Why Your Website Doesn't Look The Same On Different Computers
By Nathan Lyle (Web Maestro) - July 14th, 2010
One of the common questions we see as website designers is "why doesn't my website look the same on your computer as it does on mine?" The main thing to keep in mind is that the Web is fundamentally different from other media—television, magazines, newspapers, etc. When you put together an ad to be printed, you know the height and width it will be displayed in. You know whether it will be printed in black and white or color. You know that it will be viewed by people who can see. That last point might seem silly, but a website can be accessed by someone without sight, using various technology tools. This points to the underlying cause of differences in websites across computers—the technology used to view the website changes from computer to computer, user to user.
To look at it another way, a print ad is a solid complete thing. If it's printed in multiple magazines or newspapers, the various parts of the ad won't move around or change proportion. However, a website will change depending on the computer operating system you're using (Mac OS, Windows, etc.) and the Web browser you're using (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) Why does this happen? A website is not a "finished product" in the way a print ad is. A website is a collection of information and instructions, text and images, that must be interpreted by software before you can view it. That software is where the differences can creep in. A browser downloads all the pieces and then follows built in instructions on how to render that information. Not all sets of instructions are the same.
While this reality can cause web designers to pull their hair out (I used to have hair past my shoulders, now there's more hair on my arm than on my head) all hope is not lost. It just takes some programming skill and artistic creativity to put together a website that is at least similar in most common browsers. It comes down to a statistical game. At any one time, there is a majority of people using the Internet through one or two browsers, while a few other browsers follow on their heels. A designer can keep up with these statistics and learn the quirks of the particular browsers to account for the differences. Knowing your website's audience can help, too, as you can choose to focus on or ignore particular browsers if there are specific browser issues that your website faces. Even with a successful cross browser website, diligence over time is needed because all browsers are constantly updated. New versions can have significant differences from their previous incarnations. A choice is also often made on how far back in a browser's version history should the website support that particular browser. For example, with Internet Explorer, there were very large differences between version 6 and version 7.
Fortunately, there has been a large movement in recent years to hold up a set of website standards, so that browsers and website designers can work from the same playbook. This has helped, though differences still exist. The World Wide Web Consortium (led by the guy who invented the Web, Tim Berners-Lee) exists to organize the Internet community and promote common standards.
Aside from browsers, another factor in how your website looks is the operating system on your computer. Internet Explorer on the Mac is a different program, written by different people, from Internet Explorer on Windows—so again differences creep in. And there's more... monitors all display colors differently (makes and models, screen types, etc.) so your website's colors may seem to shift in brightness and hue on different computers. Monitors are different sizes as well, and may be set to different resolutions causing the website to appear to shrink or expand. Depending on the width, it may have tons of extra space on the sides or not fit.
The moral of this story is that ultimately the "look" of your website shouldn't be your main focus. Your content is what matters. If you have good content, and your website designer can present that content in a way that is accessible by your target audience, then you will have succeeded.
Why doesn't your website look the same when you print it out? That's a whole other story for another time!
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