August 28th, 2005
Web Sites and Window Width
by Joshua Porter | 
3 Comments | shortlink: http://bokardo.com/p/191
Jeremy Keith finds the new alistapart design utilizing a 1024 pixel fixed-width layout too wide. (I wrote up my initial thoughts a few days ago)
It seems that designers creating a 1024 pixel wide design are making a certain assumption …something like “screens are continually getting bigger, so our designs can get bigger, too”. But it’s also an assumption that most folks want to browse using a single window, and have that window take up the entirety (or close to it) of the available screen.
But I agree with Jeremy. I have 15 inches of screen to work with, which is plenty wide enough to handle a 1024 design, but I never make windows as big as I can. So there is a small horizontal scrollbar in the new redesign when I view it, but I just deal with it. The new two-finger scrolling feature of my Powerbook also alleviates a little frustration with this. Jeremy says he will deal with it by creating his own stylesheet.
In fact, in recent weeks I’ve been seriously considering buying a new Apple display, with 20 or more inches of viewing capacity, large enough for an even bigger design than the new Alistapart one. But the reason is not so that I can stretch one window and make it as big as possible, the reason is so I can have two windows at ~800 pixels wide.
So I wonder if, instead of seeing everyone adopting a wider fixed-width design, we’ll instead see a comfort level forming with slightly smaller, liquid windows. There is, after all, an upper limit to everything, except plasma TVs, of course. Perhaps we’ve seen the beginnings of it with this new design. And, perhaps other folks have the same opinion that I do: that two windows are better than one.
So, what’s your window habit?
Update: Jon Hicks has an interesting discussion: Is 1024 OK? about this with comments from the designer, Jason Santa Maria. He makes the same point that I make, that not everyone is going to maximize their window. Also, read this quick interview with the designer.
Just goes to show you that we’re all still trying to figure this thing out.
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Comments
1. CM Harrington 11:37am, Sun 28th, 2005
I totally agree. I am lucky enough to have the Apple 23″ display, and possibly the worst thing in the world is when I unknowingly go to a Flash site that decides that it needs to be 100% by 100%. What a mess!
Also, 1024px wide is a bit much even for those with 1024px wide monitors. For example, I have my dock on the right, not the bottom, so I get a horizontal scroll bar on by 12″ powerbook screen. Apple’s OS (throughout its history) has always been about being able to see multiple windows, and to at least some extent, promote multi-tasking. Compare this to the Windows OS approach which promotes single-tasking through the use of the “maximise” button, making the active window take over the whole screen.
The idea of single-screen/single tasking isn’t bad in-and-of-itself, although the idea was conceived in a time where screen resolution was much smaller than it is today. The mere thought of a Word document taking up the entirety of my 23″ monitor is insane. Of course, it may be a necessity soon, if MS keeps adding stuff to their toolbars
2. Bob Easton 10:20am, Mon 29th, 2005
My display is still physically small, but capable of 1400×1050. I have never used full screen windows, even when resolution was much lower. I always use window sizes somewhat smaller, usually around 900.
I once subscribed to “everything should be fluid,” but have changed my mind after having seen fluid sites look terrible on very high resolution displays (>2048).
So, I’ve come to think that a good solution would be a flexible design with min-width:800px and a max-width:990 (to allow an easy fit in displays that are only 1024 wide). Of course, that means hacking for IE since it doesn’t support min/max.
3. Michael Almond 6:00am, Tue 20th, 2005
It seems to me that that advantage of a large monitor or a higher resolution setting is mostly in the area of the OS, software applications and some Web applications. You need the real estate because of pallets, tool bars, etc. etc.
I web page, on the other hand rarely looks as good or is as usable at larger sizes. Web designers are not designing for themselves, they are designing for visitors, most of whom (myself included) can’t stand a cluttered, huge page horizontally. People will scroll, that’s clear enough, but vertically. I have yet to see a Blog that isn’t endlessly long and interesting enough, not one I have seen has a return to top link. This is usability 101…why not add one? Just a thought.