Some thinking around the orientation discussion

Just before I forget, some stream of consciousness (probably to be added 
to the wiki).

Problem is twofold:

* content that expects a certain aspect ratio/orientation to function 
(e.g. a page which "wants" user to view it in landscape - if user has a 
portrait aspect ratio, all they get is a "hey, resize your window / tilt 
your device into landscape mode" message)

* content which goes a step further and locks/forces a particular aspect 
ratio/orientation (possible in native and, with proposals like 
https://drafts.csswg.org/css-device-adapt/#orientation-desc, also for 
web content)

While all users are potentially affected by these, certain users groups 
with disabilities are particularly affected as they can't easily just 
"turn their device" (thinking of users with a fixed tablet attached to a 
wheelchair, in landscape mode only).

For web content, desktop browsers don't currently honour any of the 
device adaptation / viewport directives - this is currently only an 
issue on "mobile" (phone/tablet) devices. It's possible this distinction 
may fall away in future (indeed, under certain conditions, even desktop 
browsers take hints from viewport directives (as is the case with 
IE/Edge in Windows "metro"/"modern" mode when using split screen view, 
which picks up on some viewport stuff [don't have the details handy just 
now])

The more naive "check for aspect ratio width/height and show a 
'resize/tilt' message" situations will affect desktop users as much as 
mobile/tablet users.

In essence, we'd want to say: let users experience your content/use your 
site/app regardless of their aspect ratio/orientation, as not everybody 
can easily change window size/orientation.

Simplest way to achieve this: don't fight the browser; using responsive 
approaches to then make your content look/work great regardless of 
orientation/aspect ratio is not necessarily tied to this - it's an 
optional/extra. This should be primarily about NOT locking users out 
completely. whether the stuff then works well in both portrait and 
landscape is more of a usability issue.

Another sufficient technique would then be the "mechanism" as in 
"provide a switch, or setting in an options dialog, or similar".

P
-- 
Patrick H. Lauke

www.splintered.co.uk | https://github.com/patrickhlauke
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Received on Thursday, 5 May 2016 16:17:34 UTC