Testing Your Site on the Web; Designing for a Low-End Public

By David Fiedler and Scott Clark

Dear Dr. Website: I've heard of sites that provide Web developers with the ability to test their sites against multiple browsers, multiple video resolutions, and so forth.
Am I dreaming, or do such services exist on the Web? If so, could you please provide me with the URL(s)?
Browser Snapshot does indeed exist, and the vendor says the service "provides 18 screenshots of your site in Netscape 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0, 4.0, on both Macintosh and Windows platforms." It's kind of expensive, at $10 per use, or $100 yearly for a single URL, but still much cheaper and easier than buying another computer and loading multiple browsers at multiple screen resolutions.
Dear Dr. Website: I have developed a Web site for my wife's business using a 17-inch monitor running at 800x600 resolution. When customers with monitors running at less than 800x600 visit, they must scroll left to right to read many of the pages, and even some of the text in tables is off. Can you help? At what resolution do most people run their PCs?
The best strategy is to assume the worst: that users are not only at 640x480, but are using outdated browsers too, probably from AOL.
Designers of sites for business users on T-1 lines have it fairly easy. But designers of consumer-oriented sites must use every trick in the book to keep bandwidth down (fewer graphics on the home page, etc.) and must refrain from using newer features, such as DHTML and Java, that are not widely supported and will only make visitors give up in disgust.
In your case, set your screen to 640x480, and design accordingly. Always view your most important pages (especially your order page!) under both Netscape and Explorer--and AOL, if possible--and using both 3.0 and 4.0 versions of the browsers.

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