Changing Smart theme from 800 to 1024 width

[Ho Ho Bird]

What i don't get is how any DIYer, experienced or not, who has started a website build in the past 12 months, somehow makes the mistake to build it for an 800 wide screen. Where is that decision made, on what basis.

I genuinely find it absolutely incredible that anyone gets this wrong.

3 reasons the complete amateur got 800.
a) At the time M&S and John Lewis were at 800. They know a bit about retail so I followed them.
b) The theme I chose in v8 popped-out at 800.
c) The 'professional' who built my last 'site' fixed it at 1000 (? or more) to satisfy his design ego, and my customers complained they had to scroll across to read each page.

The point I was raising is that I like the look of many sites centered at 800 (including my own). 'LinkedIn' was at 800 last time I looked. Many of the business/professional sites are.

Malcolms point is good about giving bigger txt to those silver-surfers who have the spending power. But that doesn't mean we have to overload each page.

What I actually see in many cases is that the wider pages just contain extra (still small) text and extra (still small) images, and my eyes don't approve. Clearly there is an optimum amount of info & text per page.....and that hasn't changed just because we're all getting bigger screens.

[leehack]

a) At the time M&S and John Lewis were at 800. They know a bit about retail so I followed them.
b) The theme I chose in v8 popped-out at 800.
c) The 'professional' who built my last 'site' fixed it at 1000 (? or more) to satisfy his design ego, and my customers complained they had to scroll across to read each page.

a) If you wait around for organisations like the BBC, John Lewis or M&S to show you how to do things, then you will always be out of date. These big boys don't change their sites at the blink of an eye, they will be some of the very last people to change to the standards.

b) Pot luck on the design front then?

c) Satisfy his design ego? don't know the situation of course, but sounds like he was up to date, not satisfying his ego. How long ago is this? frankly i cannot believe there was any more than 3 people who ever complained about scrolling, unless of course your industry is vastly different to most others.

In any online business i think it's about what the most successful sites in your industry are doing that counts, i personally couldn't give two hoots what John Lewis or M&S are doing, i am not and will not ever compete with such sites. The most successful sites in your industry give you so many clues on what to do, this massive amount of free info often fails to be noticed.

Surfing the web forms the majority of the time one spends looking at a PC monitor. In just a few years monitors have grown from 600 wide to some now being 1900 wide. 1024 and 1280 are the vast majority now. Why is this? why is an industry moving forwards on screen size, if everyone wants websites at 800 wide? That makes no sense, everyone wants to write letters at 1024 or 1280 wide, but they want to surf at 800? I just don't buy it i'm afraid, but opinions are opinions i guess, however wrong i think they are.

[RuralWeb]

What I actually see in many cases is that the wider pages just contain extra (still small) text and extra (still small) images, and my eyes don't approve

many of the big boys have recently changed thier sites to comply with DDR - most of them have changed the coding but have retained the small images - the images are not that important when you are changing to comply with the law so I guess they may change them in slow time.

Your stats will show the most popular screen size that your visitors use and you should build your site to match - your site is for them not you.

800 is very limiting in design terms as there is not much space without making things very small.

[RuralWeb]

The point I was raising is that I like the look of many sites centered at 800 (including my own).

It does look good - I think you get away with it because you have no defined borders to the site so it looks wider than it is.

[RuralWeb]

an increase in awareness about accessibility issues and writing scalable font sizes

Its the EU DDR law that is forcing the issue - look at all the big boys, they have all changed thier sites over the last couple of years to comply.

[Darren B]

. Lets see what v9 brings

* darren coughs on his morning coffee *

[Darren B]

Only Jurassic Park could bring back extinct things, although i think 770 wide sites with frames are a thing of beauty.

oooh like this http://web.archive.org/web/200212010...asupply.co.uk/

[jont]

Do you really think that's what it is, so people genuinely forget about the screen size they are using and also the vast majority of sites they visit and just pick a quick and easy theme so they can get something thrown up on the web.

Yep - that is exactly what happens - especially with products like Actinic where a huge percentage of the customer base can not spell HTML let alone make the necessary changes.

With v8 for example the default theme is fixed width and looks pretty good (all things considered)... as it is in CSS making changes is like trying to juggle with gravy .. not for the feint hearted.

[Darren B]

as it is in CSS making changes is like trying to juggle with gravy .. not for the feint hearted.

Hmmmm you have obviously not seen my gravy, CSS now i love the stuff, i just cant always get my head around it but as stated earlier, get FF and firebug and your on the road to an understanding, i find it great for tweaking on the fly before your long winded uploads, hmmm i cheat alot of the time, and edit css outside actinic then ftp the file now days, quicker than waiting for actinic to check everything.

D

[TraceyHand]

get FF and firebug and your on the road to an understanding, i find it great for tweaking on the fly before your long winded uploads

also great for seeing how other people have done it

morning D

[Darren B]

also great for seeing how other people have done it

morning D

I know what you mean T, that jonts a great guy some cool stuff in the raw air site

and of course Mornin to you

[Ho Ho Bird]

i personally couldn't give two hoots what John Lewis or M&S are doing

Also a quote from the same post: "It is wiser to let people think you are a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt."

Lee - The world isn't such an angry place. You don't have to rant and rave at anyone just asking for an opinion.

Thanks to all those who sent considered comments, especially about accessability.

[leehack]

I'm not angry at all lol, you've read the written word all wrong. You sell clocks and you went to M&S and John Lewis to find out how to do it and forgot about 4 billion other websites, that is the point. I read your posts as 'blinkered', you read mine as 'angry' and 'foolish'. Both assumptions are probably very far from the truth.

[jont]

that jonts a great guy some cool stuff in the raw air site

You stealing your own stuff off your own site

[RuralWeb]

that jonts a great guy some cool stuff in the raw air site

Great Ill get hacking then if its ok with you