Rule #7 of Web Content Management
Websites should link to PDF in lieu of equivalent HTML only if selling that content or providing it for extended offline reading.
PDF is a DRM (digital rights management) tool that's actually ahead of its time. PDF is not a proper standard for rapid-fire web-based information exchange, Google's deconstruction of it in search results notwithstanding. PDF makes web infoseekers download, wait, scroll, zoom, scroll again, and then in many cases find themselves unable to copy/link to/reference the found infonugget in any meaningful way except to forward the whole bloody binary on to the next unsuspecting chump.
If I am buying a valuable report, requesting a backup copy of a detailed user manual I need to refer to off the grid, or acquiring information that's been digitized because in its original form it was archival-only (e.g., turn-of-the-century house plans), I'm happy to wait and download a PDF. I'll even suffer some marketing materials because I might want to save specs, contact info, or some "feature comparison chart" for later reference. Otherwise, dear webmaster, you've fouled my user experience by taking me out of my browser. Please stop doing that.
PDF is a DRM (digital rights management) tool that's actually ahead of its time. PDF is not a proper standard for rapid-fire web-based information exchange, Google's deconstruction of it in search results notwithstanding. PDF makes web infoseekers download, wait, scroll, zoom, scroll again, and then in many cases find themselves unable to copy/link to/reference the found infonugget in any meaningful way except to forward the whole bloody binary on to the next unsuspecting chump.
If I am buying a valuable report, requesting a backup copy of a detailed user manual I need to refer to off the grid, or acquiring information that's been digitized because in its original form it was archival-only (e.g., turn-of-the-century house plans), I'm happy to wait and download a PDF. I'll even suffer some marketing materials because I might want to save specs, contact info, or some "feature comparison chart" for later reference. Otherwise, dear webmaster, you've fouled my user experience by taking me out of my browser. Please stop doing that.
Labels: User Experience Observations
posted by Matt Shobe at
4:41 AM
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