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Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

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Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#381

Post by jefftk »

badsectoracula wrote: post #378
jefftk wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mobile vs desktop" is not a distinction websites should be making. Sites should make the best use they can of the available horizontal space. It's still not clear to me where you think this approach gives bad results?

The problem is that the horizontal space only tells you how many pixels are available, not how big whatever you use those pixels for ends up on the screen. The precise vs coarse isn't helpful either for something like this because this isn't just about clicking vs tapping, it is about how the end result looks - and there are PCs with both very small monitors and very big monitors (and relatively large monitors with l…

CSS pixels are good for layout, not just sizes and positions, because a pixel (in a browser) now represents an apparent size. That is, if the user has a large device far from their face, or a small device close to their face, a pixel represents a similar portion of their vision. If they want things larger, they can adjust the scaling so a pixel represents a larger apparent size, or the reverse.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#382

Post by rjmunro »

SulfurHexaFluri wrote: post #355
SirSavary wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to me that proper DPI detection might lead to a better experience across all "unique" monitor setups, not just this one. Is it extra work? Sure. I thought we referred to that as polish.

Is DPI a good measure though? Some cheap phones have rubbish DPIs while expensive monitors have very high dpi. Not sure if this exists already but the idea method would be to use the physical size in cm of the display.

I tried dpi.lv on my 2 monitors and my phone. It said:

Resolution: 3360 × 2100 Diagonal: 13.3″ Resolution: 2560 × 1440 Diagonal: 13.3″ Resolution: 2160 × 1080 Diagonal: 13.3″

(my monitors are 15.5" and 27" diagonal, my phone is 6")

Maybe I'm crazy for using my phone in landscape mode, but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to tell which of those measurements is a phone.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#383

Post by hypertele-Xii »

account42 wrote: post #365
hypertele-Xii wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't differentiate by type of device. I just detect aspect ratio: @media (min-aspect-ratio: 1/1) /* wide */ @media (max-aspect-ratio: 1/1) /* tall */ @media (aspect-ratio: 1/1) /* square */

And what do you think the aspect ratio tells you? People do use portrait orientation for monitors or windowed mode for browsers.

It tells me which axis is longer, so I can responsively move the menu there. Also I flow content differently - lists get columns if wide enough.

Here, play with your window width to see: https://hypertele.fi/0000000000000000

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#385

Post by rhacker »

chrismorgan wrote: post #366
rhacker wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well that's just useless then.

There have been attempts to define physical units (Firefox used to have a unit called mozmm which tried to be one physical millimetre), but eventual consensus is that (a) you can’t actually figure this out, because screens don’t tell you their exact physical sizes; (b) if it’s not accurate, there are exactly zero genuine use cases for it; and (c) even if it was accurate, it would still almost never be correct to use…

Good points. I guess there is more to all of this than I originally figured.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#386

Post by kps »

tshaddox wrote: post #326
kps wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now try a screen reader (on a mac, Edit > Speech > Start Speaking will do nicely). Spoiler: You mean mathematical sans-serif bold small l, mathematical sans-serif bold small i, mathematical sans-serif bold small k, mathematical sans-serif bold small e, mathematical sans-serif bold small t, mathematical sans-serif bold small h, mathematical sans-serif bold small i, mathematical sans-serif bold small s?

If screen readers do that, why? That seems useless even when those characters are used for their intended purpose.

They're just reading the character name. I don't know of any screen reader that actually makes an attempt to read math reasonably.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#387

Post by Nathanael_M »

madeofpalk wrote: post #341
Nathanael_M wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in hearing other use cases.

The aspect ratio media query just lets you apply certain CSS to the page depending on the viewport aspect ration. It does not set an aspect ratio on an element. Maybe there’s something I’m missing, but I’m not sure how knowing the aspect ratio of the screen would help make an element 16:9. If my browser is narrower or wider, that doesn’t affect how I would style the element.

Oh, sorry, I was reading an article about the new CSS aspect-ratio property and mixed it up with the CSS aspect-ratio media query.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#388

Post by godshatter »

I don't understand why websites don't place a button on mobile views that let the user switch to desktop view and vice-versa. That way if you guess wrong at least there is an avenue to get the correct view without messing with window sizes and monitor resolutions. Save the choice and they only have to correct the website once.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#389

Post by efreak »

stronglikedan wrote: post #84
sillysaurusx wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't address the author's central argument, which is that websites need an effortless way of letting fonts become bigger without affecting the entire layout. I've wanted it too. I don't really care if some text gets cut off on headers and looks weird, I just want to read stuff from the comfort of my bed with my laptop a few feet away.

I love that Chrome on Android lets me zoom into any content on any site, regardless of how bad the devs borked the UX. (Yes, devs, if you don't allow me to zoom using the browser's built-in capabilities, you have borked the UX, and should be ashamed of yourselves.)

If you're using a mobile browser on Android that doesn't allow overriding websites that disable zoom (or using a website that defines font sizes in vw/vh), check your accessibility settings, there should be a shortcut for triple-tap to enable a zoom function. Some devices have other magnifying functions as well. My tablets and phone all have the basic magnifier function; my LineageOS (android 7 & 8) tablets additionally have a screen zoom/dpi setting to modify how large both pictures and text appear, and my samsung tablet (Android 10) has this and also a text zoom function. There's also a minimum view width setting in developer options since at least Android 8, to ensure interfaces aren't too small on mobile (this only goes one way though-- there's no maximum view width and no height controls).

It doesn't help with everything, but the triple-tap zoom is quite useful.

Re: Just because I have a vertical screen doesn’t mean I’m on a phone

#390

Post by tshaddox »

kps wrote: post #386
tshaddox wrote: post #326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If screen readers do that, why? That seems useless even when those characters are used for their intended purpose.

They're just reading the character name. I don't know of any screen reader that actually makes an attempt to read math reasonably.

Why don’t people point out how terrible screen readers are then, instead of criticizing people posting online who cannot be reasonably expected to stay up to date with Unicode and screen reader functionality?
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