<...> >I'll think you'll find > them pretty unanimous in saying in essence don't mess with user > defaults. Don't expect all the latter to practice what they preach > though. <...>
Only these are browsers vendors defaults, not users. Can anyone point me to a study which shows: a) How many users do know that there exists a preference for a font size. b) How many of the do know how to use it and indeed do use it. c) How many have an idea what 'px' or 'pt' is, and have an idea how big is 16pt/px. Same goes for DPI settings. d) How many users prefer to play with settings instead of doing what they were going to do in the first place (getting info)? So far discussions on this topic are based only on our beliefs and assumptions (including mine). Usability is not about giving more means for control, it is about removing need for control. In my first car there was a handle which operated choke (thingy which lets to control the air intake of a carburetor and hence the richness of the fuel mixture.) That gave me more control, but not more usability. My new car does not have this - and yet it is more usable. My main task is to get from the point A to the point B, not to play with choke. So when I got that burden removed from me, I have more usable product. So, good design is about sensible defaults - too choose defaults in such a way that least possible people will feel a need to changes them. But yes, for those you should provide means to do just that. And once again there should be a reason that majority web pages go with font size about 12px. Coincidentally, 12-13px is my proffered font size... But that, of course, does not proof anything. Regards, Rimantas -- http://rimantas.com/ ****************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help ******************************************************
