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Subject:
From:
Stephen Nowlin <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Museum discussion list <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 25 Oct 1999 11:16:23 -0700
Content-Type:
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text/plain (61 lines)
Hi, Ann -

> I would also be very interested in the website discussion. In fact would
> love your collective feedback on my attempt at a webpage for our
> invertebrate collections?

Nice design, great content on your site! But, a couple of suggestions:

Throughout the pages you designate two text colors, one for common text
and the other for linked text, but they are used interchangeably, and
this can be confusing.  You appear to be relying on underlining to
override color confusion over hyperlinks, but underlining is a browser
option that some people turn off -- therefore it is unreliable by itself.

On my Mac, using Netsape 4.5 with underlining turned off, there is no
color distinction between regular text and linked text in many parts of
the site.

If you want to continue to use underlining to designate links, you should
go through the site and tag each link with <u>LINK</u>, and then all
links will be underlined, even if the user has disabled this function in
their browser options.

Microsoft Frontpage has already done this for some of your links, but
inconsistently.  Also, MS Frontpage uses a stylesheet command to
designate text/link colors, and stylesheets are unevenly supported by MS
Explorer and Netscape browsers, especially below versions 4.0/4.5.
Actually, using NS 3.0, my browser ignores the stylesheet commands and
reverts to the link colors designated in the <body> tag -- which in this
case is better.

WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) web tools such as MS Frontpage
generally do a very poor job of writing code that can reconcile
cross-browser conflicts.  You should always check your site on different
browsers and browser versions (and platforms, if possible), to get an
accurate feeling for what various portions of your audience are seeing.

The simplest thing you can do to overcome this problem is to designate
one consistent link color throughout the site -- a color that is
different from any non-linked text.  This way links will be identifiable
no matter what options or browsers are being utilized.

Best,
Stephen

     _________________________________________________________________
     S t e p h e n    N o w l i n       Director, Williamson Gallery

     Vice President                     Producer, Art Center Online
     Art Center College of Design       www.artcenter.edu
     _________________________________________________________________

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