[Sigia-l] The New Nielsen?

[Anne Hjortshoj]

Well, there's more than one way to accommodate varying bandwidth and
display technologies.

One is the way you mention: designing for the lowest common denominator
-only-, leaving out any interface treatments or technologies that might
not display well on the oldest browsers or slowest internet connections.

A more market-friendly option is to design for the highest
common denominator, and accommodate down. Make sure that the target
audience can access the site via their bandwidth/browser/platform, and can
enjoy the full visual impact of the website. People  using older
technology and slower Internet connections can access the
site via a slimmed-down (but still usable!) version of the site. This can
be accomplished via a combination of browser detection and XML.

I believe that this approach is becoming quite common.

-Anne

On Tue, 16 Jul 2002, gMeta wrote:

> The final knock-on effect of not bringing *everyone* along
> together with "lowest common denominator" technology access
> is that we will saturate our market and have *nobody* left to sell to.
> 
> See mobile phone sales in Europe if you don't believe me...and
> what about the sad case of 3G...
> 
> Sure, have fun with wacky online gizmos but we're the pioneers
> [and dare I say it guardians] of technology with global repercussions.