The Elementary Design Challenge

Screen Resolutions and Usability

Websites need to be constructed and designed with a variety of considerations in mind. The visitor's screen resolution is one of these factors.

It is important to stay up to date with screen resolution statistics and trends. The standard in monitor size is becoming larger, and with that, the screen resolutions as well. A decade ago the smallest screen resolution was 640x480 and websites had to be designed with that in mind. Then, for a long time, it was 800x600 pixels. Now, the smallest to be considered screen resolution is 1024x768 pixels.

Here are the screen resolution (or browser display) statistics through time. The statistical data has been obtained from w3schools. The arrows show if the trend is rising or falling in comparison to the previous year.

Date	640x480	800x600	1024x768	Higher	Unknown
January 2010	0%	1%	20%	76%	3%
January 2009	0%	4%	36%	57%	3%
January 2008	0%	8%	48%	38%	6%
January 2007	0%	14%	54%	26%	6%
January 2006	0%	20%	57%	17%	6%
January 2005	0%	30%	53%	12%	5%
January 2004	1%	37%	47%	10%	5%
January 2003	2%	47%	40%	6%	5%
January 2002	3%	52%	34%	6%	5%
January 2001	4%	55%	29%	5%	5%
January 2000	11%	56%	25%	4%	4%

The conclusion based on the above data is very obvious. The only constant is that the screen resolutions higher than 1024x768 are used more and more over time. The resolution 1024x768 used to be on the rise, but ever since 2006 has been falling steadily. Hence, ideally, web sites should be created to look great at higher resolutions, and at least decent at 1024x768 pixels.

You can use this handy screen resolution tester to see what any given website looks like in different screen resolutions. The IE browser is recommended for the tester, but there is also a simplified testing method for other browser types.