Web Design
GUIDE

Screen Layout

Description: When you are designing your website you need to bear in mind the size of the screen it will be viewed on. If you can design your site to fit in with this you will be at a distinct advantage when compared to people who forget about this essential fact.

The vast majority of people tend to use a screen resolution of 1024 by 768. Using the common sense stance that you should always cater to the majority of people, this should be the screen resolution that you design to.

Right? Well, not necessarily. The next most popular resolution is 800 by 600, which means that if you design purely with 1024 by 768 in mind, you will annoy a lot of people who are viewing your site in a 800 by 600 screen resolution.

We've all come across websites that don't fit onto a standard screen; you have to keep moving over to the right to read the ends of sentences or see the rest of the items that are included on the page. We've also seen websites which fit on the page but cower against the left hand side, seemingly afraid of the huge amount of empty space on the right hand side of the screen.

These examples show why we need to design for the majority of people who will be viewing our site at either 1024 by 768 or 800 by 600. The trick is to design your website according to the lowest resolution that your audience is most likely to use. It doesn't matter if a mere handful of people use a screen resolution that is even lower than this; it's the lowest majority we are interested in.

So make sure your site is viewable and looks good in the 800 by 600 resolution, to ensure you will please as many people as possible - as this will keep them coming back for more.