[thechat] A LIST apart

David Kaufman david at gigawatt.com
Tue Nov 11 20:08:10 CST 2008


"Erika" <ekm at seastorm.com>wrote:
>I noticed a subtle redesign at ala...
> [...]
> middle column is flexy.  side cols fixed.  image in article keeps top
> lines short and catchy.  I like the idea of keeping at least the top
> lines of an article short (images do this nicely) because that's where
> you draw someone in ... or not.

The design doesn't fit on a 1024 wide monitor?  When did 1280 become the 
new lowest common denominator??  Surprising that, if the middle column is 
stretchy, it's not degrading gracefully to 1024.  The fluidity only "grows 
it" on 1280 pixels wide (or better)?  Anyway the site appears fixed-width, 
and far too wide, on this 1024-width laptop.  The right column is 
completely lost, way out there, out beyond East Scrollbaria, and the *left* 
25% of the screen real estate that *is* visible at 1024, is wasted on an 
all-but empty column of "oh-so-appealing" whitespace!

Ha.  My clients would laugh me out of the conference room.  Real sites have 
to be usable by real people, many of whom (out here south of Upper 
Designersburg) don't all have new graphics cards and wide flat screens :-)

Seems like only about just 2 or 3 years ago, our clients stopped 
*insisting* we design primarily for 800x600 visitors -- I guess our "brick 
and mortar" clientele (publishing industry mostly, with very 
consumer/retail oriented sites) is just old school, making me just a grumpy 
curmudgeoney pure-tableless--css wannabe (--and not in the good way!)

{sigh}

-sleep-deprived-dave

P.S. This woulda been on-topic for the list wouldn't it?  Why on thechat? 
Feeling chatty?





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