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

[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.

> 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.

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. ;)

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


Tres,
- --
===================================================================
Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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