960px Fixed Width

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  • MRGTB
    Senior Member
    • May 2005
    • 5454

    960px Fixed Width

    I've been thinking about turning my site over to fixed width, while I understand that 760px is probably the safest option to go with for people who use 800 screen resolutions in there settings. And to just support everybody in general.

    I've been doing quite a bit of reading on the Internet about this first, were people are beginning to talk about moving away from the supported 800 screen res, too 1024 screen res now as the default. It seems to be a hot topic though with arguements on both sides, people who support 800 screen res say you can lose about 30% of traffic if you rule out 800 screen res in your fixed width, and opt for a standard 1024 instead. Were other say 800 screen res is just too old now and all new computer support higher than this as standard. And it's only a matter of time before 800 screen res is more or less obsolete. So whats the point of supporting it anymore in new designs.

    Not only that, my feeling are the 760px fixed width for vBulletin to support 800 screen res is a little too narrow, if you enable things like the moderator column on the forum, or use things like display post as "Detailed". or enable quite a lot of features to be displayed in the members section. You kind of struggle really with the 760px fixed width. And it just seems the 960px fixed width is better suited overal now for the vB forum settings as a whole. But of course as mentioned above, your ruling out a people who use 800 screen res. Plus with the new Blog in production now, when viewed in vBulletin 760 fixed width style. It all looks a little too cramped to me.

    Whats people view on this?
    Last edited by MRGTB; Sun 15 Jul '07, 6:43am.
  • dkon26
    Senior Member
    • Jul 2007
    • 552
    • 3.7.x

    #2
    I did mine at 760 for those who still use 800. Plus I made a logo and couldnt figure out how to make it at 100% and look right. I think 760 looks better than full screen. IMO

    Comment

    • MRGTB
      Senior Member
      • May 2005
      • 5454

      #3
      There is a way to have two logos in a fluid style (requires some code edit in the header template), were you have two images. One Left and One Right. Were they both move in-line together if the forum page is resized. But your better having the two small images left and right using the same background colour as the forums background colour. Thats one way how you can do it.

      But like you say, you opted for the 760px for all screen support. But have you never given thought about the fact, if you go into a computer shop now and buy a laptop or a PC. By default they will display 1024 no problem. And this gives you the option to be a little more flexible with your forum, if you move away from 760 to 960 instead.

      I do understand that people still use old computers that use 800 screen res, but is that a good enough argument now to still support. Or is it time they got rid, seeing as it's basically an obsolete default screen res now in todays new PC's

      I currently have my site in my sig setup to a default 960px fixed width screen res if anybody wants to test what it looks like on their displays out of pure curiosity.
      Last edited by MRGTB; Sun 15 Jul '07, 6:53am.

      Comment

      • dkon26
        Senior Member
        • Jul 2007
        • 552
        • 3.7.x

        #4
        For most I agree but I have a law enforcement forum and a lot of people have told me a lot of departments are still using crappy pcs at 800. I just wanted to be fair. After I figure out the images I might move but me and photoshop dont really get along to well..

        Comment

        • MRGTB
          Senior Member
          • May 2005
          • 5454

          #5
          Originally posted by bboarddotcom
          For most I agree but I have a law enforcement forum and a lot of people have told me a lot of departments are still using crappy pcs at 800. I just wanted to be fair. After I figure out the images I might move but me and photoshop dont really get along to well..
          .

          Yes, well I can undertand where you coming from, there are a lot of companies who do use old systems that use 800x600 as default. So I guess in your case your kinda knackered really! But having looked at what the Blog looks like at 760px. I don't know about you, but it just isn't suited to such a narrow design. And thats another reason why I very well may move away from the 760px fixed width and support 1024 as default. mainly because I know over time more and more people will see the site better from that 30% when they choose to upgrade there PC's, or even monitors for that matter. Simply becuase every PC, Laptop or Monitor sold now, doesn't really support a default 800X600 anymore.
          Last edited by MRGTB; Sun 15 Jul '07, 7:00am.

          Comment

          • Dean C
            Senior Member
            • Mar 2002
            • 4571
            • 3.5.x

            #6
            The company I'm working for at the moment has over 70k hits a day on its homepage. Over 25% of our users are still running at 800*600, and that's not due to the content of our website or anything like that. I would reccomend either going for a fluid layout, or a fixed width of 760px
            Dean Clatworthy - Web Developer/Designer

            Comment

            • Bema Jinn
              Senior Member
              • Mar 2003
              • 1510
              • 3.0.1

              #7
              Why not use % instead of px?

              That way while some things looked cramped on an 800, at least they won't have to scroll.

              Comment

              • MRGTB
                Senior Member
                • May 2005
                • 5454

                #8
                Originally posted by Bema Jinn
                Why not use % instead of px?

                That way while some things looked cramped on an 800, at least they won't have to scroll.
                You can do a lot more things style wise with a fixed width than you can with a fluid style. Things can be arrange to fit the style better, unlike a fluid style where you always have to try and take into account the fact it shrinks and expands. Like adding a Google banner for example, with a fixed width you can choose the correct width of banner to use that suits your fixed width perfect without worrying what it will look like as much as you have too with a fluid style, when viewed in another persons browser.

