In order to encourage user participation within bianca, a user interface was needed that would integrate the user into the activities of the site. The interface would have to allow the user to more than just interact with the computer. The interface needed to be transparent and remove itself from the user's concern so as to maximally allow the user to interact with the site and the other users of the site. It had to wholly engage the user and fully support the metaphor of a house, allowing the user to forget they were using a computer to interact with other people around the world. The pages of the bianca site are designed with a 14.4 Kbaud laptop user new to the Internet in mind.
All pages have a consistent, compact, simple, and easy to use and understand layout.
Most pages rely heavily on text for content and navigation and when graphics are used, they are small, one bit, black and white images. 5.2 Virtuality As discussed earlier, bianca has a unifying overall virtuality of a house. In bianca, the conceptual structure consists of the map and the layout it enforces on the site, and the feel consists of the loving asteticts, do it yourself attitude, and rough on the edges appearance. As presented to the user, the bianca site is a simple shack in the wilderness of the Web. The complex and sophisticated software holding the site together is beautifully masked by the employed house metaphor and the strictness with which all aspects of the site fit into that metaphor.