Resolution Controversy

[angelpure]

I have designed lots of websites since 1996 and it seems like there is always a controversy as to which resolution to design in.

I always design my sites using percentages for width, and check them in 1024x768. However, I still design them with the resolution set to 800x600. I know lots of designers that say 1024x768 is best, however I noticed that of the 3 site I manage and closely monitor the stats on, 800x600 is still the most common resolution, closely followed by 1024x768 and just a very small percentage use 1280x1024.

So my question is this, "Why the controversy about resolution sizes as long as one checks the site in different sizes?" Since the stats support the fact that it's split about 50/50 with 800x600 getting a slight edge, then why are so many designers so insistent on telling newbies to design in 1024x768.


Gordon

[brian.mark]

If you're doing a site intended for developers and designers, 1024x768 or even higher is fine. Even on ToolBarn, we're seeing about 60% at 1024x768, while lower is only about 20%. However, if you think for a minute that we're going to forget about 20% of our visitors, you'd have to be crazy. We still try to make our site work at 640x480 (not as diligently as we used to) even though that is only .33% of our traffic now.

Since our competitors are designing for 1024x768, our conversion rates for those lower resolutions has been going up. It's a pretty neat trick when you can get a group that your competition forgets about.

Brian.

[supernatural_247]

Where do you go to see what resolution your visitor is using? That would be very interesting to see the main resolution size...

I usually design according to what size fits the site's look and feel best. I have a few friends that have widescreen monitors and they complain about a ton of white or BG space.

Resolution is the most frustrating thing sometimes. If you have a lotof content, I'd go with 100% widths and an extendable header and footer design that way if 1024x768 or larger, it will fill the screen and you won't have to scroll as much. Not that much content? Go with a fixed 800x600 design.

[angelpure]

My stats tell me which browser, OS and resolution the visitors are using.

[brian.mark]

We use IndexTools (page tagging web stats) and they tell us the browsers, operating systems, screen resolutions, % of visitors with cookies disabled, % with javascript disabled, etc.

Most good web analytics packages should be able to tell you this.

Brian.

[supernatural_247]

Most good web analytics packages should be able to tell you this.

I use AwStats and can't find the resolution per visitor anywhere... does AwStats or Webalizer have this feature?

[brian.mark]

For this type of information, it'll need to be something a little more robust than webalizer or awstats. Webtrends, ClickTracks, WebSideStory, NetTracker, etc. all show this for sure depending on the options you have installed.

It takes some JavaScript implementation from the research I've just done, so logfile analysis won't cut it. Webtrends gets around this by doing a hybrid.

Brian.

[supernatural_247]

For this type of information, it'll need to be something a little more robust than webalizer or awstats. Webtrends, ClickTracks, WebSideStory, NetTracker, etc. all show this for sure depending on the options you have installed.

It takes some JavaScript implementation from the research I've just done, so logfile analysis won't cut it. Webtrends gets around this by doing a hybrid.

Thanks for the tip!! I'll look into Webtrends...