[thelist] front end design: liquid design

[ekm at seastorm.com]

Felix Miata opined:
> Fixed design is worse, particularly with high DPI. Text columns get just
> too narrow to read, often 5 or fewer words per line.

Felix,

Can you give an example of what kind of "high DPI" user agent you are
talking about?  I looked at the screenshots on your previous mail; found
that a few of the sites were unattractive but, none appeared unusable,
with the text zoomed large.

My iPhone has a 160 dpi resolution on a teeny screen, and most sites,
fixed OR fluid, work quite well on it. Some horizontal menus do wrap, when
they would not on larger screens.  I'm wondering which other agents to be
on the look out for.

Also, it seems to be worth mentioning, every design choice has its
advantages and drawbacks.  Fluid design trades flexibility for control. 
And honestly, in the real world?  Front end *developers* are hard pressed
to find opportunities to use fully fluid design, since *designers*
generally opt for control (or the illusion thereof) over flexibility.

Erika