Hey, Is Your Blog’s Layout Just Fine?
Posted on October 17, 2009 by Melvin
This post isn’t really about the blog’s theme or the how beautiful the design is. We all know people who can spend can have the “best” theme while people who don’t have the money can settle for the average. The post that I am going to tackle is about blog design resolution of your website/blog. Why resolution? Well the layout of your blog, might it be the best or the worst, highly depends on the monitor’s resolution of your readers. In short, good design is useless if your readers still have to scroll horizontally just to view every part of your content.
So to kick things, this is how MelvinBlog looks in my laptop (1280X800) (click for larger view):
While on most computers w/c have the 1024X768 screen resolution, it does show like this:
What you would notice is the fact that in my laptop, there is still a space both in the left and right side part while in most screen resolutions, there’s no margin anymore and the content is like stretched. And still it doesn’t look annoying at all!
The main point here is that don’t try to base the design of your blog in your wide screen computer’s resolution. In a certain survey about screen resolutions, it’s been proven that a lot of people are still using the old fashioned 800X600 and 1024X768 screen resolution. In the end it just means that don’t decide based on your personal preference. Remember that our readers’ user experience is still the one that counts the most. We, liking the look of our blog is no match against them, not finding it good enough.
So, what does my blog look like in your computer? Scannable enough or completely crappy? How about you, have you already asked other people on what they think about the design of your blog based on their own screen’s resolution? Or maybe you haven’t even considered resolutions on carving out your design? Hmm..
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Discussion: 39 Comments
Tom - StandOutBlogger.com
- 17th Oct, 09 06:10am
Great point Melvin. Your blog looks fine on 1920×1080 resolution
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Melvin Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:54 pm
thats a huge resolution my friend.
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 9:39 am
I do not think that many people are using such resolution. You should target from 15″ to 22″ inch monitor max.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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David Shaw
- 17th Oct, 09 07:10am
Blog looks good on mine to! 1440×900
David Shaw´s last blog ..Chitika Doubles Your Revenue
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jan geronimo
- 17th Oct, 09 09:10am
Your blog looks good on 1024 x 768. No problem – no need to scroll horizontally. And the text sizes look okay to me.
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Teen Blogger
- 17th Oct, 09 10:10am
Your blog looks just fine on my lap top. No need to do anything to view content or anything. We can read the content and view design in a second.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..Blogger vs WordPress- Who’s The Boss?
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Online Business Game
- 17th Oct, 09 12:10pm
In my opinion the best way to achieve a good graphical design for our site is simply buying a finished template. The prices aren’t that high, the range is amazing and you receive a well done product.
Online Business Game´s last blog ..Planning Your Financial Gambling
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Melvin Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
True to a certain point. I’ve heard though that some finished themes don’t do well with most old resolutions.
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Plus you will have to pay extra money if you want to get support from their technical team.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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Jehzeel Laurente
- 17th Oct, 09 01:10pm
ur blog looks great in my monitor’s resolution (1920 x 1080). It’s best to base our layout in a 800 x 600 resolution, or create a fluid layout nalang, para mas maganda.
Pero basta naka base ka na sa 800 x 600 or higher ng konti, pwede na!
You can also use multiple CSS layouts with conditional tags and some javascript. Para pag ibang browser, ibang CSS then kukunin nya. Pag ganito ang resolution, ganitong CSS. Pag ganyan, ganitong CSS. Para sa lahat ng browser maganda tingnan. ^_^
Jehzeel Laurente´s last blog ..What is an Influential Blogger?
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Melvin Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
i believe my theme has that conditional tag for different browser.
what do you mean fluid layout?
that’s something new to me..
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Tamahome Jenkins
- 17th Oct, 09 04:10pm
Yeah, whenever dealing with usability, you always go for the lowest common denominator, which is currently 1024×768. I hope people start catching on to at least 1280×1024, though, because then it will give us more screen real estate for our beautiful designs
Tamahome Jenkins´s last blog ..The Always Controversial Nobel Peace Prize
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S.Pradeep Kumar
- 17th Oct, 09 05:10pm
Your blogs looks good.. goes try my hands on customized theme too !
S.Pradeep Kumar´s last blog ..7 Great Tips For Writing A Killer Blog Article
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Blake @ Props Blog Ideas
- 17th Oct, 09 06:10pm
Cool stuff. If you use Google Analytics, you can look under the visitors tab, browser capabilities, and see what screen resolution most of your users have.
On my site, 25% of my users have a resolution 1024×768 or less. Obviously, that leaves 75% that view the site at a greater than that. 25% of my readers is probably too much to “ignore,” but at a certain point, it might be worth it to design for the majority and not the minority.
Blake @ Props Blog Ideas´s last blog ..How To Efficiently Use Your Time Reading Blogs
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Dana@Online Knowledge
- 18th Oct, 09 02:10am
Yeah, you have the point man. I always hate the site that force me to scroll horizontal. And your blog look perfect in my screen.
