Everyday I have the great pleasure of working with a wide variety of clients from all area of commerce, and without doubt this same issue arises time and time again that sparks the same debate – I’m talking about resolution! More specifically, I’m referring to what resolution a website should be designed for. The standard today is 1024×768, where in previous years 800×600 would have been the accepted resolution.
Another way of describing this is in size of monitors. In previous years a 15″ monitor was a standard size to buy but nowadays a 17″ monitor would be seen as small, but still acceptable. Now basically speaking the bigger the monitor you have the bigger the resolution you need!
The Debate
Some of our clients want their website designed at a resolution of 800×600, which would typically fit a 15″ screen. Now on a 17″ screen you get wasted space either side of the website, on a 19″ screen the website would only fill half the wide and on bigger screens, well you get my point.
Their argument is that THEY have 15″ screens so anything wider would require them to scroll horizontally, understandably a big no no in web design.
The user stats!
In web design you should design a website that fits most comfortably in the most browsers as possible. To do this we reference user stats to determin the most common resolutions, for this I reference either W3schools.com or Thecounter.com.
W3schools.com stats
Thecounter.com stats
Analyse the results
In 2000 around half of internet users used a 800×600 compared to a quarter at 1024×768.
In 2008 around 7% of users used a 800×600 compared to 75%+ on 1024×768 or more.
Now you see my point! The majority of computer users today have atleast a 1024×768 resolution. Even the BBC has upgraded it’s website to be optimised for 1024×768, which to alot of professionals sets the president and standard on designing for the web.
1024×768 is now the minimum standard!
In my opinion of course, but after nearerly 10 years of designing websites, I’m in a good position to cast my opinion.
Sparking another debate
Does this ring a bell? I hear this more and more…
I want the website to fit vertically in my browser, with no vertical scroll… …I’m using a widescreen 15″ laptop with a resolution of 852×480.
The simple answer is…
August 28th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
The trouble with small resolution sites is they look old and haggard on bigger screens. If your website looks shoddy it gives a bad impression of your business!
Sorry for the possibly stupid question, but do some websites sort of…expand to fill the screen? (variable width??)
August 28th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
A website can be either fixed or fluid (expands in and out). The reason sites like the BBC choose fixed width could possibly be due to accessibility. Imagine a site that fills 1600×1200, the text would span a wide distance meaning each line could have 30 words on it. I believe w3 recommends circa 10 words per line, any more and eye strain could be an issue. I guess whatever the BBC does, follow
Thanks for your comment
August 28th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Are they gathering this data through javascript? Are non-javascript users in the ‘unknown’ category? Does it include Firefox?
August 28th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
… and, how on earth do you get the message across to your clients tactfully?
And is it possible to design for all resolutions? What sacrifices do you have to make if you do?
August 28th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
With thecounter.com, users embed a script on their website so they can track visits etc to their website. Thecounter.com probably has a server-side script like PHP which gathers info from all the websites that have signed up and compiles it’s results based on that. I believe w3schools.com is the market leader in supplying website statistics’ results (or so I’ve been told) and base their results on visits to their website alone. All in all the results are consistent between the two so I believe it’s a reliable source.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
@squid who wrote ‘… and, how on earth do you get the message across to your clients tactfully?’
I generally bombard them with stats until I win lol
@squid who wrote ‘And is it possible to design for all resolutions? What sacrifices do you have to make if you do?’
Technically it is possible to design for all resolutions, but the restrictions prevent this from being a viable option. The look, usability and accessibility are just a few considerations you have to consider. If you pick a fixed width of 1024×768 for example, these ‘considerations’ are easier to manage, resulting in a website that is more profitable for the company, encounters less bugs, looks better and making it accessible is by far an easier goal to accomplish. At the end of the day we have the clients best interests at heart and try to deliver their project on time and within budget.
Hope this answers your query.
September 1st, 2008 at 8:23 am
Aye, ’tis definitely some javascript gubbins then.