Are fluid websites worth making anymore? [closed]

Answer 1

I think the decision fluid/fixed should be based also on content of the website:

1. For sites with big amounts of plain information (like news portals), better to use fluid layout.

2. Web-services better look and work in fixed dimensions, so you always know where interface elements are located in their places and they are not moving around constantly.

Answer 2

Text based apps: No. Table based apps: Yes.

Pros of fluid layouts

1. People with big monitors gets to use their screen real estate.
2. Easier for users with big monitors when you have a lot of information on your page.

Cons of fluid layouts:

1. A fluid width text column is hard to read if it's too wide. There's a good reason behind the use of columns in newspapers: it makes skipping to the next line much, much easier.
2. (Somewhat) hard to implement, because of the limitations in CSS.

If you're showing tabular data (iTunes, db manager, ...), fluid width is good. If you're showing text (articles, wiki pages, ...) fluid width is bad.

Answer 3

From my iPhone's perspective, fixed width layout is problematical when using code blocks. The scrollbar for wide code blocks doesn't show up, so I can't read the far right of the block.

Otherwise, I think it's a simple matter of what kind of site you're designing and how it looks on different size screens and windows. As previously mentioned, there's an option to set a maximum width, but the same caveat applies to code blocks and iPhones. I've designed both, and I don't prefer one over the other.

Although, it's fun to watch the boxes move around as I play with the browser size with a fluid layout, but I can be easily amused.

Answer 4

I'm a fan of sites that do have a fixed max width of between 800px - 1000px, but can also scale down so that I can read the content without scrolling side-to-side and also without zooming out because often the text becomes too small to read and it hurts my eyes. So, this is normally want I strive for because I want to build sites I can be proud of.

Answer 5

You have to realize most computer users don't even KNOW HOW to zoom in the browser! Most users are so far from the understanding of computers that we have. We always have to remember that fact.

Answer 6

Making a website fluid, but adding a min/max-width attribute seems to be the best of both worlds, for me. You support fluidity, but you limit it at a certain width (say, 800px and 1200px).

It is up to you - here are some things to consider:

1. Text is hard(er) to read when lines are very long.
2. Your audience may have larger or smaller resolutions than normal, and picking an 'incorrect' static width will annoy them.
3. Maintaining a fluid site can be, but doesn't have to be much more difficult than its static counterpart.