I'm amazed at the extent of the research currently being done on the
web. Pundits, inside and outside academia have hit the gold mine and
are mining for all its worth. Who knows, maybe some of what is being
said will come true. For my money, a lot of this is about as useful
as researching how to squeeze sunshine out of cucumbers. (At the same
time, there are very interesting "uses and grats," agenda
setting and content analysis projects being done).
Having said that, the web has been enormously handy in providing many,
including myself, a vocation. I opened the InterBev
website in August 1995 (I was SO happy to have the latest upgrade of
Netscape to look at it -- Version 1.1), hoping to show that information,
not graphics, is what trade show exhibitors and attendees really want.
To some extent I think I was right.
This emphasis on substance over form has not been without its cost.
I'm sure that those who confuse complexity with profundity have missed
the intent of this site. The InterBev site is not a temple to the wonders
of Photoshop and Illustrator. It is not an archive of gif animations
lifted from other sites. It is not a resume entry for me at the expense
of serving its target audience.
Reorganizing
Give me Jerry Lewis movies. Unending reruns of Green Acres. Anything
but reorganizing websites. After a poorly planned start with InterBev
-- hey there weren't any manuals on this stuff -- I reset all the content
in folders. Gee, that was so much fun that I gladly took on UNC's
J-School site when I returned there to study in Fall 1997.
The site was a wreck: image files everywhere, more than 250 files at
the root folder. It had the organization of a herd of cats. And I like
cats. Ask anyone.
Planning Ahead
So when, at the invitation of Paul Jones -- a true master of the web
-- I started working on the IUPAC
site, I vowed this one would be planned from the start. That's not to
say there haven't been false starts, but in one year, we developed more
than 5,000 files, and more than 75 mbs of content. I must say that working
with a professional like Fabienne Meyers at IUPAC made it much more
fun -- bouncing ideas off someone who took thinking in four dimensions
just as seriously as I do.
That is, by way of example, my philosophy on web work. It might be
summarized as
A Code
- Think of who will be accessing the site in terms of what they need
(information to convert into knowledge), not in terms of what you
need (to impress them).
- Think of how you can make the site easier to navigate, even if this
sacrifices graphical aesthetics.
- Be honest about what you borrow from other sites: give credit (this
includes code).
- Remember: most of the world has a 15" view of the web, not 17" and
certainly not 21": use a single-cell box to control your line width.
- Readability white backgrounds always beats art school black ones.
And who exactly can read white type on a black background set at -1?
Get real.
I've included some additional links for those interested in where we
are going with the web.