Designing Prinicples

[lmp]

I'm in the process of designing my site and I have a few questions on designing principles:

Is it best to optimize my site for 800x600 or 1024x768?
Do I assume that most of my visitors will be 56k or DSL? I spoke to a friend who insisted that most users are on DSL now so websites can afford to be a bit more graphics heavy but I feel like I should streamline more.
Ideally, how long should a site take to load?

Thanks y'all.

[admin]

I use 800x600.

You may design site that will work with both resolutions.

[lmp]

I use 800x600.

You may design site that will work with both resolutions.

Yeah, I'm trying to design it non-specifically as possible but I'm previewing my site at 1024 so I may not pick up glitches in 800x600.

[Scholar]

I always try to design for 800x600 so it will not be distorted on higher resolutions

[sebastianzuur]

I always design for 800 x600
Last month we polled the users off our e-mail group here in holland.
89% is using adsl or cable internet the rest was using isdn or 56k

[snetonline]

make sure everything in your pages are in a table(s).
that way, even on different resolutions, everything appears to be in the same place.

[maplepark.bizhat.com]

er...i dont know how long any of you have been into the web business. i made some blogs and game sites..

what i have learnt..just sharing with you all.

1) always make sure you site fits under 800*600 because there are still people using this resolution. dont ignore them because your screen is 1028*768

2) Using table is one way to make sure every resolution to fit, you can also use table align to the LEFT
or use layers <-- basically layers can either help you or make you do more work :p

3) don't hog your site with loads of pictures. think about dial up users. I dont think a site requires so much image loading unless its some gallery site.


lastly, always check your site under different browsers.
sso yeah under IE it looks great. try viewing it under netscape/opera..it might not be the same

my 2 cents

[evil1]

i prefer css over table alignments any day, a bit cleaner.

plus, a small tip, validate your pages with Validator.W3.org. Valid pages have a 90% change of displaying correctly on all browsers.

if you are unshure wheter to use 800x600 or 1024x768 build a phpscript that generates different pages based on the user's resolution (lots of work here, don't bother if you don't have the time)

[Pathoschild]

One solution is to design an 800 pixel wide container for the website and horizontally center it; higher resolutions will see a margin on either side, which adds a nice little touch. A more complicated solution is to create a fluid design, one which changes depending on the viewer's resolution. This can be achieved either by scaling everything on the page or using scripts to present specifically designed pages.

As for bandwidth, I don't suggest tables if you intend on accomodating dialup users. Tables add quite a bit of dead weight to pages that will be quite noticable to dialup users. My suggestion is to design with CSS layers, which very much reduces to weight of your pages. As well, try using CSS classes instead of repeatedly defining elements inline.

Images can be nice, but they're often used unnecessarily. It's possible to design a website entirely with formatted text and make it look quite nice. I generally limit my images to logos and content such as artwork.

[rhythmic]

Use no tables, but frames instead...
What bothers me the most, are designs
where someone is trying to display all
the information in one screen. Design a
good directory/site tree before instead,
so people can find information they want quickly
without seeing the things they don't.