发表者: 幺宝刚, 谷歌中国工程研究院研发总监

随着谷歌浏览器的发布，对网络标准性支持的讨论再次浮上水面（关于网络标准请您参阅W3C发布的相应标准 ）。对这个问题，业界的讨论曾经有过很多，但是标准化的推行效果在国内不是特别理想，很多网站和网络应用对标准的支持还是很不够的。

之所以造成这种局面，是与很多网络开发人员在网站和网络应用软件开发中采用了一些非标准特性（比如某些IE插件）息息相关的，许多网站仅仅支持IE或某些以IE为内核的浏览器，这导致了数以百万计的使用其它浏览器（比如Firefox, Safari和Google Chrome）的用户可能无法正常浏览某些网页。我们已经收到一些用户对这类问题的反馈，但我们的分析结果表明，绝大部分类似的问题，是因为网页/站本身的对标准支持不够造成的。

从长期的角度来看，这种非标准性对网站的推广和吸引更多的用户是很不利的，主要包括以下几个原因：

• 浏览器市场有了越来越多的产品选择

谷歌浏览器在发布当天引起的广泛关注和踊跃的用户下载，说明广大的互联网用户还是很欢迎和支持有更多的浏览器的选择的。因为每一个新的浏览器的诞生，都会在这个产品领域带来更多的技术革新。Firefox火狐发布后迅速被用户接受、普及就是一个很好的例子。我们相信谷歌浏览器的发布，会给浏览器产品和技术创新带来一个新的飞跃。

但是这也会带来另外一个头疼的问题：是不是又要在代码里支持另一个标准呢？其实这种担心，我们从开发浏览器之初就意识到了，这也是我们如此坚持支持标准化的原因。

只要您的程序是按照标准来写的，不需要做任何改动，就应该可以直接在谷歌浏览器里正常工作。

• 网络的标准化有助于网站吸引更多用户

浏览器的不停更新换代，只会使网络应用的功能越来越强大，这样也会使大家的网站和网络服务越做越好，从而带来更多用户。从最近的产品趋势来看，非IE浏览器的用户越来越多。一方面，Firefox、Safari和Chrome 的用户数有持续增长的势头。根据Ars Technica 公布的数据，在美国和欧洲，非IE浏览器的市场份额已经超过了25%。另一方面，使用手机(iPhone, Android)等移动设备上网的用户越来越多，而这些终端上的浏览器很多都不是基于IE的。如果您的网站或者程序是支持标准的，就可以支持更多的用户（包括手机用户）。

另外还有一个因素：随着奥运效应的持续发酵和延续，中国的国际化也在进一步增强，这意味着中国国内网站的国外用户会越来越多，而这些用户很多是使用非IE浏览器的，对标准的不支持，就可能意味着这些用户的流失。

• IE 8.0
  

IE本身，对标准的支持也在不断增强，新发布的IE8测试版，已经缺省到标准模式，这就意味着即使您的网站只是针对IE用户，在新版IE中也可能会有问题。

总而言之，将您的网站和网络应用标准化将有助于您以更小的成本“以不变应万变”。

您的网站“标准”么？

要了解您的网站是否标准其实很简单，您可以使用某种对标准有良好支持的浏览器(比如Firefox,Safari或Chrome) 来测试您的程序代码。

将您的网站变得更标准化并不是多么难的技术问题。有很多网站，比如http://www.w3cn.org/howto/index.html,提供了很好的参考信息。我们最近也计划和业界组织一些关于标准的研讨会，探讨如何在市场和技术层面把这件事情做得更好。同时，也会组织一些技术上的研讨，看看如何自动化地识别网络兼容性问题，如何更快速地将一个网页标准化。敬请关注我们这方面的信息发布。

如果您想了解更多关于Chrome的信息，请访问谷歌浏览器或谷歌浏览器支持论坛(英文)。

A question I hear pretty frequently is, “Why a redesign of the admin panel so soon after 2.5?” Those who have attended WordCamps in the past few months have already heard the answer, but for the people who haven’t had that opportunity, this post is for you.

When the community response to the 2.5 admin redesign was mixed, it seemed like a good idea to do usability testing to find out which issues were based on actual interface problems vs. which complaints were just a result of not liking change. To prevent bias, a third party was contracted to conduct usability testing, Ball State University’s Center for Media Design, Insight and Research division. Try saying that three times fast with a mouth full of peanut butter. Or fitting it on a business card. To save time, we’ll just call that third party CMD, since that’s what they call themselves.

The plan that was developed involved multiple rounds of testing, as well as the creation of two prototypes, hardcore! The first phase involved a usability review of 2.5 by CMD, the results of which were discussed with lead developers. A quick prototype was created that addressed some of the lightweight issues, so that the test participants could use both 2.5 on their own blogs and the prototype on a test site. Results would be analyzed and compared, leading to a second round of suggestions. A second prototype would be developed over a week or two, which would then be tested with the same participants, and a final report delivered. But you know what they say… the best laid plans of designers and developers often go awry.

After the first round of testing, it was clear that a prototype delivering the kind of fixes that could be coded in a week or two wouldn’t make much of a difference overall. We all decided a more ambitious prototype was in order, one that would experiment with a new approach to screen real estate and attempt to address as many of the issues from 2.5 as was possible with a few extra weeks of time. A rapid design process was followed by an even more rapid development cycle. The second prototype is what you know as Crazyhorse.

The second round of testing blew everyone away. The research team had never seen such consistent results. Tasks were completed faster, participant opinions rated it higher, understanding of how interface elements worked was greater, and it wasn’t even a fully functional application. Of the test participants, every single one said they would choose the prototype over their current administrative interface, and it wasn’t even pretty (those of you who remember the original Crazyhorse will vouch for this).

A presentation on the process from start to finish was part of the schedule at WordCamp 2008 in San Francisco, and the slides are available online, but as always the slides only tell you so much without the videos, live demo and verbal narration that went with it. (Use Google and you can see audience videos of the presentation.)

Here, then, is a PDF of reasonable size that you can download and peruse at your leisure that outlines the usability testing project in some detail. I wanted to include some eye tracking videos, but the file was so huge it would have been ridiculous for anyone to download it, so I stuck with eye tracking outputs called gaze trails to illustrate the findings. I also tried to pare down the text to the more salient points, since more than 50 hours of test video really does reveal an insane amount of data. I also cut out the section about designing Crazyhorse in the interest of staying under 25 pages. Hopefully you’ll think it’s a good balance. I’ll try to put together a separate document on the design process of 2.7 in a couple of weeks that will include the early Crazyhorse material.

So, if you want to know what we learned from the usability testing this summer that caused us to create what is now 2.7, go ahead and read the report.

WordPress 2.5/Crazyhorse Usability Testing Report (PDF)