some people will be pleased to see this

Just thought I would add this as a fair number of people will be pleased that the balloon race (orange) has finished. I still am not sure. I didn't really get involved in following it. I did find the balloons a bit intrusive, but I do know people who thought it was great. I hope that it hasn't stopped people visiting.

web usability >> balloons again

a few years ago now (about seven) I was setting up the first website for an academic institution most of my time was spent on the initial design, but a huge amount thinking and testing was done on download speeds as at that time pretty much all of us used used dial up. around that time I first got interested in the work of the now web usability guru jakob neilson ' useit.com'. I read everything I could find about his way of thinking and largely designed style sheets by mr neilsons rules, didn't use flash or splash pages. I have to say lately things with my web work have got a bit well, lazy. with download speeds much better and broadband the norm it is so easy to get a bit over indulgent. it was good therefore that while chasing my indulgent orange balloon across the interent sky I landed on a site that was championing the cause of mr neilson which led me back to a couple of articles on the bbc about web users are getting more ruthless and selfish when they go online. here and here.
it has made me wonder what mr neilsons take on the (annoying to some) balloons all over the screen would be.