[WEB4LIB] monitor resolution - followup

[Dan Lester]

At 10:17 AM 10/13/98 -0700, Kevin Justie wrote:
>My question was asked, rather, to get a feeling for the HEIGHT of user's
>windows, and how much content is visible on the first screen.  We've never
>received any complaints, even from our own staff who, in fact, do mostly
>use 14" 640x480-only monitors, but began to wonder recently if
>smaller-monitored users might be annoyed by the fact that the banner
>graphic at the top of our pages takes up about 40% vertically of a 640x480

Personally, I find any graphic that takes up that much real estate a pain
and obnoxious.  I just looked at it in 480x640 and find it excessive.  But
that is me, not the world.

BUT....there is a different issue happening at my default resolution of
768x1024:  Namely, your background graphic tiles.  It isn't as bad as some
sites, where the left border is so dark that when it tiles over text on the
right side on a wide monitor it becomes unreadable.  But, it does look a
little funny with the red stripe on left, red stripe near right edge, then
a little narrow yellow on the right.  

I heartily suggest that people do site design, if at all possible, with a
computer and monitor that will support dynamic screen resizing without
rebooting.  Then you can check these things easily to see what you're doing
TO people, as well as FOR people.  o-)

>screen.  (If you'd like to offer an opinion (please send to me, not to the
>list), our site is at www.webrary.org (see any page other than the home
>page and site map).)  While this type of discussion *is* usually related to
>the very desirable goal of keeping pages narrow enough to work at lower
>resolutions, I think window height is also an important factor since,
>supposedly, many users move on if what they're looking for isn't on, or
>obviously linked from, a page's first screen.

I agree on height....but also width.....   just remember that a background
of the "notebook paper" type looks pretty dumb when it is tiled....so, be
sure your background image is at least 1300 - 1600 pixels wide if it is of
the "left margin border of some sort" type.  

cheers

dan

--
Dan Lester, 3577 East Pecan, Boise, ID 83716-7115 USA 208-383-0165
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