DOGtype Declarations!

Dogtype Declarations are easy to use. You simply choose Dogtype that most closely matches characteristics of your website.

Here, from newly-formed 'Woof Woof Woof Consortium' is a handy beginners' guide to available Dogtypes:

Collie or Sheepdog Dogtype - Use this DTD if your site is there to do a job, rather than being there merely for entertainment purposes. Suitable sites will be totally professional, ultra-reliable, and never let you down, although they might be a trifle dull or lacking in surprises at times.

Poodle Dogtype - for Flash-heavy sites that are all style and very little substance. Why poodle? Think dyed pink and over-pampered showdogs, usually called Fifi and often seen sporting lots of bows or ribbons and other canine bling.

Whippet or Greyhound - For fast-loading sites. Not too many images. No animated gifs. Lightweight stylesheet.

Bloodhound (or alternatively Spaniel dogtype) - Do you use 'browser sniffing' javascripts in your page? Then you need one of these 'sniffer dog' Dogtypes!

Mutt or Mongrel - For sites that have been around since dawn of time. The site owners have only just heard about Doctype declarations and decided to stick first doctype that comes along at top of their page. Anything's better than Quirks mode, they think. Ha! But if backwards compatibility is an issue for you then use Mutt/Mongrel. Labrador - A useful Dogtype if you need to address issues of accessibility particularly with regard to blind users.

Why? Internet and intranet images are used very small – often no bigger than about 250 pixels wide. This immediately throws up a problem. On printed pages where we had a whole page to play with we could afford to be clumsy with our cropping and composition. Not any more.

Photographers should adopt a different shooting style for intranet, one that involves much tighter composition and adherence to common shapes that are used.

Take a look at your on-line news service and you will see that most imagery tends to be landscape shaped. The more enlightened will have adopted portrait-shaped images too, which seem to give viewer more to look at when placed alongside copy, while still leaving space for a decent column width for text.

But, with a few exceptions, I bet you don’t use cut-outs, or full-screen shots that whack reader right between eyes. And you don’t have too much room for picture stories that tell tale across about 10 images either.

So what we need is a single image that has impact, even when only two inches wide.

The answer then is to brief your photographer carefully about space you wish them to fill. If possible, show them a typical page or send a print-out. If you don’t brief your photographer carefully how can you expect to get results you require?

If you’re taking pictures yourself then try to a) get a lot closer to action and b) compose your shots to maximize area you have. I have one consultancy client who nicknamed me “Phil Frame” as apparently that’s all I kept saying to them! I don’t care – message seems to have struck home!

But how can you compose your shots better?