What resolution should websites be optomized for?

[Ketteringo]

For my site this month:
Resolution
1024x768 3904 54.07%
1280x1024 1213 16.80%
800x600 1166 16.15%
1152x864 528 7.31%
1600x1200 236 3.26%
Other 150 2.07%
640x480 22 0.30%

Broswer
MSIE 6 5940 80.77%
MSIE 5 764 10.38%
Netscape 7 502 6.82%
Other 58 0.78%
Netscape 3 49 0.66%
Netscape 4 21 0.28%
Opera 6 7 0.09%
MSIE 4 5 0.06%


As you can see, what most people will tell you is crap. Go from real stats. Over 80% of people use 1024x768 or greater and 54% actually use 1024x768.

I suggest that you design your site for 1024x768, and then keep track of your stats using something like
extreme tracking and if you see a need, redesign it.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Design for 800x600, that's going to make up nearly half of your visitors. 15-20% will be 640x480 and the other 30-35% will be 1024x728 or higher. A good design is not optimized for any resolution though, it works as well at low resolutions as it does at 1600x1200. Using a disclaimer like "Optimized for IE at 1024x728" is actually saying "I'm too stupid to do a professional design and this is the only way I could get it to look passable"

 

[Fudssa]

640x480

 

[BeauJangles]

Originally posted by: GagHalfrunt
Design for 800x600, that's going to make up nearly half of your visitors. 15-20% will be 640x480 and the other 30-35% will be 1024x728 or higher. A good design is not optimized for any resolution though, it works as well at low resolutions as it does at 1600x1200. Using a disclaimer like "Optimized for IE at 1024x728" is actually saying "I'm too stupid to do a professional design and this is the only way I could get it to look passable"

I disagree. If you use images of any sort you must optimize for one resolution or another.

 

[Ketteringo]

Originally posted by: peterf11
Here are some statistics for you

49% use 1024x768 or more

44% use 800x600

And 34% still use Explorer 5

If you keep it to 1024x768 you will be safe

Remember not everyone has high end systems with 21inch LCD's

Something else to consider is who your target audience will be, for example if your site is about computer modding then you are more likely to attract those with higher end systems who will use 1280x1024 and above. But for the vast majority they are using 17inch monitors with a resolution of 1024x768.

I hope this will help

Where did you get these numbers from? Barely 10% of my visitors use IE 5, and over 80% use 1024x768 or greater. Barely 16% use 800x600. Maybe it is just the type of site I run, but I think your numbers might be outdated.

 

[cpals]

Originally posted by: ANY5546
For my site this month:
Resolution
1024x768 3904 54.07%
1280x1024 1213 16.80%
800x600 1166 16.15%
1152x864 528 7.31%
1600x1200 236 3.26%
Other 150 2.07%
640x480 22 0.30%

Broswer
MSIE 6 5940 80.77%
MSIE 5 764 10.38%
Netscape 7 502 6.82%
Other 58 0.78%
Netscape 3 49 0.66%
Netscape 4 21 0.28%
Opera 6 7 0.09%
MSIE 4 5 0.06%


As you can see, what most people will tell you is crap. Go from real stats. Over 80% of people use 1024x768 or greater and 54% actually use 1024x768.

I suggest that you design your site for 1024x768, and then keep track of your stats using something like
extreme tracking and if you see a need, redesign it.

I think your stats are skewed.... you must look at some things first.

1. Your website is new, correct? Alot of your views are from people here when you asked for reviews, thus you are getting a highly technologically advanced group.

2. How many visitors is this based off of? 10, 100, 1000???

3. Your stats may not be applicable to all sites.

 

[andyfasthands]

Every website has its own target audience. businesses should optimize for 800x600. who cares about the others.

 

[Joony]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
1024x768

 

[RossMAN]

This is something your web designer should know.

1024x768 gets my vote.

 

[Ketteringo]

Originally posted by: cpals

Originally posted by: ANY5546
For my site this month:
Resolution
1024x768 3904 54.07%
1280x1024 1213 16.80%
800x600 1166 16.15%
1152x864 528 7.31%
1600x1200 236 3.26%
Other 150 2.07%
640x480 22 0.30%

Broswer
MSIE 6 5940 80.77%
MSIE 5 764 10.38%
Netscape 7 502 6.82%
Other 58 0.78%
Netscape 3 49 0.66%
Netscape 4 21 0.28%
Opera 6 7 0.09%
MSIE 4 5 0.06%


As you can see, what most people will tell you is crap. Go from real stats. Over 80% of people use 1024x768 or greater and 54% actually use 1024x768.

I suggest that you design your site for 1024x768, and then keep track of your stats using something like
extreme tracking and if you see a need, redesign it.

