Screen Resolution IS important!

[Kim]

In the past week I have seen quite a few sites posted to the Showcase & in the reviews section that are just plain huge. While bigger monitors are becoming the norm, I don't believe that you should limit your viewers with smaller monitors or those that choose not to view in a full size window.

You might want to check out this article by Jakob Nielsen - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html

Enjoy!

[madmumbler]

I have also found that there are differences between widescreen laptop and regular desktop monitors. (Ask me how I know!)

Not only should a person check out their site in multiple browsers, but use different screen resolutions as well. As an extra safety measure, it doesn't hurt to check them out on a different type of monitor to be on the safe side. A site I thought looked great on my laptop looked horrible on a normal desktop with a standard CRT monitor.

[budfox]

It's quite simple.

Design for 750px wide (or thereabouts), and know how your site will look to all users, or use a fluid layout.

I prefer the former.

Don't forget we are talking e-commerce here. People want easy navigation, speed, good images, security and confidence that you'll deliver the goods.

Zencart sites don't have to be works of art. Amazon isn't, or Play.com, or plenty of others.

Nothing annoys punters more than horizontal scrolling, and in my opinion, a site that needs it is a bad site.

[jund]

In the past week I have seen quite a few sites posted to the Showcase & in the reviews section that are just plain huge. While bigger monitors are becoming the norm, I don't believe that you should limit your viewers with smaller monitors or those that choose not to view in a full size window.

You might want to check out this article by Jakob Nielsen - http://www.useit.com/alertbox/screen_resolution.html

Enjoy!

Thanks for the great link... and the author is credible... beats some of the wanna bee's who are in-credi-BULL.

I sent this link to lots of folks and sincerely appreciate you sharing it with the rest of us.

jund

[Veazer]

I agree with BudFox more than the Jakob Nielson article. It still makes sense to design for 800px width screens. There are still PCs being made that use 800x600 or 800x480 screens (like the popular Asus EEE and other UMPCs), and that is generally adequate real estate for a store.

[bogie]

Well, I spent the last 20 years as a graphic designer... I'm modding the classic template (again...). Lost the right column, made the left one a little wider, and I've got the thing at 90% of window width... I like a clean look, not a lot of "who let the color fairy out?" stuff, and large pictures, so people can see what they're doing. Probably do some mild colors next.

[Nightfyre]

Yeah screen size is important ... especially on how you want to display the site. I have been developing websites for over 12 years now and I have always...well since 2000 been using this freeware utility called Sizer.

Sizer resizes any window to a preset or customized resolution size through a menu when you right click the title bar of a window. No need to change your computer's resolution anymore.

I hope this doesn't break tos ... but I want to share the link with you guys as this really helped me with resolution and how you want to present the pages to this day.

Link: brianapps.net/sizer.html

Hope this helps as much as it helped me out in the past
Nightfyre ( Ray )

[renaissanceart]

Finding a happy medium is important.

Through using analytics we have determined only 6% of our visitors use 800x600 or less. Therefore we have optimised for 1024x768+ to cater for the remaining 94% of users optimally.

There is no way i would design a website at a width of 700px with 22" widescreens being the norm for any new computer these days where they nearly all run 1680x1050px. Doing so would leave you with more than 50% of un-used space for the majority of viewers.

[jund]

There is an excellent site that I often refer my clients to which keeps up-to-date metrics of most any kind of information you are seeking - http://www.w3schools.com/default.asp

It is important (when you go to this site) to review all the links and it is also kind of fun to 'take the tour' - so to speak.

What I really like about it, is one of the things about our ZENCART forum. Both sites are loaded with good information, lots of detail, and all the 'opinions' are carefully monitored, so that we all receive the best information. Thank you ZENCART forums.

By the way - GEEK420 - I think I am the oldest GEEK here (not sure), but like you, I still find this stuff to be "brain fertilizer." I will be 69 next Sunday - July 5 - and please keep on keepin' on.

regards
jund

[jund]

Forgot to give you more exact navigation info -
Once you are on the home page click on Web Building > Web Browsers. The Web Browsers page has links to Browser statistics...