Re: UKNM: time4.net

[Giles Turnbull]

At 17:18 19/10/00, Ian wrote:

>does anybody know anything about http://www.time4.net ?

>

>any info on where they're from, who they are, who's backing them whatever.

.

>.

>

>if you look at the site, i am personally delighted that they have gone for

>the splash page with the entire site spawning in a new window, and

>everything built totally in flash. . .it's the future! </tongue in cheek>

>

>replies off-list, unless they're desperately funny ;-0


Hmm. I was contacted by their PR people a couple of weeks ago and, having

fought my way through the site, decided to take them up on their offer of

an interview.


I tried (*how* I tried) to argue with the guy that the interface was (a)

horrible, (b) frightening, and (c) built entirely in Flash when it didn't

need to be, but he was insistent that the company had reasons for all this.


These reasons included the fact that they are planning ahead for other

platforms (TV, dedicated web boxes in kitchens, that kind of thing) and

that they wanted to make the web experience as simple as possible, hence

the idea of replacing the entire browser interface with one of their own

design.


Personally I wouldn't want to use it. But then I thought about my elderly

step-dad, soon to take his first steps online, and I thought: which would

he rather use, a real browser or a pretend one designed by Time4.net?


I concluded that I would rather spend the time to teach him how to use a

real browser, but there are millions more people who won't have that

opportunity.


So the really frightening thing is that perhaps this kind of design *is*

the future. Either that, or operating systems and client interfaces have to

make themselves simpler to use - approaching teletext levels of simplicity

- before they will get millions and millions of newbies using them.


Giles

http://www.gorjuss.com

http://gilest.org

http://writetheweb.com



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 looking for useful books about the new media biz?

 check out the UKNM books page for some suggestions:

 http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing/books.shtml

 Email suggestions to:

helpchinwag [dot] com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing or

helpchinwag [dot] com