Mon 11 Jul 2005
Java Applets = Stupid Design
Posted by dkaz under Java, Programming
Guardian Unlimited is running some choice quotes on lazy, stupid and evil design
by web usability Guru Jakob Nielsen.
Jakob on stupid design:
“Stupid design is where companies are doing things that are
known not to work. We now have 12 years documented experience that certain
things work and certain things do not work,” says Nielsen, “and companies are
still doing things that do not work.”One example is the Flash intro. “Almost everybody knows that doesn’t work,
but every so often, a new website comes along and makes that mistake.
That’s stupid.”
My example would have been web pages that are written entirely as Java
applets. HORRID!
July 12th, 2005 at 9:45 pm
There are some sites that are written entirely in Flash which are very well done (see, for example, Homestar Runner).
There is no technical reason such sites could not be rewritten entire as Java Applets and be indistinguishable from the typical end-user (who wouldn’t know, for example, to “view source” to check if an implementation was done in Java or Flash).
March 28th, 2006 at 3:42 am
This discussion is defective.
Web Pages built with Flash or Applets or sliced images are WRONG because they are “Documents” I don’t appreciate documents posted as PDF or worse as MS Word documents either.
Web Applications built with plain HTML are WRONG for productivity reasons but all web applications should ideally offer basic functionality through a plain HTML interface.
There are however different kinds of Web Applications: Rich Clients (most frequent in enterprise environements), Interactive Pages (for example application forms, forums and blogs) and Multimedia Experiences (which are a kind of interactive TV). There may be more categories or applications that belong to more than one category but that’s not so important.
Although it’s been a year now since the AJAX hype has started I still think Java applets are a superior solution for rich client applications. AJAX is great for Interactive Pages and shares most of it’s territory with Flash although Flash offers alot more power when it comes to Multimedia Experiences.