Loughborough University has put up an RV Touch page by Revolution Viewing that does not open with the virtual tour itself for everyone. Instead, it directs anyone who sees a message in place of the tour to install Adobe Flash Player.
That matters now because the page is being used as an access point, and the problem is immediate: if the browser cannot display the tour, the content does not simply load anyway. For anyone searching Arsenal Vs and landing on a page tied to a virtual tour, the first instruction is technical, not visual.
The wording is plain. If a viewer sees the message rather than the virtual tour, the page tells them to click to install Adobe Flash Player. If that still does not solve the problem, it adds another step: enable javascript in the browser. And if the tour remains out of reach after that, the user is told to email [email protected].
That makes the page less a presentation than a set of repair instructions. It references a virtual tour, but it does not identify the subject of the tour, which leaves the user with directions before content. The result is that the page can confirm something should be there without showing it, a gap that matters most to anyone trying to view the tour on a browser that cannot render it.
The practical takeaway is simple. Users who cannot see the tour are meant to try Adobe Flash Player first, then javascript, then email support if the page still fails. What remains unresolved is the tour itself: the page says it exists, but it does not say what it is, and that is the one thing a viewer still cannot learn from the screen.
