E-mail List Archives

You are here: Home > Community > E-mail List Archives > View Thread

Thread: Scalable design or fixed

Number of posts in this thread: 8 (In chronological order)

From: andyof
Date: Mon, Oct 04 2004 9:46AM
Subject: Scalable design or fixed
No previous message | Next message →

Hi,

Making websites accessible is new territory for my company, and has brought up
many issues which people are passionate about. One of them is weather we
should have a design of fixed width rather than a scaleable one. Log file
analyses indicates that most of our users have a 1024 x 768 screen resolution
and many people favor building for this resolution. My questions are:

Is it ok to do this and be DDA complaint? (I couldn't find anywhere that
said it couldn't be fixed, but did see plenty of information on making elements
of a page scaleable-fonts etc)
Are log file data on screen resolution reliable?

Any experiences in this area would be much appreciated.

Andyof

From: Chris Heilmann
Date: Mon, Oct 04 2004 9:58AM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | Next message →

>
> Hi,
>
> Making websites accessible is new territory for my company, and has
> brought up
> many issues which people are passionate about. One of them is weather we
> should have a design of fixed width rather than a scaleable one. Log file
> analyses indicates that most of our users have a 1024 x 768 screen
> resolution
> and many people favor building for this resolution. My questions are:
>
> Is it ok to do this and be DDA complaint? (I couldn't find anywhere that
> said it couldn't be fixed, but did see plenty of information on making
> elements
> of a page scaleable-fonts etc)

Yes, albeit scaling designs are, by definition, more flexible and easier
to use. This is a endless discussion and has been debated to bits [1][2].
It is more a usability issue than an accessibility one. Liquid designs can
become too wide to be readable without losing the context (which can be
fixed by resizing the browser window) whereas fixed designs can force
people to scroll horizontally. It is up to you to decide, or you can give
the user a choice: http://ltlg.icant.co.uk/

> Are log file data on screen resolution reliable?

No, they only can get this data via Javascript, what about the users that
don't have JS enabled?

HTH
Chris

[1]http://9rules.com/whitespace/design/liquid_vs_fixed.php
[2]
http://www.stopdesign.com/log/2003/12/15/fixedorliquid.html

--
Chris Heilmann
http://icant.co.uk/ | http://www.onlinetools.org/

From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Mon, Oct 04 2004 10:11AM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | Next message →

> One of them
> is weather we should have a design of fixed width rather than a
> scaleable one.

In terms of accessibility, allowing your site to fit more web browser view
port sizes would mean it'd be more accessible to more folks without the need
for unecessary scrolling. (or, if not accessible, at least more usable).

> Log file analyses indicates that most of our users
> have a 1024 x 768 screen resolution and many people favor building
> for this resolution.

RED FLAG! Screen resolution has nothing to do with browser viewport sizes.
Just throw away that statistic completely and don't let it influence your
reasoning behind going with a liquid or fixed-width layout.

> Are log file data on screen resolution reliable?

Reliable, but, again, irrelevant.

Some things to keep in mind:

- As screen resolution gets larger (larger desktop
monitors) it also gets smaller (more PDAs, cellphones,
sub-compact laptops, etc.)

- As screen resolution gets larger, some people will
have LARGER browser viewports (the 'always maximized
people') while others will have SMALLER browser view-
ports (the 'hey! I have a bigger screen, now I can have
multiple windows open at the same time people')

- Screen size != browser window size != browser viewport
size. Many folks like to browser with their bookmarks
pane or history pane open. This takes yet more screen
real estate away.

-Darrel

From: Laura Carlson
Date: Tue, Oct 05 2004 7:20AM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | Next message →

Some information that you may find useful:

Liquid Design
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability#liquid

Line Length
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability#linelength

Font Sizing
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type#size

Relative Sizing
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility#relative

Laura
___________________________________________
Laura L. Carlson
Information Technology Systems and Services
University of Minnesota Duluth
Duluth, MN 55812-3009
http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/

From: julian.rickards
Date: Tue, Oct 05 2004 7:24AM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | Next message →

Laura:

Why don't you just post a single link to your whole site? :-) It is an
amazing resource!

However, thanks for taking the time to zoom in on features that benefit this
discussion.

Jules

-----------------------------------------------
Julian Rickards
A/Digital Publications Distribution Coordinator
Publication Services Section,
Ministry of Northern Development and Mines,
Vox: 705-670-5608 / Fax: 705-670-5960

From: Mike Moore
Date: Tue, Oct 05 2004 8:54AM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | Next message →

Thanks Laura,

The information on your site is great. If you don't mind, I now have a link
to your site from our developer resource page at Knowbility.

Mike

From: razvan
Date: Tue, Oct 05 2004 9:32AM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | Next message →

Amazing, i'll have to link to that too

Great resource. :)

lcarlson wrote:

>
> Some information that you may find useful:
>
> Liquid Design
> http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability#liquid
>
> Line Length
> http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/usability#linelength
>
> Font Sizing
> http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/type#size
>
> Relative Sizing
> http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/accessibility#relative
>
> Laura
> ___________________________________________
> Laura L. Carlson
> Information Technology Systems and Services
> University of Minnesota Duluth
> Duluth, MN 55812-3009
> http://www.d.umn.edu/goto/webdesign/
>
> ----
> To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit http://www.webaim.org/discussion/
>

--
razvan pop
http://razvan.cpea.ro

Optimizare pentru motoarele de cautare
http://optimizare.insoft.ro

From: Joelle Tegwen
Date: Tue, Oct 05 2004 2:28PM
Subject: Re: Scalable design or fixed
← Previous message | No next message

Thanks for posting this.

I find it fascinating that I found this information not through University
channels, but on a worldwide mailing list.

Thanks!

Joelle Tegwen
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
University of Minnesota
125 Peik Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
= EMAIL ADDRESS REMOVED =
612-624-0887