
themselves"... but many less educated people found some of the
written words helpful. At the time, it might have been said that
they would have been better works without these explanations,
from the aethetic point of view - more is less and all that. But
these are lofty notions if carried to extremes. Now, of course,
these written words are part of the charming appeal of the silent
movies.
--
dorayme
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