OT: web design and screen resolution

[Joseph Sinclair]

Some principles
  Don't use tables for layout, ever.  Use tables for tabular data, and treat them as webpage poison otherwise.
  Use CSS relative units for layout metrics (i.e. 40%, etc...)  Avoid px, in, cm, etc... where possible.  These are inconsistent across browsers (px isn't even a pixel, it's a rough guess at a "standardized" pixel).
  Try to attend the Phoenix Java Users' Group (www.phxjug.org) meeting this Wed.  I'll be doing the keynote presentation on accessible web design using CSS.  You'll see a nice looking site with lots of interactivity that works very well at any resolution from 800X600 to 1920X1080, and is still viewable at 640X480.  It's also reasonably compatible with screen readers and other assistive technologies, and didn't take a lot of extra effort to design, in fact it was a lot easier than the same site without CSS.
  The W3C is your best friend in the world when you're designing web pages, go look at how their pages are designed (especially the CSS pages) for good ideas.
  Look at the CSS Zen Garden (www.csszengarden.com) for lots of examples of CSS designed by graphics designers, some of which are very impressive.

Given that, Design the page to look good at 1024X768 and higher resolutions, but make sure it scales down to 800X600 well, and is at least viewable at 640X480 (think grandparents with poor eyesight).


Joseph Huber wrote:
> Dunno if I am going to open a can of worms here... anyone out there that
> has done some web page design (free-lance, during the day job, whatever)
> have any thoughts on a screen resolution to aim for? I am thinking that
> 15 inch monitors and 800x600 is pretty much a thing of the past (and
> that 17 inch is fast going the same way) but that 1024x768 is reasonable
> resolution. I have a 17 inch monitor at home and usually have the
> browser maximized... but at work on a 19 inch (to me) having a window
> maximized seems to make it too big.
> 
> I have a hard time arguing with the "design research" behind something
> like good old Amazon which seems to design for 1024x768 but scales well
> down to 800x600 (but then me, myself and I don't have Amazon type
> resources). What looks good assuming 1024x768 doesn't work so much at
> 800x600 (unless I force a fixed size font which I don't want to do...
> and Firefox seems to ignore it if I do anyway) and if I make it look
> good at 800x600 it doesn't look so hot at 1024x768.
> 
> I'm getting stuck in a rut where all I'm going to do is worry about
> resolution for the indeterminate future. Any thoughts welcome...
> 
> Joe
> 
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