Do's and Don'ts of site design?

[minstrel]

This is also an issue of who your viewers are. I also have a site that isn't selling anything but gets a lot of traffic. The people who view are older and they have the 600 x 800 almost 3 to 1. I get those stats. Then my daughter who is only 32 and is an I.T. professional, keeps hers at the 6 x 8 because she says she doesn't want to put her glasses on to read pages. The distance vision thing. Text and images are too small for many people at the higher res.

Exactly! I just finished saying that... only not nearly as coherently :-)

[matauri]

actually, I set it to "smaller"

Why are we making the changes at all? Because the person who designed the site designed it to 'a' resolution. :-)

But my point is, speaking from personal preference rather than arguing about who should design for what, I use 800x600 precisely because I find the "readability" better at that resolution...

You would find the same readibility on all if sites used what I call 'collapsable' font sizes.

I won't debate that - I have 2.6 acres here... if I didn't, all the music in this house would drive the neighbours nuts. But that isn't the same as monitor real estate...

Yar it is! I buy larger because I want more room, and want to be able to do more things.

damn impertinent blonde aussies... ;-)
Always fun to debate with you, Cindy... especially when you're wrong... :-)
(ducking out of the way of that left hook as Matauri makes mental)

Grouchy Flu ridden male... ;-)
<<Looks to her right>>> Your not there :-)
<<makes mental...If Dave is right, maybe I should use a right hook? ;-)



Cindy

[mikmik]

I have focused on 'fluid' design since I made my first site. I was so proud of it, until I saw it on an 800x600 res, and nothing lined up at all! Even on 1024x768, with the desktop set to 'large font', it did not scale well. There is, without a doubt, one thing that bugs me more than anything else, because it is the biggest pain in the erse BY FAR, is horizontal scrolling. And I read this over and over again, and have been aware of it since my second or third week in, and people tell me over and over again. It is not even debateable.
I would also like to state that over half of the people Iv'e worked on their computers for, have 800 x 600 res because a) they only have a 14 or 15 in monitor[2/3], or b) about 1 out of 5 people LIKE it that big even though I've showed them the difference. (It might be more like one out of four, or3/10 but I know all perceptions are biased, so I estimate conservatively).
And there is no doubt in my mind, that somewhere between 38 - 55% of people browse at 800x600 res, no question. I don't care if only 10 or 20 or 5% of the population are using 800 by 600 in 1 -2 years (and more like 3 -4) years from now, I can't afford to lose that many visitors and still be around then. It is not just a 'usability' issue, it is a sign of a lack of awareness on the designers part to people who have to deal with font they can't read, or layouts that are hard to read AND confusing because they miss navigation etc. or have to keep looking down to put their cursor on the scroll bar. Those people have a sample of 'one' in their surveys, they most likely do not care in the slightest how much they are in the minority, they will respect designers that take them into consideration.

<edit: that was uncalled for, I was out of line to my friends!>

If time is money, plan ahead. It is real easy to cut'n'paste a javascript that will choose a specific CSS for your page based on the viewers resolution. Just copy each page, an 'a' and a 'b' version, CSS 'a' has 14px set as 'standard', and CSS 'b' has 10px, in the body tag. Then everything is % from then on.
I think that the more we can put ourselves in the others shoes, the better we are, designers, humans, MVP's and MOD's! (o:
Now I hope I don't regret this tomorrow, it is 3:00 am, do you know where your children are?

[minstrel]

I won't debate that - I have 2.6 acres here... if I didn't, all the music in this house would drive the neighbours nuts. But that isn't the same as monitor real estate...

Yar it is! I buy larger because I want more room, and want to be able to do more things.

"Yar"?

Hmmpf... I'll see your "yar" and I'll raise you an "avast ye maties" and a "swab the foredeck"...

"Never argue with women or teenagers." - D.J. Baxter, 2003

[mikmik]

mintrel quoteth thus:

"Never argue with women or teenagers." - D.J. Baxter, 2003

Wise words which, unfortunately, I fail all to often to heed.

PDA's, Cell Phones, Laptops... to whit: future screen resolutions.

[Verne]

I read the article and comments. Thank you both Cindy and Julian. It's the little things that will kill your business. Too much or Too little can do the same amount of damage.

I might add Edit, Edit, Edit---then have a friend you trust Edit again (smile).