Screen resolutions

Hi All,

I thought I would share with you the thoughts of a friend of mine on designing for screen resolutions. I was busy asking people about which resolution they preferred to design for. This was my friends reply which I thought he explained very well.

I always design to 800 x 600 (it used to be 640x480) - this way if people are using the bigger resolution and use their browser to display links on the left of the page it still fits in the window space.

A nifty little trick is also to make sure your width is not actually 800x600 - make it between 740-760 pixles - that way allowing better cross-browser performance - some browsers start to horizontal scroll above 760 wide.

The 800 model is the most widely accepted , although in a year or so time this will change, however :

you dont want to any horizontal scrolling - big no no
by designing to the larger size you are effectivley forcing users down a cul-de-sac
if you are going for a liquid design - make sure all your main content fits within 760
keep an eye on : Browser Stats

Hope this helps someone.

Best wishes
Graeme