                There are many reasons why a fixed width is better to work with. It's also easier to dictate what it will look like in another persons browser also based on what it looks like in yours. (as long as they have the screen res to support the width you choose). Some might argue this, but I personally feel fixed width is just easier to work with in general, with less variables you have to take into consideration when making changes.

                I'm no style expert, but I much prefer fixed width, in fact I don't it when the forum board spans the full page width unless it has a really great custom style to suit it being like that.
                Last edited by MRGTB; Sun 15 Jul '07, 6:21pm.

                Comment

                • Redseal
                  Senior Member
                  • May 2007
                  • 289
                  • 4.0.0

                  #9
                  Measure, monetize, advertise and improve your apps with Yahoo tools. Join the 200,000 developers using Yahoo tools to build their app businesses.


                  I built a couple of designs using the grids and the font reset, everything scales really well. Support for all of the A grade browsers etc.

                  -Redseal
                  I love lamp

                  Comment

                  • Wayne Luke
                    vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                    • Aug 2000
                    • 73981

                    #10
                    Check your site statistic software. It should keep track of browser window sizes. See what the majority of your site uses and then decide what to implement.
                    Translations provided by Google.

                    Wayne Luke
                    The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                    vBulletin 5 API

                    Comment

                    • welo
                      Senior Member
                      • Sep 2003
                      • 516
                      • 3.5.0 Pre-Release

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Wayne Luke
                      Check your site statistic software. It should keep track of browser window sizes. See what the majority of your site uses and then decide what to implement.
                      That won't necessarily work. Sure, most screens are 1024x768 and up and this is what the stats will show, but most people don't surf with a maximized browser window. My screens are 1680x1050 and I surf in a 10x8 window unless I'm building, then it's back to 8x6.

                      Originally posted by MRGTB
                      You can do a lot more things style wise with a fixed width than you can with a fluid style. Things can be arrange to fit the style better, unlike a fluid style where you always have to try and take into account the fact it shrinks and expands.
                      Uncertain whether I entirely agree with that. Yes, fluid styles are harder to build until you think a little bit differently to do it. Being a good designer helps too , and building fluid styles just makes you better.
                      "I can't seem to bring myself to say, 'Well, I guess I'll be toddling along.'
                      It isn't that I can't toddle. It's that I can't guess I'll toddle."

                      --Robert Benchley (1889-1945)

                      Comment

                      • Wayne Luke
                        vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                        • Aug 2000
                        • 73981

                        #12
                        Originally posted by welo
                        That won't necessarily work. Sure, most screens are 1024x768 and up and this is what the stats will show, but most people don't surf with a maximized browser window. My screens are 1680x1050 and I surf in a 10x8 window unless I'm building, then it's back to 8x6.
                        If the software is built correctly it will use the browser aperture size not the screen resolution for these statistics.
                        Translations provided by Google.

                        Wayne Luke
                        The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                        vBulletin 5 API

                        Comment

                        • Ohiosweetheart
                          Senior Member
                          • Dec 2005
                          • 1965
                          • 3.8.x

                          #13
                          Originally posted by dkon26
                          For most I agree but I have a law enforcement forum and a lot of people have told me a lot of departments are still using crappy pcs at 800. I just wanted to be fair. After I figure out the images I might move but me and photoshop dont really get along to well..
                          Not only law enforcement, but fire departments, schools, small town governments, etc.

                          That's enough for me to continue to design my skins with 800x600 res still in mind.
                          And I design both fluid and fixed.
                          Last edited by Ohiosweetheart; Wed 18 Jul '07, 8:32pm.
                          Peggy
                          ~ normal is overrated ~

                          One Buzy Mama!

                          Comment

                          • Wayne Luke
                            vBulletin Technical Support Lead
                            • Aug 2000
                            • 73981

                            #14
                            Originally posted by Ohiosweetheart
                            Not only law enforcement, but fire departments, schools, small town governments, etc.
                            I guess it depends on where you live. Locally every public office has been upgraded to 17" LCD monitors which support no less than 1024 X 768 resolution. Its part of the two local cities ongoing energy conservation efforts.

                            Not saying that there aren't areas with 800 X 600 but every monitor sold in the last 10 years supports higher resolutions. 800 X 600 is just a default. My parents are stubborn and have a 15" monitor on one of their computers and it is set to 1024 X 768. It is 13 years old and was a bargain monitor when they purchased it.

                            I would say for the site in question, people are buying larger widescreen monitors and will be perfectly capable of browsing at a larger resolution. I do believe that liquid is best but if people didn't push the envelope, we would still be designing for 640 X 480 like we were 8-9 years ago.
                            Translations provided by Google.

                            Wayne Luke
                            The Rabid Badger - a vBulletin Cloud demonstration site.
                            vBulletin 5 API

                            Comment

                            • Windsun
                              New Member
                              • Jul 2007
                              • 20
                              • 3.6.x

                              #15
                              Originally posted by MRGTB
                              .

                              Yes, well I can undertand where you coming from, there are a lot of companies who do use old systems that use 800x600 as default.
                              The last time I checked a week or so ago, 800 wide users were like .073%.

                              That said, I tend to dislike fixed width sites of any type, forums or anything else. They always leave big empty spaces on my screen.

                              Comment

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