In a message dated 10/27/99 7:39:42 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> The other way I can think of is to put everything in the default
>     font and make a note for people to change their browser defaults to
>     whatever size they want.  This might be a little more complicated for
>     the user but involves less effort on your part.
>
>  Mark gets on his soapbox.  I think this is the wrong way to think
>  about it. It actually takes a good bit more care and testing on the
>  designer's part to make sure that their pages look good at different
>  screen sizes, different screen resolutions, and with the visitor
>  having significant control over the way the page looks. [Or maybe even
>  having the page run through a text to speech program!] I also think
>  that informing the user that they can control the size of their fonts
>  is liberating.

I'm confused here.  You start out by saying that designing a web page in the
default font is the wrong way to think about things but then say that being
able to change the font size is liberating.

True it does take a lot of design thought to make a design look decent with
all the variables out there.  If you are using a site for information, then
the simplest design that isn't dependant  on font size is the best.  I'm
assuming that is what the person who asked the original question intended.
If the site is more aesthetic, like presenting a collection on-line, then the
pages would have to be redesigned for larger fonts lest the format completely
screws up.

It is an interesting problem and I was thinking about how the things like
mouseovers, animations and image maps translate into text readers.  For
public sites, I was taught to always make the design understandable for
text-based browsers.  I think that is less of an issue now here in the US but
in other countries it probably is a valid concern.

Deb

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ museum-l.html. You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to
[log in to unmask] The body of the message should read "Signoff
Museum-L" (without the quotes).