The Myth of Fixed-Width Layouts–Revisited

“Developing fixed-size Web pages is a fundamentally flawed practice. Not only does it result in Web pages that remain at a constant size regardless of the user’s browser size, but it fails to take advantage of the medium’s flexibility.”

The above quote is something I wrote back in March of 2001. At the time, the standard resolution to design to was 800×600, but things were changing to 1024×768. There were debates at the time as to whether web pages can be optimized for larger screens. My article, entitled “The Myth of 800×600,” essentially attacked fixed-width screen design in general. (Perhaps a better title might have been “The Myth of Fixed-Width Design.”)

I concluded that article with a prediction:

“With an increase of alternative browsing devises on the horizon, such as WebTV, public access kiosks, video gaming systems, e-Books, small handheld devices, and other nonstandard applications, the continuum of viewable browsing sizes will only expand. Never before has the demand for flexibility been greater.”

A decade later that contention seems to more true than it was back then. This post reviews the relevance of responsive web design in current practice.