Ways of presenting large articles that are images

[michaeloneill]

Hi all,

I have a client who wants a site that she can upload articles to… They are made on indesign and she inists on having the same layout etc.

The problem is that you have to zoom in really far in a photo viewer to read the text. A lightbox would be ok but how do I get one that I can zoom in really far with? I also considered using overflows and some jquery so that the user could have a certain sized window that they could drag the content of to read the article….

Anyone have any ideas? Or is there any cool sites, widgets etc that could help me???

Cheers,
Micky

[TheDoc]

Step 1) Explain to client that they are wrong.

Step 2) Realize that no amount of convincing will change their mind. Tell them to export as a PDF and provide a link for users to download.

Step 3) Start drinking to get through the user experience pain you just helped create.

[michaeloneill]

@TheDoc I haven’t created anything yet. Ive explained to them that theres no good way it can be done but shes not having any of it. In my experience, when you cant get through to a client you just have to go by the saing: “The customer is always right”. I know its really stupid and senseless what im trying to do but im happy to do it if it gets me my paycheck!

[TT_Mark]

Export to PDF is probably the best you can do

[ccc630]

As usual, @TheDoc is dead right, except I’d move Step 3 up to Step 1. :)

@michael, I wonder if you could tell the client that, although you foresee major problems with her design, you’ll be happy to build exactly as she specifies — but with the clear understanding (in writing) that there will be a significant fee attached to re-building the project if she’s unhappy with the outcome. That way you’re honoring her demands, but also protecting yourself when the end result isn’t workable. Not sure if it’s a good idea or not, but thought I’d throw it out there. :)

[soap]

I’m assuming that these articles are pretty wide for them not to be legible on the screen.

Why don’t you convince her to let you recreate these articles for the web, making them look exactly the same, on say, a vertical and horizontal scrolling page.

This way you make more money, she gets what she wants and the people visiting the website get what they want.

[Author]

Posts