Width of pages

[innovative]

Good Morning all,

I have a question about the width of web pages.
My instructor told us to keep pages at 760 pixels wide.
I guess this is because people with older monitors
can still view the entire page without getting a side scrollbar.
Do you agree with this?
What do you other designers keep your pages at?
I'll appreciate any advice.

Thanks for everyones help.

Innovative

 

[Roenick]

it's true, a number of users have monitor resolution set to 800x600 so you want to keep this in mind. keeping your content within 760 will ensure that these users don't have to scroll sideways.

i usually optimize the design for 1024x768 but structure it so that it degrades gracefully to 800x600. two ways to do this are either centering your content or extending certain graphics the width of the page.

this site is a great example of centering the content. in 1024x768 resolution you see the background pattern on the sides and the content centered in the middle. for 800x600 you would lose the pattern but retain the content.

the other option i use is keeping the content left aligned so that it doesn't go beyond 760 or so but have a banner graphic or header/footer bar extend 100% of the screen width.

hope this helps.

 

[RakeshRaja]

ya 800x600 is mostly used so 760 or 780 px width is the best.

 

[Anthony]

I agree that you should design for an 800 resolution or at least design with backwards compatibility in mind (ie- width=100% container, etc.).

 

[John Kennedy]

I'm not sure on how reliable the source is but this site www.echoecho.com has some surfer stats, which says that 47% (The Majority) of users are still using 800X600.

 

[Anthony]

JK is right and that's why we gave the advice we did about how to design. Design for the majority at the time and/or the near future.

 

[RakeshRaja]

humm i think just design website taking 800x600 into consideration... but if you want to make your website... most userfriendly.. then just use 100% for tables.. ...and design website that way.. i mean make liquid design.