The Elementary Design Challenge

Screen Resolutions Comparison

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 640×480 and websites had to be designed with that in mind. Then, for a long time, it was 800×600 pixels. Now, the smallest to be considered screen resolution is 1024×768 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.

11 Years of Screen Resolution Statistics

Date 640×480 800×600 1024×768 Higher Unknown
January 2011 0%No change 0%Trend falling 14%Trend falling 85%Trend rising 1%Trend fallingNo change
January 2010 0%No change 1%Trend falling 20%Trend falling 76%Trend rising 3%No change
January 2009 0%No change 4%Trend falling 36%Trend falling 57%Trend rising 3%Trend falling
January 2008 0%No change 8%Trend falling 48%Trend falling 38%Trend rising 6%No change
January 2007 0%No change 14%Trend falling 54%Trend falling 26%Trend rising 6%No change
January 2006 0%No change 20%Trend falling 57%Trend rising 17%Trend rising 6%Trend rising
January 2005 0%Trend falling 30%Trend falling 53%Trend rising 12%Trend rising 5%No change
January 2004 1%Trend falling 37%Trend falling 47%Trend rising 10%Trend rising 5%No change
January 2003 2%Trend falling 47%Trend falling 40%Trend rising 6%No change 5%No change
January 2002 3%Trend falling 52%Trend falling 34%Trend rising 6%Trend rising 5%No change
January 2001 4%Trend falling 55%Trend falling 29%Trend rising 5%Trend rising 5%Trend rising
January 2000 11%No change 56%No change 25%No change 4%No change 4%No change

The conclusion based on the above data is very obvious. The only constant is that the screen resolutions higher than 1024×768 are used more and more over time. The resolution 1024×768 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 1024×768 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.

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