When the conspiracy of lies surrounding me demands of me to silence the one word of truth given to me, that word becomes the one word I wish to utter above all others. – Andre P. Brink
You might remember those websites of the 90’s with “Optimized for Internet Explorer with 1024×768px”. Those were good times for web designers where almost noone was familiar with the web, standards were nowhere to be seen and, as a “web designer” you could basically do anything.
Now, almost a decade into the second millenium one could expect things to have changed for the better – well, not so much if you follow the wisdom of the masses. Articles about fixed vs fluid vs elastic vs adaptive layouts and the reactions to the techniques presented show one thing:
A web designer is a very fearful creature, afraid of what’s new, resenting change, too lazy to adapt and learn and too detached to even consider evolving.
So next time you talk to one of those fearful creatures, maybe try to listen more closely to what they tell you …
Lies they will tell you
- Flexible layouts are hard to control and design for.
- Over 80% will be served well with 1000px screen width, 28% of the users tend to browse with 1250px screen width.
- Your target audience has an average screen resolution 1024px.
- We live in the 21st century so 1024px is now minimum, sites lower than 1000px are just waste of space.
- An optimal legibility is achieved with approximately 60-80 characters per line so flexible layouts make things worse.
- Flexible layouts require a lot of time and thought and blow most budgets while not offering much of value.
A few things to ask the creature
- Isn’t browser window resolution much smaller than screen resolution?
- What about my users with netbooks, handhelds, IPhones, tables, projectors, screen readers, …?
You can design for different resolutions and devices right here and now, if you do it right you DO NOT lose control, you DO NOT have to pay more – you as a client maybe have to look for another designer though, one that does not strive for the good old times whe things where simple and shiny and noone knew better.
To all the web designers out there, you will have to choose soon – to lead, to follow or to get out of the way – change will come …
