Knights of Tempest Web Site Technical Notes
The Knights of Tempest web site has been tested on a variety of systems and viewing methods. Notes are below.
The goal is to provide maximum usability and printability in a variety of commonly used browsers. It should
look good, but form follows function.
Internet Explorer 4 & 5, Netscape Navigator 4
The site is fully compatible with these three "modern" browsers, those that more-or-less use HTML
4.0. There's no use of Javascript, so IE4 doesn't have any problem there.
Netscape Navigator 3
Navigator 3 doesn't handle images in the backgrounds of table cells, so the headings and the navigation bar
appear incomplete where images sit in the background, behind text.
Internet Explorer 3
Not yet tested, but I expect performance to be similar to Nav3.
Lynx (text-only browser)
Not yet tested, but I do intend to make sure it's usable in Lynx. I've avoided frames largely for the benefit
of Lynx users, so I doubt there will be much trouble. Later on, I anticipate using frames on the HTML version of
the rulebook, but I'll make sure to have a non-frames version available.
Images off
Because I've avoided using images as essential navigation buttons, the page functions perfectly well with images
turned off. There is an image map in the main page headings, but the links are duplicated in the text navigation
bar. In fact, I think the page looks better with images off than it looks in Nav3 with images on. No images is
better than partial images.
Monitor resolution
The page was designed on a monitor set to Windows' minimum resolution, 640x480. The main heading overflows just
a bit, but not enough to hamper function. All text is readable and all links function without scrolling sideways.
It looks better on larger resolutions, as the images and text have been set to expand to fill existing space.
Text size
This seems to be the biggest universal problem right now. Some text sizes overflow off of the navigation bar
on the main heading, and there's not much room over there to begin with. When I redesign the main heading, I'll
make a much larger margin for error there, and hopefully alleviate that problem. On the other hand, I don't expect
too many of our users to be senior citizens with their default text size cranked way up. On the gripping hand,
nerds with bad eyesight....
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