Posted by Travis Newbury on 01/23/08 20:32

On Jan 23, 12:57 pm, "Jonathan N. Little" <lws4...@centralva.net>
wrote:
> I will give an example of the problem of fixed width design and the web
> as a non-canvas dimension specific media. How may of you had the
> "pleasure" of finding so information on the web and wished to have a
> hard copy of it. But because the "designer" designed for a preconceived
> canvas dimensions, you print out the page only to find you are missing
> the entire right-hand strip of the content!

I have, all the time on msdn

> Okay so you...

We could continue to create scenarios all day long... What if this,
what if that...

This kind of brings up the point I have been trying to make. Nothing
you put out there will ever please 100% of the sites visitors.
NOTHING, not fixed width not flexible, not Flash, not "fill in the
blank here". You will never achieve a website that every single
person that goes to that site says "Damn, this site is perfect in
every way!"

Sometimes the MAJORITY of your visitors are happier with flexible,
sometimes with fixed, sometimes with Flash, sometime with Javascript
menus, sometimes with nothing but text. The "keys" (notice the "s")
to the success of a website is a balance of content that is important
to your visitor, and a presentation of that content that is also
enjoyable to the visitor.

If you do not have that balance you will fail every time. The visitor
has to want the information you have, and they have to be able to
receive that information in a manner that pleases them. And stating
that everyone or even the majority prefer flexible websites is just
not true.

I would even suggest that most people never even give it a though
either way.

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