On 5 Mar 2003, at 11:22, Peekstok, Anna wrote:

> David Jones wrote:
> 
> > Once people realize that empty space on a web page costs
> > them nothing, perhaps they'd have less problems with
> > "wasted whitespace."
> 
> But empty space on a web page results in content being
> bumped to "below the fold" -- or vertical scroll.

Only if they designed the page to do that. If they put so 
much empty space "above" the important information 
that the important information isn't visible, they have a 
more fundamental design problem than their use of 
white space. There's more to designing a page than 
how it looks - how the information is organized 
(chunked, or whatever) for presentation is just as 
important.

Also, designers cannot assume a specific browser 
window size. My display is running at 1280x1024 right 
now, but my browser window is only 818x803, and I 
have things set so sites cannot resize my browser 
window or open another window unless I want it to.

> If it isn't visible in the window when the page opens,
> a certain percentage of users (and I've heard various
> claims that it's a large percentage) will never see it. 

Most claim I've seen is that people are willing to scroll 
down about 1-2 screenfuls before they give up. This 
may depend on the site, its purpose and audience. 
That's the point in the design process where you have 
to organize and prioritize the information you're trying to 
communicate, and base your graphical site layout on 
that hierarchy.

> Again, I'm not talking about cramming the page with all
> kinds of different columns and lists and menus and icons;
> I'm talking about allowing the text in the main body
> column to flow to the full width of the page, however
> small or large that may be.

Long lines of text are very hard to read on screen. 
That's why so many sites restrict the width in some 
way. Being flexible about font sizes helps, but if the 
site also specifies a small font size (like too many sites 
do!) it gets even worse.

David
dvjones(at)ksbe.edu
 

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