"Your screen resolution is . . . "

Does a message like that frighten visitors?

[MatthewHSE]

I believe in flexibility, flowing layouts, accessibility, etc. But, notwithstanding, I have a page or two on my site that, due to the nature of the content, simply cannot be viewed properly at less than 1024x768 screen resolution. That is, it could, but only if I used an absurdly small text size.

It's trivial to put a notice on the page notifying visitors if their resolution is lower than that, and so far that's what I'm doing. Essentially, the notice tells them why the page looks strange, and provides a link to instructions on how to increase their resolution.

But, is that likely to cause red flags to go up in a visitor's mind? Most people here know it's no security risk for a website to "know" that information (actually I'm using JavaScript, so the website never "knows" anyway). But, what does the average Internet user think when presented with such a message?

I'd appreciate any input on this. I wish I could simply make the page work at any resolution, but it's an address book display with many necessary fields and the table just has to be quite wide.

Thanks,

Matthew

[PCInk]

>Essentially, the notice tells them why the page looks strange, and provides a link to instructions on how to increase their resolution.

40% of people will think "I'll visit another site then". 40% will think you are an amateur designer. 20% will be wondering how you know their settings. Approximately 0% will follow your instructions to change their settings.

Made up figures, but get the idea: the person sets their resolution to what they want, not what you want.

Next point: You do realise that monitors are designed with a specific size in mind? Using another size can cause blurring. Especially noticable on LCD monitors, sometimes bad enough to make the text almost unreadable.

[john_k]

First, to answer your question, at the very least, it is annoying. You often see this type of message on newby sites where someone is thrilled at the new javascript trick they've learned. If you do use this technique, you might want to consider wording the message to state that lower screen resolutions may be impacting the appearance (as opposed to telling them you already know what their resolution is, and it is too low)

From the unsolicited advice dept., I agree with PCInk. There are several ways to arrange large amounts of information. Tabbed groupings look nice and are understood by all or most users. Scrolling divs are another way. If you conditionally put the content in a scrolling div, then you are providing a graceful degradation without too much work. If you don't want to do either, then you could put the entire content area in a div with a fixed width. This would force a horizontal scroll bar when the browser resolution was too narrow. (This is all assuming that a fluid, wrapping layout is not an option)

[john_k]

Another thought - since it is a table you are talking about, you might consider providing an ability to show/hide some or all columns.

[MatthewHSE]

40% of people will think "I'll visit another site then".

Not likely in this particular scenario, but I know what you mean - they'll be inconvenienced, and won't like it.

40% will think you are an amateur designer.

Again, not particularly likely in this instance, but I think it would be safe to say those 40% can be added to the 20% who will wonder how I know their settings! ;)

Approximately 0% will follow your instructions to change their settings.

I guess this is about what I thought all along. Oh, well. I guess there are technically other options if I'm willing to allow for sideways scrolling. (Hadn't wanted to, but this is a less than ideal situation anyhow.)

Thanks for the input!

Matthew

[TheDoctor]

Just a thought: might this be a case that justifies using an absolute width and thereby creating the dreaded horizontal scrollbar for users with low resolution monitors/ small window sizes?

[wavebird23]

I have stumbled into the same problem when creating my website, the screen sizes for each individual viewer. I am not sure if this is of any assistance, but below I have posted two javascripts to help with your problem. The first is a script that says something like:

"This webpage is bested viewed with screen resolution "+correctwidth+"*"+correctheight+". Your current resolution is "+screen.width+"*"+screen.height+". If possible, please change the resolution!"

Here is that script:

<script language="JavaScript1.2">
<!--
var correctwidth=1024
var correctheight=768
if (screen.width<correctwidth¦¦screen.height<correctheight)
document.write("This webpage is bested viewed with screen resolution "+correctwidth+"*"+correctheight+" or above. Your current resolution is "+screen.width+"*"+screen.height+". If possible, please change the resolution!")
//-->
</script>
------------------------------------------------------
The second script automatically redirects the viewer to a different webpage, per different screen resolution:
------------------------------------------------------
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
// browser test:
browserName = navigator.appName;
browserVer = parseInt(navigator.appVersion);
if (browserName == "Netscape" && browserVer >= 4 ¦¦ browserName ==
"Microsoft Internet Explorer" && browserVer >= 4)
version = "1";
else if (browserName == "Netscape" && browserVer >= 3)
version = "2";
else
version = "3";
if (version == "1") {
var correctwidth=800
var correctheight=600
if (screen.width<correctwidth¦¦screen.height<correctheight)
location="PAGE_FOR_LOW_SIZE.htm"
else
location="PAGE_FOR_HIGH_SIZE.htm"
}
if (version == "2") {
var toolkit = java.awt.Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
var screen_size = toolkit.getScreenSize();
var correctwidth=800
var correctheight=600
if (screen_size.width<correctwidth¦¦screen_size.height<correctheight)
location="PAGE_FOR_LOW_SIZE.htm"
else
location="PAGE_FOR_HIGH_SIZE.htm"
}
if (version == "3")
location="DEFAULT_PAGE.htm"
</SCRIPT>
------------------------------------------------------
Good luck with your website!

[jomaxx]

I agree with TheDoctor. Horizontal scrolling is mildly inconvenient but it ain't rocket science and it's FAR preferable to being told one needs to change one's screen resolution.

Just use some mechanism to make sure that each cell doesn't get squished unreasonably narrow (I use transparent GIFs when I need to do this, but there's probably a more politically correct choice), and let the chips fall where they may.

P.S. Keep in mind that many people don't know how to change screen resolution (and your instructions won't cover every person's situation), are using screens too small to support 1024x768, have to restart their PC's when they change resolutions, or are on locked-down PC's where they are unable to do so.