The fixed width format of your website makes it difficult to use. If I make the window narrow enough to accomplish other work, I have to scroll left and right all the time. If I make the window full width, I can't use the extra space (it is merely covered with a blue band). If I increase the text size so that my wife can see it behind me, all the text gets scrunched up and hard to read.
If I view it on my laptop, it doesn't fit.
Instead of using a fixed width, as if the web were a piece of paper, consider using a fluid design, as if the site were to be displayed on a computer screen of unknown size. To do this, let the elements float left instead of giving them fixed positions. That way, they will be displayed left to right, until they run out of width, and then they'll start a new row, making best use of the area granted by the visitor's window. Resizing the window would let the elements redistribute themselves.
Comment received via email 2/12/10
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Here's a response from our web design team:
ReplyDeleteFixed width versus fluid width website layouts is a common concern when planning a website, and we worked with the site developer to plan accordingly. We took a few factors into consideration when deciding to use a fixed-width layout for the new ridgefieldlibrary.org. Among them are the following points:
Fixed-width layouts are much easier to use and easier to customize in terms of design.
Widths are the same for every browser, so there is less hassle with images, forms, video and other content that are fixed-width.
There is no need for min-width or max-width, which isn’t supported by every browser anyway (such as Internet Explorer 6 and other older browsers).
Even if a website is designed to be compatible with the smallest screen resolution, 800◊600, the content will still be wide enough at a larger resolution to be easily legible. The current, most common screen resolution is 1024x768, based on web standards statistics.
As you can see, when we designed the site, we had to keep in mind the maximum compatibility to serve all of our website users, including not only screen resolution, but design elements, different platform types and browser versions. Many large websites also adopt this method, such as CNN.com. With this in mind, we would recommend setting your computer’s screen resolution to 1024x768 to best view the website.