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Posted by Andy Dingley on 09/27/07 12:06
On 27 Sep, 11:50, Daan <daanst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> If the 'dezyner' wants the body font smaller, do you
> agree and adjust the css template (using em, not pt of course), or do
> you argue to keep the font size 100%?
I don't recall every having this issue (exactly as you describe).
A designer who understands "pt" can be educated to understand that
"em" are more appropriate. They sometimes insist on aiming below .67em
for "legalese", but I let that slip as no-one using the site will
care. If they've got this far though, you can usually get across the
concept that "bodytext" (not necessarily <body>) should be at the
users' chosen defaults.
The problem is with the ones who can only think about pixels and have
_no_ understanding of web platform accessibility. The "must look
identical everywhere" advocates.
To be honest, I'd rather just not work with these people. Leave them
to it. If they think that the web is the same as printed paper, then
leave them to stew in it. The site content is probably just trivial
marketing crap anyway. Let them use Flash, they'd be happier that way.
That site's effective absence from the accessible web just isn't a
measurable loss to the sum total of human knowledge.
If the site has real content and the designer is a fixed-pixel
obsessive, then I blatantly lie and cheat to fool them. Code it at
100% as it ought to be, demonstrate it as paper printouts only with a
carefully-chosen default size to make it "fit", and never allow a
meeting to happen in a meeting room that has a working browser in it.
Block their laptop's IP from the web server if you have to.
It's surprisingly easy to do this. If they're dumb enough to still
think that fixed pixel design is a good idea, they're dumb enough to
hoodwink.
> If the dezyner insists on using
> Verdana, do you specify Verdana or stick with another font?
I don't recall a dezyner who used Verdana (Macs!). Verdana is the
province of the self-taught PC-user web designer who's blindly copying
examples pulled from the web without any understanding. If you point
out that there _is_ a probelm with it, they're generally educable.
Otherwise just slip Trebuchet (AFAIR) in, because the typeface glyphs
are indistinguishable apart form the sizing issue.
If you're feeling particularly arsey, stick your prototypes under a
project directory named /tschichold/ and only tell them the name
verbally. If they've got any right to be looking, they'll know how to
spell it.
> If the
> dezyner has created a fixed width layout, do you implement it as such,
> or make it fluid / liquid?
Fluid. Every time. Show them paper snapshots of a dead website iif you
have to, or flip your desktop resolution to 800x600 for the meeting's
duration so that they never notice it also works perfectly well at
other resolutions. Full-screen your browser and they'll not even try
to change the window size. Those smart enough to do that will have
understood the benefits of a fluid design.
> I don't ask these questions to get them answered, but to indicate that
> it is difficult to find the right balance there.
I'd like to know why these idiots still have jobs.
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