What size should i design my own website...

I know on the other shall not be named site that this topic has been talked to death...

However i want simple facts.. The Pro and Cons of each sizes... and why you personally would pick 'X' size for you sites.

You know i am starting to 'feel' at home here... more so then i ever did on the 'shall not be named site' i may even feel comfortable to post my sites in the stages... get real feedback and areas of improvement... without fear of being shot to pieces...

as i am being serious now... have my PS open... ready to start designing again!

E xXx

I'm glad you're starting to feel at home here Em. It shows that what I intended has actually happened. A nice, friendly place

OK, sizes.

760 px wide (800 x 600)

Pro:
Can be viewed, without any horizontal scrolling, on 99% of computer screens

Con:
Limited screen real estate.

960px Wide (1024 x 768) (This is the size I tend to design for)

Pro:
Can be viewed on approx 90% of computer screens (according to the stats across all the sites I maintain)
Plenty of room for fancy graphics and multi-column layouts

Con:
Can be awkward designing the page background to ensure it's still attractive to visitors on widescreen monitors.

Fixed width Vs Full screen

Fixed width allows you to completely control the positioning and layout of all the elements in your site. If you've designed your site to be 960px wide, with a 960px header graphic, then that's how it's going to look, irrelevant of visitor resolution (upwards).
The only problem with fixed width layouts is that unless you are careful, they break when text is resized by the visitor. Although this can happen with fluid layouts, it's less likely, due to the nature of the site.

Fluid (or full screen) layouts have the advantage of giving you lots of room to play, but present problems in that you need to ensure that your lines of text aren't too long, and that you don't design your columns (if present) in such a way that visitors on smaller resolutions are unable to see them without scrolling.

I can't add much to what Scott said, so I'll just share my preferences.

I'm a fixed-width fan, mainly because my design skills are so ropey that I need all the control I can get!

And I choose from 760 or 960 on a per-site basis, depending on what sort of site it is.  If I go for 3 columns, I always pick 960, but if I have 2 columns, it could be either - I just see what looks best.

I personally like doing Fluid web design (Or full screen)

I'd read somewhere about Fluid Web design, any chance someone can indulge an old brain on what thats all about?

Brian

I'd read somewhere about Fluid Web design, any chance someone can indulge an old brain on what thats all about?

Brian

Just to add to what Alex has said, if you look at the way this forum works, when you reduce the size of the browser windows width the design resizes horizontally to still fit within the browser window.  So all fluid layout means is that the site change size to fit the window, other examples are amazon and play.

Someone on somewhere suggested 960px being a great fixed width to use as it has many factors and thus lends itself easily to 2 column, three and even four column layouts.