Re: Best Practices document - not best practices

> However, that supposed best-practices document is designed and/or  
> coded to
> prevent the browser from doing its job of trying to wrap the text  
> to fit
> the user's chosen browser window width.  (Narrow the browser window  
> and see
> how the text extends off to the right instead of wrapping to fit  
> within the
> chosen width.)

Most users of handheld mobile devices have no way to change the size  
of their browser window.  The document to which you refer is targeted  
at developers writing to phones.

The Openwave browsers have a feature that allows for easy scanning of  
lists, by not wrapping the entire item across several.  For example,  
the subject of this message is likely to wrap across 3 lines.  If I  
have an email application listing my inbox by subject (or sender), I  
will only be able to see 2 message headers on the screen before I  
have to scroll.

Specifically, consider the inbox containing 6 messages, displayed on  
a screen with 6 lines of text.  Keep in mind that softkeys use the  
bottom line, so you only have 5 lines of content.

------
Inbox by Subject
Jul17 Best Practices
  document - not best
  practices
Jul19 meeting
Link         Menu
-------

Instead consider the exact same inbox, with nowrap.  I can now view 4  
messages in one screen.


---------
Inbox by Subject
Jul17 Best Practice..
Jul19 meeting tomor..
Jul19 Re: Best Prac..
Jul19 let's get tog..
Link          Menu
----------


The example subject headers here are pretty short.  They could be a  
lot longer (such as for news headlines).  Even if they are shorter,  
in many cases the user will be able to find the appropriate link much  
faster if they don't have to decide for each line whether it is a new  
item or a continuation of the old item.


There is no need for desktop browsers to support this behavior at all  
- they should probably ignore nowrap entirely.


---
Barbara Ballard       1-785-838-3003
barbara@littlespringsdesign.com


On Jul 18, 2005, at 4:34 PM, Daniel Barclay wrote:

>
> The page at http://www.w3.org/2005/MWI/ refers to
> a Best Practices in XHTML Design document at
> http://developer.openwave.com/dvl/support/documentation/ 
> guides_and_references/best_practices_in_xhtml_design/index.htm .
>
>
> However, that supposed best-practices document is designed and/or  
> coded to
> prevent the browser from doing its job of trying to wrap the text  
> to fit
> the user's chosen browser window width.  (Narrow the browser window  
> and see
> how the text extends off to the right instead of wrapping to fit  
> within the
> chosen width.)
>
>
> Additionally, at least in Mozilla 1.7.8, when the page is wider  
> than the
> browser window width, a blue background that grows from the right  
> (as the
> window is made narrower) underlies the text, making it impossible  
> to read.
> (I don't know if that's a CSS coding error or a Mozilla rendering  
> errors.)
>
> Daniel
>
>
>
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 19 July 2005 17:48:12 UTC