[WSG] Non-interactive Web display on wall screen?
Has anyone advice to give on displaying web content on a non-interactive wall screen? I was asked about content for a large screen as an electronic information board in the foyer of a building. The display will not be interactive but just cycle through some set information. Creating content for such devices is an expensive and the novelty of doing it wears off quickly. Most end up like the forlorn tourist kiosks I saw in India, switched off and collecting dust <http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2005/12/electronic-tourist-kiosk.html> Instead I thought of using a selection of existing web content from the organization's web site. The screen can cycle through web pages showing current events, profiles of people and projects. This would require a few scripts to control the web browser and command it to display a canned list of pages. I did a quick mockup using the Opera browser and it looked okay, with the browser forcing the web page to the width of the screen. I could get a better result using carefully designed accessible web pages <http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/#udf>, but the average page seems to work okay. Dose anyone have experience of doing this? Are there products to adapt the browser and content? I had a look on the web and found some Kiosk products, but these are for interactive exhibits. Tom Worthington FACS HLM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 0419 496150 Director, Tomw Communications Pty LtdABN: 17 088 714 309 PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617http://www.tomw.net.au/ Director, ACS Communications Tech Board http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/ Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml ** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help **
[WSG] Web projects for students?
Any suggestions on web projects for my students this year <http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/>? In the past I have got them to redesign the TV guide for the Transact digital set top box <http://www.tomw.net.au/2002/transact.html>, check the usability of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Web site <http://www.tomw.net.au/2003/bws.html> and make University web pages compatible with a mobile phone <http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/mobile.html>. This year I thought I might get them to make a web site for the screen in the dash board of an Indian electric car <http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/transport/reva.shtml> or a robot aircraft <http://www.tomw.net.au/technology/it/podcasting.shtml#uavpodcasts>. Tom Worthington FACS HLM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 0419 496150 Director, Tomw Communications Pty LtdABN: 17 088 714 309 PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617http://www.tomw.net.au/ Director, ACS Communications Tech Board http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/ Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml ** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help **
Re: [WSG] Do you still support 4.0 browsers?
On 2/27/06, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: ... would you try and support 4.0 browsers? Yes and No. You can get a long way by using a subset of XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS. This will look pretty on modern browsers and still be usable on old browsers <http://www.tomw.net.au/2005/wd/>. If a commercial customer complains it doesn't look exactly the same on old browsers just tell them this is the wireless version for high net worth individuals with PDAs. If a public sector customer complains, tell them it is the accessible version required by law for disabled people. If a politician complains, tell them it is the version for people in disadvantaged rural areas (aka: marginal electorates). ;-) Tom Worthington FACS HLM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 0419 496150 Director, Tomw Communications Pty LtdABN: 17 088 714 309 PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617http://www.tomw.net.au/ Director, ACS Communications Tech Board http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/ Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml ** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help **
Re: [WSG] Plain text v HTML on this list
At 09:46 AM 2/22/2006, Nick Gleitzman wrote: ... could list members please use plain text for posting? ... kinder to those who only have dialup connections ... And those of us on slow supposedly "broadband" wireless links. ... makes the posts more legible. I, for one, tend to skip over posts which are rendered in my mail client in teeny tiny text... I have told my mail client to render the HTML as plain text with no images. This works fine most of the time. Any message I can't read this way is probably not worth reading anyway, particularly on a list about web design. Tom Worthington FACS HLM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 0419 496150 Director, Tomw Communications Pty LtdABN: 17 088 714 309 PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617http://www.tomw.net.au/ Director, ACS Communications Tech Board http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/ Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml ** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help **
[WSG] Re: site check: FONT sizes
At Sat, 18 Feb 2006 11:52:15 +0100 "Vincent Hasselgård" wrote: About 4-5 months ago they built a new national library here in Norway, the architects worked alot with making the place accesible for users with different disabilites. Essentially they did everything wrong. ... high-contrast art on the floor which seemed like a trail to follow ... A competent architect should be able to find enough guidance on what to do for accessibility. There are standards for making buildings accessible to the disabled, including one for tactile paths. I saw such a path in Beijing outside Olympic headquarters, when invited to talk on accessibility for the 2008 Olympic web site <http://www.tomw.net.au/2003/bws/research.html>. Unfortunately whoever did the paths in Beijing had them guiding people into trees and off the curb into the traffic. So it takes more than just standards: people have to actually make an effort to apply them sensibly. When it comes to font-sizes I'd really like to blame the browsers. I don't think it's up to us to provide tools for enlarging or shrinking fonts ... Provided the web designer doesn't do anything silly, the user can change the font size using the in built facilities of the browser. What annoys me is designers who mess up the built in accessibility of the web browser for the sake of some gimmick graphical feature. ... it's not up to newspapers to provide a spyglass with every paper. ... Under Australian, and many European laws, organizations have an obligation to be as accessible as they can practically be. So you don't have to provide a spyglass, but if there was a way to print the newspaper which made it more accessible, which didn't cost much and didn't interfere with other readers, then you are required to do it. If you don't think that applies to web sites, read my testimony to the Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in the 2000 Olympic Web accessibility case. The commission found the web site did not comply with Australian law and awarded damages <http://www.tomw.net.au/2001/bat2001.html>. ps: For an earlier case on phone access for the deaf see "Universal Service? Telecommunications Policy In Australia and People with Disabilities": <http://www.tomw.net.au/uso/>. Tom Worthington FACS HLM [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ph: 0419 496150 Director, Tomw Communications Pty LtdABN: 17 088 714 309 PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617http://www.tomw.net.au/ Director, ACS Communications Tech Board http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/ Visiting Fellow, ANU Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml ** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help **
