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Yahoo! Tech

Sunday May 28, 2006

A few weeks ago I was looking for an 800×600 superstar and I most certainly found one.

But before I get to that, I also noted a trend that I find, quite frankly, worrying. I believe it’s called Resolution Dependent Layout (RDL) and it’s where the website will automagically remove a column (usually on the right) and shunt it somewhere else if the browser window gets too small. As far as I am concerned resolution dependent layout sucks. There are two reasons why I think RDL sucks. First and foremost it’s confusing for me, so god only knows what every day, occasional surfers will make of it. Yes it’s very clever but where the hell did that right hand column suddenly vanish to? Secondly I have to wonder if that right hand column isn’t that important, obviously it isn’t else why would it be ’shunted’, then why is it there in the first place?

That’s not to say I don’t believe there is an issue with getting everything a modern website needs squeezed into a 760px (roughly) wide box, there clearly is. I just think RDL is not the right answer to the problem but hey, that’s just me and I’ve never been that fashionable.

But back to my 800×600 superstar, Yahoo! Tech. I really like how they have tackled the small screen problem. You can change the width of the site with the click of a button (better than RDL because you at least know you are doing it). And it doesn’t stop there. The My Tech sidebar is minimized (with animation so you can see what is happening) to the right of the screen with the click of this ’change screen width’ button so it is far from lost, nor is it suddenly moved somewhere completely different within the UI (which I always believed to be bad usability). When you click on the (now minimized) My Tech tab sidebar it slides out to the left, over the top of the main site, revealing its contents. It all makes perfect sense to me in a way RDL does not.

Personally I’d like to see the whole My Tech tab clickable (not just the title at the top of it), in keeping with the whole Fitt’s law business and the Flash content z-index problem I experience in Camino makes it seem a little more clunky than it actually is but I love the clarity of the whole process.

http://tech.yahoo.com/

  1. jacob

    1134 days ago

    My screen is larger than 800×600, if I click the change screen width button the My Tech tab opens. If I click the My Tech tab directly without changing the width it also opens but it overlaps the page.

    So which one to choose? Widening the screen seems the best option because the tab doesn’t overlap any content. But what if I overlook the change screen width button? There’s nothing to remind me that clicking the button is the most ‘usable’ option for me while it clearly is.

    Anyway, seen a whole lot worse though…

  2. Matt

    1134 days ago

    Everytime you use a float you are doing RDL to a certain extent. I think the real problem is in using client-site javascript to explicitly make a decisition about layout. Having arbitrary rules in script that affect the layout and that are not in the direct control of the user is bad and I would say goes against web standards. Ironically, I see many web standards guru’s using this type of design.

  3. Mohodin Rageh

    1134 days ago

    Having a third column that disappears into a thin air on the basis that surfer’s browsers dimensions are small is really awful. As far as I am concerned, it is a non-starter. It has alway been for the simple reason that the average user is not that web savvy and, if they happened to have viewed the site previously with computer screen with ample dimensions and now they are using one of those trendy but tiny handbooks, what do they make of that third column which has now vanished from view?

    Even if they see the column somewhere further down, they would still wonder what has happened to the website? And rightly so. I am sure they will not assume that this is a resulation dependent layout that the coder has employed.

    When you develep a website, you are doing so for the benefit of your viewers, not you. And one should not assume that they are all web gurus well versed in latest layout design trends.

    So I also think that layout dependent layouts suck big time.

  4. Steve Tucker

    1134 days ago

    From a technical point of view this is bloody impressive. From a usability point of view it could have been done just a little better – but im not gonna start spurting out horseshit about this n that because, frankly, I couldnt do it myself. Still, I havent got a multi-million pound company paying me to have a go…

    Nice choice.

  5. Jon Hicks

    1133 days ago

    It only disappears if you go yanking the window around! Quit yanking Oxton!

  6. John Oxton

    1133 days ago

    Not true, there are many reasons it might vanish… for example iBook versus PowerBook… oh look at that content on the bottom of the page there… I’ll go look at that on my PowerBook… wait a minute, where did it go?

    As for yanking it… I’ve nothing better to do! ;)

  7. Jon Hicks

    1133 days ago

    Behold, the Rick Wakeman of the web! :D

  8. Miles Johnson

    1133 days ago

    Did you also know, the yahoo homepage has been reworked.

  9. Steve Tucker

    1133 days ago

    Think by now every man and his dog knows that the Yahoo homepage has been redesigned. I liked the original design better. New one is kinda bland – but thats me.

  10. trovster

    1131 days ago

    Pretty nice, and well executed. However, (large assumption here), what set of users are likely to have JavaScript turned off, those running smaller resolutions (I’m guessing). How the JavaScript should work is assuming the window is small (but this site uses JavaScript to reshow the hidden sidebar tab) and then move it if the resolution is bigger.

    This means, if you’re on a small resolution without JavaScript, you’re fine. If you’re on a big resolution without JavaScript, you’re still fine. However, if in either situation you’ve got Javascript, you’re, urm, better than fine!

  11. Ted Drake

    1131 days ago

    The Yahoo Tech site looks at your browsers resolution and delivers the wide or narrow version on page load. If you change your screen width it will re-evaluate what you need.

    The Yahoo User Interface Libraries are available for everyone to do the same with their sites.

  12. Jonathan Snook

    1130 days ago

    if you ask me, I think they stole the idea from me. bastards!

  13. Daniel Beattie

    1128 days ago

    That’s very well done, isn’t it? I think it shows genuine thought went into the design, which is a nice change. I really like it! Good find!


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