Web Page Widths and Accessibility

[durdledoor]

Afternoon All

Just to garnish some general information. We're about to create a site for schools in Britain, and are seriously considering going for a fixed width to fit 1024, not 800.

Is there anything to stop us doing that? Would you know of any web sites with statistics about percentages of resolutions, particularly in the education sector?

I've noticed that many major web sites, including a list apart and microsoft have 1024 width web pages

Thanks very much
durdledoor

[ronaldb66]

There are no hard facts about which optimum window width to chose; it greatly depends on the expected audience. Though more and more sites go for a fixed width fitting in a maximised window at 1024 pixels horizontal resolution (which leaves about 950-1000px window width), it's still prudent to place the most important information in the first 760 or so.

[felgall]

Most non-computer devices such as mobile phones have a much smaller display. Also webTV users only see the first 544 pixels on the left of the page and cannot scroll horizontally. Similarly anything wider than 740 pixels will overflow the width when printing on many printers. You can of course resolve this and stll have the wider display for computer screens using separate stylesheets for the different media. Just remember that there is no relationship between screen size and browser viewable area since most screens have fixed toolbars, the browser itself takes up some space and not everyone has their broser maximised.

[phoenixshade]

Also webTV users only see the first 544 pixels on the left of the page and cannot scroll horizontally.
How many people still use webTV? Seven, isn't it? Unless your target audience is webTV users, I think you can safely ignore these...

FWIW, at 1024 x 768 with a maximized browser, 965 x 590 is generally safely "above the fold" (that is, no scrolling needed). I'd recommend using different stylesheets for different media to cover the printer problem. My non-scientific anecdotal experience is that people generally run with maximized or near-maximized browsers up to 1024 x 768 (and are used to maximizing when necessary to see content). It's only when you get to higher resolutions that un-maximized browsing seems to get common.