The Issue of the Web: Users vs. Designers

Many designers think that they are in control. They can decide what typeface they want to use no matter how illegible it may be and what size to scale it to. These designers are in for a rude awakening because the designer may be able to choose the look and feel of the site but it’s really the Users who have control. The Users are who the Designers are creating the sites and certain conditions need to be taken into account when designing a web page.

• Size of the browser window
  There are many browsers out there in the world and the users use all of them. It’s best to design the site that’s compatible with as many browsers as possible and designing for other media like cell phones is always a plus as it adds the number of users that are able to view your site.
• Screen resolution
  
  If the screen resolution is bad then pictures and graphics will become fuzzy and hard to decipher. The screen resolution doesn’t normally have to be perfect but there is a set standard of 72dpi for the web. That’s 72 dots (pixels) per inch. If you were printing then the resolution would have to be significantly higher in order for the printer to capture as much detail as possible. There are certain advantages to creating on the web.
• Operating system
  I am a PC and work mostly in a Windows environment though I can manage a Mac just fine. Since I live and breathe Windows I tend to script for Windows. That doesn’t mean you have to nor does it mean that you are confined to just one operating system. I like to think that the more you know how to script the better chance you have of getting your page noticed.
• Default font size
  Default font size for body text would be 12pt. Default sizes for me are often determined by tags such as h1, p, etc. I find that these are extremely useful because they give you your default sizes. In order to change these sizes then simply include them in you CSS and change the size to whatever you want. This also helps identify which elements you would like to be that size without having to individually change the size for each individual element.