PS2 for surfing the web

do we need to start thinking about it?

[dillonstars]

Hi,

This morning I was reading an article on the BBC website at

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

about a guy who has been surfing the web using his PS2 and has made his homepage into a surrogate browser to view any other web pages with.

I think this is very interesting considering how many people have PS2s, and could be a good source of traffic.

I would like to know if there are any guidelines out there for designing for PS2 or similar (i have looked but couldn't find anything), and what people's opinions were as to whether it would be worth putting any effort into this?

I realise that it is mostly a UK issue at the moment, but I bet it will become more global.....

Rob

[claus]

Very interesting. I've been looking at the site and although it is being optimized for PS2 use, it does not seem to differ from "ordinary" design on the major points.

Then, the fonts are large and contrast is high, which is a must (for viewing on low-resolution tv).

It uses frames, and the permanent topframe makes the site a browser, as the PS2's don't have the browser adress bar (apparently). Without that, no navigation apart from on-page links.

The sites that are being linked to from this page are not "made for PS2". Rather, they are made for browsers, but that does not seem to cause problems, otherwise the site wouldn't link to them, i'd think.

Here's a little info on the digital gaming industry [answers.google.com]. It's not design info, rather market info, but it seems that there are around 10-16 mio PS2's in the US dependent on source. That said, the BBC article suggests that this type of service cannot easily be offered to the versions that are being sold in the US (some hardware thing).

/claus