There
are a number of compatibility issues with other
interactive navigation bar technologies. Here
are two examples:
Text
Sizing - If you use any Java applets, (like
CoffeeCup/SiliconJoy, among many others), take a
look at your site on different browsers and
platforms. You will be surprised! Text will be
mispositioned and/or CUT OFF! Your buttons will
almost always only look correct on one platform,
and sometimes on only one browser. The big issue
is that different platforms and browsers don't
draw text at the same size, so buttons get sized
and drawn incorrectly (see real-life
examples).
Images
and Firewalls - Java applets that use image
files (GIF/JPEG/etc) do not work through some
corporate firewalls. This is true even though
the applets pass through the firewall just fine!
This occurs with every Java package that
uses image files, including major ones like
PageCharmer. Since there is absolutely no way to
detect this situation, there is no way to
gracefully fall back to an image map or text
links. Your site will simply be unusable for
these clients. Since ActionBars does not use
image files it works perfectly!
- Note:
This is very difficult to test because
you need to have access to someone inside one
of these corporations to test your site! We
conducted a small test study that revealed a
number of large corporations with this
configuration, representing hundreds of
thousands of users!
You
owe it to yourself and your clients to check
your site and be sure it's usable by all your
customers and/or your client's
customers.
