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ULU Site Goes 3D

Oct 29 2003 12:07

Tom Elliott

The ULU web site has been re-vamped for the new term, complete with a 3D “infocube” interface. But will this exclude certain viewers?

What's next? A tesseract?

To coincide with the start of the new academic year, ULU have re-designed their web site. Using technology known as Infocube, the site features a menu system made up of a block of cubes which the user can rotate and select to find various pages.

The software itself is provided by Summit^, a company offering "low-cost innovative [technology] solutions to universities and student unions". This includes not only web sites, but also products for mobile phones (a link to fonecube.com is prominently displayed on the bottom of all ULU's pages).

Infocube.net, the creators of the system, promote their product as being "just like the real world" and state that "with 3D navigation it is easy to find information you need". This is debatable, as the user cannot see all the available links at once, and may miss the one they want while trying to move around the cube, particularly when the title for certain cubes may end up upside-down. And then there are issues of compatibility.

The Infocube interface uses the Shockwave plugin, a relative of Flash, which allows animations and simple programs to be run on pages displayed within a web browser. However, unlike Flash, Shockwave is supported in relatively few browsers, preventing users of many alternative browsers from viewing ULU's new interface. Also, due to the size and complexity of the software and graphics used, those on slower connections may have to wait several minutes for the menu to load completely.

The site does, however, provide a link to a more traditional 2D interface. Unfortunately, much of the information on this alternative site is out-of-date, most notably a contact page introducing a previous year's sabbatical officers.

The nature of the Infocube itself may also cause problems for disabled users. The visually impaired or those who have to use alternatives to the mouse or keyboard may find the site difficult if not impossible to use. Under the Disabilities Discrimination Act of 1995, this could be classed as discrimination, as the problems presented by the site are avoidable.

So, even though the new site is technologically impressive, ULU may have missed the point somewhat by not making their site as easily accessible as it could be.

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Discussion about “ULU Site Goes 3D”

The comments below are unmoderated submissions by Live! readers. The Editor accepts no liability for their content, nor for any offence caused by them. Any complaints should be directed to the Editor.

1. Sam

Oct 29 2003 17:03

ARRGGGHHHH

1) you have to have Macromedia Shockwave installed - this is stupid, because lots of computers don't allow you to install this if you are not an administrator

2) It's not a true cube, because you can't view the top and the bottom.

3) Due to edge blocks appearing with the same link on two sides of the cube, you have only 24 possible topics, they would be much better presented without a c**ppy cube.

4) Forking the design into a 3D/2D site means you have twice as much work to do to maintain it.

5) Screen readers and other accessibility tools don't deal with Shockwave very well.

In short, it looks shiny but underneath it's a steaming pile of wank.

2. Andrew

Oct 30 2003 00:22

What a pile of s**t it is. I'm on fast ADSL, and it took at least 30 seconds to load - so you've instantly turned away a lot of visitors (never mind the fact it's shockwave based).

It's jerky, hard to spin, and requires two clicks to open a page, one to close it.

There's no division of topics either. They clearly don't have 24 seperate things important enough, so fill it up with c**p that would normally only be linked to from other pages.

Also, I'm running at 1600x1200 and it seems to take up a s**t load of screen space before you can see anything.

3. Simon Pascoe

Oct 30 2003 13:33

I think there is a non-shockwave option as well.

4. Oli

Nov 02 2003 21:48

The "3D navigation" option is unnecessary and gimmicky, but when you turn it off and get normal links down the left hand side, it's actually a pretty decent site. Certainly an improvement on the old one.

5. Sam

Nov 02 2003 22:02

Tables are for tabulating information, not for layout purposes - so the 2D nav menu is just as toss.

6. Oli

Nov 02 2003 22:59

Depends on your viewpoint - plenty of sites use tables for design purposes, including this one. CSS (which I presume you would prefer) raises fairly serious compatibility issues, particularly with Netscape, which is still the default browser in some UL colleges.

7. sporty

Nov 03 2003 00:15

Sorry, with Sam on this one. CSS should be used. There are standard CSS layouts which can be used with NN4 without breaking, or without using any of the nasty hacks designed to break certain parsers. It's just a matter of implementing them.

Equally, site content can be rendered in a cut down version specifically for NN. It's got f**k all to do with viewpoint; it's about designers who are too lazy to implement standards compliant sites.

8. Oli

Nov 03 2003 01:21

Ummm....

So the good folks at "Live!" are too lazy to implement a standards compliant site?

And frankly, does it matter whether CSS or tables are used, given that they look and work the same for the end user? It's easy to be blinded by technology.

9. Sam

Nov 03 2003 09:08

Actually Oli, yes it does.

Tables for layout do not render very well in screen readers, and other accessibility tools for the blind and people with other disabilities. It is a requirement for most HE institutions to aim towards AAA accessibility rating (check the FAQ on the imperial.ac.uk page for more details)

By using tables, ULU is making their site difficult to access by disabled students. To carry out a redesign without due regard for this is a little short-sighted. Live! predates accessibility requirements, although a number of CSS based layouts have been tested. On the next major revision of the Live! codebase, CSS will be an important tool for layout.

10. sporty

Nov 03 2003 11:29

Basically, your HTML (with or without X) should contain structural information - headings, paragraphs, images, tables - the logical structure of the document.

Linked to this document are any number of CSS files, which allow you, the designer, to say how you would *like* the document to appear on given targets.

You're separating layout from content - bizarrely for something so abhorrent at first to designers, it actually makes everything a lot simpler from the point of view of both designers, server side programmers, and the user.

This means that any browser (not just screen based ones) can read it, and present it in an appropriate way. The classic example given is for accessibility; a less obvious one is for mobile devices. Why should your site assume that I'm running at a minimum of 800x600, and present me with a table? With CSS, I can either use the presented mobile template, or disable it altogether, leaving me with clear information which is still logically marked up.

If nothing else, use CSS because you'll save on bandwidth. Every time a site like Live! sends a page, it tells my browser exactly how everything is formatted. With CSS, you download the CSS file once (this holds presentation and layout, remember), giving a massive saving in bandwidth. I'm still amazed people don't listen to money :)

11. Sam

Nov 03 2003 23:08

Ahh, an excellent point - Live! doesn't pay for bandwidth - hence it can use Tables whenever it likes...

Try http://www.fireburst.co.uk/ for a non-table based site.

12. Londonstatto

Nov 05 2003 14:14

Sam wrote:

> In short, it looks shiny but underneath it's a steaming pile of wank.

Is that referring to the ULU website, or just to ULU?

13. Sam

Nov 05 2003 17:51

No Comment.