Interesting concept by Mr. Webster and his team. Compare the experience on this page to the code . This is something I can really stand behind as I think it is really meeting Accessibility and User Experience demands. Unfortunately my pessimism leads me to think that Google will ruin our fun. As soon as we find ways of hiding text, the search engines will ignore our content to avoid spam. Ignoring this, I think xHTML/Flash combination as natural. Yes you could probably do the same thing with javascript: but why? Accessiblity is our goal but multi media expression is the richest, ever present medium what is wrong with using proper tools to create a message or narrative. The web is not soley a text document repository. What we see here is a hint at new media’s evolution: organic, social, rich(deep), accessible, and thoughtful.
Dustin Diaz makes the misguided comment :
I would have never thought to use sIFR beyond headlines just for the sake of keeping typography to a standard. But besides that, using it for the bulk of your content (eg paragraphs, and lists etc) seems a bit heavy on client-side overhead.
In my opinion SiFR would be more intensive because of the javascript. This newer technique is no more resource intensive than running a flash movie. I think what it is- is a bit heavy for the standards freaks.
Let’s face it, the dogmatic adherance to standards has nothing to do with accessibility or design. It is reminiscent to the 1337 speak and is almost as childish. Why should we compromise the experience in order to bend over backwards to ensure a slash closes every line break tag. Yes there are best practices. Yes accessiblity is a must. But the user experience is the ultimate goal. If you call your self a designer, then please, design!. No that’s not about some cool drop shadow on your page or mirror text in your logo. Its about adding functionality, beauty and emotion. For the most part the standards site’s have some of the most bland, copy cat design on the web. I applaud Digitas for an effort on all fronts to integrate great technological design neither dogmatic nor ignorant to standards- but a functional, exciting and effective design- Here’s to more of it.
Commenting is closed for this article.