Browser compatibility testing (in this case, for Spins pages)

[Máirín Duffy]

On Mon, 2010-05-31 at 02:44 -0500, an unknown sender wrote:
> On Sat, May 29, 2010 at 6:32 AM, Al Thomas <astavale at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Hi,
> >
> > I read the document and immediately several ideas came to mind! Hope these are useful:
> >
> > - Add sub-headings under 'Basic Usability Standards' to organise information. These could be:
> > Aims, Screen Sizes, Text(Markup), Links(Navigation), Images, Enhancements(Javascript)
> >
> Yeah it a draft :)
> 
> > - 'The site should be optimized for 1024 x 768'. Probably controversial, but to my mind 'optimized for 1024 x 768' harks back to the days of 'Optimized for Internet Explorer 5.0 at 1024 x 768', etc. I would go for something more like 'Layout should be flexible to adapt to the wide range of modern devices used to access the site. The page should be readable at a minimum 800x480(? - landscape mobile browser) upwards, with 1024 x 768 assumed to be the most common browser window size.' There have been a couple of posts recently about column drop down in smaller window sizes.
> >
> The intention is to have the website viewable in the most available
> medias. There are definitely medias she should consider: wide screens,
> regular screens, netbooks, mobile, print, etc. Related is how to
> accomplish this.. fluid site or fixed width? In either case, you bring
> up something to consider.

This is an interesting tool my colleague Kyle pointed out to me last
week:

http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/

It shows statistically based on browser usage stats collected by google
how many users you will reach with which resolutions. It does include
mobile devices and the like.

Optimizing for a 1024x768 resolution looks like it's good for 70% of
users, which I think is likely reasonable.

I think our websites should be fluid when possible. I'd like to make the
use of a framework like 960.gs (which has a fluid version) so that a lot
of the work to make the site degrade nicely and work fluidly is done for
us and we can focus more on rocking out :)

~m