Design for resolution 800px in width?

John_Mc · 09-12-2009 11:43AM #1

Just wondering if other designers are catering for users of 800px?

I'm in the process of developing a website and the client wants to ignore them and design for 1024+.

I'm reluctant to do this but I've consulted statistics from other websites I've done and see that there's only 3% of users on 800px resolution.

Thanks,
John

Pixelcraft · 09-12-2009 12:15PM

in short, client is right.

John_Mc · 09-12-2009 12:22PM

Pixelcraft wrote: »

in short, client is right.

How so?

SunshineCyclist · 09-12-2009 12:28PM

Isn't the customer always right? 1024 x 768 would be the minimum I would design for.

ScumLord · 09-12-2009 12:41PM

800px wide would be fairly small on todays screens. I would have thought 1024px was the norm. Anyone still running on 800px must be on old hardware or even a mobile device and would not expect many sites to cater for them.

John_Mc · 09-12-2009 12:47PM

SunshineCyclist wrote: »

Isn't the customer always right? 1024 x 768 would be the minimum I would design for.

I wouldnt go as far as to say the customer is always right, it simply doesnt apply to software or website development.

Thanks for your replies guys, just wanted to see when the standard practice is with other developers.

John

Liam Byrne · 09-12-2009 02:08PM

During the last few months I've started aiming for the 1024 size.

Just bear in mind that that's really approximately 980 / 990 when you take into account window frames and scrollbars.

The other factor is whether people are browsing with their window maximised, which is a whole extra debate entirely!

Pixelcraft · 09-12-2009 03:22PM

Yeah as above, people running such a low resolution will expect to scroll horizontally (can't really think of a site that will fit within 800 at the moment. A handy width to design for is 940/960 px wide

Bob_Harris · 09-12-2009 03:28PM

I'm of the mind frame, screw 800x600 users.

And while we're at it, screw IE6 users too :pac:

800x600 users will be well used to horizontal scroll bars, and I only aim for basic functionally for IE6.

mailforkev · 09-12-2009 03:29PM

In this day and age I think the Ryanair school of charm needs to apply to people with 800x600 resolution or similar. That being sort out your monitor or put up with scroll bars and issues.

I'm even starting to see sites now with notices telling people having trouble viewing the page with IE to use a better browser.

Remember the customer is far from always right

.

Eoin · 09-12-2009 03:35PM

mailforkev wrote: »

I'm even starting to see sites now with notices telling people having trouble viewing the page with IE to use a better browser.

I remember that from the netscape days - personally I hate it, and think it quite arrogant for a site operator to tell a user what browser to use.

Pixelcraft · 09-12-2009 04:18PM

mailforkev wrote: »

I'm even starting to see sites now with notices telling people having trouble viewing the page with IE to use a better browser.

Shouldn't be done. If you want their attention/business then you cater for them, not the other way around.

Talisman · 11-12-2009 06:37PM

If you look at any of the browser statistics sites then 800x600 is a tiny % of users.

w3schools.com (January 2009) - 800x600 : 4%
MarketShare.com (Past month) - 800x600 : <4%

Talisman · 11-12-2009 06:48PM

eoin wrote: »

I remember that from the netscape days - personally I hate it, and think it quite arrogant for a site operator to tell a user what browser to use.

Pixelcraft wrote: »

Shouldn't be done. If you want their attention/business then you cater for them, not the other way around.

I agree. I remember the old days of the "This site is best viewed with IE/Netscape/Firefox" buttons. Developments like Modernizr allow web developers to take advantage of emerging web technologies and not lose users of old/incompatible browsers so there are no excuses for such behaviour.

Eoin · 11-12-2009 07:13PM

Talisman wrote: »

If you look at any of the browser statistics sites then 800x600 is a tiny % of users.

w3schools.com (January 2009) - 800x600 : 4%
MarketShare.com (Past month) - 800x600 : <4%

That's roughly what I am seeing as well, but in general I would be hesitant counting on stats from sites that are visited mostly by techies who are more likely to have higher resolutions, latest browsers etc.

cormee · 15-12-2009 02:03PM

800 is too small, design for a min of 1024 width.

Regarding stats of visitors' monitor sizes, look at the site's logs, if it doesn't have any install Google Analytics and come back a week later.

There's no point designing a site to cater for only 3% of visitors - you're throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Liam Byrne · 15-12-2009 02:19PM

cormee wrote: »

Regarding stats of visitors' monitor sizes.....

Monitor sizes are not necessarily the stat that you want, since the whole idea of having a very large high-res monitor is to allow you to have multiple windows open simultaneously; there is no guarantee that the user will be browsing with their browser maximised.

Design for resolution 800px in width?

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