[CEUD-ICT] Single vs. Multi-page documents

[Barry McMullin]

On Wed, 4 Feb 2009, Eoin Campbell wrote:

> The main reason many websites split relatively short articles into
> multiple pages is driven by commercial considerations: it increases the
> number of page views to show advertisers, and also increases the opportunity
> to sell ads in the high-value locations.

I can believe that that is the "logic" behind some of these
designs.  I doubt that that logic has been very seriously
tested.  (With the progressive move from "page view" to "click
through" business models for online advertising, I think this
argument may become progressively more moot.  But there again, I
may be completely mistaken about that!)

> Of course, a single, downloadable, accessible, complete copy of
> a report should also be made available, for example, in PDF
> format.

Yup ... and in daisy [1] and epub [1] and simple zipped HTML+CSS
formats etc.  In other words, I suggest that there is some
rough length/complexity threshold above which we should properly
think in terms of "e-books" rather than "web pages".  And with
*that* orientation, PDF is currently something like a "dominant
incumbant" technology; but it's worth at least being aware that
there are alternatives that will have various advantages for
different user groups and use-cases.  And with the right tools,
that support a proper "single source master" work-flow, these
different formats should not be seen as mutually exclusive
alternatives, but rather as complements that can be freely
offered for users to choose between, according to their specific
needs and preferences, since there is zero marginal cost to the
publisher in providing them.

(This broad idea was captured in Checkpoint 11.3, at priority 3,
of WCAG 1.0: "Provide information so that users may receive
documents according to their preferences (e.g., language, content
type, etc.)"; but it is no longer present, at least in explicit
form, in WCAG 2.0. WCAG 1.0 checkpoint 13.9, at priority 3, was
also relevant "Provide information about document collections
... [e.g.,] create a collection ... by building an archive (e.g.,
with zip, tar and gzip, stuffit, etc.) of the multiple pages",
but again, this was lost in any sharp form in the transition to
WCAG 2.0.)

Best regards - Barry.

[1]: http://www.daisy.org/

NB: Although daisy was original conceived as a digital "audio" or
"talking" book format, it has evolved so that it can now be used
for completely "conventional" books that need have no strictly
audio content at all. Of course, not all daisy readers
necessarily support this fully yet, but that is a different day's
work...

[2]: http://www.openebook.org/specs.htm


--
Barry McMullin, Dublin City University
   phone: +353-1-700-5432
   web: http://www.eeng.dcu.ie/~mcmullin/