- Introduction
- Colors and Fonts
- Navigation
- External Links
- Web Page Content
- Web Site Speed
- Frames Design
- Screen Resolution
Screen Resolution
It's very important to design your site to look good at all screen resolutions. Just because you include a message saying that your web site is best viewed at a particular resolution, that doesn't guarantee that users will want to change their resolution. People using older monitors may not even be able to use a higher resolution.
Several design techniques relate to screen resolution:
Don't assume any particular resolution. Several statistics are available regarding the common use of screen resolution by web users; most suggest the use of 800x600. However, you can't really predict the screen resolution that will be used by your target audience.
Design your site to fit well on the smallest resolution and then improve it to fit on higher resolutions as well.
If this feature is provided by your web site design software, scale images to a specific percentage of the screen width or to a specific pixel width. It's even better to reduce the graphics in the graphics editor itself.
Center graphics and titles. (This practice and the next are helpful with all screen resolutions.)
Left-align text.
Use web site design software to preview your web pages at various screen resolutions.
In addition to the generic design guidelines discussed in this article, there are several target-specific tips that can be useful in e-businesses. See my next article, "Designing E-Business Web Sites, Part 2: Designing for a Specific Audience."