Re: Making pt a non-physical unit

2010/1/16 Brad Kemper <brad.kemper@gmail.com>:
> There may be a minimum distance to avoid having large device pixels from
> looking like mosaic tiles. But I think it is a "fool's errand" to try to
> pick an optimal distance. There is not neccessarily only one sweet spot,
> even if you know the size of the screen or projection. Some displays (of
> maps, for instance, and not neccesarily just geographic maps) could be
> designed to have useful levels of information at many distances. A billboard
> or outdoor signage might be designed to convey the message from a mile away
> or a hundred feet away, equally well. It might even have smaller print near
> the bottom for when you are close, and huge letter above that for when you
> are far away. It might even use some sort of lenticular technology to
> automatically show more detailed info as you got closer and your angle
> changed, without the device size ever changing. Or two billboards of equal
> height could have two very different widths, but similar ranges of good
> viewing.
>
> Consider also a long hallwall, with the walls covered in a wallpaper-like
> OLED. On one side, the display is from floor to ceiling, and the other side
> has some chairs and cabinets and so starts from 4 feet up to ceiling. I use
> DIVs and CSS animation and a little JavaScript to move infographics and art
> and advertising around as you walk down the hallway.  What does the display
> size tell you about the optimal viewing distance? Nothing. I might have
> smaller, detailed info at head level, and big arrows or background images at
> farther distances, way down there by those two doors at the end.
>

There is also the possibility that we (the designers) don't WANT
viewing distance to be considered. Say we design some app-like thing
to ultimately is going to be projected (or shown on large screen TV).
When we design and test the thing it's going to be viewed on regular
monitors, but we expect the final result to look identical to what we
see, only bigger. If viewing distance is going to have an effect on
sizes, it will become impossible to make these things.

-- 
cheers,
-ambrose

Received on Saturday, 16 January 2010 20:13:01 UTC