[Sigia-l] Faceted classification browsing tool

[Listera]

"Boniface Lau" wrote:

> Allow me to refresh your mind. It was Christina Wodtke who wrote:

I'm sure she can do a lot of things well (including, apparently goose-fat
cookies :-), establishing 'facts' based on (her) taste is not one of them.

> Furthermore, if you are going to argue that a page filled with giant
> font body text is not yelling then you might as well argue that
> writing in all uppercase is not yelling. GOOD LUCK! YOU WILL NEED
> IT. ;-)

Again, in chasing quick rules and dogmas, you are missing the all important
factor: context. In a page targeting children, for example, large font size
can be perfectly well-suited and not considered yelling. Go to a space
catering to children and see for yourself.

Writing in uppercase doesn't necessarily mean yelling in other contexts
either. For example, it's customary to write in uppercase if you are
corresponding with someone whose language has a lot of diacritical marks or
characters beyond the limited ascii range. It evens out the textflow and
actually makes it easier to read and be understood. As well, if you happen
to use a teletype/telex machine you'll find it's all in uppercase. As a
former foreign correspondent, I can attest to that.
 
>> Leaving font face/size determination entirely to user defaults is
>> naïve because it assumes the vast majority of users are capable
>> and/or desirous of speccing their own type.
> 
> May be it is not that naive.

I don't really want to argue this any further. If you think the vast
majority of users understand type attributes, know where to find the prefs
and actually bother to adjust them, you are living a fantasy land. I won't
disturb your peace :-)

> Treating users/customers as if they are dumb all too often backfired.

Let me repeat this one last time, users are *not* designers, they are not
expected to understand/apply finer points of design. Just because I know
nothing about car mechanics or embroidery doesn't make me dumb, just not
knowledgeable about car mechanics or embroidery.

We don't ask users to design their own pages. Neither do we ask them to
develop their own applications. More to the point, we don't dump all
relevant decisions on the user. Designers get paid to anticipate and solve
those potential problems, even before the user may get to notice them.

>> It's absurd because it obviates the role and responsibilities of the
>> designer.
> 
> Being a designer doesn't mean one has free rein on the solution space.

If you want to argue against a straw man, go ahead, because nobody has so
far suggested that designers should design without any contextual
considerations. To the contrary, I've been saying that that's precisely what
designers get paid to do: solve the contextual problems, by exercising their
professional judgment, which the vast majority of users would normally lack.

> Unless designers are doing things like designing a personal web site
> as a personal theater, they should remember that ultimately what
> counts is user satisfaction, not designer satisfaction.

I don't want to get into a (often repeated) discussion of whether design is
art, craft or commerce, but here's another data point for you: of all the
interviews on great writers, photographers, musicians, poets, painters,
etc., not once did I come across anyone claiming that they create for their
user, reader, listener, audience, etc. Great design, like great art is not
reversed engineered or poll-driven. Now, not all web design (I think our
subject matter here) needs to be (great) art, but the notion above ought to
give you a starting point. Lest you start working for Nielsen. :-)

Best,

Ziya