Aspiring to become a web developer, I've been contemplating the possibility of creating fully "scalable" websites without relying on flash technology.
Perhaps utilizing a JQuery plugin that automatically scales every element within the body based on the size of the body itself; so if the width is set to 100% of the window, everything inside adjusts accordingly.
In my opinion, this feature is crucial due to the varying resolutions and pixel densities of displays nowadays. It's not feasible to design for a specific resolution as it often leads to poor user experience for those using extreme resolutions - which make up a significant portion of users. In-browser scaling is also not an ideal solution.
I envision a system where elements are super-sized; for instance, an image displayed at 50x50px on one screen might appear as 100x100px on another screen with different resolution. While fancy resizing effects like bicubic interpolation may not be possible, basic scaling techniques could still offer a better viewing experience than having users resort to zooming in.
One potential solution could involve introducing a CSS unit that represents a percentage of the browser window, such as wx and wy. This way, setting properties like fontsize:0.3wx would always scale the font to 0.3% of the window's x dimension.
With pixel densities ranging from <100 to>200ppi and various display resolutions available, static websites designed for older screens can look terrible on newer high-resolution displays. As monitors continue to grow in size and pixel density increases, it's becoming essential to adapt website designs to accommodate these changes for a consistent user experience across devices.
If anyone has insights on how to achieve this scalability, I'd love to hear about it! Otherwise, resorting to flash technology might seem inevitable, especially given its support on many portable devices and its ability to ensure consistency across displays and platforms.
Thank you for your input.
PS: (2013) Ultimately, I decided to step away from web development. Although standards have evolved since then, the challenges of cross-browser compatibility and device diversity remain daunting. It's just not the right fit for me.