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The term Web 'design' has misled candidate staff and consultants in their on-line quest. 'Design' and 'page' are misleading because Web content changes, and is not fixed on a piece of paper. The Gary Bauer home page shown to the left (d) is an example of paper-oriented Web design, with its brochure-cover character. It is actually built from two dozen individual images--and the apparent link (the underscored "Gary Bauer's Plan...") is only an image, not a link at all. The entire page is structured as a series of image links, with only a fragment of text at the bottom.
In other words, building this kind of on-line 'brochureware' conflicts with the Web paradigm of fresh information with direct, accessible navigation, useful for everyone.
Because most Web site designers have learned their view of the Web through Windows and Macintosh graphical user interfaces and Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator browsers--the 'Big Two'--they often forget that Explorer and Netscape are not the only faces of the Web. Some designers even dismiss other browsing options as not worth their time. Yet the Web is increasingly used by speech browsers, palm-sized computers, set-top boxes, and Internet appliances--as well as other graphical browsers.
The use of the Web by more than 50% of U.S. households has brought a wider cross-section of voters on-line, and the re-casting of Web technology for other information tools has revived the concepts of accessibility and portability.
Go to next section: The Problem
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