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>>Section 1. All USGenWeb web sites shall display an official
USGenWeb
>>logo prominently, on the home or index page, in such away that
>>the entire image is visible without scrolling down on a standard browser
>>screen. The USGenWeb logo used shall be at least 100 pixels by 100
>>pixels in size.
I responded on the STATE-COORD list, but I'm also going to put in my .02
worth here, just so everyone has the benefit of my wisdom and opinion <g>. ..
I have a problem with specifying that logos must be visible without
scrolling. I think that you can display logos appropriately without making
them the first thing you see when you go to a page -- it depends on the
layout and design of the page. If you have to go searching for the logo,
then there's a problem. If it's easily spotted, then what's the
problem? My page does not display the logos in the top half -- the first
thing you see when you come to the page is the navigation and information
about the county -- but the logos and links back are certainly easy to find.
People don't want to have to go looking for information, they want it right
in front of their faces. Everything I've read on web design says make the
pages short, make them simple. Don't bury the important stuff a half dozen
clicks into the site, get it right up front. Why should a researcher have
to scroll past a bunch of logos to get to the meat of the page? Are we
saying that the logos are more important than anything else? Personally, I
don't think so, and I have a funny feeling that our page visitors won't
think so, either. This kind of requirement feels uncomfortably to me like
a USGW ego trip rather than anything that will actually be of benefit to
researchers.
We have dozens of volunteers with varying degrees of experience, and
different ideas on web design. We've got literally dozens of NCGW
pages. And I think in that bunch that we've got dozens of beautifully
designed pages, and dozens of pages with worlds of information. Where the
logo sits is irrelevant, and I'll be darned if I can see any reason to go
through these pages and tell people they *must* re-do their pages so that
the logo is in "the right place." For that matter, I could point out that
on my 'puter, our state page doesn't have the logo in the "correct"
place. But I'll be darned if I can see any way that the design or the
functionality of the page would be improved by moving it.
And while we're at it, pray tell, what exactly is a "standard browser
screen"? I have a 17" screen running at 1024x768. Is that standard? Or
is a 15" monitor at 800x600 standard? 1152x864 on a 19" screen? What's
the "standard browser"? Will that be Explorer? Netscape? AOL's built-in
browser, or Juno's? Mozilla? Crazy Browser? Opera? How about Lynx, or
any of the other browsers that don't display graphics at all? (I'm sure
they'd be delighted to have to scroll down a while to get past the
logo.) For that matter, how about visitors that choose not to display
graphics even in the browsers that do? Or have people forgotten that the
internet is NOT a printed page. You can do all sorts of nifty stuff with
your HTML, but in the end, you really CAN'T control what it looks like on
someone else's screen.
Personally, I can think of a whole lot of things a heck of a lot more
important than the exact placement of the logo.
Angie
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