To understand why, try running your average liquid layout on a mobile device, especially an iPad or Android tablet. Flip the orientation back and forth and try to do a pinch-zoom then watch the ensuing usability trainwreck. Most liquid CSS layouts aren't able to handle this smoothly. For a bonus round, try displaying the liquid layout on a large resolution screen like a internet enabled HDTV or a wide monitor. Once again, things usually go bad.
Sure, there are ways to handle this where it will work better but still most of these screw up pinch-zoom, something that will certainly anger mobile users although probably not quite as much as forcing them into a dumbed down reduced functionality 'mobile' site.
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I couldn't have put it better myself Ancientprogrammer
But a lot of programmers are hooked up on liquid layouts
But a lot of programmers are hooked up on liquid layouts
Wide screens are the reason I'm designing a fixed-width site and using a large low-contrast background to take care of the excess width. Being low contrast will lower the file size, and there are other ways to keep it low which I'll be using. MTV does this and their backgrounds are only around 100kbs. Sometimes smaller.
I might even have a script that detects screen size so it chooses a smaller background for smaller screens.
I might even have a script that detects screen size so it chooses a smaller background for smaller screens.
At normal reading distance the arc of the visual field is only a few inches about the width of a well-designed column of text, or about 12 words per line. (Lynch and Horton: Web Style Guide Basic Design Principles for Creating Website) That was also the rule for the academic journal that I used to copy edit and typeset. With today's wide screens the effect of long lines is to slow reading and reduce retention rates.
Most of my web pages are limited to a width of just under 800px with remaining space using a soft patterned background as I find that easy to read/follow. I try to keep pages physically small where possible as I see from my stats that I still have quite a few readers viewing at 800x600 and 20% at 1024 width. Also, I note that (in one of my subdomains) about 5% of my visitors are still on dial-up. My feeling is that it is still important to look after the minorities.
Most of my web pages are limited to a width of just under 800px with remaining space using a soft patterned background as I find that easy to read/follow. I try to keep pages physically small where possible as I see from my stats that I still have quite a few readers viewing at 800x600 and 20% at 1024 width. Also, I note that (in one of my subdomains) about 5% of my visitors are still on dial-up. My feeling is that it is still important to look after the minorities.
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