Should web pages look same in different browsers?

Question

There is a common fetish in web designer world that all pages should look pixel by pixel same in all browsers. I doubt if there is any good in this practice. People are different and they have different needs. There is no single the best font rendering and there is no ideal one size fit all font size. So I believe that web should be written in such way that it respects all individual needs of its users.

Is there any web design technique which emphasize individual user needs?

I am no sure if I write this question clearly and I understand that this isn't programming question so I will also appreciate answers pointing me to another forum where this things are discussed.

Answer 1

Pixel by pixel is not that much of a problem, but I draw the line when things end up in completely the wrong places.

Answer 2

I don't think the user browser indicates the individual user needs. It should be the same for all browsers and you must identify the user needs using another criteria

Answer 3

Browsers already accommodate for what you are talking about, though, through customizable settings. Font sizes can be changed, and some browsers allow for supplemental styling. I think that the pixel-by-pixel approach is overkill, but the overall feel should be consistent between browsers. Some users use multiple browsers - i.e., at work vs. at home. Their experience should not be altered within the context of the baseline based upon an enforced browser standard at an office, for example.

I try developing to standards, and adjusting to get the best fit across multiple browsers. It isn't 100% most of the time, but I am not going to putz around if a textbox has a border that is one pixel too big on one side, or anything crazy like that. Remember, the browser is just displaying what you suggest it to display - the users still have control in altering that presentation.

Answer 4

I think pixel by pixel is really only a concern when you are lining up images or other visual elements on a page - They need to line up on all browsers, but as long as the line up in each browser, I don't think each browsers rendering needs to look exactly the same - although it is nice. Usually I find that the differences of each browser is less of a pixl by pixel thing, and more dramatic, like how the browser handles floating divs or table sizing etc. In these cases things generally appear unreadable to the user - so it's not really a case of does it look the same as another browser, it's a case of is it even readable in all browsers.

Answer 5

Personally I just want things to look good and most importantly WORK in all browsers.

I don't get hung up on very small differences in layout, as long as the different layouts all look nice and are usable.

The way I view it is this: people testing the differences are looking at the page side-by-side in two browsers. The real users are only looking at it in their browser. They don't care if it looks the same as it does in another browser, they just care if it looks good and is easy to use.

Answer 6

Pixel perfect is not goal of HTML or CSS, so I would say it is impossible for all but the simplest cases. Even if you limited yourself to just the newest standards compliant browsers, you couldn't do it.

So, there needs to be some allowance for differences that are introduced by browsers, user settings and the device.

Answer 7

I think your user experience should be roughly similar no matter which browser you use. That is to say, if you didn't have them side by side the user probably shouldn't be aware of any differences depending on which browser they choose. That doesn't mean that they have to be identical, but the differences should be superficial and not particularly noticable.

As for designing for end-user customization, that can be a good goal, though it can also get difficult. You simply need to make sure that you're using relative sizing for stuff and that your interface flows well for reasonable ranges of end-user choices. I'm not at all sure that it is achievable in total. At the extremes you'll sacrifice some usability or look-and-feel as the amount of space available is finite.

Answer 8

From a programmers perspective it all about functionality, a designer will want it to look the same and the client may definately want it to look the same.

Answer 9

Fluid layout was the original intent of the Web, after all.

Alas, trusting the browser to broadcast user needs is still a little tricky (and a different question from the subject). Even the default browser font size is still 14px, which is gigantic to most of us. But the default can't change because it will break a bunch of sites that blindly use body { font-size: 85%; }, users can't well change it for the same reason, and most users don't even know the setting exists.

Most people just want to sit down and browse the Web. Those of us who care about customizing it will find ways to do so, whether by Greasemonkey/Stylish or by clever RSS tricks or by writing our own site that calls some API on yours.

So, to answer both questions: I don't think looking pixel-perfect is all that important, no. They should look roughly the same, I suppose, but I have no problem with e.g. using WebKit and Gecko rounded borders knowing they'll fall back to square corners in Trident and Presto.

Far more important is to just write your site well, so anyone with a drive to customize can do so. Don't rely on what you think the browser defaults are, such as link color or text size; use a CSS reset stylesheet. Use generic fallback for everything, like the serif font family; not all of us have Arial. Use semantic tags and healthy doses of classes and ids. Don't use Javascript for unnecessary tasks like displaying static content or loading stylesheets. Don't use Flash unless you really have to, and even then provide some open fallback like SVG or <video>.

I think allowing for user needs relies far more on how flexibly the author makes the site than what a browser does with it.

Answer 10

I'd agree with Mark, more importantly than the sites looking identical, is that they all function well enough.

Many times I've seen where an error message won't display in a certain browser based on how the developer coded the CSS, or a button won't click.

If a user has or doesn't have JavaScript enabled can cause a different experience for the users as well.

I'd like to think that the designer should design around the idea that they will NOT look the same in different browser based on so many different variables. Mobile web browsers, people with images disable, people using a screen reader, etc. If identical look is a requirement, it would be better to address the the people who are making that a requirement than actually spending your hours trying to make them all identical.

Answer 11

The original idea of HTML (based on SGML) is that it was a mark-up language and that it was up to the rendering device to render it as it best sees fit. Structural markup does not denote any specific rendering. For instance, the <EM> tag tells a browser that the containing text should be rendered in a way as to emphasise it. How that emphasis is presented to the user is down to the user agent. A text-only browser like Lynx could display it in a different manner than a Mozilla based one.

Now we are a in a time of mobile devices, netbooks and powerful desktops, all of which have different priorities for users. Therefore adaptive rendering is both logical and sensible. So, no, the point of HTML and CSS is not to impose a strict layout on the user - in fact, the user should always have the final say in what they see. A visually impaired person should be able to over-ride font-sizes, colours and styles, for instance. Obsessing about uniformity is contrary to the whole purpose of a semantic web.

Answer 12

The main problem is that many browsers do not follow CSS standards. CSS being used to style a web page, it can be rather frustrating when a web developer/designer wants a certain design and it only works for a single browser. If the site owner wants the users to have the same experience on his or her site for everyone it should be possible to do so.

The main technique that allows individual needs to be respected is to have some sort of fluid design and perhaps give the choice to the user for certain aspects of the site design such as font size, colours and a version of the site for high and low bandwidth usage. Using cookies to keep data on their settings on these aspects can help maintain a flow of users to one's website.