Re: new-site comments - left column space

On 31 Mar 2009, at 4:48 PM, Barclay, Daniel wrote:

> Regarding the page http://beta.w3.org/, etc.
>

Hello again!
>
>
>
> The left navigation column also takes up too much space at narrower
> windows widths.
>
> In the attached screen shot, see how large a fraction of the width  
> of the
> page and browser display pane is taken by the left navigation column.
>
> At least make the width proportional to the page or viewport width  
> so that
> it doesn't take up a larger fraction of the horizontal space in  
> windows that
> are tall rather than wide.
>

One concern about the proportional spacing was that the left navigation
area itself would become unusable at narrow widths.

Note, by the way, that the mobile view may provide a slightly
better experience for very narrow viewports.
>
>
> Also, notice how, once the user scrolls down below the extent of the  
> left-
> column content (e.g., to read the main-column content), the columns'  
> horizontal
> space is entirely wasted, for the entire height of the browser pane.
>

Yes. One goal in the redesign has been to keep redesigned pages short
so that this is not too much of a problem. Also, there are suggestions
that a narrower page width may make it easier to read content.
>
> Ideally, make the left navigation column into a float (or move it to  
> something
> at the top (e.g., such as a good (wrappable) form of tabs), so that  
> that
> the left-side space in the browser pane can be used to display part  
> of the main
> content once the user has scrolled down beyond the extent of the  
> left-column
> navigation content.
>
See above comment.

We'll add this suggestion to the hopper. Thanks!

  _ Ian


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> Daniel
> --
> (Plain text sometimes corrupted to HTML "courtesy" of Microsoft  
> Exchange.) [F]
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> <W3C_beta_2.PNG>

--
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)    http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel:                                      +1 718 260 9447

Received on Tuesday, 31 March 2009 21:55:29 UTC