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Talvin Muircastle creates assistive technologies for users with disabilities, for the virtual world of Second Life. The text below is adapted from (with permission) and you can read the entirety of his original post at his blog The ScriptAble Project.
You walk into a casino and put some money in the slot machine. You pull the handle. Odds are, you aren’t going to get anything the first time. Probably not the second, or the third. But casinos know that there is a window of opportunity for them: if you don’t see something line up in front of you, if you don’t hear the ring of coins or chips dropping into the till within a certain span of time, you are going to walk away. They set the odds, therefore, such that within that window of opportunity you probably will get a payout of some amount.
Probably not the Jackpot.
More than likely, not even as much as you have put in.
Still, you have to get some measure of satisfaction and gratification from it, or eventually even the Gambling Addicts are going to walk away–or at least try a different game. The level of payout required is determined, not via any intellectual mathematics, but through a sort of emotional calculus that varies person-to-person.
The same theory applies to developing technology for the End-User: if the User starts using your tech and doesn’t get some sense of satisfaction from it fairly quickly, they will decide it is not worth their valuable time. They will view it as “broken”, and they will describe it as such to others. Given that word-of-mouth is still the most potent form of advertising, this can make or break you.
Microsoft learned this the hard way with Windows Vista. They thought that people not only would not, but could not go back to XP. They did, in droves. Apple recognized this when they released Snow Leopard: while Snow Leopard contains some important stuff for the future of Macs, it’s all under the hood. The average user isn’t going to see much of a “payout”, so they priced it really low: $29.
Now add the challenges of Assistive Technology. Most Software Development (sadly) assumes the hypothetical “Normal Person” as the audience. This person doesn’t really exist, of course. We are too diverse. Perhaps we need to reconsider that whole concept, but that is a post for another time, and probably another blog.
My audience is almost never going to fit the “Normal Person” characteristics. The End-User may not use their eyes. They may not use–or even have!–hands. They may have a high level of intelligence yet have difficulty communicating with me effectively due to dysfunction in one part of their brain. They may have a disability “just like” someone else’s, and yet live their lives and deal with the world in a totally different way. It is my job to create technology that will give them a “payout” in their first hour using it. Sometimes, I even succeed.
The moral of this story? IT students should be sure to get a good liberal arts education. OK, seriously: the code you write may look elegant, efficient, and useful–to another scripter. How does it work for the End-User? If they don’t start getting some coins in their till pretty quickly, they are going to stop pulling the handle, and you wasted a lot of time on a work of modern art.
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scary words–> CASCADING STYLE SHEETS! <–scary words
Are you scared? Cowering in a corner? (Okay, I suspected you weren’t.) How about uncomfortable? A teeny bit?
If you’re a regular user of CSS, you probably think I’m a bit nuts. If you’re not, you might feel intimidated by the idea of using Cascading Style Sheets instead of those old <font> and <b> tags in your web pages. Or, you might not even know what Cascading Style Sheets are, except that they’re just one more thing you’re supposed to know about and don’t have the time to learn.
In Part I, I’m actually not going to talk so much about about what CSS is, as much as why you need to make the time to learn it. “What” and “why” are really difficult to explain separately, so no doubt there will be some intermingling here. But I’ll give it a shot.
Why should *I* learn CSS, Laura?
- Power. Lots of it. [Insert evil laugh here.] With CSS, you have extremely granular control over how your web pages look; much more power than using old HTML. With CSS, you can change things you never could with just HTML–positioning elements on the page in particular. With much more finesse to boot. You also get, at no extra charge, the ability to manage how EVERY page in your site looks from one central location. It’s like the display control panel for your entire site. No more changing inline code on every #@$! page of your site when the library’s logo colors change and the whole site has to match the new color scheme.
- Standards-compliance. I covered this in a separate post, but it’s worth bringing back up here: using those old tags immediately makes your site’s code non-compliant with current coding standards. Sorry, there are no exceptions. As soon as you start putting those old tags in, game over. Your site now immediately qualifies for 1) Non-professional status and also likely for 2) Visitor frustration, especially if they are coming to your site with a more obscure browser and/or a mobile device.
- Accessibility. Want your site to be clear and understandable to those visitors using adaptive software, such as many of the blind and visually impaired use? The first thing you have to do is learn CSS. CSS gets a lot of those styling instructions off the individual pages (remember the “control panel” I mentioned earlier?) and out of the way for them.
- HTML 4.01 is dead. It has been since 1999. That’s right–CSS has been around for 10 years. It’s time to move on. If you’re still using old HTML tags to do your dirty work, you’re basically using zombie code.
Coming up next week in Part II: What is CSS and a gentle introduction to using it
(Eric Jordan did an update to his first “Webmaster” vignette, and I’m posting it here for collective enjoyment. Thanks, Eric!)
Web Master 1.1
(I had enough fun with the first one, I decided to upgrade!)
The Programmer approached the Web Master in his cubicle once again. “Web Master, please help me. I am trying to select graphics for this new page. I want it to look cool.”
The Web Master quickly clicked over to his Photos directory, and brought up a picture of a winter storm, a polar bear, and a refrigerator.
The Programmer twitched in his chair, slightly. “No, Web Master, you do not understand. I want this page to look radical.”
The Web Master nodded, and brought up pictures of Che Guevara and rioting students.
“Forgive me, Web Master, but I have not been clear. I want to draw lots of visitors to this page.”
The Web Master ahhed softly, and turned to the Web Browser. He found a porn site.
Seeing the expression on the Programmer’s face, the Web Master said, “It is you who must forgive me, for I have erred. First, I should have asked: who is your audience?”
And the Programmer was Enlightened.
I count among my good Internet friends a certain Eric Jordan, who can not only outpun anyone I know, but has a talent for taking a humorous approach to making his thoughts known. Although Eric is not a web developer by trade, he shows in his vignette, below, that he well understands the pitfalls of designing without having a clue who the audience truly is. Thanks to Eric for allowing me to reprint this here. Share and enjoy.
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They call themselves Web “Master”, but they have not Mastered.
The Programmer went to the Web Master, and said, “Master, I wish to create a Web Site.”
The Web Master nodded. “Let us see what you can do! I will prepare a site, and you will prepare yours. When we are both through, we shall exchange, and see how they compare.”
So, both took up their Editors, and they began to work. Finally, the Programmer turned to the Web Master. “Master, I am finished.”
“I have only the beginning of my own, but let us see what you have done!”
“Master, I have decided to use Flash for an introduction, and PHP for the main pages. I included an SQL database with an interface for the client, and made liberal use of JavaScript to enhance the look and feel of the site. When you mouseover the important links, it makes a sound that evokes a sense of what lies beyond. The graphics are colorful and animated, the links are orderly and logical, the templates are divine.”
The Master hmmed. “An interesting choice of a starting point. Here is what I have done so far.” He turned his screen so the Programmer could see.
The Programmer read three times, disbelief on his face. Finally, “But…but there is no Code! This is only plain Text! Mere data, no more! How can you call this the beginning of a web site?”
The Web Master smiled. “You are like the poor carpenter who shined and sharpened his tools, but never gave thought to the wood. Remember that the World Wide Web is about information! These other things are fine in their place, but they are only tools. You cannot build a house until you know who will be living in it!”
And the Programmer was Enlightened.
