The browsing areas of a web site or web application must
not take up more than 20% of the total area of the page, because the main thing
in any web site or web application is the content, rather than the browsing
method.
In order to stick to these proportions when designing web
sites, we recommend starting out by making a diagram of the areas that each of
the site pages will have.
This way, you will clearly see how content areas,
browsing, heading, and page foot will be distributed.
For this scheme, the pixel values recommended, and used in
the design of ARTech's sites are:
- Left Menu Area: width: usually up to 140 pixels
- Top Menu Area: height: usually up to 30 pixels
- Heading Area: height: usually up to 80 pixels
- Logo: approximately 45-pixels wide
- Page Foot Area: height: usually no more than 40 pixels
These areas have everything from browsing areas to the
logo. It is necessary to keep spaces around the objects in all of them because
when they are next to each other, or right by the borders, legibility and use
become difficult. Although this scheme has been prepared for an 800-x-600 screen
resolution, the pixel-values of each of the areas are absolute; they do not
change according to monitor resolution.
You may see examples of this structure at:
www.genexus.com
www.deklarit.com
www.builder.com
www.couponmountain.com
www.laszlosystems.com