RE: [boost] Re: [website] Oh the fun..

From: Martin Bonner (martin.bonner_at_[hidden])
Date: 2005-04-29 04:33:12

----Original Message----
From: Rene Rivera [mailto:grafik.list_at_[hidden]]
Sent: 28 April 2005 16:28
To: boost_at_[hidden]
Subject: Re: [boost] Re: [website] Oh the fun..

> Martin Bonner wrote:
>> ----Original Message----
>> From: Rene Rivera [mailto:grafik.list_at_[hidden]]
>> Sent: 28 April 2005 03:37
>> To: boost_at_[hidden]
>> Subject: Re: [boost] Re: [website] Oh the fun..
> 
> Please change your posting program so that it doesn't include this
> superfluous information.
> 
>>> 2. I think just about all web designers agree that 800x600 is the
>>> minimum one should design for at this time.
>> 
>> Hmm.  How about all (boost) USERS?
> 
> You should already know that it's impossible to satisfy all users.
Sure.  But my point was that it is users, not web-designers that matter.

> And the various *_ptr discussions should serve as an example. 
NOOO!  This way madness lies :-)

[snip]
>> So why do you need to specify the background colour?  I haven't
>> looked at the source, but it looks white on my machine which is the
>> default for my browser.
> 
> What makes you assume that everyone has a default background color of
> white? I certainly don't assume that, nor have my default as white.

OK.  I have now checked the source.  The styles explicitly specify a
background of white.  I changed my background colour, and the design does
NOT respect that.  I think it should.  

> What you are saying is to abandon design and leave it entirely to the
> browser defaults and user settings. 
Yes, I realize that means abandoning ANY control of colour - I don't think
that is a bad thing.  You can still control layout (and I would like to
congratulate you on using %ages and em/pt measurements rather than px
measurements).

> And please don't assume that the browser developers made perfect, or
> even good, choices about how to present a web page.
That is depressingly true :-(

> Like I just said above.. You can turn the CSS *off* and have your
> browser+user settings prevail. For example with Firefox you can choose
> the View/Page Style/No Style menu and voila you have your defaults.
Ah!  THAT was something I didn't know.  Cool!  That enormously weakens my
argument (particulaly given that you have carefully avoided putting style
information into the basic HTML).  

I think colour control probably /does/ make sense here (it allows the
inverse banner, and the neat bullets (which are images, not characters).  

Having said all that:
- I would prefer a more conventional appearence for the links (different
colour, more striking underline - and I'm not keen on hover highlights [but
that's just personal prejudice]).

- I agree with the observation that Google has trained me to ignore boxes on
the right 

Joel wrote:
> IMO, Rene's work is superb. 
Good point Joel.  I forgot to mention that didn't I?  Sorry Rene - this is
all carping at the edges.  The overall effect is a big improvement on the
main Boost website (which itself is by no means bad).

-- 
Martin Bonner
Martin.Bonner_at_[hidden]
Pi Technology, Milton Hall, Ely Road, Milton, Cambridge, CB4 6WZ,
ENGLAND Tel: [phone]