Project Cool at NBMA

The Cat's Alley

Project Cool
August 21, 1997

by Catwoman, roving cat-reporter
(a.k.a. Suzanne Saunders)

Presentation by Glenn Davis and Teresa Martin of

Introduction
Browser Wars
Demonstration
Standards with Style
Q & A with Peanut Gallery
We see the light!

INTRODUCTION

Glenn Davis introduced himself with a personal history from 1993 when, after being injured as a foreman at a glass factory, five surgeries and nine months of recuperation later, he had done a lot of web-surfing. He was impressed by the spirit of the web embodied by youngsters, 'the Web' has become synonymous with 'the Internet' but, he commented, it is much more!

At that time, the web was text-only while he browsed using Lynx, he still thought it was 'cool'.

He built a page with some text-only links in his spare time, which became known as 'Site of the Day'. He went on to comment, if you do that now there is something wrong! Volunteering while laid-up, he took manuals home and configured a system to dial a modem and call up Mosaic with graphics, it was very cool ... it got him a job!

He can't imagine a life without the web now!

People talk, he mused, about what will be the next big 'thing'. He responded with, it's not a 'thing', it's the next big 'way'. Starting to integrate seamlessly into our lives, like a microwave oven, his kids treat it [the web] like another appliance. So now, he continued, if the power goes out, they are really helpless! [to hearty laughs from the Peanut Gallery]

Browser Wars

Mark Anderson at the NCSA [National Computer Security Association] helped create Mosaic, and the image tag. At that time, everyone complained that it was not standard, but it was just too cool! Mark formed Browser War I, between Mosaic Communications and Mosaic. Mosaic won the war when they changed their name to Netscape! Browser War II, he continued, could also be coined the "Browser Foodchain":

Big Fish: Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
Next to Big Fish: Netscape Communicator
Next on foodchain: Netscape Navigator 3.0, then Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 then Netscape Navigator 2.0
Plankton: Everyone below Microsoft and Netscape

Glenn helped evaluate Modzilla, which became Navigator, which evolved into Communicator.

He cautioned us that a new tool is coming out in October, under Non-Disclosure he was unable to give details but warned us to wait until October to buy a new web-tool!

Dynamic HTML, he continued, does everything out of the box to satisfy Microsoft and Netscape; Something, he mused, he had not been able to figure out how to do using only one page that will make both browsers happy, and he wrote a book on it! [many chuckles from the Peanut Gallery]

Your best resource, he explained by asking us to look around. Best tools aside, you still need a website people will use. Design for other people. When you think about webdesign, look around you. At a stoplight for example, he asked us how many of us press the Walk-button more than once? [a few hands raised] Anyone lean on it? [big laughs now as more hands waved in agreement].

Poor design, he scoffed. No feedback!

There are different categories of websites, such as News, his least favorite category. Scrolling for four pages to find the weather, ten pages of graphics to load while twiddling thumbs, following the print paradigm! Follow this mantra, he instructed:

The Web is NOT Print

When you get frustrated by a word that won't position just where you want it, remember the web is like a layered drink, with multiple layers of information. No matter the container, the information will fit. No matter the browser or colors, if you layer your page, it will fit!

He encouraged us to create web pages that flow.

There are, he commented, amazing differences between the Mac and the PC. For example, he set the table width to 100 percent. On the Mac, it put a scroll bar which covered up bottom text, the PC did not.

The key, he emphasized, is to look at your page on a Mac, a PC, a UNIX station, everything you can. Pretty soon, you can 'bartend' your own page! [I'll drink to that]

Demonstration

Next, we were treated to a demo of the Project Cool new index page, with a floating Saturn [to many oooh's and aaah's from the Peanut Gallery as it drifted gracefully across the screen].

Followed by the Developer Page on the Project Cool site [most impressive].

People write to him asking, how did you do that? To which, he responds with a few simple words, [as he breathed heavily in a fantastic impression of Darth Vader speaking deeply into the microphone] 'view the Source Luke'[cheers from the Peanut Gallery of course].

Don't steal the graphics, he warned, also known as copywrite material! Do, however, make it your own. Play and have fun!

Java, he continued, was touted as the next best thing [to baked bread?] but turned out to be too hard [with many fervent nods of agreement from the Peanut Gallery]. He smiled wryly and spoke of working with Microsoft on a new developer site, this one, he indicated was worthy of touting as the next big thing!

GLENN DOES STANDARDS WITH STYLE

Glenn went on to explain the importance of Style Sheets, reminded of when Internet Explorer 3.0 came out, he tried for a watermark background to stay constant while scrolling. They [Microsoft] provided it, but it doesn't work with 3.0, only with 4.0 [unless I mixed them up while furiously trying to write 'em as fast as he kept pitching 'em, the point that the version counts, was well taken].

The biggest smoke and mirror show, he said with a gleeful sneer, is 'Standards'.
They get proposed all the time, but need to be adopted first! Often we find so-called standards, support a style that they invented! [a few appreciative chuckles from the Peanut Gallery]

Style Sheets, [he paused for effect] are incredible once you figure out what to do with them. They read something like a programmer would write, they are very finicky [my interest peaked] one syntax error, and the whole sheet is gone! Style Sheets, he continued, offer many possibilities such as for the vision-impaired, a large font can over-ride the default. They allow you to change the look, on-the-fly.

