[Sigia-l] drop down menus

[Yazdi, Reza]

> The audience learns the language of a particular media over time.  In
> cinema, artistic genius expanded the common language and as a result the
> art.  Would the use of usability studies in the instance of drop down
> menus
> hinder the development of the internet by stifling creativity?  Must we
> limit the audience to their current understanding and expectation of the
> media?

i think this a good question - especially in my situation as i am designing
for a web application rather than a traditional web site.  
previous usability tests i have read on drop downs, and those forwarded to
me by all the helpful people in this group have focused on a traditional web
site.  
i believe the scenario of the audience learning the language of a particular
interface is extremely valid when we are talking about an application that
runs on the web.
and i also think that the questions around how we should treat web
applications within the constraints of the technology are going to become
much more of an issue to everyone in this field as we move forward and show
that the model of delivering applications over the web works extremely well.
regards
reza


 -----Original Message-----
From: 	christina wodtke [mailto:cwodtke at eleganthack.com] 
Sent:	Thursday, May 23, 2002 10:47 AM
To:	sigia-l at asis.org
Subject:	Re: [Sigia-l] drop down menus




> > Standards, by definition limit creativity.
>
> Or unleash it.
>


Q. Does the creation of Design admit constraints?

A. Design depends largely on constraints.

Q. What constraints?

A. The sum of all constraints. Here is one of the few effective keys to the
design problem: the ability of the designer to recognize as many of the
constraints as possible, his willingness and enthusiasm for working within
these constraints--constraints of price, of size, of strength, of balance,
of surface, of time, and so forth--each problem has its own peculiar list.

Q. Does Design obey laws?

A. Aren't constraints enough?

Excerpt from Design Q&A by Charles and Ray Eames, 1967 (appears in Volume 4
of the Films of Charles and Ray Eames)


Content Management Symposium, Chicago O'Hare Marriott, June 28 - 30.
See http://www.asis.org/CM

ASIST SIG IA: http://www.asis.org/SIG/SIGIA/index.html
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