Re: Need Feedback for my Website and Directory

Steven (remove wax and invalid for reply) wrote:

BerneyBoy wrote:

I liked the conversation I have seen the last few days. I understand
that flags are somehow politilized symbols. However, it is the most
used symbol on Internet because it allows a quick identification of the
language used. I don't think that there is a perfect visual solution. I
have made little modifications on my website to improve it.

Why not just use the words for those languages, IN those languages? If
you like, use one or two colors to distinguish the languages, colors
that could be taken from the flags of the most "important" country that
uses each language.

Here's an example, although they don't use colors like I would.

http://www.spews.org/bounce.html

--
Steven

"Alan J. Flavell" <flavell (AT) ph (DOT) gla.ac.uk> wrote

[please trim your quotage to the specific points that you are
discussing! - standard usenet netiquette...]

Fair point and I apologise.

Strictly speaking - are the flags needed?

Yes, they are useful to signify a geographic area, while confusing
those who are looking for a language. As has been discussed many
times before.

It is fortunate that you can answer this question on behalf of the original
poster, as you have a deep understanding of the aims of his website. I am
sure your aims are to help educate the OP, however by not allowing him to
investigate the question and come to a decision himself you are undermining
his ability to actually take on board the (very valid) points you raise and
realise they make sense.

The question was asked to give BerneyBoy the opportunity to decide for
himself the reasons for the flags and how valid they were.

You are trying to get across a visual cue to the language used -

Why this emphasis on "visual"? WWW pages can be presented in whatever
way the *reader* wants.

Good question. I am not designing the website you refer to so this may have
been misdirected. I assumed, possibly wrongly, from the domain name that the
website had an "interest" in showing graphic designs. My assumption was
slightly re-enforced by the OP's insistence on using the graphic.

maybe a graphic of the word would be better than a flag.

A graphic of a word? What's wrong with the word itself? (In its own
language, of course).

Excellent question. Again, I am not placed to answer. As you will have seen
from the part of my message you snipped I asked "You now have the text as
well, so why keep the image." Admittedly I should have added a question mark
at the end though.

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005, T Wake wrote:

Yes, they are useful to signify a geographic area, while confusing
those who are looking for a language. As has been discussed many
times before.

It is fortunate that you can answer this question on behalf of the
original poster, as you have a deep understanding of the aims of his
website.

Irrespective of the aims of a particular web site, there's a lot to be
gained by what's called the principle of least astonishment, i.e doing
what the reader expects, at least as far as routine operations are
concerned.

I give you, as an example, http://www.google.com/language_tools

Here the languages are designated by their name, and the flags denote
countries (geographic areas). I won't say that I always agree with
the decisions taken by Google (or any other big provider, for that
matter), but in this case it seems to be right, and - even in cases
where I personally disagree with the popular choices[1] - there can be
benefits in doing what people have come to expect, rather than what I
personally think would be better.

best regards

[1] for example I personally would put a navigation area at the end of
a page, not at the start where most web pages seem to have it.

"Alan J. Flavell" <flavell (AT) ph (DOT) gla.ac.uk> wrote

Irrespective of the aims of a particular web site, there's a lot to be
gained by what's called the principle of least astonishment, i.e doing
what the reader expects, at least as far as routine operations are
concerned.

Yes. Very good point, and from personal experience alone it is frustrating
when you come across "showy" websites which seem to think the idea is to
make any form of navigation (or understanding in general) seem as hard as
humanly possible.

I have re-read my last post and I didn't intend it to come across as
argumentative as it may have. I think all the points you have made have been
very valid.

On Tue, 21 Jun 2005, T Wake wrote:

[...]

I have re-read my last post and I didn't intend it to come across as
argumentative as it may have.

Don't worry about it! I've been participating in usenet for many
years, and a robust style of discussion is quite usual.

I think I understood what you were getting at, and hadn't for a moment
felt it was any kind of personal attack.

all the best