[thelist] Copy site designs... again

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Mon Oct 23 10:44:00 CDT 2000


> From: Seb Barre <sebastien at oven.com>
> 
> Keep in mind that if you're in 640x480, you are in a small minority of 
> users, and you should be willing to accept that sites are designed for the 
> majority, and that as a result your experience may be inferior to that of 
> the average user if the site designer chose to target 800x600 as a minimum.

couple points...

- i know i'm in the 15% range of users (if you've read my stuff on 
the site, you'll notice i try to keep track of the numbers), but i 
choose to surf that way as a developer because it helps to remind 
me of a lowest-common-denominator situation... it's not hard for 
me to resize at all, but for the average user it is...

- he didn't design his site for 800x600, or 640x480... he designed it 
specifically so the user didn't have to do much work... however, if 
it's too wide, or if it's too narrow, resize... nesting it in an 
incorrectly used <blockquote> is wrong, adding margins isn't bad, 
but adding margins for folks surfing at full screen at 1024+ is 
forgetting the other users -- and again, he's trying to account for 
*all* users... and we are talking about this site...

> I've strained over the years to maintain web page designs that are friendly 
> to all resolutions and colour depths (both on the high end and low end), 
> but it's very difficult, and sometimes you just have to commit yourself to 
> 800x600 or up in order to maintain a design or allow for the amount of 
> content intended for the page, and hope that the 640 people understand. 
> =)  Similarly, most users who run in 1280x1024 or 1600x1200 will understand 
> if a site looks strange when maximized, since they are also in the minority.

at the risk of taking this into another thread, i would argue that if 
you can't make a design that can fit in a 640 window (yes, it can 
be liquid), then you are cramming too much information onto the 
page... also that your images may be bloated since they most 
likely larger... there are many other reasons, but to save my 
rambling:
http://evolt.org/index.cfm?menu=8&cid=275

feel free to disagree, as others who've commented on it do, but my 
goals might also be quite different from yours in building a site...

> <tip type="Screen Resolutions">
> 
> A survey that shows average screen resolution for web surfers.  Good to 
> keep in mind when designing layouts.
> 
> http://www.brubakerstreet.com/cgi-local/survey/survey.cgi?survey_name=survey
> 
> </tip>

just a note on this... it only applies to sites where you are building 
to average web surfers, or, more accurately, if you don't know your 
audience...




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