[Grok-dev] Re: [website] Let's do content!

[Sebastian Ware]

31 dec 2007 kl. 19.28 skrev Tres Seaver:

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> Sebastian Ware wrote:
>> 31 dec 2007 kl. 17.23 skrev Tres Seaver:
>>
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>>> Sebastian Ware wrote:
>>>
>>>> Also, I wonder if you could add a width to the content of the front
>>>> page. The lines run too long, the original design was set to  
>>>> "width:
>>>> 540px".
>>> - -1 to any absolute (pixel) widths for columns containing text:   
>>> they
>>> make it impossible to work with the content at different text sizes.
>>> Making the content readable is more important than making the design
>>> pretty (I have this disagreement with the desginer on nearly every
>>> project I work on).
>>>
>>>
>>> Tres.
>>
>> The main reason to use pixel widths is because one often has images
>> that are fixed pixel widths that would look wierd if the width
>> changes. Your route requires more work but I agree with you in
>> principal.
>
> Fixed-width banner images are an evil, but one which must sometimes be
> tolerated.  Nonetheless, having them dictate width for text columns
> leads to poor a user experience.

I am not talking about banner images (you will find that the Grok  
website banner image scales fine :) ), but if you have images  
integrated in text that they will tend to be limited. Avoiding this  
has a cost.

>
>
>> But I am having difficulties believing that your designer would  
>> rather
>> have a pretty site than a readable site... unless he is a complete
>> moron... ;)
>
> In my experience, most designers don't test their pages on any machine
> other than their own, or with any text size other than the default,
> which they almost inevitably set in absolute sizes which are too  
> small.

This would never happen in Sweden, allthough testing on many different  
machines is a pain and pain kills design. That is why Flash is so  
popular.

>
>
> As a result, the sites look like shite, or are unreadable, on any
> machine which has different screen resolution, or where the user has
> configured a realistic default font size.  Making them fix this is
> inevitably a fight;  whether that means they are morons I leave as an
> exercise for the reader. ;)

You will find the same problem even on badly designed websites. It is  
more a problem of the implementaion of HTML-specs than that of stupid  
designers. The more different platforms you need to test on, the more  
time needs to be spent on design.

>
>
> The shining exceptions do exist, and I try hard to praise them to the
> rest of their teams, especially to their bosses.
>

True, but that said, good design isn't about pleasing everybody.  
Usability isn't about pleasing everybody. The iPhone drew a lot of  
flak from those used to other interface paradigms (physical keyboards  
anyone...). Apple users don't like the Windows user interface.  
Usability as well as design requires trade-offs. The problem is that  
if you dissect design it sometimes turns into nothing.

mvh Sebastian