I think your stats are skewed.... you must look at some things first.

1. Your website is new, correct? Alot of your views are from people here when you asked for reviews, thus you are getting a highly technologically advanced group.

2. How many visitors is this based off of? 10, 100, 1000???

3. Your stats may not be applicable to all sites.

It is kind of new (started 10 weeks ago), but these stats are from the last 4 weeks. There were ~5400 unique visitors, and only ~235 were from AT, so less than 5% of the total visitors.

Yes, these stats are not applicable for all sites, that is why I suggested that s/he design their site for 1024x768, monitor the traffic, and if a lot (30% of more) of the visitors are using 800x600, then redesign it for 1024x768. It is also a good idea to make sure that the website looks fine at all resolutions. people using 800x600 should not have to scroll horizontally to see all of your site, but for people using 1600x1200 it should still take up enough room that the site doesnt look empty, or missing something.

 

[Evadman]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
1024x768

 

[Cerb]

640x480 and up . Make it scale. Some of us know we should upgrade, but you know...$$$.
Really, except for photos, it isn't too hard.
800x600 and cluttered toolbars still exist in abundance.
...so do people running 800x600 on LCDs made for 1024x768. WTF? I don't know, but it's out there. Also, a lot of people don't have the window maximized if they can get away with it, even at higher resolutions.

 

[Bullhonkie]

Best bet is to use a completely fluid design that will accomdate users of any resolution. It's not the easiest to do while making the site look good, but it can be done. You risk alienating a portion of your visitors if you design for a 1024x768 minimum, but only you know your target demographic and how big of a portion that may be.

Originally posted by: ANY5546
Where did you get these numbers from? Barely 10% of my visitors use IE 5, and over 80% use 1024x768 or greater. Barely 16% use 800x600. Maybe it is just the type of site I run, but I think your numbers might be outdated.

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp - Stats come from thecounter.com, which logs somewhere around 40+ million visits a month. As noted elsewhere in the thread, stats are highly dependent on your target demographic. Definitely not outdated though - it's about as average of an average you can get on website statistics across the net.

 

[Chaotic42]

Doesn't matter, your all text website will conform to their browser.

<ducks>

 

[pillage2001]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
1024x768

 

[IEatChildren]

The e-store I work for has a stats counter which claims that close to 85% of people who surf our site run at 1024x768
And 98% of users run some form of Windows

 

[Wingznut]

Originally posted by: peterf11
49% use 1024x768 or more

44% use 800x600

If you keep it to 1024x768 you will be safe

Not really... If you build it 1024x768, then 44% of your market will have to scroll to see everything. Wheras if you build it 800x600, nobody has to scroll.

 

[peterf11]

any5546 I will quote part of your original post

As you can see, what most people will tell you is crap. Go from real stats. Over 80% of people use 1024x768 or greater and 54% actually use 1024x768

Let me tell you that you are the only one here talking crap

The figures I quoted are worldwide stats. Just because the visitors that come to your site are using these resolutions and the latest browsers doesn't mean the whole world is.

Here are some reliable company sites with these figures

http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

http://www.statmarket.com/cgi-bin/sm.cgi?sm&feature&week_stat

These are just a few of the companies that gather statistics for people wanting to do business on the web. The companies that gather these figures all have varied figures but they are all fairly close to the mark.

Any professional Webmaster will tell you that if you want a site to be a success you must design for the majority not the minority

 

[notfred]

Screen resolution is really pretty worthless. Many people (including myself) don't typically run thier browsers full-screen. This monitor is runnign at 1280x1024, but the browser probably isn't wider than 1024 pixels. My laptop runs at 1024x768, but 800 or 900 pixels wide is pretty common for my browser window. The site should display without horizontal scroll bars in an 800 pixel wide window. How you accomplish that is up to you, but the reason that HTML and CSS specs incorporate percentages for widths is too accomadate this exact problem.

 

[Encryptic]

We design for 800x600 here at work, just to be safe. I personally run 1024x768, though.

 

[fs5]

4x4

 

[Pepsi90919]

6518x3

 

[BatmanNate]

Originally posted by: XZeroII
1024x768

Agreed, that seems to be the most common. I run that here on my 17" and at home on my 19" just because I like to sit far away from them.

 

[NuclearFusi0n]

I run 1600 x 1200 with a 1350 x 900 browser window. (that's excluding chrome)

optimize for me.
assimilate or perish.

 

[ScrewFace]

I agree. 1024x768 is the perfect resolution and scales from 24" monitors all the way down to 14"'ers. 1024x768 gives you a good-lookin' web site and better lookin' graphics. When's the last time anyone's set thier monitor resolution below 1024x768?:beer: