What's the Ideal Screen Resolution?

When desiging your site, it's important to consider what screen resolution your users have. While many users are adopting 1024 x 768 or higher resolutions, a large portion of users are still using 800 x 600. According to W3, as many as 25% of users were still using 800 x 600 as of July 2005.

If you don't know what screen size your users are using, design for 800 x 600.

In some cases, it may make sense to go beyond 800 x 600 screen resolution. For a more sophisticated audience, 1024 x 768 is becoming the baseline standard. Income, education, geographical location, and computer savvy-ness all affect the average screen size of your target audience. For example, a web site selling trendy new electronic gadgets will most likely have an audience that is technologically savvy - and with computers that are kept up to date with the latest trends. Designing in 1024 x 768 would make sense for a site like this. Conversely, a web site aimed at audiences that are not as likely to upgrade their computers as often are more likely to have lower screen resolutions.

A compromise can be provided by positioning all essential information in the 800 x 600 space, with extraneous information positioned in a column in the right hand side. Some sites automatically detect what resolution the user has, and turn this column on or off.

Another option is to allow content areas to scale - so that the site stretches to the width the user has set the browser to. This is a good solution for maximizing content area, but can provide some design challenges; images don't scale well, therefore the site must be designed with this flexibility kept in mind.

Regardless of what size of screen resolution you decide to design for, it is essential provide an allowance for the vertical scroll bar. Generally, you should leave at least 40 pixels to allow for the browser window and scroll bar, to prevent the need to use the horizontal scroll. On an 800 x 600 site, the maximum width should be 760 pixels.

As always, the more you know about your target audience, the better you can tailor your site experience for your user. While it may be tempting to provide a richer experience for the majority of your audience, it is important to consider the effect your design will have on the small group still using a smaller resolution.

   + Screen Resolution
   + To Scroll or Not to Scroll