[ Post New Message | Post Reply to this One | Send Private Email to Max Cairnduff | Help ]

Response to Comments: /Index.html

from Max Cairnduff (Max.Cairnduff@allenovery.com)
I suspect the disputes [over how to achieve usability] are endless because different people think in different ways. For me, the layout on your homepage (what I write, what I teach, what I read etc.) is extremely straightforward and commonsensical (if that word exists). The subheadings under each category mean that it is relatively clear where I should go to find a particular kind of subject and the section at the bottom with additional links to other parts of your site is easy to follow. What else could a link called "politics" be but a link to either your political interests or political activity (plenty of thing I know, but if it were my site those would be the only two things it could potentially lead to)?

I doubt it's very helpful, but it's easy because you lay things out in much the same way as I would if I had my own site.

One point though, is that your site lacks flashy graphics and unusual font/colour schemes. I used to get the magazine Wired UK so as to keep up with online/techy developments. However, I found that it continually printed articles on bizarre colour formats which made them unnecessarily difficult to read. They would also put " hypertext" into the articles, leading to short comments in the side margins. This broke up my flow of concentration, and to this day I find it hard to see what "hypertext" in a hardcopy print medium achieves which footnotes did not already achieve.

Many websites make a similiar mistake. In order to appear cutting edge and suitably wired they use graphic styles which are not very easy on the eye, or which continually break the narrative flow.

Your site is relatively simple in layout and hypertext is only used where it would usefully lead off into another matter which could not easily have been incorporated into the article containing the link.

Simplicity, for me at least, is a big bonus.

That's all for now, hope all is well with Contributed by Max Cairnduff (Max.Cairnduff@allenovery.com) on July 2, 1999.

(posted 8730 days ago)

[ Previous | Next ]