800×600 Support

Jinsan, it’s not just “bigger better screens at higher res’s” – many people with lots of screen real-estate surf with multiple windows open – most of which will approximate 800×600.

[I don’t – but I’m a REAL minority on this. When I’m surfing or whatever, that’s what I’m doing – I firmly believe that multitasking is one of those things people pretend to do that really doesn’t happen – just my opinion.]

I make sure stuff looks pretty decent in 800×600. I make sure it looks “right” in 1024×768 up. I either use fluid design or centered fixed width.

I agree that many small business will still use 800×600 but that’s because the cost of IT would be too much for them, even if the reward is perhaps greter in a better working environment and less squinting or damage tot he eyes.

I mean most themes are designed to work for 800x600px, and the option I suppose shoul dbe there – on the other hand how many small businesses have time to being viewing blog sites about how people feel, or technology information from a blog and so on and so forth. I would say 95% (random figure) would be personal sites right? Personal users are likely to have slightly better monitors that support a higher res. Higher res, more work/viewing space and much better for a person’s eye site (another random thing from the air).

Again, just from going to place to place, I’ve found those that still use a res such as 800×600 are still using IE 5 or 5.5, so would you manage your theme to work for that particular browser too? As I said, I guess it’s down to personal preference as well as your own particualr audience.

I was just curious in a general opinion on it:)

Ah, yes. I validate for browsers down to IE 5, and IE for Mac, as well as all of the “real” browsers I can use myself. I used to have a friend with both Safari and Konqueror, but she’s now a pc person too.

You can convince yourself not to bother with 800×600 or dinosaur browsers. If you’re not doing ecommerce, it’s probably not a big thing, because you’re not trying to live on it….

I for one am still quite happy using my old ibook that only supports 800×600. My desktop does have a higher res, but I tend to do most of my surfing from the porch, or more often, the couch. Therefore I use the ol’ ibook. Not that I’d be adverse to a new 17″ powerbook, so If you’d like to contribute to the fund, I’d easily surf your site at your preferred resolution ??

Yeah. And then there’s support for all the rest of the low-res small screen stuff…. phones, etc.

I always refer people here for stats on this kind of stuff. Basically, if you decide not to bother supporting 800×600 you’re alienating between a quarter and a third of your potential readers. If your blog is focused on something like graphic design or gaming, of course, you can safely assume that most of your audience will have state-of-the-art computers and dump it. Nonetheless you run the risk of having chippy people who can’t afford to replace their geriatric laptops branding you elitist; not all 800×600 users are clueless, some of us are just poor.

And small size does not necessarily mean either poor or old fashioned. Some people just find it convenient and neat.

Don’t forget about style! Whitespace (or space of any color where you don’t have text) offsets the clutter of a web page. Wide margins do more than just make your page accessible in smaller windows.

i’ve saw a stat, recent stat, that said about 25% still uses 800×600 but that number is lower depending on your target audience. 1024×764 seems reasonable for 80-90% if its the right demographic.

The big problem is not the monitor size at all. Most people want to look at what is directly in front of them and they want a readable line length. Beside which IE wont do max width.

The big problem is not the monitor size at all.

That’s very true. Browser window size is far more important than monitor size. The big issue is that no one wants to be bothered with needing to change the size of his or her browser window.

Let’s not forget that while “you and your friends” may have latest and bestest machines by 2005, but the rest of the world that might be reading your site is still using Windows 98.

Living overseas until very recently, I was constantly astounded to see people all over the world using Windows 95 and 98 even in Paris and London. Beyond the old iron curtain – seriously old machines. Many aren’t willing to make the change because of the cost. And many of them are using good “enough” computers but hanging onto their old monitors because they are expensive. I saw a lot of rigging things up “creatively”. I’ve seen some amazing computers people have rat-packed together to actually be pretty wiz-bang, even with great graphics cards, but they are still using ancient montiors.

Sometimes the statistics are fairly accurate to include the entire world statistics, but sometimes, I’m not sure they are really reflective of reality. Do they actually reflect the graphics card or the actual monitor, or the screen resolution at the time of viewing? Or a combination?

I found a LOT of people switching from learning English by listening to records to learning English by trying to read on the Internet, mostly blogs…so don’t think that foreigners aren’t visiting your page. They could be, using ancient equipment.

Point: You don’t have to do a LOT of backwards design but do design your site structure and layout for fluidity, elasticity, and old monitors. ??

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”. My machines usually last me 5-7 years, with “patching” as needed (in other words, if/when something dies, I replace it; otherwise not. Decent though certainly not high-end monitors are cheap – if I need a new one I get one). Much as I might like to, I simply can’t afford or justify brand-new tech very often.

I’m not the only one by a long shot – sure, there are millions of conspicuous consumers in the states who buy a new machine once a year. They don’t surf with their browsers full-size/full-res though….

Mezzoblue had an interesting article the other day on something similar to this. What StyleGala has done is especially worth reading if you’re not afraid of a little extra work.

https://mezzoblue.com/archives/2005/05/13/columns_grid/