Comments on: They Should Know So Much Better

By: Gary Barber

Gary Barber — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:08:09 +0000

You know I first looked a this, saw the corner flash then stop. Okay that was a little intense. So not WCAG 2. “Okay” I thinks, “that’s it.” Its bad but not too bad.

Then I moved the cursor by accident over the masthead. OMG, they have a jumping vector script and the enclosed items become hyper flashing blocks of colour. This was so intense that after 30 seconds I was feeling very ill, and now have mild headache. In fact I feel a little unwell. Now normally this stuff doesn’t bother me.

If I was the UTS people I would pull this ASAP.

By: Steve Baty

Steve Baty — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:29:31 +0000

After a long day of staring at a computer screen, books, magazines, print-outs and other visual calisthenics, that animation affected me badly; and quickly.

And I have good eye-sight, damn it!

However, here’s a better argument to take to UTS: I would no longer consider attending a course on interactive multimedia (including the Masters course I had heard such positive things about) if this sort of thing is possible from the same dept. Sorry, but I’ll take my hard-earned elsewhere.

Steve
PS: Very nice post Lisa :)

By: Dylan

Dylan — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:36:08 +0000

Not to mention the white text in the left-hand column losing contrast with the gradient background.
Someone might be reluctant to change the header due to some strange emotional attachment… Smells like “Lars and the Real Girl”.

By: scenariogirl

scenariogirl — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:45:19 +0000

Well they’re some really interesting comments, thanks guys.

Steve, I know what your saying about attending a course there. The site’s been built pretty well in terms of standards and accessibility and even has a page detailing how accessible the site is. But stuff like this just isn’t cool.

I’d really like to know how they’ve justified it to themselves.

To be honest, and this might be a bit harsh, the Flash is very late 90’s. Joshua Davis was doing far more complex Flash design than this on Praystation back in ‘99.

it’s interesting that Steve and Gary both had physical reactions to the animation too. Steve, I know you get migraines. How about you Gary?

By: scenariogirl

scenariogirl — Sat, 10 May 2008 00:02:10 +0000

Dylan you’re right about the colour contrast too. I just checked it and both the white on grey and turquoise on grey fail WCAG 1 and 2 on Luminosity and brightness/difference.

By: Ruth Ellison

Ruth Ellison — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:08:44 +0000

Whao, I just saw it and thought, “ok, not as bad as some things I’ve seen”… until I rolled my mouse over the masthead.

Ow ow ow. I only viewed it for a few seconds but it was enough to be very disquieting.