Refresh and the screen resolution dilemma

Web design and development is a world of endless debates on what is the best (or perhaps the least bad) way of achieving your goals. One such topic is screen space, and arises as we work on the Refresh design.

800×600? Higher? Fixed-width? Fluid? etc…

I’ll cut to the chase: we’re going to design the site in fixed-width format for resolutions of 1024×768 (1024px) and up. This decision has certain implications, and isn’t one that I take lightly. I’ll attempt to explain myself…

A current rule of thumb says that somewhere between five and ten percent of web users are on resolutions of 800×600 (800px) or less. Some would say that’s rather a lot of people to inconvenience by making your website wider than their window.

I would say that this is a matter of optimising graphic design, not accessibility. Requiring the minority on small screens to scroll horizontally a little bit does not make the site inaccessible to them.

Furthermore, in my experience and opinion it doesn’t necessarily follow that a site’s traffic will reflect that general statistic.

Under most circumstances I’d err on the side of caution and recommend a design that was no wider than 760 pixels. This fits 800px with an allowance for scrollbars and an amount of screen furniture. That is what I have done on this website.

Stephen and I have formed a clear idea of who we perceive the audience to be for this site. At least a large part of it is people very much like ourselves. We have also considered how to approach marketing it and the kind of recognition we want it to gain. The probability that users will be on 800px seems to vary from merely unlikely to practically inconceivable.

I think it’s fair to say that we have reached the painful part of the design process. The part where you are tantalisingly close to arriving at a design that you are very happy with, but feel far away at the same time. At this point a re-evaluation of previously assumed constraints and a fresh pair of eyes may revolutionise the project.

I’ve received Ste’s fifth concept design, done some work of my own and fired it back. He’s going on holiday from Thursday and will be back in a couple of weeks. I plan on relaxing too. I think that when we get back together we’ll both be re-energised and the look-and-feel will come together quickly. Once a few key sections of the site are visualised it’s full steam ahead.

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