hi all, just wondering what the average width of a sidebar is?

Having a widget built for something and want a 2nd for integration to sidebars. I know widths can vary, whether they're fixed or % based, so I'm just looking for safe ground. Around 170/180px is prob as low as I would want to go but would rather a little bit more breathing room if possible.

 

What sort of sizes do you see most often? Wheres the safe ground on this do you think? Is under 200px ok but over 200 too much?

I suppose it really depends on the width of text or menu buttons that you are going to put in the sidebar.

 

I think 170px to 200px should be about average.

 

Remember to allow a bit of spare space if you have single line items with one or two words as some people will increase text size and that might disrupt your design if there's not enough width for larger text.

what do you reckon about central content widths, especially for blogs. I've visited a load of different ones and come up with a range of 450 to 550px wide. Most I've visited seem to fall between 450 and 500.

Have you seen the 960 Grid system - http://960.gs ?

Mine end up being anywhere from 200-300 depending on the design.