THE DAY NETSCAPE COMMUNICATIONS WENT PUBLIC, the Web officially changed from a student-driven, informational enterprise to a true mass medium for the use and enjoyment of many groups. In this essay, I want to show how the Web has broken into three very distinct markets, and what those markets mean for future site designers and surfers alike.
When you use the Web, you take the role of many kinds of customers. Let's say you visit an art gallery. You learn about Matisse, Derain, and the Fauve artists. Your interest is piqued. You want to learn more about the Fauves and their influence on Modern Art. You go through some directories and learn about other galleries with Fauve exhibitions or collections. You learn that one of the curators has written a book on Fauves, and it's on-line. The book takes you to several interesting papers written by some art history students in Chicago. From there, you study the biographies of the Fauve artists and see time lines of who lived where when.
You decide you'd like to go to France to paint, so you search for travel agencies, and you find one with a site that looks like they know what they are doing. You look at a flight schedule and choose a day and destination. You go to another agency that has a program specifically designed to get you the best fare for that route, and you book your flight by filling out a form. Then you browse art-supply storefronts until you see one that entices you to come in and look at paint sets. You call their 800-number and order a nice one for traveling.
You have just woven your way through three realms, wearing three different hats. You wanted to see some nice pictures. You went in search of information. Then you found people to do business with and conducted a few transactions.
During a normal day, we are used to playing many roles: buyer, seller; shopper, server; guest, host; programmer, user; and so on. When you build a web site, different parts of it accommodate different customers. Browsers are not the same as determined buyers. Students are not the same as sophisticated users.
I hope to show that the Web is not just a circus. In fact, it is a three-ring circus, with both consumers and sites establishing themselves in all three rings. For the purposes of surfing, these three rings aren't so important. For the purposes of setting standards and building sites, these three rings are very important.
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