Today I learned something about browser window size.
Remember the days when we developed for 640×480 and optimised for 800×600. Well those days are gone… or are they?
Screen resolutions have exploded in recent years with 1680×1050 now not uncommon. My Dell laptop three years ago had a 1900×1280 resolution. The twin displays in my cubicle are each 1280×1024. But I’m a geek who makes web sites, so I’m not typical, right?
A similarly skewed view of the world can be obtained from W3 Schools who publish browser statistics and trends derived from their own log files. Whilst the percentages they provide are perhaps skewed towards web professionals, the trends are useful, although unremarkable.
Behold, Liquid Fold. Liquid Fold is a cool little app-engine project built by Simon Willison (of Django) and Natalie Downe.
It provides a JavaScript bug that you can include in your web pages to record the actual viewport size of your unique visitors as opposed to the less useful screen resolution.
Most interestingly, they are sharing their global stats which offer some useful insights… 780 pixels wide anybody?
Just to give you another data point. May to today on our web site*, 7.4% with 800×600 resolution. Of those, a fair chunk bought something. We won’t be turning any of those people away by making our site only work in >800×600.
And don’t forget all those Asus Eee PCs out there. Not to forget the iPhones!
* 4.4 million visits, 650,000 unique visitors, a significant proportion are people who don’t know how to change their browser home page. Pretty much all Australian.
PS: I pity the poor 640 visits with the 1-bit display. Though their experience would be hi-fidelity compared to the 16 with 0-bit displays.
Given that screens have aways been wider than they are tall, and that according to these stats the ratio is approx. 2:1, perhaps we should all be developing sites that scroll horizontally?
640 visitors with a 1 pixel display… that have javascript enabled? weird.
Howie: because horizontal scrolling confuses the hell out of everyone!