Michael,
A wise person (I forget who) once said, "You can't cross a chasm in two leaps." (Or something like that.)
An equally sage philosopher (might have been Confucious) said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step."
Redesigning the home page is more like the first step in a journey rather than a giant leap.
Okay, enough talking in metaphors. First of all, don't worry, we have no intention (at least for now) of completely revamping the entire site. As you point out, the "stretchy" screens have great utility, particularly for example, on message pages to allow more of the message to appear "above the fold". (If levy is reading this, "stretchy" is a technical term that I'll explain to you later via PM <g>)
With the home page redesign, we removed a lot of the clutter that was on the previous home page, including a number of advertisements. Advertising on the new home page will be a premium, and limited opportunity.
If you take a close look at the content that remains, you'll notice that stretching the screen would actually have very little user benefit. In fact, my original position was the same as yours, and I asked the designers to show me a version that stretched to fill the screen. In a word, it looked "goofy". There were essentially big "gaps" of disjointed open space. Properly chagrined by my designers, I agreed that a fixed size was the optimal design.
With that said, you are correct that we should utilize the "open space", and we will - although not exactly along the lines that you suggested. Nevertheless, I always appreciate your input.
And so, I shall close in the immortal words of the great Kung Fu master, "Patience, Grasshopper." :)
Thanks,
Bryan |
