Which screen size to design for.

[youngros]

Just to say that it took me months to get to 70 odd posts and now I am back to square one

 

I know it has been said that we should build for all, but surely there comes a time when those using 800x800 screen resolutions are such a small percentage not to worry about.

Such a lot use laptops with wider screens and there are more wide screen monitors around, and it makes the website look puny sat in the middle of the screen with acres of whitespace down each side. Will it be such a big issue to design for 1024x768 as the minimum width?

[Andrea]

I've been designing for 1024 for quite a while now. It's the majority of the resolutions viewed with these days, or at least it was last time I checked.

[JBall]

Where do you go to check something like that?

[Wickham]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Display_resolution

 

gives current % for various resolutions.

 

A common method is to make the important information 780px wide and a sidebar to the right 220px wide with less important stuff like adverts or contact details, totalling 1000px, so that 800*600 users don't have to scroll to see the important content but 1024*768 users have a full window.

[administrator]

Where do you go to check something like that?

You check your web stats.

 

That said, based on recent data I've seen, target 1024*768 and up.

 

Although, this will be affected by the your site's audience.

 

Merry Xmas.

[GlacierZombie]

That said one of the regulars posted in the old board that mobile device screens are the equivelent of 800 x 600, so that resolution is still wide spread in the mobile market.