[wp-hackers] Re: The fixed with of the admin area

[Stephen Rider]

On Mar 3, 2008, at 3:08 PM, Kimmo Suominen wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 03, 2008 at 12:49:11PM -0800, Charles wrote:
>>> Like any other piece of software, users can and will size the
>>> window like they want it.
>>
>> In practice, Windows apps (more so than Mac apps) are generally used
>> full-screen.
>
> Please provide pointers to studies backing that up.  I've never known
> that to be the case.

I know a number of (non-geek) Windows users who don't even know that  
you _can_ run their browser smaller than fullscreen.

I doubt you'll find a lot of studies, but there's a whooooole lot of  
anecdotal evidence.  It's a trend -- nobody claimed it was an absolute.

Here's another bit of anecdotal evidence for you: Look at the number  
of fixed-width sites out there that assume ~ 1000 px wide.  That's  
aimed squarely at Joe User running 1024x768 maximized.  I visited  
three bank websites the other day, and they _all_ did it.

> I generally never use apps in full-screen mode on my Windows machines,
> slide-shows typically being the exception.

Yes, but you're a geek. ;)

Personally, I prefer sites that are designed fluid up to a point --  
that is, max-width.  Even better if based on em or %, so that as font  
size rises, so does the width.  Looks good on a smaller screen (or  
small window), and scales well on higher resolutions if the user  
bumps the font size.

Oh, and one last point -- many browsers allow you to resize a text  
window.  Safari, for one.  i think Firefox too, with a plugin....

Stephen


-- 
Stephen Rider
<http://striderweb.com/>