[thelist] Screen Resolution, which to design for?

Kimberley Rivero kimberley.rivero at gmail.com
Mon Jan 15 21:32:12 CST 2007


I have always had large monitors.  And I have never, ever had the
habit of maximizing my browser window.  I detest having the browser
take over my whole huge monitor.  I have a large monitor precisely
because I want to be able to have 10 applications open at once and
click around between them easily.  It's chaotic visually but it's what
I like.

I also disagree that columns of text should be coded so that they are
of a fluid width.  When an area of text gets wider than a certain
point, about 500 pixels wide with my set up, that text gets hard for
me to read.  As a designer I feel I have a responsibility to deliver
readable, and relatively narrow columns of text to my users.

I see why Nielsen and other usability experts call for fluid designs,
since a pixel to me is not the same amount of real-world space as it
is to you.  But I cannot support letting a column of text get so wide
that it becomes difficult to read.  Making things easy to read is 95%
of what my job as a web designer is.  The rest, the graphic design and
the fancy layout and the bells and whistles is all extra.

Using the web is primarily about reading content and we need to make
it as easy on our users as possible to do that.

Ironically I find Jakob Nielsen's UseIt site to be difficult to read.
His columns are too wide, imho.

- Kim
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Kimberley Rivero
Magnolia Web Studio | www.magnoliawebs.com
Affordable Web Site & Graphic Design | Cancun, Mexico
U.S. Tel: 720.221.3920 | Cancun Tel: 998.848.1369
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