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Re: Scalable design or fixed

for

From: Austin, Darrel
Date: Oct 4, 2004 10:11AM

> One of them
> is weather we should have a design of fixed width rather than a
> scaleable one.

In terms of accessibility, allowing your site to fit more web browser view
port sizes would mean it'd be more accessible to more folks without the need
for unecessary scrolling. (or, if not accessible, at least more usable).

> Log file analyses indicates that most of our users
> have a 1024 x 768 screen resolution and many people favor building
> for this resolution.

RED FLAG! Screen resolution has nothing to do with browser viewport sizes.
Just throw away that statistic completely and don't let it influence your
reasoning behind going with a liquid or fixed-width layout.

> Are log file data on screen resolution reliable?

Reliable, but, again, irrelevant.

Some things to keep in mind:

- As screen resolution gets larger (larger desktop
monitors) it also gets smaller (more PDAs, cellphones,
sub-compact laptops, etc.)

- As screen resolution gets larger, some people will
have LARGER browser viewports (the 'always maximized
people') while others will have SMALLER browser view-
ports (the 'hey! I have a bigger screen, now I can have
multiple windows open at the same time people')

- Screen size != browser window size != browser viewport
size. Many folks like to browser with their bookmarks
pane or history pane open. This takes yet more screen
real estate away.

-Darrel