Fixed Width
I personally like fixed width web pages - specifically ones that fit in a 800px screen without horizontal scroll, but according to Jakob Nielsen’s readers it’s the number 9 on the Top Ten Web Mistakes of 2005.
Last time I really paid attention, this was all the rage in web design, and I did the same thing with my site back in the spring when I updated it. So I just went out to do a survey, determined to get examples from the top web designers to refute this. Unfortunately, I came back a bit empty handed. There are still a few hold-outs - Zeldman, Todd Dominey, and Mike Davidson among others. There was an argument (sorry, I forget where it was posted) that users have difficulty focusing on text contained in too wide an area, that it’s hard to visually scroll to the next line, or get back to your spot if you’re momentarily distracted. The traditional layout of newsprint was cited as an example. But I noticed that in the last round of redesigns, most people are adopting designs that flow into the window size. Most of these are still optimized, or at least still fairly readable, at 800px wide, but gratiously widen in a larger window.
I personally like 800px width because I have my window resolution set at 1600×1200, and it allows me to have the web browser open in exactly half the window while I do what-ever else it is I’m working on in the other half of the window. Surely buying another monitor could resolve this, but I’ve got enough desk clutter to deal with.
One of the primary points that Nielsen points out in this piece recurs from a web design mistake much higher in the list… fixed text sizes. Given my resolution preferences, sites that have fonts fixed down to 8pts are painfully hard to read. I have to use the old firefox ctrl++ trick to bump up the font to a readable size. And this is where a flowing layout is really important. If you have your layout firmly strapped down and then someone blows up the font, they are going to see some strange issues where the text no longer fits inside it’s container. For an example, just blow up the font (either using browser default, or by hitting ctrl++) on this site and see what happens to some of the headings to the right. Yech… that’s ugly.
So rest assured, in my next re-design I will be addressing this issue. The site will still be created so that it is perfectly viewable with a decent font size in an 800px window, but it will flow gratiously if you have a nice wide screen monitor.
Aside from the fixed vs. flowing debate, there is one thing that really aggravates me and that I think is almost a laughable oversite by many designers. They’ll build a site intending there to be no horizontal scroll at 800px, but they forget to take into account that the veritcal scrollbar takes up a small amount of space. The result is usally 1-2 characters cut off on the right of the screen, and the tiniest bit of horizontal scroll. You really need to make your site a little narrower than that. I generally use 770px. And when designing sites to be easily printed, or designing your print.css, be sure to be kind to the rest of the world that uses A4 instead of letter sized paper.