[Web4lib] Nielsen's Top 10 - 2005 version

[Leo Robert Klein]

Thomas Dowling wrote:

> Erik is right about readability.  The problem is that the vast majority
> of web pages that attempt to enforce width restrictions are created by
> people who don't think in terms of readability and typographical
> concepts like "line length", and couldn't tell you a reasonable way to
> measure that length.  As a result, that vast majority really does cause
> immense annoyance for anyone whose display environment is not a close
> match to the designer's, and the line length (measured in characters per
> line) ends up being anywhere from half as wide to twice as wide as the
> designer thought he specified.  Readability goes out the door.

Life must be hell for those for whom fixed width is an "immense 
annoynance" since it seems there are a helluva lot of sites that make 
use of it: AOL, C-Net, Salon, NYTimes.com, Libary of Congress...

In any case, I think the whole argument is a bit overwrought.  If people 
don't like going to these sites, they won't -- and that's the ultimate test.

LEO

-- -------------
Leo Robert Klein
www.leoklein.com