Site width for the new site design - Feedback please

[Reggie]

I was wondering how everyone feels about the width of the site. Is it significant to you that the width should fit the internet tablet's screen? The reason I'm asking this is, I'm thinking of making the width of the site wider so the articles appear in full screen in the tablet. You can then scroll to the right if you want to see the right most column which I think not a lot of you look at anyway (LOL).

Feedback please.

Thanks.

[aflegg]

The site design should, absolutely, 100% non-negotiable be flexible to the browser's viewport.

See the conversation yesterday on IRC about fixed-width design starting with alterego, myself and db48x:

http://mg.pov.lt/maemo-irclog/%23maemo.2007-11-01.log.html#t2007-11-01T00:43:02

Having said that, and with the knowledge that horizontal scrolling is usually the devil's curse, having unused content off the screen isn't a bad idea.

But that then raises the question: what's the purpose of the stuff on the right hand side? Perhaps consider making it expandable/collapsible using Script.aculo.us? Or just toggleable with a server round trip?

The latter has the advantage of not loading the Jaiku Flash when you're not going to see it anyway...

HTH,

Andrew

[Hedgecore]

I think I'm having issues with it here at work. (Unfortunately) I have to run IE and uh... well, I'll attach a screen shot. (The gradients, colours, buttons, etc are a nice new look, but I don't think it's rendering correctly on my end and I'm using stock standard vanilla IE 6.0.)

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/6727/newlookub2.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newlookub2.jpg)

[Reggie]

Yes, please do send a screenshot. I've tested the site on IE7 and it looks good.

Now, how can I get IE6... ;)

[Milhouse]

I can confirm that IE6 has trouble rendering the site properly, probably because IE6 doesn't support the alpha channel of PNG's without hacks.

http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/alpha.html

[Reggie]

The code should have PNGfix for IE6 already built-in. I'll check again. Thanks.

[Benson]

Ummm....
Nice looking, but I strongly concur that it should fit the browser width.
To me, anything else is called "bad web design" :)
An alternate stylesheet that doesn't show the right column would be OK, though. Or better yet, display it below "Active forum topics" on the main page.
And why is the N810 viewing the old layout?? It should be viewing the new layout, which shows an N810 viewing the new layout, which shows an N810 viewing the new layout, which shows...
(The main page calls it a tribute to the old layout, but I don't get it. A tribute to the old tablets might make sense, but itT paying tribute to itT's old design (which is somewhat based on the old tablets) just seems wierd.) A better tribute might be leaving the old dark stylesheet available?
Just my 2 cents.

[Hedgecore]

Well, like I said, I'm stuck in corporate la-la land right now. I'm sure it'll look slick on my Linux based Firefox browser at home ;)

[Reggie]

Nice looking, but I strongly concur that it should fit the browser width.

For the forums, we have the 'Classic' theme for that.

[Meraxupypr]

awful theme....
Is there any possibilities to make light text on dark back? :)

Also there is some bugs with viewing pages (see attached image...)

http://img209.imageshack.us/img209/3279/maemohl2.th.jpg (http://img209.imageshack.us/my.php?image=maemohl2.jpg)