21 Interesting as a starting point

It is a nice twist on Slantastic. It probably should not be used “as-is” considering the obvious usability issues, but it’ll eventually trigger a good idea for someone someday.

I also agree with Michael Efford that this technique, if taken literally, should be reserved for print. Still, it’s really a lot of work for something that wouldn’t necessarily be noticed by many (outside the web design world anyway). Not sure my clients would like to pay for that.

posted at 03:18 pm on January 12, 2005 by Hugo tremblay

22 Attack of the Flatlanders

While, I may never use this particular effect, I am very happy to learn more about CSS and its capabilities. That someone would spend a time attempting this and then exploring an improvement is exactly what ALA is about (to me). Just because YOU may not see a use or think it is inappropriate doesn’t mean that other don’t or can’t learn from it.

The negative comments in this discussion remind me of all the flack that the Pop-Up article got from people who have never developed a web application. I’d hate to think what would happen if someone decided to seriously explore frames (which I am doing for my web apps).

Progress is made by those who ignore “conventional wisdom” and push pass the small minded. Back to the dark ages with you nay-sayers! The web is for more than just browsing pretty brochures or reading blogs.

Thank you Daniel for opening the door a little wider.

posted at 04:06 pm on January 12, 2005 by gc

23 <em>We</em> know the web is not print

But how many of our clients understand this simple concept? And how many of us really have [em]complete[/em] creative control over the work we do? If I ever run into a client who comes from a print background (which seems to be damn near all of them in my experience) and they’ve just got to put an image in two columns of text ‘cos they used to always do it that way in the newspaper of magazine or whatever, and this article lets me meet those rather silly demands without having to resort to a tables based layout, I’ll be thankful for these two articles. Could I have read the first one and then applied Erid’s slantastic to it myself? Sure, but reading this article is a hell of a lot less work for me.

I can also see this technique forming the basis of an argument to move away from publishing stuff online in PDF format. Am I the only one who has heard something about how we’ve got to use PDFs in order to preserve the fidelity between the printed content and the online content? Maybe I’ve just been unlucky and worked with a lot more thick headed print centric idiots who also happen to sign my paychecks.

posted at 06:47 pm on January 12, 2005 by Derek Pennycuff

24 It's a start

I [em]can[/em] see applications for this, if handled with care. My biggest worry would be users resizing their text and suddenly getting giant gaps in the line-spacing. I suppose that could be handled by making <gasp!> more spans equal to half the line-spacing.

As for ALA readers complaining about not wanting to read two huge columns, perhaps it’s best that we not think of this technique solely for a news site. How about as a homepage design with two wide, but not too tall columns under a large splash image? (sorry, I’m designing in my ehad) Many companies have a similar treatment and with a nice graphic (or quote) breaking the columns up, it could look rather elegant, especially with generous line spacing.

posted at 08:43 pm on January 12, 2005 by Davezilla

25 Eep.

I should proofread my comments. Sorry about the HTML and misspelling the word head. :^(

posted at 08:45 pm on January 12, 2005 by Davezilla

26 text resizing

hi, very interesting technique. I have had several students wanting to acheive this…

I tested robustness when resizing the text (in Safari). I didn’t expect miracles, but it was okay. What techniques do other people use to ensure design integrity and accessibility?

posted at 04:30 am on January 13, 2005 by Ian

27 interesting.

My opinion tends to agree with a few other posts I’ve read. It’s interesting to learn something new about CSS but as of right now I don’t see a practical application for myself, especially with the browser incompatibility.

And to reply to the above post about what techniques people use to ensure design integrity and accessibility. I try and check out all of my projects on as many browsers and operating systems as I can get my hands on to make sure it doesn’t break down too much. As I am just beginning to become more active on the subject usability I’ll have to leave that one to someone else.

posted at 12:37 pm on January 13, 2005 by Nick

28 Too much effort

This is too much. The benefit of the technique is way less than the effort involved. I guess a PDF document is more approprite if this kind of layout is required.

posted at 07:40 pm on January 13, 2005 by Whuggy

29 Use JavaScript for Extra Markup

…So browsers that don’t support the CSS won’t have to bother downloading the extra markup. Just create the extra elements with the DOM Onload.

posted at 09:03 pm on January 13, 2005 by Dante

30 This technique is important

I work in advertising, and they always have me break things up like this, the layouts are just like print. There’s nothing you can do about it. So a technique that lets you do table-layout things but ISN’T a table layout is GREAT! Thanks ALA.

posted at 08:19 am on January 14, 2005 by dp