Is there really any workable approach to a bullet proof Web design. To be honest, I believe this is in the eyes of the beholder.

Resist specifying height, and plan for vertical expansion of horizontal page components.

Horizontal page components such as site headers, login bars, breadcrumb trails, and search bars are no strangers to a typical Web site. These areas are often positioned near the top of the page and may contain a mixture of graphics (whether a background or otherwise) and text. In general, these areas are designed in such a way that prohibits vertical expansion—assuming that a larger text size or an increased amount of content would either never happen or wouldn’t harm the design. While it’s customary for areas that contain articles or long sections of text to accommodate any length or size of text and content, it’s important—and not impossible—to treat other horizontal areas this way as well.

This chapter takes a look at a common approach to designing a login/promotional area that occupies the top portion of a typical Web page. We deconstruct the design and then rebuild it to accommodate any text size or amount of content…. Source: InformIT