Display Size for Web Pages

I am a great believer in laying out pages for how they will be used.

For instance, if the page is solely for display then a well-laid out page of say 800x600 is fine. Note that if you can’t get a nice page design on 800x600 it is likely you have put too much on the page.

But when it comes to pages that need to be printed, I always design them so that if you hit the Print button in the browser they print neatly. I did this for a mediation company and business from the web site increased dramatically. I believe the reason is that for a lot of products and mediation is one, the decision to use is often taken by a committee, many of whom might be non-Internet users. So the ease of printing means that your site gets preference over your competitors.

A related point is that recently I was in a large bank in the City of London. The analysts there have very large screens and were displaying lots of information in browser windows arranged portrait wise.

As to the point about eyesight. One of my clients has a large 800x600 screen and has great difficulty with reading it. I took his glasses and they were a very expensive pair of varifocals. I then gave him mine, saying they were expensive computer glasses. He said what an improvement. I then told him they were reading glasses from Boots for a tenner!