CHAPTER 7 Designing Adaptive Interfaces
As you can see, a simple stat does not tell us everything. Also, in both
of these scenarios, our initial design and implementation choices may
have unintentionally shaped the stats: JavaScript for stats + no JavaScript
= no stats; bad Blackberry 5 experience = Blackberry 5 users go elsewhere.
When decisions (strategic or accidental) shape them, the stats become less
useful and we run the risk of driving away potential customers. Instead,
we should strive to grow our customer base by treating everyone as we
would want to be treated: with respect.
The fact is that when users come to our site, we know very little about
them. Sure, we can read the user agent (UA) string sent in the request from
their browsers, but that only tells us so much (if it is even telling us the
truth. UA strings are easily spoofed).
A UA string can’t tell us if they visit our site on a Blackberry 5, have $5
to spend on our product or $5 million. A UA string can’t tell us if users don’t
have the same domain knowledge or level of education as we do. A UA
string can’t tell us if they have poor vision and need to be able to enlarge
the text. A UA string can’t tell us if they have a broken arm, are mousing
with the non-dominant hand, and aren’t as accurate at clicking as they oth-
erwise would be. A UA string can’t tell us if a user has installed a browser
plugin that will bring our carefully constructed JavaScript framework to its
knees. A UA string can’t tell us if the high pixel density device being used
is connecting over a mobile network and the user may not want that 7MB
photo.
There are so many possibilities to consider beyond what we know (or
think we know) about users when they visit our site. Instead of trying
to nail it down and control every detail, we should take advantage of the
inherent fluid and flexible nature of the Web. We should focus on building
an experience that is universally accessible and then capitalize on opportu-
nities presented by different devices, platforms and technologies to en-
hance that experience. You know: progressive enhancement.