by Royce Radcliffe

Created on: April 11, 2007   Last Updated: May 07, 2007

I am of the strong opinion that a website in this day and age simply has to be of the flexible (or "liquid") design. From a certain perspective fixed webpages are true dinosaurs. Since the Internet itself is so malleable and ever-changing, it makes sense that our filter of viewing it, websites, would be the same.

The benefit of fixed design is that it makes columns look more sensible and organized. It has the same format all the way through, and this is good for a lot of people. But many people view in dramatically different sized and shaped windows, and this can cause the text of a fixed page to distort and scrunch in an unseemly manner.

You will need a broad understanding of HTML and all its applications to be able to design flexible pages. In this sense it is a much more complicated thing to do than to simply design some fixed pages. You will also need to be creative. You will need to image designs that can work in multiple viewing conditions.

You want the columns to be able to resize in some sensible manner when the window size is changed. You can specify cell widths using percentage values, or perhaps let the table cells size themselves according to the configuration of the window. You have to experiment with this and find the best technnique that works for your particular aesthetic needs.

Designing web pages is a job filled with hard decisions but this should not be one of them. You should want your work looking high-quality no matter what the viewing condition. The only reason you should have for going fixed is that you are not skilled enough to go liquid!

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