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>From Jean Weber
>
> Thus giving more evidence for the argument that web sites *must* degrade
> gracefully from the graphic-intensive, three-column layout so
> common today,
> so they can be readable and usable on a tiny screen -- at least if it's a
> business site. We writers generally know this, but a lot of designers (or
> the people commissioning them) apparently don't.
Now you're delving into an area of much debate; should you design your web
pages so they take best advantage of the capabilities of the browsers that
are the most advanced and common (i.e. Internet Explorer and Netscape), or
do you design your page to be accessible to the widest possible audience.
Of course the answer is that there is no single answer. Depending on the
purpose of your web site, the target audience, and infinite other factors,
you must decide how to design your page. Also, web servers can detect what
type of browser user have and redirect them to a web page that the browser
can handle. It gets downright hopeless to design a web site that will look
good on both a PalmPilot and a desktop computer running 1024 x 768 or
higher. Should your pages always be accessible to blind or otherwise
handicapped users? Should you always abandon frames? Where do you draw the
line.
I think you'll see degradation in a few types of web pages to accommodate
limited browsers, as Jean mentioned, but I think even more sites will go the
route of alternate web pages; one for full-powered browsers, and one for the
98-pound weaklings (and these pages will often serve double duty as pages
formatted for convenient printing). A large number of other sites simply
won't care about the limited browsers, and they'll design to the max.
It's all a matter of priorities.
David Berg
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