Full Screen

[vilehelm]

It seems the times that are most appropriate for full screens are when you don't feel you have enough room to operate given the constraints of low end users...the old 800x600...:P

As far as Jakob Nielsen goes, he might be right but ... his site is really boring too...and no fun. As someone who is trying to create experiences online, some flash sites might be fiddly kinda fun widgety stuff that do nothing ...HOWEVER... and may pixelwit and red forgive me for the fickle bastard I am, there are some brands and some situations where you would love people to just spend time noodling with the site.

The Cooper Mini site is a GREAT example of a flash based brand experience. It's engaging, smart and fun and I always end up screwing around for about 10-20 minutes on it.

http://www.miniusa.com

As developers that's the sorta experience you want to deliver to a client.

[retrotron]

My two cents....

i think fullscreen works great if and only if it is meant to run on a standalone and you know the resolution/dimensions of the standalone computer. In that case, the screen size will always be the same, so you can design it and expect as much.

However, if the site is deployed over the web, then there are so many different sizes and resolutions that people will be using, then you can't plan for that. The specific layout, the use of space, the relation to the edge, etc., all of these are important principles in the design of any site. A poorly design site will neglect these elements, a well designed site will not. If you have all kinds of different sizes, then those carefully designed relationships of space and size will become distorted. No fun for the designer who put a ton of time into getting those relationships just right.

In other words, there is the element of design that is at stake, in addition to usability.

[Nick Toye]

What does everyone think about full screen applications

[webguy]

Personally I hate fullscreen websites. My desktop resolution is 1920 x 1080, which is enough room to tile atleast 4 websites. When a website spans my entire desktop I get PO'd. As I normally have other applications and stuff running that I like to keep an eye on.

[Nick Toye]

Well what if users were given the option to exit out of it, or go into a smaller version of the flash site.

http://www.asymptote.net/

The above site carries it off quite well. I suppose it is helping towards the transition from tradionally viewed web sites, everthing has to evolve eventually, or it gets tired.

[CyanBlue]

Well... Let me revise what webguy says... ;)

I don't like the fullscrren sites much... But, yes, some sites looks whole lot better within the fullscreen window... I agree with that... But lots of sites just prefer fullscreen website with no reason...

But some sites just change the size of the browser without asking me... That I do not like... It doesn't matter whether the fullscreen window has a close option or not... I can just press Ctrl-W or Alt-F4 to close it, but it goes more with who's controlling who, in my opinion... So, if you were to do it, have several options before the user enter the site... ;)

[webguy]

nice site, but here is the dilemma.

popup (http://www.ifae.com/flash/popup.jpg)

fullscreen (http://www.ifae.com/flash/fullscreen.jpg)

I'm using a G4 running OSX 10.2 with the native safari browser.

[Nick Toye]

I don't know what that browser is. Slightly behind with the mac stuff.

I agree that the user should be in control. I think everyone agrees with that apart from marketing idiots and porn peddlers.

"no i don't want to go to casino online"

The option is good to have before you enter. If you don't want to enter a full screen site then don't. But for its purpose, a site can seem like it is offline and on the desktop. And more like an application rather than a web site. But I also agree that it has to function well as a full screen.

[Nick Toye]

Sorry web guy,

I see what you mean.

Well it all comes down to usability and testing your site well.

It also comes down to the target audience.

I remember when Flash 5 had just come out and I was trying to get some freelance flash work. I was pushing the flash is good and it functions well, which everyone must agree.

They were saying well only 90% of users have flash. So what I said. Thats only 10% who have to download a flash player from a very reputable company. And even on 56k dial up its only 5 minutes or so to download and install it.

Basically the general gist I was getting from these people is that I don't know about Flash hence not interested, I will stick with the boring miscoloured multi scrolling web site that was last updated in 1999 thanks very much.

But I guess that is the problem most of us face, convincing the client that this way is best and that way is antiquated.

Hey even Jakob Nielsen has started to praise flash..a little

[McGiver]

Depending on the site, fullscreen can look cool!
But here are some things I really hate:
-A page that offers only fullscreen
-or even worse: simply pops up a fullscreen window without being asked to do so
-No close button/a close button, which is hard to see (always put it in the upper left corner)/ a close button, which appears in a late frame (example: after a preloader :mad: )

If you use a fullscreen page, always offer the possibility to launch it in a window!

[Nick Toye]

I totally agree with everything you just said.

Its like alot of things on the web.

Misuse.

I think Jakob Nielsen said that only 10% of flash sites were functional and usable. Thats probably true.