Dana@Online Knowledge´s last blog ..ShoutMix as Guest Book
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Even I hate scrolling while using excel, so definitely I wont prefer those website which require scrolling.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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Edward Palomo
- 18th Oct, 09 07:10am
ur blog looks great on 1280×800
@jehzeel: yup! fluid layout is the way to go…i’ve done it on my theme design and set the minimum width to 1024px
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Jehzeel Laurente Reply:
October 18th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
oo nga eh.. kaya astigan yung layout mo. Mahirap din yun kasi dapat tingnan mo anong mangyayari pag resize mo ng browser. hehehe.
Galing! 
Jehzeel Laurente´s last blog ..What is an Influential Blogger?
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Agent 001
- 18th Oct, 09 07:10am
I am using 1280×800 resolution and I prefer it that way. I just checked my Google Analytics and found that most users on my blog use a resolution more than 1024×768. In fact 60% users are using 1280×800 resolution or higher. Yes higher.
Melvin thanks for this post otherwise I would have never though about this deciding factor.
Agent 001´s last blog ..Twitter Realeased its Immensely Useful Spam Report and List Feature
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mytheory
- 18th Oct, 09 02:10pm
nice topic: how good the blog templates looks like?
after all your template look fine at my screen. How about my template?
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Melvin Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:01 am
you’re using blogger so while the layout is good, it’s quite generic.
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mytheory Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:05 pm
generic? what is it friend? i don’t understand that terms, sorry….
mytheory´s last blog ..Setting Target to your Blog is necessary
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jan geronimo Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 7:24 am
Generic means it’s not unique. You’re likely to stumble into lots of bloggers having the same template design that you have. You may arrange things differently on your blog, but the overall look stays the same.
jan geronimo´s last blog ..You’re the World’s Coolest Blogger If Only…
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mytheory Reply:
October 25th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
ah, i understand now. Thanks friend!
mytheory´s last blog ..Top Commenters Widget on this Blog
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service Reply:
October 27th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Well I think his design is not common and do not have common blogspot design.
You should buy your own domain and for hosting you can see Lee, he is selling hosting and can provide you good discount with good tips. http://myblog2day.com/
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
Young
- 19th Oct, 09 11:10am
I have no idea how to design the blog screen solution, so I just choose one of the best themes.
But I think you are right, the design should be workable for our most readers, since we want to people to see your blog, or why are we blogging?
Young´s last blog ..Create Funny and Free Ecards Online with Mashup Arts
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Jenny
- 19th Oct, 09 06:10pm
It is true, the screen resolution 800 x 600 pixels has signficantly decreased since July 2005. More and more internet users choose for screen resolution 1024 x 768 or higher.
Jenny´s last blog ..The Importance of SEO
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Ajith Edassery
- 20th Oct, 09 02:10am
Looks perfect on my 1680×1050 laptop. Attaching a screenshot on chrome. Compared to many other themes, it looks surprisingly good on IE6.0 as well.
Ajith Edassery´s last blog ..Queryads – A Google AdSense Alternative
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Ajith Edassery Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 2:34 am
Oops.. you cleaned up the HTML in comment. Here’s the link. http://www.dollarshower.com/ju.....0x1050.jpg
Ajith Edassery´s last blog ..Queryads – A Google AdSense Alternative
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Melvin Reply:
October 20th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
what do you mean? I really didnt see anything different in the image you presented
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Ajith Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:08 am
Melvin,
In my first comment, the screenshot link was not shown and that’s what I said in the second comment. Nothing wrong with your blog layout (even in IE 6)!
I said everything is perfect
Ajith´s last blog ..Queryads – A Google AdSense Alternative
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Melvin Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:00 am
heheh, my bad.
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Penny Stocks
- 20th Oct, 09 10:10am
on my laptop its looking very fine like the one u showed on your first pic
and yea thats a very common yet very major thing to be kept in mind for our visitors
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Diabetis
- 20th Oct, 09 02:10pm
The resolution of your laptop is better.
Diabetis´s last blog ..Owen Mumford AJ 1300 Autoject 2 Injection Aid
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Webpage Lottery
- 22nd Oct, 09 12:10am
I do think that layout is very important. At least to me. Sometimes when I see some websites that look like created in the 90′s or texts are hard to read, I just leave.
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Millionaire Acts
- 22nd Oct, 09 01:10am
Definitely layout plays an important role in attracting readers. And not just the design of the layout perse but also its compatibility to different browsers whether be it firefox, internet explorer (different versions), and netscape.
Millionaire Acts´s last blog ..Buying a Business
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SW@Social Bookmarking Service
- 24th Oct, 09 09:10am
Quite agree with you Melvin. Your blog is specially for your readers even if you write your thoughts.
So you should plan according to the taste and comfort of your visitors.
SW@Social Bookmarking Service´s last blog ..Social Bookmarking Service
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Melvin Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Yep. We, owners have to care especially when our blog starts to grow in readership and stuffs.
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Automated forex trading Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 10:51 am
i am using Premium theme on one of my blog and Thesis on the other. so i havent came across any such probs with my theme anytime.
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