What You See Is What You Get. Describes some screen-based
text-editing programs or their editing modes. [Pron. "wizzy-wig"] The
term has become sufficiently standard as a spoken word that it is
subject to misspellings that reflect pronunciation overruling the
expansion: WYSIWIG.
WYSIWYG is probably the most common form of editor for the novice,
these editors tend to be very simple to use, relying on the general
publics tendency not to want to learn HTML and how it works. The problem
here is that these editors often produce sloppy or inaccurate code. What
may look great now may not look great to all browsers and platforms. (
More on this in our discussion on editors ). Their primary goal is
building pages easily with code that is passable to most browsers, most
notably Internet Explorer. Some of these editors are Microsoft’s Front
Page and Adobe’s Page Maker.
An overriding design principle is always required to sum up the
others. For graphic user interface design, it was "What you see is what
you get" or WYSIWYG. A great focus was placed on allowing the user to
ensure that what they did onscreen was what they expected, and what
hopefully appeared on paper if the screen was output. On the Web, this
slogan doesn't fit.
- First, the desire to transfer exactly what is on screen to paper
is inappropriate. In some cases, the screen may be made purposefully
simpler than the printer output. The user doesn't want exactly what
appears on screen.
- Second, users want to control their Web experience to a great
deal. Users don't always want to "get" a particular experience; they
often want to form their own. Web site personalization is a prime
consequence of this desire. Even if users are receiving a controlled
or common experience, they certainly don't want to feel that they
are. The user needs to feel that they are in control of the Web
experience. The user wants to direct the action. Nothing is more
frustrating than being forced down a path. Control of the overall
experience is in the hands of the designer, but within the site the
user must feel they are guiding the action.
This yields the following Web principle:
Web Design Rule: Control should be given to the user.
The last design principle points to the tension between user and
designer for control. Designers may need to be in control to influence
outcomes and keep the user from making mistakes, but the user should be
considered a partner.
Consider that the vast wealth of information available on the
Internet itself has put a great deal of control back in the user's
hands. No longer are users limited to the interactive content that was
worthy enough to be mass-produced on CD-ROM. Today, they can easily hunt
down the most obscure topic and probably find numerous sites devoted to
it. Because of this focus on the user's desires, the concept of WYWSIWYG
should be modified to the following slogan:
Web Design Slogan: What You See Is What You Want (WYSIWYW)
Fast interface with WYSIWYG- and Code-view.
Sometimes it's necessary to check the code etc. The Tark
Editor will support a rich set of keyboard shortcuts allowing to access
all features quickly and easily with the mouse or by keyboard. It will
be possible to switch between WYSIWYG and Code view at any time.
Project
»Tark« |
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