average peoples resolution? (sorry for asking)

[JorisRotteveel]

Hi guys!

I tried to search the board but it didn't give me the thread I needed. Please excuse me for asking this ( prob. the 10000 time) then:

What is the standard resolution normal people ( not like us with 30"inch monitors haha) who browse the web? Can I assume everybody is able to see my 1024 designed page or is it still 800??

If anybody knows........i will be SO thankfull ( the design will be 100% cool and great or a 100% **** up becuase it's too big for 800)

[aversion]

according to the counter 44% of the average surfers still use 800x600.

the counter is a pretty good place to get average web stats for the common surfer, they gather the stats from millions of visitors to sites where their counter is used, the kind of sites normal people visit to see doll collections or cat photos or holiday snaps...

[RUSHVision]

Yeah, most 'normal' people don't even know they can change the screen resolution and they just end up leaving it at the factory default setting which is 800x600. Either that or they whine about the text being too small at higher resolutions.

[aversion]

it's true, though things are changing a bit now, my parents and some friends of theirs bought new computers recently both with default resolutions of 1280, and both my parents and their friends changed the resolution down to 1024.

it makes sense I suppose, for most people screen real estate isn't that important, certainly not compared to clarity and ease of use. I spent some time at home recently and changed my dad's resolution to 1280 and he couldn't understand why it was better, apart from seeing that I could get more things on at once, when we went on the net he thought it was silly that all the images were smaller.

it's just a different mindset I suppose and it's understandable. Factor in the emergence of mobile devices and I think we'll be designing smaller before we're designing bigger

[JorisRotteveel]

thanks! gets me back to the drawing table though

[Black_phoenix]

i would also say 800 x 600 there are quite a few ppl out there who have really good 17 inch monitors but know very little about how to change resolutions so they just run 800x600 not knowing any different

monitors are coming on in leaps and bounds (re new plasma ones) which are now affordable and quite big, mb in the next year/s 1024 will be more the norm, but u still need to educate the user

most of the guys/friends in my local pub who are normal business men and women (most v successful) have no idea about computers and if anything they are scared by them

do u guys find this is common ?

bp

[aversion]

I don't think it's necessarily that people don't know how to change their resolutions, it's that they don't want to, there's no advantage for them - so stuff gets smaller, if you're not using a computer with these applications designers use, with palletes and windows everywhere, then it's just a pain, images are smaller, text is smaller, you don't need more than 800x600 to use word... what's the point for them to use higher resolutions? There really isn't one.

[Black_phoenix]

Originally posted by aversion
if you're not using a computer with these applications designers use, with palletes and windows everywhere, then it's just a pain, images are smaller, text is smaller, you don't need more than 800x600 to use word... what's the point for them to use higher resolutions? There really isn't one.

hi i'm with u on this but some of the guys i do work for have no idea about simple things like sending emails (and they have websites) last week i got paid to find a missing browser back button (woman in the office made it disappear) said the boss

if monitors had buttons on the side that said big, large, medium, and small (basic resolutions sizes) then i think more ppl would choose or at least try at other sizes

bp

[BlueSamurai]

I agree with BP.

From experience, I believe that most "Average" users are for the most part uneducated.