[thelist] resizing in browswer

[Megan Holbrook]

Has anyone else felt that liquid tables have been a bit oversold? I use
a large monitor so that I can have multiple windows open. My resolution
is set at 1280x960. When a browser window is open, it's *large*. 

The biggest frustration I have is that reading very wide paragraphs of
text is difficult and exhausting to the eyes. The width of the text
prevents me from being able to speed read, which is helpful when I'm
trying to scan large amounts of text. 

However, I also find that very few designs actually work well at a large
resolutions as they do at the minimum resolution they are designed for.
Graphic elements seem to float away from one another to the four corners
of the screen, leaving a wide gulf of open space - to me, that's more
annoying than having a lot of left-over space. 

Information design is about *design* - it's creating a way to
communicate with user so that information is easily accessible and
comprehensible. Just as an effective ad in a magazine creates impact not
only with its information but also its layout, I find that effective web
design retains more control over the user experience than simply
allowing the design elements to expand in all directions to fit all
browser resolutions. I would love to at least see more web designers
limiting the width of their text columns.

Comments?

M.

Janice Tocher wrote:
> 
> Hi Jamie,
> Excellent article on 'liquid' pages at the following
> 
> http://www.evolt.org/article/Liquid_Tables/20/2321/index.html
> 
> good luck with your development!
> Janice
> 

-- 
Megan Holbrook - megan at kapow.com
Partner - Business Development
kapow, inc. (www.kapow.com)

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