Fresh ideas for creating seamless websites
November 3, 2008
When I wrote about seamless websites it was done with the intention to showcase designs which I thought were cleverly bridging the gap between designing for small and large resolution computer screens. It proved to be a very popular topic, one of the most popular to date on this blog.
I’m revisiting the subject now because of the launch of a new site design which stylishly demonstrates the seamless principle. Duoh is the design business run by Veerle Pieters and Geerte Leyseele.
The new Duoh site has been designed to be easily readable on a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels (which was how I first viewed it). The image above was captured at this screen size.
However, for larger screens the site takes on an entirely different feel.
Veerle has written a great post over at her blog about the creation of this design, including the idea of creating “surprise” design elements for people viewing on larger screen resolutions.
For some time now I’ve liked the idea of incorporating quotes with relevance to design and creativity on a website, and it’s one consideration I have for when I come to redesign my site down the track. I even had the Steve Jobs quote “Stay hungry, stay foolish” noted down! (that’s alright, I have plenty of others). I like the balance of colours and design elements in the expanded layout, and the way that the placement of the quote works almost like a footnote. Of course, to view even as much of the site as can be seen in this second view (without scrolling) you would need to have a very large screen indeed.
And if you’re seeking guidance on achieving your own seamless layout, Web Designer Wall recently published a tutorial on creating a site with a large background, using CSS.
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2 Responses to “Fresh ideas for creating seamless websites”
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There s been a lot talking already about the new duoh design. Reactions are very wide spread… not everyone is positive about it… I have to admit Im not so very exited about it…
I am working on a 15.4″ widescreen notebook and I can not see the quote in the right bottom corner… The thing is, and I am glad it is, that you can not scroll to it either… but when talking about content, and i believe the quote is part of the content, I think every should be able to see it…
Besides I think the site gets very busy when viewed on a large resolution. But that a whole other point…
Meppel:
Thanks for your thoughts. You make a very interesting point which I think goes to the heart of designing a seamless layout: is it appropriate to have some design elements (which may be considered content) that people using smaller screens simply miss out on? While I think the quote is a great aspect to include, it’s not crucial to the experience of viewing the site.
To their credit, Veerle and Geerte have written since the launch about the range of feedback about the site, and their decision to make some changes in recent days based on what they’ve heard.
It goes to show that this is still a very challenging aspect of web design!