It’s one of the oldest questions in the book: what browser size should I design my website for? Do I cater to people running lower resolutions such as 800×600, do I think my visitors want a wider layout like 1024×768, or do I think my visitors surf on a movie screen? Well, they probably aren’t going to be surfing on a movie screen, and chances are that they’re running something higher than 800×600. How about I stop with these generalizations and give you some useful info? How about a pretty chart?
According to the W3school, less than 8% of the web is using an 800×600 resolution. You can debate those numbers and say that the information gathered by w3schools is biased toward those more inclined towards technology. Ah Nerds, and you’d be absolutely right. Whether or not you trust the numbers given by w3schools, you’re going to be hard-pressed to find statistics indicating 800×600 accounts for anything close to significant.
If 800×600 is insignificant, why even question what size to build by? Because even though it’s not a large percentage, it’s still a percentage. Let’s say you run an ecommerce site, and you get 1,000 hits a day. That small percentage is now 50 people per day, 50 people who may or may not buy something from you. Hopefully you’ll see the value in 50 potential customers per day, and try to accommodate them.
Unless you are either psychic or have a really impressive statistic program, you’re not going to get accurate numbers on what size your users are browsing with. Even resolution statistics aren’t an accurate metric because it would have to be assumed that all users are running a full screen browser, which simply is not true.
Then what do you do?
If 800×600 is insignificant, why even question what size to build by? Because even though it’s not a large percentage, it’s still a percentage. Let’s say you run an ecommerce site, and you get 1,000 hits a day. That small percentage is now 50 people per day, 50 people who may or may not buy something from you. Hopefully you’ll see the value in 50 potential customers per day, and try to accommodate them.
Unless you are either psychic or have a really impressive statistic program, you’re not going to get accurate numbers on what size your users are browsing with. Even resolution statistics aren’t an accurate metric because it would have to be assumed that all users are running a full screen browser, which simply is not true.
Then what do you do?
Create a resolution-independent site that uses percentages rather than absolute values. Well I know you going to tell me about the design the client choose and all of that but we do have to keep in mind those 8%. So I say use a site your content chooses that best displays it. However if its more of the appeal your looking for then hey go with the flow.
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