Fred Showker catches a line from a Pete Seeger classic,
“Where have all the flowers gone?”
His flowers are the web designers that he thinks
are going extinct. He laments on the seeming “decay”
in the art of web designing and says gone are the designers
who made a difference in the making of web designs and
who provided quality sites for the people to visit.
Showker argues that he has seen a decline in the quality
of web sites basing from reviews he made of several
sites. From his statements, I can see that he is well-versed
in making analyses of web sites and is a credible source
of information. Many sites came under his meticulous
scrutiny and not one was spared.
Some of the sites that he revisited were dead and
others that are still up failed to meet the expected
standards. The changes he saw came as a shock since
he did not expect many of them to go down the drain.
Riddler.com was one site that Showker said proved
to be a disappointment as it took out of consideration
the reading pleasure of the reader and instead took
on a much commercialized look. Webshaker.com is similar
as well.
Ben & Jerry’s ice cream was another site
that was axe by Showker. Indeed, I was surprise to
see a content in the site about the Black History
month with Martin Luther King Jr.’s picture
in it. I have to agree with Fred on this one as I
see no relevance of the content in promoting B&J’s
ice cream. Perhaps there is an underlying purpose
for that but I honestly don’t see its bearing
here.
Of course there are web sites that met Showker’s
scrutiny like Hallmark, Camobell Soups and Smuckers.
These sites provided a good site for browsing and
had a good visual offering for the visitor.
Fred Showker’s main thesis in his review is
the importance of the reader as an element in the
creation of web sites. The site must be tailor-made
for the reader for it to reap the fullest benefits.
The content must be of relevance to the reader and
not just provide a stiff approach to giving out information.
He further adds that a site may come up short on
the design aspect but it still should follow this
basic concept, "The reader is the most important
element in the equation." Style gives way to
message, and content is STILL king.
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