[thelist] DEBATE: Fixed Width Vs Liquid

[Martin Burns]

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On Tuesday, June 4, 2002, at 05:35  pm, Tom Dell'Aringa wrote:

> A person "says that a 100% width is "ugly" and "not readable" because
> "users don't want to read
> long lines of text." is one person's OPINION. If there are 3 people in
> the graphics dept. saying
> this, it is 3 peoples OPINIONS. What you want to do is set up a small
> usability test -- nothing
> crazy and elaborate mind you -- but get 5 people off the street to come
> in and test the design.
>
> I recommend "Don't Make Me Think: Common Sense Approach to Web
> Usability" by Steve Krug if you
> don't know how to do a test. He gives you pretty much everything you
> need to know in this great
> book on how to run a simple user test. You can read the book in less
> than a day.

That's a good approach, Tom.

Another thing to think about is even if you accept a fixed maximum
number of characters per line (note the conditional tense...), how many
pixels does that translate to? Depends on your font size. Which is
subject to another level of user preference.

Cheers
Martin
_______________________________________________
email: martin at easyweb.co.uk             PGP ID:	0xA835CCCB
	martin at members.evolt.org      snailmail:	30 Shandon Place
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   url:	http://www.easyweb.co.uk			Scotland
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