Kick Ass New Year Design

[raymond]

Check out my new design http://www.raymond.cc/

If you want to compare it with the old design, you can use the Wayback Machine.

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://...ymond.cc/blog/

[Alan B]

Okaaay... fixed width, fixed layout, fixed font sizes, does not adapt to differing resolutions or user preferences.

[Saf M]

I actually like the new design especially the color scheme. Blue and white mixed togther always seem to do the trick.

[Matt R.]

I like it, particularly your top friend

Good luck with the site.

[raymond]

It's 1024x768, I guess many people has this minimum resolution. Can't live with 800x600 anymore :P

[Alan B]

It's 1024x768, I guess many people has this minimum resolution. Can't live with 800x600 anymore :P

Yes, most people have at least 1024x768. However, a huge number of users have less than that, and even among those with at least 1024x768, many have a browser window that is not maximized.

The colours you selected are nice, the design is attractive and readable. Unfortunately, a lot of users won't be able to read the text because it's too small for them and does not resize, and for many users the width of the design will either be less than their viewports or too big for their viewports. It's more work to create a flexible, adaptable design, but it's worth it.

[negusm]

However, a huge number of users have less than that

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_display.asp

14%...that is not huge by any stretch.

These guys say it's a measly 10%:
http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat_trends.htm

Don't worry about the 800x600 crowd. Trust me, those people are very very used to scrolling by now, they won't even notice/care.

-Mike

[raymond]

And I get to place more stuff on a 1024x768 site

Let those poor 800x600 people scroll :P

[mpyusko]

if you use the Web Developer Addon for firefox, it allows you to preview the different viewport sizes with a quick click. You can even add custom sizes. (it's kinda fun to add 640x480 and shoot back to the old days and see how restricted we were.)

[Alan B]

14%...that is not huge by any stretch.

The author of that site himself makes important caveats:

Most users have 1024x768 or higher, but a large minority have 800x600.
It is important to note that (a) the display resolution says little about the size of the browser window, and (b) users can normally resize the browser window. Consequently no particular browser window size should be assumed.

14% of users is a huge number of users.

But you're missing the key point. It's not just about users with less than 1024. For users with high-resolution monitors, that site design will just sit in the middle of the screen with a lot of blank area around it. It does not adapt to varying viewport sizes.

Even if you accept the fixed-width, the fixed font sizes are really a poor choice. They guarantee that many people with high-resolution monitors will find the font size too small to be comfortably readable.

[Matt R.]

Check out our own kickass new year design. Text is just being wrapped up. http://development.webhostingbuzz.com

[negusm]

Check out our own kickass new year design. Text is just being wrapped up. http://development.webhostingbuzz.com

Hahah. Another fixed 1024 site with fixed text.

-Mike

[negusm]

The author of that site himself makes important caveats:
14% of users is a huge number of users.

How many of those 14% don't go to a site because they would have to scroll? I bet like 1%....or less.

But you're missing the key point. It's not just about users with less than 1024. For users with high-resolution monitors, that site design will just sit in the middle of the screen with a lot of blank area around it. It does not adapt to varying viewport sizes.

No I'm not. Adaptive sites went out like 5 years ago (or more). Very few people code that way anymore.

Most are 1024 fixed width and some are fixed text.

www.cnn.com
www.foxnews.com
www.ebay.com
www.yahoo.com
www.microsoft.com
www.sun.com

need I continue?

I agree that text size should be resizable. Some of the better sites are. (foxnews, yahoo, ebay).

I did check the w3c site:
http://www.w3.org/

It resizes...but I mean, who wants something that looks that crappy?

-Mike

[mpyusko]

Last I knew, mine resized and didn't look crappy.

http://www.pyro.ws

I use a CMS though. An OSS CMS that I've hacked to do what I want. It starts out CPG Dragonfly, a hacked version of PHP Nuke. Then I went through and tweaked some of the scripts and wrote some of my own custom modules.
In the end, it's just a decent looking site.

[raymond]

I purposely use the same fonts as Adsense ads so that it blends nicely.

I am getting high CTR and up goes my revenue Woo Hoo!

Nice kick ass design Matt :P So when are you going to put me in your "this months' featured client"? Heh

[Saf M]

Nice kick ass design Matt :P So when are you going to put me in your "this months' featured client"?

Actually we can very much do that....let me see what alexey can do...

[raymond]

Safvan, did you receive my email regarding the 99.99% Uptime?

[EasyCall]

When I was redesigning my own site this past couple months, I wanted a fluid design because I too thought that the fixed width left a lot of unused space available on the higher res monitors. I finally decided on this design which has fixed width for the left and right columns, but fluid for the middle. Please take a look and let me know how it renders for you on your monitor.
http://www.easycall.net

Also, for this site I used css for the left menu - no javascript. I'd like your comments on that also.

[MorphFox]

Check out our own kickass new year design. Text is just being wrapped up. http://development.webhostingbuzz.com

That's a very nice design. This is the first time for me to be posting and hopefully I will be posting more. (Might be coming to Web Hosting Buzz)

[sewhothth]

if you use the Web Developer Addon for firefox, it allows you to preview the different viewport sizes with a quick click. You can even add custom sizes. (it's kinda fun to add 640x480 and shoot back to the old days and see how restricted we were.)

Ha! The old days for me involved a typewriter, not a computer. I tell my kids that when I was a kid we didn't have home computers, cell phones, PSP's etc.

They look at me like Deer caught in head lights. "Geese, what did you do for fun"