Better User Experience Through Careful Design
Yahoo! has started a project on web design around the idea that ease of use is a must. While Yahoo! isn’t the first to use these technologies, they bring the concepts together in a targetted manner, almost like a workshop, complete with code examples.
I believe the project is ongoing, but it already has some substantial technologies in its repository that deal with navigation issues, drag-and-drop functionalities, menu systems, and so much more.
While all these technologies are ‘neat’, ‘fun’, and ‘cool’ to develop, and even use, I would argue that improper implimentation will actually be detrimental to the user experience. These technologies are not the one solution that will fix everything, however, with the right planning, the proper foresight, and the correct implimentation, they will take web users into the next generation of non-flash web sites.
Of course these technologies tend to behave a bit different in the different browsers, so when designing the implimentation methods and functional requirements for your site, you need to be keenly aware the specific (dis)abilities that each browser presents, so that you won’t alienate potential customers or visitors.
[Click the title to visit Yahoo!’s site.] Over the next few weeks I will begin to impliment the various technologies and will detail my experiences here.
Cheers!
Mike