[thelist] DEBATE: Fixed Width Vs Liquid

aardvark roselli at earthlink.net
Tue Jun 4 11:47:07 CDT 2002


> From: Ken Kogler <ken.kogler at cph.org>
>
> I've come up with a (mostly) liquid design for a site I'm working on.
> (I say "mostly" because with the graphical elements, the minimum with
> is something like 600px. It's not truly liquid).

most liquid designs have an absolute minimum width... many of
mine are 580-600, a few are less if i can get them there (and it's
nice to WebTV users)... i wouldn't beat yourself up over it...

> The graphics department here says that a 100% width is "ugly" and "not
> readable" because "users don't want to read long lines of text."
> They're insisting I keep	to a 750px static width on every page.
[...]

granted, once you get past (30-)70 characters per line, text is less
easy to read...

however, users don't always know this...  i've seen users tell me
they read better if the text is full-screen, but in testing reading
speed and comprehension, they do much better within that smaller
window that holds them to ~70 characters...

but if i tried to *prevent* these users from reading the text full
screen, they'd have my head...

users don't always know when a task is taking them longer than it
should, or when they are doing it less effectively...

but when you give the user the ability to do it (right/wrong), they
tend to appreciate it...

> Arguments for or against this? I'm all for the liquid design, but I
> can't quite formulate an argument powerful enough to disprove the
> know-it-all graphics department.

you can't disprove the graphics department... they're not wrong (but
they're not right, either)... their arguments are rooted in good data,
but their excuse of 'ugly' and 'what users want' is flawed....

also, the 750px thingie is a bit flawed, too, depending on your
audience....  might be time to explore the 'max-width' CSS property
(depending on audience, again)...

given that, defer to the user (keep it liquid)... that's my take...



--
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