What should the basic site pixel size be?

Question

I have an issue that I need to resolve correctly, but have
conflicting information between the site designer and the site
programmer. The basic home page for the site has been designed to
be 950 pixels wide and 714 pixels deep.
The programmer is telling us to make the size only 600 deep
and wider. We did not want a long horizontal shape for our home
page, which is what the programmer is asking for.
Here is a site we like the looks of and want to keep the
shape of the content more square like this one:
http://www.hinkleylighting.com/
My main concern is that the programmer is hindering the
design of the site, but I must consider that the programmer knows
what he is talking about.
I appeal to those who know how to deal with such issues here
for advice at this point. How should I approach this so we can get
a site that 'looks' like what we want, but also give the programmer
what he needs for graphics and backgrounds properly sized to make
sense in the real world.
TIA,
Ken

Answer 1

As has been recommended before I would forget about height.
Why? Because
you have no idea how your user has their font display set. If
it's at
"Largest" or bumped way up in some browser, the page will be
much taller
than if it's not.
If you assume a 17" screen with 1024px width and maximized
browser viewport
as your lowest common denominator, then you would want to
make your pages
about 980px wide so as not to drop horizontal scrollbars.
Forget height.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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==================
"Ken Nielsen" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]...
>
quote:
Originally posted by:
Newsgroup User
> Nobody should care where the site developer's screen is
set. They should
> care where the prospective users of the site have their
screens set, and
> their browser viewports set. That's it.
>
> I really buy into that comment. The audience we want to
reach with this
> site
> is the new homeowner, or home builder. These people have
newer computers
> with
> bigger monitors set at higher resolutions with more
screen space than
> would be
> indicated by the cross section of 'average, or most
users.' There are a
> lot of
> computers out their and I would say that many of them
are old and small,
> many
> are still CRT's - and that is not our audience. My view
is that our
> audience
> does not set their browser window size, but uses the
whole screen - 17"
> most
> likely.
>
> Doesn't this mean that I can design 950 x 714 deep and
assume that that
> will
> 'float' off to the upper left 1/3 of the screen, which
it is doing on
> every
> monitor we have tried it on here at work so far.
>
> This is where I simply want to tell the programmer to
follow our design.
>
> It's either that or pulling my hair out adjusting the
site design to fit
> the
> mechanical requirments of what he says is the 'norm.'
>
> Such a battle.
>
>
>
>
>