I was looking around the internet last week or so, looking for the tools I would likely need to be able to podcast, specifically Skype-based podcasts. I was directed to the site for HotRecorder, a program that would allow me to use Skype to record multiple participants easily. However, I could not stay at the site long enough to look further into the product as the design repulsed me.
The only explanation I could determine for myself is that it was designed for touchscreen smartphones like the iPhone or Droid. To test its mobile-centric design, I fired up my BlackBerry’s Opera browser and loaded it up. I assure you, it was either designed specifically for the iPhone or for an audicence that does not exist in this world. A horizontally based website is unique, to see the least, but it’s not feasible. It’s not Flash-based, so they couldn’t incorporate a navigation tool that acts like the Hand in Photoshop and Illustrator, and none of my mice have the ability to scroll left and right.
Also, their background design flickers when I scroll, making the page all the more painful to use. A preliminary google search for the designer page brings up no results. I had never seen a horizontal site before, so I googled that instead, and found the perfect example of how to operate one. The Horizontal Way uses mouse-touch sensitive buttons for smooth navigation across the layout. It also advocates the use of Horizontal Pages as a way to better take advantage of the real estate provided by computer monitors, mentioning how “Another value of the horizontal site is that it can utilize almost all the space offered by the browser’s viewport.”
No comments:
Post a Comment