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Jack Solock, Special Librarian July 1996 At the periodic brown bag seminars for new Web publishers in the College of Agriculture (University of Wisconsin) that I attend, the question of how much new technology to incorporate into Internet publishing is frequently raised. At the end of one of these seminars, a librarian summed it up nicely. "You can go high ball or low ball," he said. By this he meant that because there is no widely embraced standard for information publishing on the net, the individual publisher can choose the route of high technology, incorporating such features as frames ( http://home.mcom.com/comprod/products/navigator/version_2.0/frames/index.html ), Java ( http://java.sun.com/java.sun.com/aboutJava/index.html), Javascript ( http://home.mcom.com/comprod/products/navigator/version_2.0/script/index.html ), and other enhanced browser features ( http://microsoft.com/ie/); or low technology, which yields an Internet presence that a user with a modem connection can benefit from. The Internet has given computer users access to amazing amounts of information. Perhaps more significantly, it has offered publication capabilities to almost anyone. If you are about to develop Web pages, there are two basic considerations that should influence how you design those pages.
Who are your users?This question is often overlooked by Web publishers who design the most dazzling, high-tech pages imaginable. Do your users have the computer and connectivity technology to be able to get the most out of your pages? If you are trying to reach an international audience, know that many of them will not have the latest in PC or Macintosh hardware. Hardware configurations vary widely, meaning that pages with heavy graphical content can take much longer to download. In addition to this concern, there is the problem of connectivity. Graphical pages load extremely slowly through modem connections. I was astounded to learn, at the brown bag seminar I mentioned above, that there are agricultural county agents in the United States who access the Internet through 2400 baud modems--and more and more users complain that the Internet is too slow even at T1 speeds! Another concern is that even with a fast connection, many users still must access the Web with non-graphical browsers such as Lynx. When you decide to publish on the Internet, keep these factors in mind. Many users will shut off graphics in their browsers to reduce download time. Test your Web pages with the graphics mode shut off. More importantly, test them in a non-graphical browser if at all possible. This will help you to see how integral your graphics are to your pages. Always make sure to use the ALT tag with your images, so that users who can't (or don't wish to) see your images will know what they're missing. If you create fancy image maps for navigation, many users won't be able to see them, and others will be frustrated by slow download speed. Make sure to provide alternative navigation methods. If you create large pages of pointers, especially if you plan to annotate the pointers, split them into smaller pages, perhaps by topic. The smaller the byte size of Web pages, the faster they will transmit. If you go the high ball route, make sure that you also provide low ball avenues. This can mean creating "text only sites" (this should apply to as many Web pages as possible, not just home pages), non-framed pages (to complement the framed ones), and the use of other Internet protocols. Remember that you are establishing an Internet presence, and that the Web is not the whole of the Internet. Gopher, FTP, and e-mail are excellent ways of transmitting your information. While they are seldom used in place of the Web these days, they can be used very profitably as complementary publication methods. What is your content?It is important to carefully consider the content that you are transmitting, and to figure out the best way to transmit it to your audience. If you are transmitting simple text materials, HTML markup is very effective, and backup ASCII text copies on a Gopher or FTP server will make your material even more accessible. If you want to transmit searchable databases, the Web is definitely the way to go, as it exploits the interactivity of the Internet. If possible, also transmit the entire database in a browsable form. If images are central to your content (such as astronomical photos or museum exhibits), make sure to create small thumbnails that are linked to the larger images so that your users can take the time to download only the images they want. If you decide that you must go the high ball route, tell your users that on the home page. Let them know which browser is best for viewing your pages, and put in a pointer to that browser. This is a simple concept, but one that is often forgotten by Web page developers, resulting in pages that are difficult, if not impossible, for users to read, even if they have high speed connections. Sample sitesThese are just a few examples of factors Internet publishers should consider when setting up a presence. Now, let's take a look at a few sites, and see how effective and accessible a site can be when well thought out and designed. Low ball
High ball, but with low ball options
These are just a few examples of Internet publishers who not only upload important and/or compelling content, but have thought about doing it in a way that makes it easier for the most possible users to enjoy.
Copyright Susan Calcari and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, 1994-1998. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of the End User's Corner provided the copyright notice and this paragraph is preserved on all copies. The Internet Scout Project provides information about the Internet to the US research and education community under a grant from the National Science Foundation, number NCR-9712140. The Government has certain rights in this material. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Wisconsin - Madison or the National Science Foundation.
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High Ball or Low Ball