I’ve told this story at conferences – but because of normal situation I thought I’d mention it here again.
A few years ago I was doing policy research in a housing benefit office in London. They are fantastically unpleasant places. The walls are plastered with posters offering support services for people fleeing domestic violence. The security guards at the door are discreetly attentive to anyone who comes inside. The air is filled with tense conversations between partners – drowned out by the noise of screaming children.
In the middle, a girl is sitting on a hard plastic chair. She is surrounded by canvas-bags containing her worldly possessions. It doesn’t look like he’s in any emotional state right now. In his hands is a game console – a PlayStation Portable. She sees it intensely; Blocking the world with Candy Crush.
Or, at least, that’s what I thought.
Walking past him, I glance at his console and recognize the screen he’s on. She is connected to supplementary WiFi and browsing the GOV.UK page on Housing Benefit. She is not cutting the fruit; She is arming herself with knowledge.
The PSP’s web browser is – charitably – pathetic. It’s slow, runs out of memory frequently, and can only open 3 tabs at a time.
But GOV.UK pages are written in simple HTML. These are designed to be lightweight and will work even on low-end browsers. they have to. This is for everyone.
Not everyone has a big monitor, or a multi-core CPU burning through teraflops, or a broadband connection.
Photographer Chase Jarvis coined the phrase “The best camera is the one you have with you”. What he meant was that having a useless Instamatic with you at a crucial moment is better than keeping the world’s best camera locked in your car.
The same is true of web browsers. If you have a smart TV, it probably has a useless browser.
My old car had a crappy web browser built in.
Using both is a pain – but They do!
If both your laptop and phone were stolen – how easily can you live your online life through your worst browser? If you need to file an insurance claim online – will you be sent a simple HTML form to fill out, or a DOCX that will not render?
What important information or services are barring you from getting stuck in PDFs or overly complex web sites?
Are you developing public services? Or a system that people can use when they are in desperate need of help? Plain HTML works. A little simple CSS would make it look nice. JavaScript is probably unnecessary – but it can be used to enhance stuff progressively. Add alt text to images so people paying per MB can understand what the images are for (and, you know, access).
Sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable spot, and stare at an inconveniently small screen with an uncomfortably old web browser. How easy are the websites you create?
Later I had a brief conversation with the girl. His parents had thrown him out of the house and his friends had given him bus fare to the housing benefit office. He had nothing but praise for how helpful the staff was. I asked about the PSP – information I got from an older brother – and the web browser. His response was “That’s nonsense. But it worked.”
I guess that’s all we can try.
A few years ago I was doing policy research in a housing benefit office in London. They are fantastically unpleasant places. The walls are plastered with posters offering support services for people fleeing domestic violence. The security guards at the door are discreetly attentive to anyone who comes inside. The air is filled with tense conversations between partners – drowned out by the noise of screaming children.
In the middle, a girl is sitting on a hard plastic chair. She is surrounded by canvas-bags containing her worldly possessions. It doesn’t look like he’s in any emotional state right now. In his hands is a game console – a PlayStation Portable. She sees it intensely; Blocking the world with Candy Crush.
Or, at least, that’s what I thought.
Walking past him, I glance at his console and recognize the screen he’s on. She is connected to supplementary WiFi and browsing the GOV.UK page on Housing Benefit. She is not cutting the fruit; She is arming herself with knowledge.
The PSP’s web browser is – charitably – pathetic. It’s slow, runs out of memory frequently, and can only open 3 tabs at a time.
But GOV.UK pages are written in simple HTML. These are designed to be lightweight and will work even on low-end browsers. they have to. This is for everyone.
Not everyone has a big monitor, or a multi-core CPU burning through teraflops, or a broadband connection.
Photographer Chase Jarvis coined the phrase “The best camera is the one you have with you”. What he meant was that having a useless Instamatic with you at a crucial moment is better than keeping the world’s best camera locked in your car.
The same is true of web browsers. If you have a smart TV, it probably has a useless browser.
My old car had a crappy web browser built in.
Using both is a pain – but They do!
If both your laptop and phone were stolen – how easily can you live your online life through your worst browser? If you need to file an insurance claim online – will you be sent a simple HTML form to fill out, or a DOCX that will not render?
What important information or services are barring you from getting stuck in PDFs or overly complex web sites?
Are you developing public services? Or a system that people can use when they are in desperate need of help? Plain HTML works. A little simple CSS would make it look nice. JavaScript is probably unnecessary – but it can be used to enhance stuff progressively. Add alt text to images so people paying per MB can understand what the images are for (and, you know, access).
Sit in an uncomfortable chair, in an uncomfortable spot, and stare at an inconveniently small screen with an uncomfortably old web browser. How easy are the websites you create?
Later I had a brief conversation with the girl. His parents had thrown him out of the house and his friends had given him bus fare to the housing benefit office. He had nothing but praise for how helpful the staff was. I asked about the PSP – information I got from an older brother – and the web browser. His response was “That’s nonsense. But it worked.”
I guess that’s all we can try.
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Worth recognising that this site does not chase the daily news cycle, and a stop at kavqaro confirmed the longer publication arc, sites that resist the pressure to comment on every passing event are sites with genuine editorial discipline and this one has clearly chosen depth over volume which I respect deeply.
Found this really helpful, the explanations are simple but they actually answer the questions a normal reader would have, and after I followed kavunzo I had a clearer sense of the topic, no extra fluff just useful points laid out in a sensible order that made the time worth it.