[thelist] resizing in browswer

[aardvark]

> From: genghis at members.evolt.org
> 
> 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.

i wouldn't agree with that... as a developer, you should know the 
audience and you should know where it's going... if you design 
580px-wide tables for all your content, and you're building a gaming 
site to people on cable modems with hi-res displays, then your site 
is going to look kinda weird... i've heard it quite often, they look 
naked floating in the middle of the window...

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

you mean, like scrolling?  but yes, i agree with you... at the same 
time, however, you can't satisfy everyone... by not cutting anyone 
out on the low end, you're not pissing people off... by having people 
who surf full-screen get offended that the text is too long, that 
sucks, but ultimately, the user has to configure his or her *system* 
to be comfortable for him or her... this includes surfing in a window 
at a comfortable size... enough sites are doing it that eventually 
you'll either hate them all, or surf with a non-maximized window... it 
isn't the best option, but remember, you have the control to set the 
text how you want to see it... and not everyone wants narrow 
columns of text, either (which is something i'm still trying to 
understand, since if you time those people, their parse-time drops 
significantly, even though they say otherwise)...

> *	Some users will not bother, and leave

yes, but i suspect it will be a small number... and there are users 
who will get pissed at other things, like a session cookie, or a 
select menu for navigation... again, you can't catch *everyone*...

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

nobody is forcing a resize... a scroll bar for lower-res users is 
forcing someone to scroll to read the text...

> *	My clients' sites will generate fewer PIs
> 
> *	My clients will generate fewer sales
> 
> *	My clients will lose money

i know this argument well... but i've never seen lost traffic on a 
liquid site... this doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but if you lose 1% 
in order to gain 10%, the net gain is good enough for most 
clients... and most clients will view that lost 1% are marginal 
customers anyway... that's just how it happens...

> 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.

agreed... but it's hard to swallow that so easily for a simple window 
resize... i agree with you in principle, the user has to do 
*something*, but i'm guessing the user has had to do it for other 
sites, so this is no special case, and may already have caused the 
user to resize...

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