A couple of days ago, I got my hands on a nifty new Asus Eee MyPC (got some extra funds from my ad earnings). As soon as I got home, I used the Eee to browse sites for tips, hacks and other information about the ultracompact notebook computer, and the OS that came with it–XandrOS (a flavor of Linux). One site that caught my attention is eeeuser.com.

You see, the Eee MyPC is a 2-pound device with a small 7-inch widescreen. The resolution is paltry by today’s standards–800×480. But what sets it apart is the portability and the ridiculously low price point (about US$300). It’s not as powerful as most other laptops today, but if you want something you can have in your backpack or handback but won’t break your back (and bank!), it’s the gadget to have!

So back to eeeuser.com. It’s a blog and community forum site all about the Eee PC. It documents the beginnings of the Eee, from its announcement, and even rumors that came about way before Asus went public with the specs and design. So you can imagine that this site is geared towards Eee users, and one of the things that I would like to highlight is its basic, narrow-column design.

The Eee is a full-fledged computer. It can run Windows XP, Ubuntu, or just about any OS that can fit into its small solid-state fixed drive. However, the small screen can be a limiting factor in viewing sites. Sure, it has a full-blown browser (FireFox, IE, or whatever you like, depending on the OS currently installed). With this in mind, it is likely that the creators of eeeuser.com have designed their site to fit a narrow screen.

It’s apparent that they use WordPress to run the blog. And they have used the Simplr single-column theme by plaintxt.org.

This made me think. Am I designing for my audience? Or at the very least am I using themes with my intended audience in mind?

If you’re running a blog on photography or for photographers, then maybe your site should support wide main columns, so you can fit in bigger photos. If you’re running a blog for programmers, then maybe your site should have a good number of useful links to resources in the sidebar. If you’re running a site targeted at visually-impaired people, then maybe you should use very large fonts with very high contrast. If your blog is all about mobile resources, then maybe you should keep the frontpage short and very basic, so users from mobile devices (like phones, handhelds, etc.) can more easily read your site.

At the very least, I guess it’s best to make sure your site is machine-readable–meaning it outputs RSS feeds. This way, users have other options when reading your site, and not only limited to viewing it in its full glory. Keep in mind that not everyone may be using a large-screen LCD with a wide format. Or at least if you’re installing a new theme for your WordPress blog, try to think how the majority of your users would be accessing your site.