Community Forums › Forums › Archived Forums › General Discussion › What's the advantage of fixed-width layouts?
- This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 4 months ago by David Chu.
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December 1, 2013 at 11:53 pm #76554FabioParticipant
Hi there,
the more I work online, the more I discover that the a lot of experienced marketers use fixed-width layouts.
Wp beginner is one of them, but there are plenty.What's the advantage of having a fixed layout website? Does it go faster or what?
And it's possible to turn a genesis theme into a fixed layout if I want?Looking forward your thoughts.
Best,
FabioDecember 2, 2013 at 11:46 am #76621David ChuParticipantHi,
That's an interesting and large question, and IMO there is no solid answer. I will say this: I don't think there will be any real speed difference.The current Genesis Sample is one of the greatest themes ever, and I've adapted it for my needs. It's what I would call "fixed but flexible", sort of both. It starts out at 1140 width (or you can reset that with a 1-liner!), and then as you reach the breakpoints for smaller device sizes, it will resize to various widths, and there are some things that are percentages instead of exact widths. "rem" as a CSS measurement is another key to flexibility success. 🙂 It seems that commercial Genesis themes also mainly follow this method, unless I'm mistaken. So you could say that it's all done for you already.
I like this method, because you have at least some predictability as to how things will look and fit at various sizes. The "pixel perfect people" out there would also like this approach more than "completely flexible", I reckon. I think it's extremely funny, but I've had several clients who wanted to get rid of "responsiveness" altogether, and they do it against my advice. This is a bit of that "pixel perfect" attitude taken to an excessive extreme.
When I was first doing CSS and was all naive and idealistic, I thought that 100% flexible was the way to go. And it is totally valid if you want to go that route. I always found that it was more work, and lots of little issues came up. But some CSS'ers just love it.
Hope that helps,
Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
December 2, 2013 at 6:37 pm #76722FabioParticipantHi Dave,
so basically some people prefer fixed layouts simply because of the way it looks?
There are no other advantages?For example this forum here is fixed layout. When I reduce the size of the window it doesn't re-size.
Why? What's the advantage of having this forum fixed and not responsive?Thanks
FabioDecember 3, 2013 at 10:46 am #76803David ChuParticipantFabio,
CSS people will have philosophical arguments over fixed vs. fluid. But any huge advantage? In my opinion, no.That's a separate issue from responsive vs. non-responsive, and maybe that's your real question? Nowadays there's no advantage at all to having a site that's non-responsive. (other than saving some money - never underestimate cheapness!) Here it's probably just that bbPress lags way behind any WordPress stuff, so new responsive themes are less available It's a neglected stepchild of WordPress, so to speak, just as Buddypress is. If somebody is keeping watch, maybe a responsive theme will show up here someday.
There are funny reasons why sites aren't responsive. I've had more than one client who freaked out when they saw a different site on their phone, so they just wanted me to make the responsiveness go away! Make it stop, make it stop! I told them that this could alienate mobile users and harm their business, but this didn't matter to them. Whatever!
Dave
Dave Chu · Custom WordPress Developer – likes collaborating with Designers
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