CSS [Cascading Style Sheets]

Teresa took the floor, with a caution to be sure and test your work in each browser. Especially when using Style Sheets, because they look so different. Different terms change the meaning. Project Cool keeps a CSS Reference Table on their site [in the developer zone], that explains the difference in browsers.

Q& A WITH THE PEANUT GALLERY

Someone asked about the future direction of the company?

Glenn responded that he left 'Cool Site of the Day' to help everyone!

Dynamic HTML is their showcase piece to demystify stylesheets. He outlined the four parts:

Learn: on the Developer Zone
Look: in the Sightings a new one every day, for the last three years!
Peoplesphere: forms, mailing lists and such.
Future Focus: Encouraging us to think, from a people-perspective.

Next, we were treated to a demonstration on the overhead screen, showing what he explained to be 'Mouseovers', which are layers of tables.

A voice from the Peanut Gallery commented a resemblance to ActiveX.

Glenn added that Netscape would show sub-tables, but could not expand the tables. He commented that a few Netscape programmers mentioned during a recent conference, that Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 did some things right.

Dynamic HTML, he continued, can hide part of a page until needed.

Another voice from the Peanut Gallery inquired how long before most people will have browsers that can support all this new, cool stuff?

To which, Glenn replied with a bold announcement:

Appropriateness before Cool!

When people submit pages for him to view, and they point out all the many things their page does, graphics, sounds, 'the works', he has to ask [raising his arms in the air plaintively] , Why?
It's not about showing off everything you can do!

A member of the Peanut Gallery asked for Glenn's impression of VR [Virtual Reality]?

To which Glenn replied that when virtual worlds are truly immersive, he will be impressed. [pause for a shameless plug to my own VR archives On the VeRGe]

Teresa added an estimate regarding the timeline, explaining that the Intranets [corporate internal-only sites] are easier to bring up to speed. This is because each IS [Information Systems] department, establishes the browser everyone will use, with a consistent look to the pages. As opposed to people on the Web, all using different browsers.

A voice from the Gallery inquired if we should wait to design pages for Internet Explorer 4.0?

Glenn answered, stating that you should design for what you have. Design for your intended audience. There is an important feedback-loop, that you must have! For one thing, you have to provide a way for them to tell you, you goofed.. then you can fix it! Design for the foodchain.

Someone asked for comments on Macromedia Flash.

Glenn gave his opinion that it was better than Shockwave, giving it a rating of very cool as it works in both Netscape and Internet Explorer.

Another question was raised about using 3D on the Web?

Glenn asked us to look at how MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] found that genetic evolution takes on character. He added that Joystick Nation found that people don't relate to realism. Meaning, you can project yourself onto a cartoon character, easier than projecting onto a realistic image, that is already human-like.

A member of the Peanut Gallery asked for an expansion on an earlier reference to layers.

Teresa responded by forming her hand into the shape of an X, Y, and Z axis. [To do this, lay your hand palm-up, extend your thumb, index finger and second finger. Curl the remaining two fingers into your palm. Raise the second (or driving finger if you will) straight up to the ceiling. The thumb now represents X, the index finger is Y, and the middle finger in the air, is the Z axis]. Given the visual image, Teresa showed how, if the text is layered, the page can move about [as she rotated her hand, the fingers remained constant but the whole hand could turn].

We see the light!

Glenn treated us to another demo of the Project Cool index page, this time pointing out something we see all the time, but probably never notice, that movie credits are always white text on black background. The human eye, he explained, interprets data as either active, or passive.

Two levels of experience, he continued, Passive and Active Light.

Passive Light: such as the reflection off a book to the eye.
Active Light: your brain will remember better reading a dark background with light text.

Then again, he gave a disclaimer, he could be wrong! [to many laughs from the Peanut Gallery]

Use the Base-10 counting system, he explained. It was based on having five fingers [as he waved his hand in example]. People tend to pick the first four or five choices from any list, and then they get bored. He continued, give the audience bite-size chunks.

Tools, such as the Developer Search off their Developer Zone index using W3C [World Wide Web Consortium] standard, and Netscape and all available through one search engine! Great for when you need information, but not sure where to look.

Another voice from the Gallery asked what reservations they had for Java?

To which Teresa commented that the Government was banning it, making it a political issue.

Glenn added that he just got plain frustrated with it. Commenting that version so-and-so would work in one browser but not with a different version of code, very exasperating. He added that they have a tutorial on Mouseovers, which have been mistaken for Java, but they are not!

Glenn added that to speed up websites, use the height and width tags on all images, and to use the ALT tag, so the audience can see an alternate image load, at least something to keep their attention!

A final question allowed from the Peanut Gallery, asked for feedback on using WebTV.

In conclusion, Glenn and Teresa provided an amusing anecdote recalling how surfing with real people is not at all like designing in a lab environment. As soon as 'Grandpa' got the remote control, and jumped from regular TV, which always has sound, to any Website that did not have sound, suddenly that Website was uninteresting no matter the content, simply because it fell silent. The same reaction followed the remote throughout the rest of the family in a real test. A lesson for us all, sound is going to be mandatory for Web Wannabe's!