[thelist] resizing in browswer

[genghis at members.evolt.org]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org
> [mailto:thelist-admin at lists.evolt.org]On Behalf Of Jamie Bakum
> Sent: 20 March 2001 17:27
> To: thelist at lists.evolt.org
> Subject: Re: [thelist] resizing in browswer
> 
> 
> John Handelaar wrote:
> 
> "Resize your browser down if you don't want this site to be illegible" is
> exactly as obtuse and user-unfriendly as "Get a bigger monitor"."
> 
> Umm.....what? You're honestly saying having someone burn a 10th 
> of a calorie
> to click and drag the corner of a browser window is comparable to telling
> them to get a new monitor or trying to scroll to an area of a site they
> can't see?

The point is this: as a designer/developer/
publisher/whatever, which screen resolution 
the end user prefers to use is NONE OF MY
DAMNED BUSINESS.

Forcing the user to do *anything* additional
in order to make a site readable WILL have one
or more of the following consequences:

*	Some users will not bother, and leave

*	Some users will become actively annoyed with
	my attempt to force them to do something
	when it wasn't necessary

*	My clients' sites will generate fewer PIs

*	My clients will generate fewer sales

*	My clients will lose money

No-one, but no-one, who actually needs to do business
over their site can afford to lose people for any
reason whatsoever.  Horizontal scolling, half-mile-wide
columns of text, sites which look bad in legacy browsers,
sites which require plugins to be downloaded - they're 
all obstructions.  And obstructions are a Bad Thing.

Call this the complete position on my side of the
fence.  What happens next is someone says that "it
depends on your target audience".  And that person
will have good reasons to say it from their perspective,
and are 110% entitled to that opinion.  I just happen
to believe that they're 110% wrong, and we'll just
agree to disagree because mine is, sadly, a minority
opinion, and in any case Evolt is too much of a broad
church for holy wars to develop anyway 

:-)

------------------------------------------
John Handelaar

T +44 20 7209 4117       M +44 7930 681789
F +44 870 169 7657   E john at userfrenzy.com
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