Tijnema ! wrote:
I guess the same can be done with <div>... But the main problem is that there's no real standard for resolution. I see people having resolution set at 800x600, and 1600x200, how is it ever possible to make a page look good at both? Resizing it to 1600x1200 would give you an enormous page, while keeping it at 800 width makes it so damn small. So lets say you re size it to 1024 width, then you still have such damn borders on both sides. That doesn't look nice either. And how would you do deal with pages that have a layout based on pictures? Should you create a header that is 1600 width, and resize it down until 800 when a user with 800x600 visits? and all images used at borders and corners? That's the biggest problem in dynamic layouts. Atm, i repeat small images around the borders, but that's a real pain in the ass. For now, i mostly design static pages, that are best viewable with 1024x768, and resolutions higher then that have those damn borders... If sombody has a better way, i'd like to hear :)
This attitude is why most web "design" sucks. It seems to me that the really successful applications these days are "designed" to be flexible. Always use relative sizes like % or preferably em, never use px or pt. That will allow your users to change the font size on their browser to their preference without screwing up your design. Yes, it will require you to do more testing at different font sizes, but it will be worth it.
As far as images go, there are ways to get around this problem by using relative size definitions and making the actual size of the image a compromise between looking good when your site is viewed with a large font size, and not being too big that site performance suffers. At smaller font sizes the browser will resize the image for you (with varying degrees of quality). I'm sure this is one area of browser technology that will see some innovations in the next few years.
Fixed width sites are bad unless 1) they resize properly with font size changes, or 2) the user is using a browser that can properly zoom fixed layouts (opera does this very well).
Content is king. There has been a period recently when this wasn't the case, but it's coming back as the primary concern for most web users - the fluff don't work no more! And if content is king, the accessibility of that content is the queen - the thing that makes the king look good!
People are easily turned off something, and not being able to read the text on a site, or having to battle against a poor user experience for the sake of a pretty design will easily prevent your site from being a success.
-Stut -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
