New Machine; New Way of Looking At Things

We have talked before about how we are so susceptible to falling into the trap of thinking "everyone" lives, works, acts and reacts as we do. The most common manifestation of this in Web work happens when a developer gets a new wide screen monitor, or a faster connection, or learns some new technology like Flash.

Suddenly their Web pages only look good when displayed at a skillion-pixels by another skillion-pixels. Or suddenly every page has some Flash content (or JavaScript, or whatever). The thing to take away from this is that it is rarely a conscious decision to do this. It is rare that someone says "Well, I was the last person stuck with a 15" monitor at 800x600, so now the sky is the limit!" Rather, it is a matter of doing what they have always done: Making pages look good (to them, and at the time). As good as they can, in most cases.

But this is of course why we check our pages in other browsers. It's why we re-size browsers to see how content flows around the various fixed page elements, images and graphics, scrolls into and out of columns and so forth. Not everyone uses Firefox, no matter how cool it is. Not everyone uses Safari, no matter how impressive it's new features. Not everyone uses Internet Explorer, even though it ships as the default Web browser for most computers sold these days.

There are other more insidious examples. Not everyone knows all of the Secret Handshake jargon, abbreviations and acronyms that so many of us use every day. Does your navigation actually tell people where they end up if they click on those links? Title attributes can go a long way toward easing some of this burden, but even then we still have to depend upon the users to know or expect this feature and hover over links they are unsure of. Where does SHPS go? Student Housing and Parking Services? Student Housing and Pet Surveillance? Solstice Homeopathic Plant Scheduling? Student Health and Popular Science? Some Help Poor Senators?

Jargon and abbreviations are fine within the walls of whatever group uses and understands them, though I would still recommend using Title attributes and spelling-out the full name on first use, just for the new people. But any time you are dealing with civilians you should not just assume that because you have been online for years, "everyone" has been online for years, and will "just know" how something works. Just because you have a nice new monitor that overlaps your desk doesn't mean "everyone" can see a fixed-width wide-screen display, any more than just because you are on Twitter and understand RTs and @-signs, it doesn't mean anyone else can figure out your 140-character shorthand.

I just got new hardware. And in only a week I have already found myself unthinkingly operating as though "everyone" had at least as much display area. It is a beautiful 24" of gleaming, glossy pixels. It reminds me of the 9" screen of my first computer, and just how far we have come. But yeah, I have had to remember to download new copies of my favorite browsers, just to have them available, and re-size them (within all of that room!) to see how it affects the content. I have had to check pages on my iPhone, to see how they work there, without Flash and with only a few-dozen pixels to work with.

It can be hard to try to see your site with new eyes. But the experience can be valuable. If you can find someone who does not work in your field, someone who has never visited your pages before, and watch them try to accomplish some simple tasks, it can be very rewarding.