Knowing how to code a link or turn a phrase will only get you so far. That may sound rather corny regarding a business website, but ultimately it's the connection that prompts someone to submit an order, to email for more product information, to return to the website, to recommend a website to someone else. Alternative navigation schemes, transcripts, and video captioning are neither cheap nor quick. Broadband quickly brings entire books in synthesizer-readable format to people who are blind or have dyslexia. The reason old Alertboxes continue to offer valid advice is that they are based on human characteristics and not on the details of the technology or the latest tradeshow buzzwords.
People change slowly.
In fact, to shape a profitable Internet strategy, you are probably better off running a usability test with five customers than reading the latest volume from the Harvard Business School Press. Little things can lead to Big Problems, and for Toys'R'Us's sake, I hope they get their HTML fixed soon. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artificial intelligence, improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions. But if you add audio or maybe nine holes of virtual golf, as the folks at Thinking Media did for Tanqueray recently, people will come clicking. All rights reserved.