As a former Director programmer and desktop application developer, with 10
years experience in the industry, I have one thing to say to Flash
developers who have little to no experience developing desktop applications.
Changing a user's resolution without asking them first is a HUGE no-no.
Don't do it.
"Why shouldn't I change their resolution automatically?" I hear from the
desktop application development neophytes. Such sweet innocence. Your
incredulous cries shall be answered forthwith.
First, many displays, laptop displays (read: flatscreens) in particular,
only like to display at a specific resolution. Changing the resolution on
these displays can result in unintended side effects. On some, everything
gets extremely jagged, pixelated, blocky (i.e. crappy). On others, it
simply puts deadspace around the sides whilst making the visual area smaller
(oh the irony). Either way, your goal of making things look bigger and
better for the user just got Punk'd ("Punk'd" used with express permission
from Ashton Kutcher and MTV/Viacom, all rights reserved).
Second, if the display in question (laptops and desktops) cannot display at
the resolution you switch it to, a possible side effect is no display
whatsoever. And since it wasn't done by the resolution control panel in
Windows, there is no 15 second timeout if you can't see it anymore. This
might not be an issue on braille monitors, but those account for 0% of your
target audience (ed: and they don't exist). "Your application just broke my
computer!" exclaims Irate User. Which segues nicely to the next point.
Third, when you decrease a monitor's resolution, you completely screw up any
icon arrangement on the desktop. If you're looking to completely irritate
your userbase, congratulations you win! You've just caused the user to
associate negative emotions to whatever you were trying to convey.
Fourth, don't poop where you eat. People have their computers set up the
way they like them. They like their resolution just how it is, thank you.
Many users have flatscreen displays nowadays, which you can't or don't want
to change resolutions on anyway.
Fifth, even if you ask permission, many users don't know that any of the
things I've mentioned will befall them should they agree to your request,
and some users automatically click No to such things anyway.
Lucky for you, Flash can stretch to fill the screen. You just need to
design for that by using vector art for the UI, although raster images look
fine up to a point. Stretching Flash may cause a slight performance hit,
but you can also code your application to dynamically resize itself based on
the user's current resolution, which takes more finesse and planning.
The only time you should change the resolution without asking is in a kiosk
enviroment where you control the machine and you're not going to piss anyone
off or break something by doing so.
800x600 is only 224x168 smaller than the average resolution these days. Try
a nice border around the edge, black or a dark grey usually works best and
after a few minutes most users won't even notice it anymore (much like the
black bars at the top and bottom of widescreen movies).
Make a friend of your users, not an enemy. Just say no to resolution
changes.
This message paid for by the Special Treatment For Users group.
;)
_______________________________________________
[email protected]
To change your subscription options or search the archive:
http://chattyfig.figleaf.com/mailman/listinfo/flashcoders
Brought to you by Fig Leaf Software
Premier Authorized Adobe Consulting and Training
http://www.figleaf.com
http://training.figleaf.com
