Web Page Design - Horizontal scrolling or not?

Question

I'm developing my first web based (browser based) application and it has a number of data entry forms and display forms. Many of these forms display a somewhat large amount of data. I initially created most of my forms to contain multiple columns of data to avoid vertical scrolling, and I try to avoid horizontal scrolling as much as possible. However, I really haven't cared for the look and feel of the forms I created.

As I've looked at many web based applications, I've notice that most are designed to be rather narrow, perhaps taking up only 50% to 60% of the horizonal space in the browser and scroll vertically as much as necessary to display all the data.

Question: Is this done in order to support both mobile devices as well as desktop/laptop browsers? It seems like a waste of screen space, but it makes sense if the intent is to support mobile devices as well as desktop/laptop computers.

Answer 1

Most websites do that so they can avoid horizontal scrolling (a web faux pas) on smaller screens. A popular design trend (at least, last I saw) was 960px wide designs, so as to fit inside a 1024px wide screen nicely. A better solution to a fixed width design that's narrow on larger screens would be to use reactive/responsive design to make the most of the screen space available.

For responsive design tutorials, check out http://www.smashingmagazine.com/responsive-web-design-guidelines-tutorials. It's very simple when you get down to it, you use @media queries to apply different rules to elements depending on how big the viewport is.

Answer 2

Obviously not. but you can create responsive layout for you application. it will provide an optimal viewing experience for your visitors.