Thursday, June 23  

Fit To Screen - Maybe Not

Fit To Screen - Maybe Not

As people's computer screens get bigger more and more issues pop up regarding usability.

I've always thought that designing a site to 'Fit to screen' - that is the site takes up the entire screen - was a good idea. But when I saw this in practice, it's not so great.

Here are recent stats on the screen resolutions of people visiting this site:


3287 1024x768
937 800x600
792 1280x1024
251 1152x864
156 1280x800
83 1280x960
72 1400x1050
65 1600x1200
54 1680x1050
51 1280x854
45 1440x900
33 1280x768
30 1920x1200
18 1152x870
14 640x480
10 2560x1024
6 1024x1280
5 2048x768

Resolutions Are Getting Bigger

As you can see, screen resolutions are getting bigger. And when you develop a site to fit to the screen resolution what happens is the text goes all the way across the screen.

And we, as humans, find it difficult to read text that covers across such a big area width wise. About 63 characters wide is how the human eye likes the text formatted.

Here's This Site At 1280 x 1024


This site at 1280 x 1024 resolution

Notice the 'columns' of faded blue/grey down both sides keeping the web site content centred. I've done that to keep the text within boundaries that people find it easy to read.

When you develop your web site be aware that there are literally hundreds of usability issues to be considered. Make it as easy as possible for people to read your site and you'll reap the rewards that a quality site can provide.

Regards

Brendon