Redesigning with Web Standards
I was actually planning to use a fluid design for my new layout; that is, column widths will resize accordingly whenever the browser’s size is changed. Sanctuary is a good example of a website that uses a fluid design.
It’s evident that the author of Designing with Web Standards wields great influence in the web community when several prominent web designers promptly changed the layout of their websites to a fixed width design after Zeldman posted a link to Mike Golding’s article, which exalted the benefits of a fixed width design:
It is accepted in the printed medium that having a narrower text width makes reading large bodies of text easier and faster and produces a better understanding of the content. Broad sheet newspapers might be bigger and wider but that doesn’t mean longer line lengths, if anything the broad sheets use thinner and longer column lengths to help maintain focus on the content. Making your readers feel comfortable is a major factor in making a web site sticky, web designers are starting to adopt these usability findings.
I’ve been trying to keep up with the latest web standards ever since I made the switch from a table-based layout to a standards-compliant site using CSS. Besides the obvious advantages of using web standards, seeing SG Watch validates also increases my personal satisfaction as an amateur web designer.
As part of my redesign efforts, I’ve also changed the hierarchical structure of SG Watch; so please to update your favourite links to my website if you don’t wish to be greeted by a 404 error page.
SG Watch is still not fully functional yet; it was probably a bad idea to redesign my website during exam period, so please bear with me while I sort out minor glitches.