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Posted by SpaceGirl on 09/27/07 15:50
On Sep 27, 1:06 pm, Andy Dingley <ding...@codesmiths.com> wrote:
> 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.
What about Flash developers? Fluid has a completely different meaning
inside Flash (you can work in pixel, if you wish, but everything is
fluid inside Flash).
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