How wide can web pages be - More above the fold

Gone responsive, now considering wide pages

[denisl]

Having gone responsive with a couple of my sites so they display down to 320 px width, I am now thinking about the other end of the scale.

I previously used a fixed width of around 925px as a compromise and have now gone to a max of 980. OK I know that reading long lines of text is not good so may have to use more media queries to change the layout again, but why not get more info above the fold. Anyone any views?

A second but related question - if this extra width and change of layout brings ads above the fold together with content, is this going to go against me?

[tangor]

I guess one way to explore this concept is to get more info on how many users surf full screen, and what those resolutions are. Then explore the concept of responsive columns/divs.

[denisl]

Well according to GA, just over 50% have a screen resolution wider than 1024. But I guess I have no way knowing the browser width.

Anyway, do I assume correctly that no-one designs for a width greater than 1024?

[tangor]

I design responsive, little screen or large, and use a CSS trick to insert 500px columns for text if screen is wider than 1024px.

As the population with computers ages and eyesight deteriorates they tend to full screen and zoom just to be able to read the text... and as monitor resolutions increase the text tends to get smaller (so code larger).

Depends on your site. your presentation, and user expectations.

[aristotle]

as monitor resolutions increase the text tends to get smaller

I'm not sure that's true, at least on most PCs and tablets. According to what I've read, the system software on most devices with increased resolutions automatically compensates to keep the text at about the same size.

As for the other question, I generally set a MAXIMUM width of 900 pixels, and use code which automatically shrinks the width to fit the screens of smaller devices. I also use code that shrinks images to fit smaller screens.