I noticed that my designer uses a high-DPI monitor with massive screen dimensions, and they keep complaining that the elements on my website look too small. Meanwhile, everything looks normal on my laptop, which uses standard DPI settings. After visiting their workspace, I saw just how tiny everything appeared on their screen. I'm curious to know how other developers address these types of issues. What screen dimensions do you design for nowadays?
5 Answers
Honestly, this sounds pretty standard. More and more people are working on massive displays these days, and not everyone accounts for how that affects web design. A good approach is to design for standard breakpoints and test using browser tools to simulate different screen sizes. Your designer probably just needs to recalibrate their display settings too!
Haha, yes! A designer's settings can make a world of difference in perception.
It might help to ask your designer to show you an example of another website that looks good on their setup. That way, you can get a feel for what they want. But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if they struggle to find any examples that really fit their criteria. It could reveal that they might not fully understand what they are asking for.
Good point! They might not even know what they're looking for. Seeing examples could really clarify things.
Haha, exactly! I've had similar experiences—designers can be tricky to pin down sometimes.
There’s definitely a balance to strike here. Your designer should understand that other users will have different setups. It might be unrealistic to cater solely to their specific monitor. If all else fails, ask them to provide actual design specs before your development kicks off to avoid these debates.
For sure! Clear specs would make everything smoother!
Spot on! It’s all about user experience, not just the designer's preferences.
A simple solution is to tell them to zoom in or out using their browser's shortcuts. If you're using media queries and relative units correctly, you should minimize these issues.
Exactly! Media queries can make a huge difference if set up right.
Right? Relative units really are a game changer for making designs responsive.
Unfortunately, it's not uncommon for designers to overlook device pixel ratios. Most users won’t have a viewport size above 1440p—but high-res setups often default to scaling, which can distort your designs. Keep an eye on your analytics to see what most of your visitors actually use. Generally, it's best practice to design for resolutions like 1920x1080 and optimize using media queries.
So true! I’ve had frustrating moments with scaling too. It's annoying when they zoom in and everything ends up looking worse.
I totally agree. Checking analytics can save you a lot of headaches!
Right! Tools like DevTools can really help visualize how designs will look across different screen sizes.