On the Design of Websites
One of my favourite buzzphrases is 'efficiency and eloquence', whether in the design of code, the position of things in a box, or the layout of a webpage. one of the big grievances I have about some of the largest websites is there misuse of space in an attempt to guarantee cross-browser support: only showing information in a central column in the page.
It's important to note that I'm all for cross-browser HTML/CSS (all of the websites I design are checked on a long list of browsers, many of which are installed only for that purpose), but there are more effective ways of going about the problem of building a column based interface.
But, before the solution, a proper discussion of the problem. Take the facebook news feed: it's design to be the right width for a 1024px wide screen, which is what facebook designers are assuming in the smallest native resolution currently in use. Now, while they're probably right, they're still making the assumption that those users want to have facebook filling up a full screen, which isn't much good if you're just trying to keep an eye on things1. And, on my desktop monitor, about 40% of the screen is just whitespace, which could be used for all sorts of things. Even advertising2. And all it really achieves is a nice looking navigation bar on the left and right.
Now, look at this blog. The layout isn't quite as nice, and some things look slightly out of place3. If you resize the window, you'll notice something magical happen - the test won't spill over the edge, and the menu bar will stay in the same place. And that took no scripting and very little work with CSS to do.
So, if you ever need to have floating bars on a website, or just want something always viewable, remember that most browsers are intelligent, and that CSS has all the stuff you need.
- Of course, there are many programs which give notifications for your facebook account. And some of the newer ones, such as the promising looking Trillian 4.1 branch, support most of the actions, including liking things without even opening your browser.
- Although, with that much advertising, I'd probably leave facebook. Not such a good idea then :P
- I'm working on this, but I'm trying not to mess with the code too much until I can work out what the site uses to figure everything out.