Sites designed for viewing on regular 4:3 aspect ratio monitor screens become distorted and very funky looking when viewed on the newer 16:9 aspect ratio “widescreen” monitors. I’d like to know how other designers are dealing with this.
@tracknutApr 16.2008 — #I don't design my sites based on an assumption about the aspect ratio of a monitor. I'm not sure why one would have done that for 4:3, or why one would continue it for 16:9? Are you talking about a Flash site?
I usually design in 1024x768 based on the notion to over 60% of web users employ this resolution and I like to "fill up" the available screen landscape with content and avoid "empty spaces" to the sides of my presentation.
Our sites look "different" on widescreen monitors.
@tracknutApr 16.2008 — #Are you talking about that wacky resize issue on Dell laptops, where the OS itself is changing the aspect ratio of everything it displays? If so, I'd call that an issue with the laptop, I'm not aware that a web site can (or should) detect and try to adjust for such a "feature".
@tfnj4847authorApr 16.2008 — #No...I wasn't aware of that problem. I use a 21" NEC monitor in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio. I became aware, in the course of designing my current project, that my client, (who uses a "wide screen" monitor) wasn't seeing the same thing I was seeing. I began checking around and realized the difference was the way the "wide screen" monitor was displaying my site. Check it out on your own sites...it's different....and not very pleasant to my thinking.
@tracknutApr 16.2008 — #Well I have a widescreen monitor, and my site looks fine on it. I've seen my site on many monitors. Since you're the first I've heard mention this (aside from the Dell issue), I'm not tending to belive it's as widespread as "all sites on any widescreen monitor look funky".
@tfnj4847authorApr 16.2008 — #I suppose I could be wrong...actually, I hope I am and there's really no issue to deal with...but, it (your site and mine) looks different to me when viewed on a "wide screen" monitor. Thanks for your reply.
@pavsidApr 16.2008 — #Not got a widescreen monitor (yet) but think i might know what your talking about.
Could it be due to the 'liquid' layout of the site in that it will always stretch to fill up the window? I've notioced this is more common with sites using tables and yours appears to be one of them.
You might want to try fixing the width of some of the columns so that they don't become too distorted when stretched. Not too sure how you go about doing this with tables as i've always stuck to CSS layouts - perhaps you should give this a go. In my opinion its miles better than tables. I seem to have more control over the layout of the page and you can choose which 'divs' are liquid and which aren't - not that you can't with tables, but CSS renders far quicker than tables do anyway so for me that's already a good enough reason to use it instead.