OK, we have some good momentum going on this board ATM so lets try get some more out of that while it lasts!
First thing I need to say on this is that no decision will be made on this for a while yet but I'd still like to get people's opinions and views on this. The chances are you won't care less, that's a very valid view on this particular question and one that is equally as useful to me as a preference one way or the other.
In general there are two ways a site can be designed when it comes to scaling. There is the fixed approach and the fluid approach. Both have advantages and dissadvantages, question is, do the users of this site have a preference for one over the other.
Fixed layouts:
=========
The content of the site has a fixed width. It is always the same. As you re-size the browser window the content does not get bigger or smaller, it stays the same size and "white space" appears somewhere when the window is bigger than the fixed width (usually equally spaced on both sides of the content), when the window is re-sized to be smaller than the fixed width scroll bars appear.
This approach has the advantage of making it easier to add shiney graphics to the site and it means everyone sees basically the same thing regardless of their monitor resolution or window size.
Here are some exampels of fixed latouts:
1) My Home page:
www.minds.nuim.ie/~voyager
(not visible on the night of 22-23 Nov 2005 because of a powercut in NUIM)
2) The Center for the study of Historic Irish Houses and estates:
www.historicirishhouses.ie/home.php
3) The NUIM student bulletin board system:
www.mikadosoc.ie
4) Mythical Ireland:
www.mythicalireland.com/
"Fluid" layouts:
==========
On a fluid layout the content takes up all available space and grows and shrinks as the page is re-sized. This makes it more difficult to include fancy graphics, means everyone sees the site a little differently depending on their resolution and screen-size and inevitably breaks down at some point when the screen is re-sized too small. The advantage is that all the available screen 'realestate' is used.
Here are some examples of fluid layouts:
1) The current IFAS Home page:
www.irishastronomy.org
2) RedLetterDayCards:
redletterdaycards.com/home.php
3) Astronomy Ireland:
www.astronomy.ie/
(well sorta, this site is actually a strange hybrid design that has a fluid header but a fixed width on the actual main content)
When you start lookign you'll actually find that the majority of sites are fixed width because it makes the design easier and gives you more options generally. Having said that, there are some great fluid sites out there too.
Anyhow, opinions please!
Bart.
  