Re: Logo for user-friendly/browser-friendly/scalable pages

On 29-Aug-97 00:04:45, walter@natural-innovations.com (Walter Ian Kaye) said:
[Source: email, Subject was: Re: Logo for user-friendly/browser-friendly/scalable pages]


>Hmm... I'm getting an idea...

>How about some sort of "geek code" (but not as geeky) where we enumerate
>what the page uses, something like:

[snip]
>        *: any
[snip]

>WW:  window width

>So, an enumeration might look like:

>  216=Y; WW=472-*; JS=1; CK=0; J=0; TBL=2+; IMG=1,#5:6K,WHA
          ^^^^^^

While this idea perhaps has some merit, forcing a given window size onto
viewers (we are obviously talking graphical browsers in this context) is a
really bad idea, and guaranteed to irritate.

It's far better that the width is either not specified, allowing the browser
to layout the page to fit (as ought to be intended) or specified as a
*percentage* width (in the case of table structures) so that the desired
centred/indentation effect (the most common usage for this) is scalable.


I much prefer to have two browser windows open at once, both of which are
naturally narrower than full screen width (which of course varies from
platform to platform and screenmode to screenmode in any case), so I really
resent being ordered to comply with viewing requirements of 640x480 or
800x600 or worse.

A more useful hint for page designers would be to consider bandwidth and the
hardware setups of genuine users. Apparently, a large proportion of Windows
users haven't figured out how to increase their screenmode from the default
640x480, and furthermore, screens larger than 800x600 are still the
exception rather than the norm.

For those reasons, I prefer to ensure that the 'total graphic width' of the
images in my webpages is not greater than 400 pixels, which allows two
browser windows to fit happily into an 800x600 screen, and just squash into
lower resolution screens. Smaller images of course, take less time to
download.

A further consideration is that there are really two types of image on the
web, inline and downloadable. My belief is that inline images in documents
should not be overly large, so that while they may prettify a document, 
they do not stall the downloading and layout of the text (the important,
informational bit).

Likewise, downloadable images (eg maps, technical drawings, clip art, 
whatever) should be accessed through <A HREF..>s using textual or thumbnail 
links, so that users can download these images in the background and
continue reading, without having to wait for the (by implication) large
image to load before continuing to read.


--
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Received on Sunday, 31 August 1997 13:43:00 UTC