I have been researching user screen resolutions as I think designing for 800x600 may be outdated. The stats as of 7/06 at http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp show 17% users. I checked the data in my G00gle analytics for the last two months and 800x600 visitors were 13% of total, i.e., 87% use higher resolutions. So I am thinking 1024x768 is now ok for designing.

Thoughts? Opinions?

we designed most pages to be readable in 800x600

however, our top bar and our home page need 1024x768 to get the "full effect"

Check your Google Analytics and you be the judge. In the month of December 56.59% of my visitors were set at 1024X768 followed by 19.81% set at 800X600 and the remaining 23.6% were split among the other settings. That puts 80.19% set at a higher res than 800X600. I suppose you could have a "Best when viewed at" statement on your home page but many of the people still viewing at 800X600 don't know how to change it. Tough call.
Steve

My 'puter screen res is 1440x900, so I looked at what some of the "big boys" are doing - MSN, Yahoo, Target, and Barnes & Noble seem to be using 800 pixel width. TVGuide seems to be the 1024 width. Interestingly, Amazon is 100% (or close) width and is not set at a fixed pixel width.

This is a great question. I asked our design team and the answer was pretty straightforward: we do what the client needs! Of course, the answer is that most people are using 1024x768 nowadays, so that certainly is a factor for your design.

It was mentioned that some folks are using even higher screen resolutions than that--and that when one designs, it should be to the lowest common denominator.

Chris

There is no straight answer. Like people already said it depends on the people using your site. Don't judge what the big dogs do because I am sure you aren't getting as a wide range of traffic as Amazon or Yahoo does. It's all about looking at your stats to see what your customers are viewing your page at and what will suit them best.

It really depends on who visits your site. 99+% of our traffic is at or above 1024 wide. The basics of our current site was designed two years ago at 1024 wide and has never been an issue. We are currently scaling up our product thumbnails on an ongoing basis as new items are added. It still fits 1024w but will eventually look better on bigger screens.

This conversation is over, but I just saw it, so I'll comment. 15% of viewers (who use 800x600 displays) may not seem like much, but it's about one-in-5.8 potential customers. Also, many of us 'older folks' still scale our resolution down because at 1280x1024 the print gets awfully tiny on the screen. The solution is to use a 'liquid' design--ie one that works for almost any screen resolution or browser (Y'all should be doing this anyway--it's part of 'good practices') What is a 'liquid design"? At minimum it means taking advantage of the 'percent' setting for overall table and page sizes. It also means cutting up your gigantoid banners into managable sizes and floating them on a background that contracts and expands depending on the screen size. It alos means trying out your layout on different screens. That old rock of a CRT-monitor that you were going to throw in the landfill? Re-purpose it. I have a bunch of old computers lying around, and one is set up for 800x600 with Opera, Firefox, Explorer 6 and 7 installed.

Best wishes,
Maiasaura

Maiasaura,

You are absolutely correct. A lot of people might look at it and say.. "eh.. who care's it's only 15%". The fact of the matter is that you basically saying you don't want to sell to those 15%. As for the ol' CRT doorstop. Chuck it... and download IE Developer Toolbar and/or Firefox Developer Toolbar. It makes testing your site in different resolutions a snap.

Besides my martini life, I own a web dev studio...800x600 here (with fluid designs) for a while yet.