tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post6342245027137382456..comments2023-05-27T11:14:02.426-04:00Comments on Some Space to Think: Revenge of 1996Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14216103531396452644noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-25507137392177009102010-06-18T16:21:59.140-04:002010-06-18T16:21:59.140-04:00Oh. And I hope you feel better soon. <grin>...Oh. And I hope you feel better soon. <i><grin></i>Reverance Pavanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217657347160811310noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1678761812929125529.post-61934428280175203652010-06-18T14:41:26.174-04:002010-06-18T14:41:26.174-04:00Re: web pages and pdfs
Having worked as a system ...Re: web pages and pdfs<br /><br />Having worked as a system administrator in an Architecture and Design school of a university, I was constantly amazed at the really really bad designs the students consistent came up with for their web-design course.<br /><br />The problem wasn't how they looked, which was admittedly far better than something I could do, but rather how unwieldy they were unless you were sitting on a T1 line. The best sites should have a certain design aesthetic, but they should also be functional and fast and easy to navigate. For a counter example take a look at the slow-down of, say MySpace, as the ads gets more animated and longer, and thus become unusable, which leads to less clients, which leads to more need for advertising revenue which leads to further slowdown and loss.<br /><br />The same goes for PDF design, and is one of my big complaints about publishers that provide PDFs that are optimised for printing rather than use on the screen. The overhead can make even a reasonably modern computer slow (depending on how most PDF readers use memory most are pretty crap at it).<br /><br />This is one of the three reason why I tend to convert the PDFs that I am actively using into HTML documents.<br /><br />Another reason is that I can reindex them easily for various forms of accessibility, which is a marvellous utility (although I can do it because I'm not afraid of using CGI and a database to organise and control the linking of the separate data elements; something most people won't be able to easily duplicate at the moment with plain HTML). This is more important for an ebook because we have less positioning information to base our innate search algorithm on (possibly people growing up with ebooks won't have this lack, although by then advances in information management will make even my futile efforts irrelevant).<br /><br />The final reason is that I can mod the actual documents directly, creating a single canonical document with all amendments and supplements integrated into the body of the work. I can update world setting information as the game changes the world. Add new ideas into the text (which makes them easier to find). [I can even compare changes that I've made with the original text, and reference back to the original source documents.]<br /><br />While I agree with the makers of <i>Diaspora</i> that a book can be an object of great beauty in and of itself, there is a distinction between the book as an artefact, and the text of the book as a reference document. Both are called a game, but people want different things from them. And that can lead to confusion when it comes to marketing the product, as evinced by the aforementioned game recently.<br /><br />I think the future of gaming ebooks are things purposefully designed for the intuitive rather than linear access. For example, your iPad contains a character sheet, which can be automatically generated, but also serves as an index into the rules (the worth of doing this is increased sales. Instead of one sale to a group (as is generally the case in my experience), you make it convenient (and cheap enough), so that every play buys your product.<br /><br />And even further down the track, virtual tabletops, with windows that allow you to see through your iPad to a rendered landscape. [Although truth be told, you would need to use something like a Wi remote to get accurate positioning information for this to work properly as I don't think the iPad positional referencing is really accurate enough as it stands. I could be wrong here.] The future is bright with possibility.<br /><br /><i><shrug></i> The intuitive exploration of information architectures has always been something I've been interested in.Reverance Pavanehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01217657347160811310noreply@blogger.com