So, Rare then, one of the best video-game developers in the world. But how about their site?
Rare’s site does not use any Liquid Design. All elements are frozen to their set position, I don’t have any problem’s with this at all though, since my browser is set to 1024x768. All pace elements fit on the page without the use of side scrolling. Great! However, if the browser is set to 800x600 some problems arise. The site suddenly becomes quite a bit of a mess, the user will have to scroll sideways in order to see all page contend, while you will also discover that the navigation bar is in a different frame altogether. Not to mention that the text is oversized.
“Conversely, if users have a small window and a page doesn't use a liquid layout, it triggers insufferable horizontal scrolling.”
(Jacob Nielsen, "www.useit.com/alertbox/designmistakes.html")
That problem aside though, the site is relatively clean with not to much empty or crowded space. For some reason the text appears bold on the site which makes it look a bit to heavy for comfort. The image’s are used well to fill in any blank spaces, giving the site a clean and complete feel. Most importantly about 75% of the page is filled, which happens to be a rule recommended by the web-design site ("www.elated.com/tutorials/authoring/style/pro_websites/").
So overall then, Rare have a good site, but only if it is to be viewed at 1024X768.