Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Let's Do That Debate Again!

First there was HTML, gray backgrounds with black text and blue links, and information was just let to flow on the page.

  • Then came the need for an 'experience', and newly minted web designers started asking how big the average screen was, because scrolling was evil. 640 by 480 pixels was a target, while many decried that as too big and leaving too many people with smaller monitors behind.
  • Then came debates within the 'experience' community whether enough people had migrated to 800 by 600 screens, with many decrying that target size as too big and leaving too many people with smaller monitors behind.
  • Or even 1024 by 800 pixels wide, with many decrying that target size as too big and leaving too many people with smaller monitors behind.
  • Then monitors became cheap as dirt and the only debates were on what content should be 'above the fold', because scrolling is evil: users won't do it and if a function is not sign-posted in the top eye target hit area, users won't look for it.
  • Then we had the whole debate again for tiny screens. Scrolling: even more evil. Well, it was indeed a pain on most WAP phones.
  • Then the iPhone made scrolling such fun users were doing it to pass the time. I wonder if there's an app to let you endlessly flick up and down and shows twirling colors or something when you do.
  • Now smartphones are running full browsers grabbing full pages on small screens, making the user scroll again, while inching to become the primary if not major secondary device with which a user accesses the web.

I foresee a new debate in many a digital agency about whether 640 by 480 is a target resolution that is leaving too many users behind.