Designing Fluid Pages

Browser resolution all over the place

[justgowithit]

With 1024/768+ and 800/600 browser resolutions almost split, and other resolutions so random what are the thoughts on page fluidity?

Once upon a time I refused to switch the good ol’ setting over to 1024/768+, now I feel claustrophobic when I view pages with fixed widths for 800/600 viewing.

I prefer to design all pages fluid; I have colleagues who stick to fixed designs for 800/600. Personally, I’d say a non-fluid page is a bit behind times unless restricted by other design attributes.

[netguy]

It depends on the design. Some I prefer going fluid, while most of the time I go with a 740px fixed.

Here's some more on optimum canvas sizes:
[webmonkey.wired.com...]

Steve

[yowza]

Most fixed-width 800x600 websites I have seen on 1280x1024 or higher resolution look ridiculously small. I would go with a liquid layout, if possible.

[mt_biker]

It depends on what type of site you are designing. An ecommerce site would almost certainly be better off with a fluid design and, generally speaking, I try to use fluid design.

However, some clients insist on strict control of how their site will look. One such client of mine is an interior design business and they wanted a very specific artisitc look that didn't allow for much flexibility at all. For them, we used a fixed width design that fills the screen at 800x600 and still looked good at 1024x768.