Web Page Dimensions?

Sorry if this has been posted before

I don't usually work with web design, however I've been approached and asked to make a website for someone, and have a friend who is doing the coding where I'll do the design

One thing I'm unsure of is the page dimensions, obviously everyone has different monitor sizes, so if I done one to fit my screen (1280x800) it would more than likely shift off the page on someone with a 1024x768 monitor

Thanks for any help

 

1024 x 768 is a more common resolution:
Browser Display Statistics

You could argue that with 14% of users still using 800 x 600 that you should really try and accommodate these too.

I tend to go for a width of 950 pixels these days.

 

Another way would be to do a percentage based width. These are generally more tricky to create, but you can still set fixed width elements inside the main table (if you're using tables). With a percentage based width, it doesn't matter what resolution screen the visitor is using

 

Can leave you with great big white spaces in a resolution of 1900 * 1200 though

 

I'd use a javascript to detect the resolution, and choose the right stylesheet



:banana

 

What about people who have Javascript disabled?

What about mobile phone browsers that may not have Javascript?

I would suggest you use Javascript for optional extras on your site and make sure that the main workflow process requires nothing extra installed on the clients machine.

 

I normally try to use 800 wide. Look at the big players- FaceBook, The newspaper websites, etc - they try and stick to this width.

 

As a rule, I follow exactly this route. 99% of sites I make are within 800px. They may not look so great on widescreen monitors, but at least everybody can see the whole page.

 

I can't be bothered to type out my views again so i'll just pastes a link:

http://forums.freelanceuk.com/web-design-forum/1074-new-web-design.html

HTH

 

really? now when javascript is starting to overrun flash? i'll take the chance, thank you...

website for mobile users? on a freelance forum?

that really is "poor man's c*ck" (courtesy of maxim :banana )

 

Thanks everyone for the replies!

I've heard people mention you can have some sort of fixed width (I may have this wrong) basically, what I mean is some way of having the web page so it automatically sets to a size to fit all screen sizes

For my own website I am designing to the same sort of ways as the facebook layout, straight down the middle so the width would be around 800, that would suit me fine

Although obviously not all people will want that..

 

The Perfect Fluid Width Layout - CSS-Tricks


there ya go

 

That's brilliant, thanks very much!

 

no problem, hope that helps you

 

The point is that many people use many different ways to access the internet. Refusing to create a site that is usable by a certain group of people means that you are potentially losing customers before they have even had a chance to find out about your products/services.

I'm not saying don't use javascript at all, I'm just saying make sure that the site is fully functional without it. You can then add in lots of fancy extras to wow people later.

 

Optimal screen size & CSS

Hi, I've just caught up with this thread from yesterday and I read the various opinions with interest. I generally agree with the postings from Chef-Design, use CSS and create either a fluid design or detect the screen size and apply the appropriate CSS template. The latter solution works well when things don’t scale easily or you want to have total control over the different sized layouts.

As for mobiles, well that’s a whole different kettle of fish. I have done a lot of work on this and ended up detecting the browser type from the request and then guessing what content to return. This is relatively straightforward in ASP.Net and our website is written using this method. By extending some of the ASP controls we have content dynamically generated to fit the screen, whether it’s a phone at 40x90, Palm 160x160, 384x512 or a PC resolution 800x600 and upwards. For the PC resolution I would aim at the 800x600, with the caveat that the real width is more likely to be 760 if you don’t want horizontal scrollies.

A

 

i think you should change resolutions of your own monitor to 1024X768 and then design to be on the safer side...

 

Congratulations rick22 - you win a prize! That is quite possibly the worst bit of advice anyone has ever given so have a banana :banana

Most people have LCD screens these days and they are set to an optimum number of pixels - for 17" and 19" monitors this is usually 1280x1024. Changing the resolution down makes everything look fuzzy so is really not recommended. Also if you end up designing on a resolution of 1024 x 768 then you end up with less space for Photoshop toolbars etc. Honestly, if you are designing to not really mind if 800x600 users have scroll bars but want a fixed width to cater for the masses then just work at around 960-980 px wide, just check the new version of the BBC site to see what I mean.

Resizing your monitor. Tsk.

 

I'm afraid I would be one of those who would argue that with 14% of users using 800x600 you'd be insane not to design your site with these users in mind, there is always the chance that your traffic will go crazy and you get 100,000 visits in a month, if you didn't cater to the 800x600 crowd you'll have effectively turned 14,000 people away from your site. Percentages are good like that


Cheers,
Robert

 

I agree to an extent and that is why when you design that little bit bigger you make sure that content is not out of the 780 pixel width that is displayed in 800px width monitors so you do not lose visitors completely. If the user on a smaller resolution misses secondary links and some advertising in the right hand column then so be it.

Also take into account real-world stats for your site if you can, for example this site gets several hundred thousand page views per month but only gets 3.11% of traffic at 800x600.

Also take a peek at the BBC these days - what width is their home page?